my friends hijacked a battle of the bands

[kaboom]

You know those dudes that approach you, unsolicited, and invite you to be part of a battle of the bands or showcase or whatever... it's always on a Sunday or Monday night, with like 9 other bands, and they want to you sell so many presale $20 tickets, and they take 80% of the money... you know, those guys? My friend got his noise project booked at one, and it was brilliant.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he_40WYBdHs[/youtube]

Earlier this year I was contacted to compete in a local Battle of the Bands. Battles are inherently terrible things, as their main purpose is to scam naive musicians into guilting their friends and family members into paying an exorbitant amount of money to see what is generally said band's first show.

The company that approached me was called MT Productions, and I knew instantly that they were a front for Gorilla Music Management, a company that is run out of town every so often. They obviously hadn't heard anything by Wind Does, which they really had no reason to do since they're only concerned with numbers.

So I agreed, making up a story about being a "Post-Shoegaze" band, with the intention of going up on stage and playing until they forced me to quit. A petty movie, admittedly, but I knew I'd at least get a chance to try out some new material on a nice stage, and get a nice recording. The only trick, though, was to sell no tickets. If the company made any money, it would all be for nothing.

I asked a few friends whether or not they wanted to join me on stage and piss off a terrible "promoter," and everyone I asked gave a vehement "yes." Battles are terrible, and they weren't about to turn down a chance to be a thorn in their side, no matter how petty and silly.

After fielding two or three phone calls a week for two months, my making up story after story about why I wasn't able to sell any tickets, my team of misfits and I showed up to the venue on April 21st, 2013, ready to destroy.

Weeks prior, we'd formed a bit of a game plan. We agreed that while it'd be fun to just blast out unadulterated sound until the promoters finally cut the power, it'd be a missed opportunity not to use the opportunity to record something interesting.

Blueprint in hand (figuratively), our 30 minute time slot started, and the rest you can hear for yourself.

Well when word got out that this show was going to happen, and none of our were allowed to come, obviously everyone wanted to see it. But if they attended, the production company would make money, and the purpose would be defeated. Luckily, I videotaped it. Unluckily, the tape skipped, and about the first 15 minutes were lost to the ages.

But I've edited the remaining footage into the above video.

[dubkitty]

i like the Guy Debord effect of the black screen.

[sonidero]

That would be a big hit in Austin... We have a thread about those guys, the contact me off of soundcloud and I always wanted to do this but tickets and scam and whatever... Awesome that they got away with that, the whole first part is black though...

[AxAxSxS]

Most excellent!

[zeravla]

EXCELLENT

[Achtane]

Glorious.

[tuffteef]

EXCELLENT

[Greenfuz]

my problem with noise bands is that it feels like a 30 minute intro to an actual song that never happens

[jrmy]

Awesome.

Out of curiosity, how did the other bands/performers on the bill take it? Were they pissy about it, or did they just think your friend was doing his thing? Were any in on it by the end?

[Grrface]

That was fantastic. I liked the couple of "woo"s at the end there too.

[D.o.S.]

EXCELLENT

[kaboom]

Awesome.

Out of curiosity, how did the other bands/performers on the bill take it? Were they pissy about it, or did they just think your friend was doing his thing? Were any in on it by the end?

A few guys were actually into the performance. Many of them were not amused, though. Some of them wouldn't even talk to anyone in my friend's group. The ones who did, though, were cool about it after learning the reason behind it. My buddy used the opportunity to tell them how to book shows around town, what venues are most accessible to their style of music, who to talk to, etc.

[space6oy]

i've never gone to / been scammed by one of those scenarios, have heard all about 'em though, how did they still get to take the stage without having sold X number of tickets?

[Bellyheart]

Some parts sounded like the GY!BE show I attended in October. Not sure if that's good or bad.

I always hated battle of the bands and pay to play. There are two different type of this that I know of, one being you have tickets to presale and after x amount you make money. Also you have to sell x amount to stay on the bill. I've done both with the same promoter and felt really accomplished when i got to the former. Then woke up one day.

[jrmy]

Awesome.

Out of curiosity, how did the other bands/performers on the bill take it? Were they pissy about it, or did they just think your friend was doing his thing? Were any in on it by the end?

A few guys were actually into the performance. Many of them were not amused, though. Some of them wouldn't even talk to anyone in my friend's group. The ones who did, though, were cool about it after learning the reason behind it. My buddy used the opportunity to tell them how to book shows around town, what venues are most accessible to their style of music, who to talk to, etc.

Cool that some folks were into it, even cooler that others were willing to listen to the reasoning...

I think I would've dug that set, personally, although I avoid those sorts of gigs like the plague. One such promoter contacted me through my soundcloud account (which I pretty much only use for pedal demos), and it was immediately clear that he was scammy.