Show Etiquette for Touring and Local Bands A Like

1. Touring Bands: Unless you are Against Me, Slipknot, Jon Cougar Mellancamp or the Prince of Sudan, you are not doing us any favors (financially or otherwise) by showing up at our space. Please don’t be assholes, a lot of people jumped through lots of varying hoops to put this on for you, the least you could do is not be a dickhole and complain about the sound, stage, accommodations, or payment over 40 dollars.

2. Local Bands: You are not Bad Religion. As much as you may want to be, you are not on Fat Wreck Chords and kids in Japan aren’t rioting at the Virgin MegaStore to get your records. I know the last time you saw Bad Religion play they played for over an hour, but just because Greg Graffin did it, that does not mean that you can. While we are all real excited to hear your NoFX cover(s), lets try and keep this thing under 25 minutes, OK?

3. Touring Bands: Yeah, you are on tour, and that’s awesome. Chances are you might have come through our city once or twice before, and that’s awesome as well, thanks for coming back. But please don’t kid yourself into thinking that anyone here came to see your band, regardless of the label, PR Company, energy drink or religious deity you have backing your tour. Don’t be dicks to the local bands who drew out kids to pay 5 dollars to get into the show, especially since all of that will ultimately go in your gas tank or up your nose.

4. Local and Touring Bands: My band tours with a full PA that includes two Four-Space racks, an 8 space Rack, two 1x15 Main PA speaks on stands, two 1x18 Subwoofers, a guitar full stack, an 8x10 bass rig and a full drumset. Between the three of us, we can set this up and break it all down in under 15 minutes. You should have no problem setting up your backline in that much time. If you have some goofy costume you want to wear while you are playing, that’s cool! How about changing while the band before you is finishing up their set? If you’re jeans are so skin tight that you cant set up your guitar cabs then they are probably too tight to play guitar in anyway.

5. Local and Touring Bands: Hey, playing shows is about hanging out and meeting new people. So how about we watch each other while we play? No? Well, OK, can we at least not leave the venue and show before everyone else has played?

6. Local and Touring Bands: We all have that Ampeg 8x10 bass cabinet, and unless you are Lightening Bolt (google/youtube them, if you don’t know) and need something more, someone man up and let everyone else use his cab. There is no need to have 3 8x10’s sitting around the space.

7. Touring Bands: If you are a ska band, first, please rethink the decisions you have made in defining the sound of your band. Second, if you need three vocal mics (all on stands) and two microphones for your Saxophone and Trumpet players, how about bringing a couple of those things on tour with you? Please don’t assume that every space you play on tour will have a PA system and sound guy that can be compared to whatever venue you played in when you opened for Reel Big Fish last year.

8. Local Bands: Thanks for agreeing to play with this awesome touring band! It really helps them out because no one here really knows who they are. Would it be too much to ask though for you to ask your friends to stick around for the whole show and not leave after you play or not show up after all the other bands have come on? You’re friends can see you any other time you guys want to play in the city, wouldn’t it be beneficial for everyone to watch some new bands?

9. Local and Touring Bands: DIY Light shows are not cool. A couple strands of lights over the drumset? Yeah that’s totally alright and maybe a light or two on top of a guitar cab, that’s totally fine. But please don’t bring smoke machines, Christmas lights, strobe lights and a little weiner kid with a joystick to control it all. As I said before, DIY light shows aren’t cool. They just aren’t and are usually a pain in the ass for everyone involved. If you can't just play in a well lit room and still have your band be fun to watch, well, then, I think we all know where the problem is and it has nothing to do with the lighting.