Hey, so I am starting to book a tour for my band from March
thru May.

We have never toured before and I wanted to see if I could get suggestions from you guys on good clubs to try for.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know that there are many such threads on here and I have read them and taken notes and whatnot, but I am starting this one, so deal with it.

I know a lot of you have toured around extensively and I have based my whole touring schedule off of others that have been posted on here and it has been very helpful......but, I would like to hear suggestions based on your experiences. Whether or not the clubs pay fairly, appropriate for certain types of music and more importantly, if they have decent PAs....it is easy to look around and find listings for clubs in cities but that honestly doesn't tell me much and I trust your guys' opinions....

here are the first 5:

Jackson, MS
birmingham, AL
Shreveport, LA
Louisville
Chapel Hill


we are going to be playing 26 cities, and I will post more later but I need to start on these. We have contacts in quite a few of them but over half of the places we know nothing about....like, I have never even heard of music existing in Jackson

Also, there are members on here in almost every place that we are playing and if there is anyway that we can play show's with any of your bands then that would be fantastic! Pretty much everything I've heard on here has been excellent, such as Push-Pull....

I hope you guys don't mind me asking for help.

thank you.

In addition to the other old threads where people talk about good clubs in their town, you should also check out booking agency websites and see where bands you like are play. It may not directly answer questions like "how is the PA?" but will give you an idea of what sort of room bands like yours play.

Here are just a few good agencies to check out...

http://www.flowerbooking.com/bands/tours.php

http://www.billions.com/

http://www.windishagency.com/tours.php

http://www.korkagency.com/na/html/tours.aspx

try to play richmond, fucker.

Richmond's a great town to play in, speaking as a listener but not a musician.

In Chapel Hill, the Cat's Cradle is obviously the one to shoot for. Barring that, all I can say is avoid Local 506. All my band buddies call it the "Local 5 or 6" because that's all the people who show up for shows there. Zero promotion.

Glueman, send me a PM about setting up a show here in Bloomington.I could potentially help with Louisville and Indianapolis as well. We'd be down with playing a show wiht you guys. We're potentially planing on hitting the road in early April, so maybe we can coordinate something there. We'll definately be hitting the three cities i mentioned.

good luck

mike

let me know if you're looking to play in the glamorous new haven, ct area. i can probably get something together for you! MTAR, you too... i meant to say that in a previous thread a while back... but i forgot... hehe.

Yay! Good responses, people...thank you...

Yes, I have Billions, In Land Empire and Kork already bookmarked and have checked them plenty...plus our drummer's other band is booked by Kork.....but, like I said before, finding lists of clubs where bands play is easy but I was looking for stuff like what Mr. Ty Webb said above.....and I don't find that on club listings....

I would love to play Richmond, New Haven and Bloomington!! Those cities fit into the route I have planned anyhow and I could swap my original choices for those and still stay on track....

Here is the tentative schedule of the eastern part of the tour:

Denton
Austin, TX
Mar. 20 shreveport,LA
Mar. 21 Birmingham, AL
Mar. 22 Murfreesboro, TN
Mar. 23 Louisville, KY

Mar. 24 Chapel Hill, NC
Mar. 25 Philladelphia, PA (Richmond)
Mar. 26 NYC
Mar. 27 Boston, MA (New Haven)
Mar. 28 Columbus, OH (Bloomington)


Philly, Boston and Colombus are the ones that I would totally switch to play in the cities in Parantheses......

This schedule may vary by a day or two to allow for a break, and I think that the show in Murfreesboro has already been set up. I wanted to start the tour on March 1st, but we have to wait until SXSW is over...

Fuck, that will be crazy driving...

So, yeah, Messrs. MTAP, Phildotidiot and Fly, we would love to play in you cities and/or with your bands....

I will get back with more info tommorow.....thank you!

Having been on a long-ass tour recently that has brought me to these regions, I will say the following things:

If Chapel Hill doesn't work out, try King's in Raleigh. No guarantee that they will book you on an appropriate bill, but the sound is excellent, and the staff will get you wasted. Oh, and the diner next door is decent.

If you can play a show at Uncle Fester's in Bloomington, DO IT. We had one of the best crowds of our entire tour on a fuckin' MONDAY. The Josh guy who does booking there is a totally solid dude as well.

The fine city of Houston would be a great place to play if you can fit it in there. I would probably skip Shreveport and play Houston instead. Houston was also one of the best cities on our last tour. If the crowd likes you, they will bring Lone Star on the stage for you to drink.

glueman wrote:Mar. 24 Chapel Hill, NC
Mar. 25 Philladelphia, PA (Richmond)
Mar. 26 NYC
Mar. 27 Boston, MA (New Haven)
Mar. 28 Columbus, OH (Bloomington)

Dude, any way you do those last two, those are some ridiculous drives.

you don't wanna do 12 hr drives on the east coast.

kerble wrote:

glueman wrote:Mar. 24 Chapel Hill, NC
Mar. 25 Philladelphia, PA (Richmond)
Mar. 26 NYC
Mar. 27 Boston, MA (New Haven)
Mar. 28 Columbus, OH (Bloomington)

Dude, any way you do those last two, those are some ridiculous drives.

you don't wanna do 12 hr drives on the east coast.

Fuck! You're right I just checked the time on Google Maps, and it says 16 hours.....well, fuck that. Maybe we could play Cleveland in between......yeah, most of the cities that I have picked have been to avoid long drives between other cities (i.e. Shreveport, and Jackson, MS)....or maybe that can be when I schedule a day off.....yeha, that could work...

Raleigh sounds good, Horsewhip. It was my original choice instead of Chapel Hill. Actually, I had Raleigh because I think I had seen it on your tour schedule.....I guess I could change that too. Fun places are what counts and I do love good diners and have actually wasted quite a bit of time after shows in unfamiliar towns looking for one....

That place in Bloomington sounds good too. Maybe MTAR knows about it. Yeah, we will be lucky to draw anybody due to noone knowing us even on weekends.....I have dreaded all of the Sun., Mon. and Tues. shows....we would be lucky to get our friends to go out on those nights in our own town....