Make Your Rock Show the Best Rock Show It Can Be For Cheap

When your band books a sweet gig at a local venue, you concentrate on a lot of things that you of course do need to concentrate on: the songs, the image, the back stage betties, and of course, getting people to your show.  Some people in bands focus too much on the first things and worry too little about that last important thing: after all, your show can be epic and amazing, but if no one is there to witness it, what’s the point? You can have fun and all that, but you need others’ worlds to be rocked in order to sustain the energy.  Also, if no one comes, the club won’t care if your show ruled, they will have lost money and won’t invite you back.  So here’s how to get folks to your show so that it can be the best rock and roll show of all time.

1. Posters

The thing about postering is that there’s a reason why, even in this digital age, you still need to do it.  The advantage of postering will be felt longer term if you consistently do it.  It gets your band’s name out there, and so eventually people will think they’ve heard of you even if they haven’t.  everyone likes to think they know a band that you have never heard of, so if they see the name a lot on the poster, they’ll be more likely to see your band’s name in the paper and think “Oh, I know those guys, they’re awesome, and I know about them and you don’t” and then they’ll all come to your show and they’ll think it’s amazing.  It may not get the swarms to your first show, but it’ll help make you seem bigger than you are.

2. Outside the Box Marketing

You need to have promotional materials at your show both on the stage and outside the venue. If your name is nowhere to be seen outside the venue that hurts you and the venue.  But they are less likely to do anything about it and you can complain to your mommy and daddy all you want that the venue did nothing to attract the foot traffic, or you could take matters into your own hands and get your band’s logo printed up for cheap on a pop up banner that you bring with you and put outside every show.  So what if the venue does nothing, you have the materials to attract the people all yourself.  A small one-time investment at a place like thedisplayoutlet.com will pay dividends.

3. Pyrotechnics

Many clubs do not allow for pyrotechnics so you’ll have to prepare them on the sly.  But their effectiveness is still alive and well even in 2014. You don’t want to burn the place down, so be careful with them and bring fire extinguishers with you, and maybe even get a couple buckets of water on the ready for you show, but you will wow the people more than you can imagine if you bring back pyrotechnics.  Even better is to do them in new and creative ways.  I saw a fiddle player lighting her bow on fire during a particularly intense solo. That kind of showmanship goes a long way because whether your music is amazing or not, people will be talking about it for weeks if not months to come.