gig/music scene mess

Marshall1

Heres an issue I have,I recently went to a band night to see some 'rising stars' as I do enjoy new music.However I've come to the conclusion that there's only 2 scenes in Ireland. METAL and INDIE. At my most recent outing I saw a pretty solid ROCK band called The Chaos Emerald who opened the night but the rest of the night was metal bands.When I spoke to them after the show they told me its nearly impossible for them to get gigs other than Metal or Indie gigs.They were by far on the night the most colourful and creative band with the best tunes, the other metal bands loved them too so I cant understand why its such a struggle for them. Is there anyone else out there who sees this or am I just imagining it??

A7X

No ur not imagining it. There really is a limited amount of genres being expressed in the irish scene. Pop punk is another one.

Im in a band and I dunno what genre we fall under too be honest but as of late weve had to set up our own gigs with other bands.
The promoters aren't the greatest and theres not many. Also theres an awful metalcore scene that needs to die IMO.

Any one else think the same?

road_2_damascus

There is a band from Limerick (I think), currently touring the country, Im not sure of their name but they go through an agency. They doup tempo pop-punk, Green Day etc. All the 4 members have quiff hairdos, Maurai Tattoos, sleeveless tops, brand new gear, their lively, have a light show, good looking, €1600 per night. The are MIMING to a backing track that is played through their PA. The singer is singing, but the original vocal track is coming through slightly. The punters dont care, the management dont care...its a noise in the background. Now, who are the fools here? Correct, the idiots that waste hundreds of hours practicing and practicing so they can play to a crowd who 1. dont care 2. cant tell if your miming

el_tiddlero

road_2_damascus wrote: »

conspirational noise about some mystery miming band

proof?? you know a lot about those guys to not know their NAME!!! if you can find verifiable proof that this is happening, then i'd be interested to hear about it so we can expose these shams for what they are...

A7X - setting up your own gigs is the way to go. No one is going to hand you anything. Get yourself out there and you'll get the rewards. Bands that sit around waiting for a promoter/whoever to do their work for them will get nowhere. No one will ever know who you are if you don't get out and show yourself - while to a certain extent an audience might find a band, the onus is really on the band to find an audience.

OP - i'm not sure what you mean by only 2 types of gigs/scenes. You were obviously at a metal night, i'm guessing a NoizeNite run by Dublin Underground??? Those gigs are designed to feature metal/rock bands only - they also do one that features only bands with females in them.

That same night you went i'll bet there were at least 5 or 6 other small gigs going on around the city, each with a different style of band. I'm not saying that there isn't an overabundance of certain styles of music in Dublin, but, to say there is no variety is short-sighted and unfair.

As for The Chaos Emerald, if they're so good they should get up off their holes and book their own gigs, as i said above, nobody is going to come along and hand you a gig in a packed venue just because you think you're good - you've got to get out there and make it happen.

road_2_damascus

el_tiddlero wrote: »

proof?? you know a lot about those guys to not know their NAME!!! if you can find verifiable proof that this is happening, then i'd be interested to hear about it so we can expose these shams for what they are...

A7X - setting up your own gigs is the way to go. No one is going to hand you anything. Get yourself out there and you'll get the rewards. Bands that sit around waiting for a promoter/whoever to do their work for them will get nowhere. No one will ever know who you are if you don't get out and show yourself - while to a certain extent an audience might find a band, the onus is really on the band to find an audience.

OP - i'm not sure what you mean by only 2 types of gigs/scenes. You were obviously at a metal night, i'm guessing a NoizeNite run by Dublin Underground??? Those gigs are designed to feature metal/rock bands only - they also do one that features only bands with females in them.

That same night you went i'll bet there were at least 5 or 6 other small gigs going on around the city, each with a different style of band. I'm not saying that there isn't an overabundance of certain styles of music in Dublin, but, to say there is no variety is short-sighted and unfair.

As for The Chaos Emerald, if they're so good they should get up off their holes and book their own gigs, as i said above, nobody is going to come along and hand you a gig in a packed venue just because you think you're good - you've got to get out there and make it happen.

Not 100% sure if I should say the name here on Boards.ie... if you look up Club Voodoo on google, its in Letterkenny, go to Voodoo bar section, and theres a live bands menu on the top. They are on it... 4 piece from way down the south of the country (begins with D). I am a musician, I was along with 2 other musician friends. Its easy to spot if your in the game

OLP

There's a thriving Punk/OI!/Hardcore/Crust scene in Ireland

el_tiddlero

road_2_damascus wrote: »

Not 100% sure if I should say the name here on Boards.ie... if you look up Club Voodoo on google, its in Letterkenny, go to Voodoo bar section, and theres a live bands menu on the top. They are on it... 4 piece from way down the south of the country (begins with D). I am a musician, I was along with 2 other musician friends. Its easy to spot if your in the game

I'll say their name, don't see a problem with that tbh, you're talking about Deuces Wild (http://www.deuceswild.ie/)
They're a lame-ass looking covers band... To suggest that they personally are responsible for a supposed dearth of variety in Irish music is a little wide of the mark, don't you think??

If those guys are going around miming and what have you, then they are no different to the likes of Britney Spears, Beyonce, Rihanna, and every boy/girl pop band out there, who, i would assume, all get paid far more per gig than those clowns do..

The OP's argument was that in Ireland, you are either Metal or Indie, and that there is no outlet for anything else. I disagree with that and I don't see what some cover band miming has to do with that.

The OP would be better served looking up promoters such as ClubAC30 (shoegaze, electronica) and Skinny Wolves (all kinds of weirdness), as well as Ballroom of Romance, some Richter Collective gigs etc.. all of those groups put on shows with a wide range of acts (including some metal and indie) and again, for any band that doesn't fit into the metal or indie category, then there's an obvious market for you - those who, like the OP, believe that there is nothing else in this country.

el_tiddlero

Marshall1 wrote: »

Name : The Chaos Emerald
Hometown : Dublin
Type of Music : ROCK/HARDROCK
Website : www.myspace.com/thechaosemerald
Sounds Like : What real rock should sound like,not metal,not indie just guitar wailing proper driving rock.Seriously people I know them so Im kinda biased but they genuinely are the only band around who sound remotely original and can give you that feeling you got when you discovered your first rock band.Check them out live if you dont believe me.

from another thread over in the rock/metal forum.. are you friends with Chaos Emerald OP, or are you in them??

Mushy

I dunno, I can see what the OP is saying, but hey, ya can find some varities out there. My mates are in this band, doubt it falls into any metal or indie.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=394828814

You do come across some original, decent stuff, it can just be a bit harder to find.

af_thefragile

There's also a decent Punk scene.

Marshall1

not a member but i do know them but only from recent times i met them when they toured Northern England.Gig City,Gig Smart, Dublin Underground, Radiator, their all the same I go to a lot of gigs all over the country and its all the same,bands rarely get promoted ,these "promoters" are in it for themselves and ride the bands anyway they can.As for renting venues I tried getting into promotional work and was aiming to promote good bands in decent venues.Dorans is expensive and only give you the venue til 11, even Whelans gimp promoter wont give you the venue unless your indie or a well established rock act.Yes maybe its not worth their risk but its simply another door closed in good bands faces,their left with venues out of the way like voodoo and radio city then its a struggle for them to get people other than mates and family to go then people like, the dude who knows it all replying on this page(probably one of the promoters), consider them lazy and think their crap.So how do they win.Im just tryin to get a point across for the bands.

A7X

el_tiddlero wrote: »

proof?? you know a lot about those guys to not know their NAME!!! if you can find verifiable proof that this is happening, then i'd be interested to hear about it so we can expose these shams for what they are...

A7X - setting up your own gigs is the way to go. No one is going to hand you anything. Get yourself out there and you'll get the rewards. Bands that sit around waiting for a promoter/whoever to do their work for them will get nowhere. No one will ever know who you are if you don't get out and show yourself - while to a certain extent an audience might find a band, the onus is really on the band to find an audience.

OP - i'm not sure what you mean by only 2 types of gigs/scenes. You were obviously at a metal night, i'm guessing a NoizeNite run by Dublin Underground??? Those gigs are designed to feature metal/rock bands only - they also do one that features only bands with females in them.

That same night you went i'll bet there were at least 5 or 6 other small gigs going on around the city, each with a different style of band. I'm not saying that there isn't an overabundance of certain styles of music in Dublin, but, to say there is no variety is short-sighted and unfair.

As for The Chaos Emerald, if they're so good they should get up off their holes and book their own gigs, as i said above, nobody is going to come along and hand you a gig in a packed venue just because you think you're good - you've got to get out there and make it happen.

I'm well aware that booking your own gigs is the way to go, but if you do that youll just get ppl going that u ask to go. Ya know? unless your a relatively known band. This is where the Promoters should come into play.

They are supposed to be providing a well advertised gig with people coming to them that don't know you, But thats not the case, with many promoters demanding tickets to be sold and, as far as I can see, do f***k all advertising for it expecting the bands to bring fans and then make money off the bands.

Not only that but i have been in a position where our band is being "warned" to bring more fans the next time after not selling enough tickets. I mean thats just like asking the same ppl to come all the time ie. mates.

Another thing that really annoys me are those "Battle of the bands" competitions, such as Emergenza and that HAM yoke. Im not in the mood to explain why tbh.

Seriously all these "Promoters" are just out there to make money off "naive" bands wanting to gig, without really caring about them.

el_tiddlero

Marshall1 wrote: »

As for renting venues I tried getting into promotional work and was aiming to promote good bands in decent venues.Dorans is expensive and only give you the venue til 11, even Whelans gimp promoter wont give you the venue unless your indie or a well established rock act.Yes maybe its not worth their risk but its simply another door closed in good bands faces,their left with venues out of the way like voodoo and radio city then its a struggle for them to get people other than mates and family to go then people like, the dude who knows it all replying on this page(probably one of the promoters), consider them lazy and think their crap.So how do they win.Im just tryin to get a point across for the bands.

Boom boom room, cheap, central (o'connell st), and thoroughly professional to deal with.
Bleu Note, Capel St. FREE to use and they'd love to have anyone come and put on shows.
Lower Deck, Portobello, cheap, good for the rathmines student crowd, and super friendly..
There's plenty of other places around too that will glady let a band put on a show..
Whelans and Dorans are not the be all and end all in this city, but so many young bands think that way, it's a pity.

I'm not a promoter. I'm in a band. We put on and promote our own shows. It's not rocket science to list a gig everywhere you can on the internet and in print. It's pretty easy - it just takes time. Nor is it hard to get posters made up and put them around the city. Nor is it hard to get flyers made and bring them with you everywhere you go during the period leading up to the gig to hand them out.
What is hard is bringing a crowd, which is why we always try and play with bands that we're not acquainted with, 2 of them usually, that way guaranteeing that roughly 2/3 of the audience will be made up of people we don't know.
The final thing is pricing, i see posters, internet ad's etc for unsinged, unknown acts asking 8-10 euro's in. That's ludicrous. At most, starting out you should charge a fiver. For our first few gigs we charged 1 and 2 euros in. The novelty of such cheap admission got us good crowds complete with people just coming in off the street to see it.

Follow those steps and you'll never lose money on a gig (well, not much anyhow). You'll make money on them sooner rather than later, and by playing and playing and playing, you'll eventually build up an audience. That's how it works. It's just that simple.

If a band has done all that then they can't be considered lazy, but if they haven't and are just griping that no one will let them play anywhere, then they haven't tried hard enough imo..

iamhunted

well said