Metal bands looking to gig, please read!

Syphor_1

Hi Everybody
How are you, listen just a quick line about metal gigs in Dublin, just wondering if any bands would be interested in getting a metal night together in a venue around Dublin, preferably Whelan’s, up on wexford street, now before peeps jump down my throat, I'M NOT a promoter, in anyway shape or form, I’m in a band who's finding it very hard to get to play in front of like minded people that might be into the type of music in which we're playing, and we've done the whole free admission 5 band gig thing and all that but regardless of how many you get there, your still playing in front of family, friends and people you already know and after all bands want to promote themselves and that's where below comes into play.

The idea is,
It's not a new one but here it goes, we want to put on a 4 band metal night, as I said preferable in Whelan’s, as the stage and set up is great downstairs in there, on a decent night like a Friday or Saturday and basically what we'd do is, all promotion/organisation will be done by the bands themselves, so it would be the initial layout of what Whelan’s + sound man + flyers being printed up, ect, which we will share between us then split the proceeds from the door evenly goes 4 ways between all the bands, so there is no mention of a promoter making money off our backs, and the bands get an 45-55 minutes each to play.

Advantages
For one we should at least make our money back, if not a bit of cash for extra each band, it would be on a decent night (not like a Wednesday or something, hate playing Wednesday’s) something like a friday/saturday night,

and for 2,
we'll be playing in front of metal crowd which can only be good if your a metal band with a e.p. Or album you want to promote and have a propper showcase to show the public what you can do live.

Now once again I’ll stress that I’m not a promoter, We just want to be proactive in getting to where we want to be and not sit on our hands complaining on these sites about how everyones ripping us off on gigs ect. ect.,

and we'd just basically be working off the info that's in the first few threads on this page, i.e. the contact numbers for venues and some of the other info that's been most gracefully put up there by people that know a hell of a lot more about this stuff then us, We just want to get to play decent gigs in front of a crowd, that would appreciate (or not) the stuff we're doing, which is unfortunately is a hard thing to come across with the closing of the Voodoo and Eamon dorans(i know it's opened as 3 crown alley, but with no metal gigs).


If interested or you have any ideas about how to get the kind of gigs i'm talking about you can contact us on our website www.syphor.de

Thanks for reading
Jay

Just wanted to edit it here and say that this wouldn't be a one off that if this works out we could organise the same thing but move venue to around the country, with the same 4 metal bands playing.

SpittinStuff

Count us in.


I messaged you guys on myspace, the email you left me in the PM didnt work!




(I already have a few bands on standby for something like this)

Syphor_1

That's great,
i'll mail you back when i get home, with our phone number, ect , I can't access myspace here in work, so it'll be later tonight.

Thanks
jay

SpittinStuff

Sweet!


Wes.
SB

David Hynes

Good idea, except unknown bands shouldnt play for anything approaching 55 mins! best of luck though!

fintan kerr

hey where a metal band from cavan and i know what you mean when you say playing to the wrong crowd,its happend too many times.we have a good few gigs under our belt including the stables in mullengar.
we would be able to bring a good metal crowd with us.if you chould ring me on <snip> that would be great i also know another metal band that chould come along if you want.
thanks
fintan

drumdrum

nice idea lads,
would attend this myself but just a few pointers from my experiences of putting on / playing at gigs etc:

Getting bands to share backline is good to make them stick around until the end. Also, if a band fecks off before the last band have played, then make an agreement that they won't get paid (if applicable). Basically, while most bands should be equal in say, have one band as the main decider as if all things are equal you can get arguments with bands especially concerning things like slot times etc. ("We dont want the 8.30 slot.... sure there's no one here!" etc etc....)

Maybe having 2/3 30-mins band on with one "main" 45mins band on would be best. Then at the next gig the same bands can rotate the 45 minute slot between them. Don't forget about change-over between bands which usually takes about 10-15minutes depending on whats getting changed over (drums usually take longest...).
No matter what you do, punters will leave to get last buses/luases at about 11 or so, so by this stage, ideally the last bands should be finishing up their set. I might be wrong, but I think Whelans has a curfew of 11pm for bands anyways.

While Whelans is a great venue, you do need a fair few heads to make it seem full, so maybe running a few trial runs in Fibbers or more "metal" orientated places will give you a feel for the numbers that the bands can realistically bring, WITH the added benefit of having a few non-band associated strangers there that will be into the music regardless.

I know the idea you are aiming for - where metal fans can say "hmm lets head down to "Meturday" (or whatever your nights called!) there's always someone good on there" - and sure why not, but any genre-specific weekly nights take time to build up a decent reputation and it usually depends on the quality of the bands and word-of-mouth/promotion. This is even more so for more niche markets such as metal, so be fair to yourselves and don'e expect the world in a week!
Id hate to see the bands lay down a few hundred quid renting Whelans out to only a handful of people.

From what I know, Whelans is relatively expensive on Thursday - Saturday "prime time" slots, and as far as I know they are generally booked out a few months in advance.

Best of luck to yee, and I hope it works out!

Malice

fintan kerr: Please note that per the charter, phone numbers aren't allowed. Use this site's PM facility instead.

WhiskyDance

Hey all, we are a newly formed metal/rock band based in the west, we have lots of gigging experience between us, however we dont have many contacts to get us the gigs we want and to play to an audience who actually appreciate good music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bja8xVnXHSA&feature=related