As of the past week or so I have been helping Witt with booking all the shows at WonderRoot...it works out pretty well because its like running a venue without all the bullshit involved, and its nice to know that my friends that are in bands that aren’t idiots I can now help out with shows. But anyway.

One thing that I have noticed a lot since I started getting the booking e-mails is the abundance of local bands looking to put together local shows. This has blown my mind because being that kind of band has no interest to me anymore. To me, whats the point of playing a show at a small artspace if there isn’t a touring band to help out? I have long since decided that outside of special occasions that playing in Atlanta isn’t anything I am interested in unless there is a band on tour that needs a show. But there is a whole sect of bands that just want to get together with their other friends and just play to some more friends. So I guess all of this is to say that there are two kinds of bands out there: local bands and touring bands.

I know it is quite pompous to say this, and I guess I need to find a better word for it, but I would place my bands in Atlanta into the “touring band” category, even though I think collectively Die Benny and Benard have spent a month out of the past 2 years on tour. But having said that, we have spent time outside of the city, and I feel like our stance as a band is somewhat of a greater picture than just playing with our friends at WonderRoot or Lenny’s. I would say the goals of a “touring band” and a “local band” are much different, and the goals of a touring band are probably much more self serving and idiotic, but there is a certain sense of expanding your audience outside of your friends in your hometown. I don’t think Benard is, or will ever be, the type of band that fan boys nerd out over on message boards and I know that we’ll probably never open for Abel Baker Fox at Common Grounds on Day 2 of the Fest, but, there are people who dig our band that aren’t from Atlanta (even though those people are probably restricted to Gainesville, FL Saint Louis and Charlottesville, VA). What I am trying to say is that the stance I have taken with my bands is that everyone in Atlanta that could be remotely interested in hearing our band already has, and has made a decision on us, and after that what’s the point of playing shows with more bands that are in the same place? Furthermore, what is that doing for our scene and our community if the same 4 bands are just going to get together and play shows to the same 20 people? I feel like it’s the obligation of “local” bands to draw crowds to see touring bands and not to sit around and sing songs to eachother. For example, Benard is playing this Thursday with Sorry No Ferrari and imadethismistake, who is Kylewilliam from Tallahassee’s band, and if for some reason he had to cancel the show/tour, Sorry no Ferrari and Benard would probably both just drop off the show as well. That because, at least I feel, our duty as bands from Atlanta to draw kids out to see bands that don’t have any kind of draw in Atlanta. And if the band that needs help in Atlanta doesn’t need any help anymore, then what’s the use of hauling all our gear and bothering the people that run the venue, just so we can play the same old songs to the same people.

It doesn’t mean much coming from a guy like me, but if you are going to a show that your friends band is playing, and if they are playing with a couple touring bands, then honestly you are there to check out the touring bands. You may not like them, but I feel like it is your obligation as a van of music and DIY shows to at least check out the touring bands. I mean, lets face it, you have seen Die Benny play 100 times, and checking out and supporting a band from 1,000 miles away is way more important that screaming at us to play “Clapping” because we are dicks and didn’t put it on the set list.

Sometimes I wish I could just be in a local band though. I think it would be much easier and enjoyable, because the little minute things that I turn into horrible atomic bomb sized issues (like printing shirts, booking tours, recording, press, etc) don’t exist. Local bands are just there to play music with their friends and to hang out and write songs and just do whatever. And that’s fine and like I said I envy that to a degree, but there is no goal there; I can’t just be that laid back about it. Playing in stupid punk rock bands is about the only thing in my life I have felt I have a knack for, and I’m way too hardheaded and dumb to just leave it at that. I always have to keep pushing it to be the biggest thing it can possibly be, no matter how worthless and stressful that is.