Are You Ready To Play?
One day, perhaps you’ll be touring as an indie or signed artist getting on a bus while a tour manager handles logistics, accommodations, and meals. What we’re talking about is getting your indie band on the road, maybe for your first gig ever. Or you may be searching for a strategy to help build your band’s reach by playing gigs in new towns. Or perhaps it’s time to hit the road for a multi-gig tour that spans hundreds of miles.
There is plenty of information on the subject, and hundreds of details to keep track of. What we’ve got here are bits of advice from posts and articles that should help answer some questions and give you good ideas for getting your band on the road and building upon your current foundation of live gigs.
1 Do you have something to promote?
A new release is the most obvious thing to promote when
you’re striking out on the road and looking for publicity,
but there are other angles you can push. Did you place a
song on a TV show or movie? Open for a national act? Win
a song contest? Find an angle that local press can latch
onto—or something to add to your flyers, posters, and
press releases—to give people a reason to look twice.
2 Do you have a road worthy show?
Don’t strive to be ordinary onstage. If you want to command
the attention of a room full people who have never
seen you, put yourself in their shoes. What would you
want to see from your band on stage?
Before you work on a stage show, take a long hard listen
to your live performances. Record the audio, take video,
and study yourself. Are your songs good? Are you performing
them well in live settings? Where can you improve a
performance or arrangement? Where can you expand and
find moments to elevate your show? Does the set flow?
Are there awkward pauses between tunes (or senseless
rantings)? Before you hit any stage, work hard at writing
great songs. Then work on playing and presenting them in
the most compelling way you can.
3 Plan a strategy
There’s a focused and unfocused way to go about booking
and playing gigs, and the difference can spell success
or failure. An unfocused approach might include booking
gigs in towns you’ve never played without doing any research
into the club you’ve booked. Or it might simply
be booking yourself too frequently in the same area or
booking too big a room.
A focused approach will help you establish goals, measure
progress, and work toward reaching them. In time,
you can gauge your success by how you measure up to
your goals. Are you playing to bigger and better crowds?
Are you playing better rooms than you were six months
ago? Have you broken into a new city? Are you selling
more and more merchandise?
4 Solo road trip
If you’re a singer/songwriter who typically plays with a full
band, doing a tour without the band could be an option.
It takes courage and dedication to grab your guitar and a
few changes of clothes and get in your car and go. But
traveling as a single person (having a co-pilot is always
nice) is certainly less expensive and less intense than
putting four or five people on the road. If you can swing
it, a solo trip playing house concerts or coffee shops can
pave the way for a full-band tour later down the road.