Texas Band Booking Basics are nuggets of knowledge from TSE Entertainment staff. Do you want to know how to not only land the big show in the big city, but also have a packed house when you finally get there?
Follow the advice of the legendary character and musician, Martin Atkins, in his book called Tour::Smart: And Break the Band. It can be purchased on Amazon in the Kindle version or, if you are a tactile person such as myself, the paperback version.
In his book Martin talks about The Five Pointed Star Inward Facing Crush Strategy. One basic Texas band booking nugget should start with the advice from this road-warrior turned author.
TEXAS BAND BOOKING BASICS
- The Five Pointed Star Inward Facing Crush is a strategy that has to do with an important show. In the book the important show takes place in Cincinnati. This could just as easily be in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth, El Paso, San Antonio, etc. You place your important show in the middle of your five pointed star. Instead of just going there to play and see what happens…and hoping everything is going to be okay, you use the Five Pointed Star Inward Facing Crush technique.\
- Do NOT go to the big city first! You should initailly plan to go to five surrounding smaller towns or cities instead. For example, if your big city is Houston, you will need to start in places such as Sugar Land, Katy, Pearland, Beaumont, Baytown, Conroe, or Spring.
You go to the towns or cities nearby your target city and you build up a fanbase there. It needs to be easy driving distance, for your fans. Driving distance is different in different parts of the country. Martin goes into this in more detail in a different part of the book. For instance, 80 miles in Utah is very different from the 80 miles from LA to San Diego.
- When you go to these neighboring cities, you look nice; you smell nice; you be nice; and you put on the best show ever. You also collect as many email addresses as you can by whatever means possible. You give people CDs, t-shirts, hats, stickers, hugs, kisses, pies, etc. Whatever it is you need to do to get those email addresses!
- When you do get booked in the target city, you email all of your fans that you have amassed and get them to travel to the show. What if you do not have enough names? Well, guess what? You go around again.
You do anything you need to do than go to Houston or any other Texas big city unprepared. Hoping that some people will show up is not a strategy.
There’s an old adage, “Never take your country to war unless you are sure of the outcome,” The same thing can be said about gigs. You don’t perform a concert in Houston unless you are sure you have enough of a following to make it a success..
Take this simple Texas band booking nugget and start applying it now. When you get to Houston, or whatever your target city may be, you want to knock it out of the park! You want to show the vendor that you have a loyal following and can bring in the big crowds.
Big crowds equal big money; which equals happy vendors; which equals success for you as an artist. These strategies are just one small nugget that TSE Entertainment has in our vast bank of knowledge. If you are “TSE ready,” let us help you book your next event!
Glenda Black
