Well, last weekend my band took off to play the shows we had booked in Austin in conjunction with the SXSW (south by southwest) music festival. We didn't come away with any money, much less a record deal or any gig offers, but it was probably worth it just for the lessons we learned.

Our first gig was a complete train wreck. First off, it wasn't the venue we were expecting. It was a club between 6th and 7th street, and the "stage" was upstairs. They said they would have a bass rig provided, they didn't. They said there would be a crowd, there wasn't. Out one window you could see literally thousands upon thousands of people going by on 6th street, out the other you'd see a guy on a bike walking his dog if anyone at all. It's very frustrating when you can see a crowd that big and you know hardly any of them will walk half a block and upstairs where you're going to be playing. Other than myself and the bassist, the rest of the band made it there with only minutes to spare. Since it was a showcase we had to move fast to set up, and we had to start from square one since all the other bands before us were just singer/songwriters. The stage could only fit our drummer and vocalist, the rest of us had to stand on the floor. And on top of everything, my Dad accidentally knocked my Highway One Strat off of the booth I had it laying on while I set everything else up. That's the first time any of my guitars has taken a major fall, I was lucky there was only cosmetic damage on the back of the body and that the neck and everything else were fine.

When we started played honestly we sounded worse than any practice. The violin and bass were going direct into the board and the singer had to play through a super crappy amp. No one had a monitor but her, and her guitar was constantly going out of tune. She forgot her capo in Houston and had to use mine, which she's not used to. It caused her guitar to go totally out of tune to the point where we actually stopped playing a song mid way through because it sounded so horrible. I've never had a worse gig and I've never been so embarrassed in my life. After the show a promoter came up to us and told us that he thought we were really talented and that he would book us the next night in a bigger and better venue. At first we were really excited about it, but I knew something was wrong because that was the worst we've ever sounded and there's no way if I was a promoter that I'd even give us a second thought. Sure enough, as soon as he learned that my Dad was there handling things for us and that we weren't just a bunch of naive kids, he left and we never got a call back from him.

So that evening I walked around on 6th street for a while, but since I didn't really hear anything that caught my ear I decided to head back to the motel to practice. I went over everything, even the most basic parts of the most basic songs which I thought I knew backwards and forwards.

The next day we played at the same venue but we were tighter than ever, the sound guy helped us with our monitors and since we knew that the backline sucked, we hauled our own equipment down several blocks and up the stairs. We also went to guitar center and got a stand which can hold seven guitars so that I didn't have to worry about another guitar taking a massive fall and we got a clip on tuner for the singer so that she wouldn't have the same tuning problems as before. That gig was probably the best we've ever sounded and we had a decent sized crowd. Just goes to show what a little practice can do. Then on Saturday we played an outdoor venue downtown, which was really cool. Again, the crowds weren't that heavy but it was a lot of fun.

I also got to check out the Austin Guitar Show and the Gear Show. I got to see a ton of cool vintage instruments, but I didn't really play anything or find any good deals that I could afford. I did find a really nice buffalo hide wide leather strap for $25 (they normally go for $60, but this one was blemished). I was kind of disappointed with SXSW as a whole though. I think the blues bands must go into hiding for it or something, because I didn't really hear a single band that I liked enough to stay and listen. I also learned that you're not going to make very many contacts, get very much exposure or make a penny playing upstairs off of 6th street. Next year, I'm going to try and push to get in somewhere ground level on 6th street. Even if that means hauling out a generator and playing on the sidewalk. I saw another band doing that, it's not a bad idea.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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Very cool Texas. 3 shows at SXSW is pretty impressive. I went to see Iron Butterfly at a theater in the round outside of Chicago in early June of 68 worried that I didn't have enough money the doorman told us to just go in and take any seat, my Bros and I were part of a crowd of ten people, they played the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album perfectly to 1200 empty seats. It happens to the best. Glad your second and third shows went OK and that you had fun at one of the most important music festivals in the USA. Very cool Texas.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Congrats on playing SXSW!

Unfortunately, there's going to be some gigs like the first one you had--but you did the right thing; you sharpened your show, corrected what you knew was wrong and played a better gig the next night.

As far as your "promoter" experience, there are dozens of promoters who are only trying to make a buck off of bands--whether the band gets paid or not. If he refused to work with you since you don't have a full-fledged manager, you're probably better off.

You said it was discouraging to play to an empty room; unfortunately, that's another "road hazard." I read about ZZ Top playing a show to one guy at a bar (yes, that's 1 guy) early in their career, and another time they played to one kid who had won a radio contest (he won a "party" hosted by the radio station--complete with refreshments and a live band--but he had no friends, so his mom dropped him off at the venue and ZZ Top played this party for the one kid there).

Prince was booed harshly when he opened for the Rolling Stones in the early 80s, and I remember hearing about Nirvana playing to an empty club in Dallas just a few months before "Nevermind" dropped.

Worse than playing to nobody is playing to a disinterested crowd. We were booked to play an afternoon company picnic (we had played this gig three years running, and usually this was a rockin' party) and for some reason, nobody cared. It was like playing to an empty room (with 300 people there). They booked us to play too early--the food and booze had not started flowing and everyone was concerned about their careers ("I better not have any fun until the boss does!") instead of having a good time. The only exception was one old man who liked what we were doing, and he clapped and whistled like we were the second coming of Freddie King or something. So we played the whole gig to him, and dedicated every other song to him (he got a kick out of that).

After the gig, the bass player asked, "If a blues band plays in the forest and nobody listens, did they make a sound?"

You survived and you learned--it sounds like you did the best thing any young band could...

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Yeah,I've played to nobody and then to thousands where probaby only a few even listened......at the latter type of gig,a Bluegrass festival where we played R&R and blues to the uncaring masses,a little old grey haired lady met me as I was coming down off the stage,she was pointing her finger at me saying "come here young man!"....I thought great,here this old lady is gonna rip me a new one for not playing the type of music she came to hear...wrong! she loved us and kept asking about our band and was so nice that it made everything a-okay.
I figured out that day long ago,that even if one person enjoys it and forgets their troubles for a little while,then it's well worth it....and if I only play to a bare wall in an empty room,then in Duane Allman's words..."go out there and play to that wall!"

Good on you to get out there and play through it even though its tough. It sounds like your experience will make it even better when you get out there next year.

I've played at a bar on Monday and Tuesday nights (sometimes in the middle of Canadian winter) where there was no-one on the stage side of the bar, and just 1 or 2 regulars at the bar near the pool table side. Everytime between songs this guy would yell "Play some Slayer!" and would start singing some guitar riff. We were a classic rock band and didn't play any Slayer. We've played there more than once to the same crowd and every time the same guy yells "Play some Slayer!" and starts singing the riff. I wanted to learn whatever song it was just to shut the guy up!

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You ought to at least learn the riff and blast it out the minute he yells for Slayer.
The reason Frank Zappa gave for his rendition of Whippin' Post is that at a concert overseas somewhere,in between songs some guy yelled out in broken English "Whippin Post" just like you hear on the Allman Brothers Fillmore album....Zappa thought,we don't do that one,and later learned a guy in his band could sing it and then they started playing it at shows.