Comments on: JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: EYAL ON THE LOCAL BAND WEEKEND TOUR

By: His Dudeness

His Dudeness — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:44:32 +0000

Eyal, I couldn’t possibly agree with you anymore on the girlfriend subject. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, fucks with a band worse than when a member suddenly shifts his focus from the band to his girlfriend. Especially when you know how fantastic a contributer that guy can be when he used to actually care about the music. There’s a time for the band, and there’s a time for your girlfriend. Love all your blogs man.

By: Travis Coy

Travis Coy — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:16:38 +0000

I love you.

By: Jin

Jin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:54:45 +0000

I love your blog and this was a great read. But I got one question:

How the fuck do you find time to write so much, let alone on so many good and enlightening topics? And then reply to us? Seriously dude, you’re awesome.

By: Classy Metal

Classy Metal — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:19:12 +0000

Story of my life. Fast setup/teardown is one of a hundred things that sepparate pros from scrubs.

By: Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:19:15 +0000

“So 2 songs into our set winds of plague starts playing on the other stage. Of course everyone leaves, and we are fucked. That is all.”

Sounds like there were some smart people at the gig if everyone left when WOP started playing. I would have gottent the fuck outta the whole town, not just the venue if WOP ever tried playing in my hearing range.

By: Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:10:56 +0000

All the people on here want to know is how they can find time to play World of Warcraft and how many hot pockets they can eat before the have to break the “don’t shit on the bus” rule.

By: Eyal Levi

Eyal Levi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:06:01 +0000

Dudes, if you’re in an unsigned band and you want to make a lot of money either make some amazing shirts or start learning your cover songs.

By: Eyal Levi

Eyal Levi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:04:05 +0000

Alex, thank you for bringing up that point. That’s something I failed to mention.

DRUMMERS, when you get your kit set up in the club its not suddenly the Guitar Center Drum Off competition. The only prize you’re going to win by being an asshole and annoying everyone by practicing and showing off is hatred. Don’t be that guy. Set up your drums and get them the fuck out of the way!

By: Eyal Levi

Eyal Levi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:01:05 +0000

Dude – we DREAD those shows. When we are on a five band package and there’s like 9 local bands we know the entire show is going to be an absolute clusterfuck. Its best to just relax, and let go of all your cares that day because if you don’t you will stress out like a motherfucker.

By: Alee

Alee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:50:25 +0000

for better or worse, you are basically holding a benefit when you play locally with a touring band. give in to it; that’s the only way. the best thing to do (in my opinion) is to start building relationships with bands in areas where you’d potentially tour. set up shows for them in your town and usually they’ll return the favor. focus on getting as many people as stoked as possible on these gigs so that the touring band has a great night. give them all the payout from the club, too. it comes back–not always, but often. there’s an extra-hot place in hell for people who don’t hook up the touring bands.

i’m happy to say that my band just came back from our longest (1 week) and best paying tour ($500) yet. we hope to go out longer next time. thanks for this column, eyal!

By: Dan Parsons

Dan Parsons — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:12:02 +0000

45?? Damn! I wanna play where you guys are! We’re lucky if we get 30. lol

By: JohnTurrigenous

JohnTurrigenous — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:02:10 +0000

+1, we usually dont really care about the money we make off of shows at this point (sometimes we forget, not always a good thing!) but whatever we make just goes in the band fund. I think a lot of bands need to understand this.

By: JohnTurrigenous

JohnTurrigenous — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:58:01 +0000

“GET YOUR SHIT OFF STAGE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!!! ”

Sooooooooooooooooooooo fucking true. We’ve played with tons of bands that dont understand this. Quick setups and breakdowns are something my band takes pride in. Its called “RESPECT FOR THE OTHER BANDS”.

To me, one of the first signs of an amateur band. They’ll learn.

That and not timing out their set and playing for 70 mins instead of 45.

By: Eyal Levi

Eyal Levi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:56:07 +0000

Yep. That happens. Rack or no rack isnt the issue. Its the mentality of the drummer.

By: Dan Parsons

Dan Parsons — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:22:11 +0000

I totally feel your pain on the subject of bands taking way too long to set up and tear down. A few months ago we played a show in Tampa with almost 15-20 bands throughout the day. When a show is that big, there’s ALWAYS something going wrong. In this case, it was several bands taking almost 30 fucking minutes to set up because they wanted to set up a series of wussy lighting systems, silly effects, tuning their amps/guitars etc. It was pathetic. We were able to set up in minutes, played for 20, and were off stage before the next band even knew their slot had come up. The whole night was a disaster simply because, as you stated Eyal, bands need to know how to do their job when it comes to this simple process. DO YOUR FUCKING JOB, THEN GO PARTY. Not before, not during, but after you’ve squared away everything. So many bands never get anywhere simply because they think there’s no level of professionalism that comes with being in a band. If you wanna do this as a career, then act like it.

Should we ever play with you guys, I can promise you we wont be one of those bands that push back your set time because we’re too busy “setting up”……………..

…………….or putting on panda bear paint. lol

Cheers.

By: raiseyerfists

raiseyerfists — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:33:56 +0000

True about the racks, but on the other hand, I played a show with a dude who moved his big-ass rack off stage, out the door, and then parked it right in front of the stage door so nobody else could load in or load out while he sat there slowly unscrewing his cymbals, dropping names of all the third-tier bands he’d opened for over the past twenty years. Plus, he sucked at drums.

By: Anselmowitz

Anselmowitz — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:19:41 +0000

Great post Eyal, keen for more pro tips & pearls of wisdom.

By: Anselmowitz

Anselmowitz — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:17:28 +0000

Good commandments, ur english is fine.

By: Eyal Levi

Eyal Levi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:28:51 +0000

There’s more to being in a band than just being good. Being pro is part of it too. That’s what my whole blog is about.

By: your daddy

your daddy — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:02:12 +0000

who gives a shit? if the band is good what does it matter?