House Shows
When I was on tour this summer, I played a lot of house shows. I noticed that the trend with these kinds of shows is that they are more or less parties, and the bands are “free” entertainment. There would be instances where there would be over 40 people in attendance and we would get maybe $20 for gas if we were lucky. The worst cases were when the promoter of the show wouldn’t even take donations, and we had to collect them ourselves. One nug of weed, $16, and some well wishes will not get a band to their next show.
House shows, when they are run properly, have a fixed door price, as opposed to a suggested donation. This helps touring bands stay on tour, which is the reason I book shows. Since there is usually no overhead for a house when they host a show, I feel like the door price should never be above $5. However, the door price should never drop below $3. If at least 15 people pay $3 (the average house show usually has more than 15 people in attendance), then that will ensure at least 3/4 of a tank of gas for the touring band. I feel like this is not too much to ask. If anyone has a problem with setting aside $3 from their beer money to donate to a band, then they don’t deserve to see the music the touring band has created.
Punk music influenced my life more positively than anything else society has to offer, and I know I’m not alone. Please, support touring bands, support house shows, support DIY punk shit, or else it won’t exist, and then you will have nothing to do on the weekends
