Booking....all up in your face!

I want to send out unwarranted advice to any musician who is interested in booking gigs.
If you are paying someone to book that doesn't give you information for your gigs it makes YOU look bad when you're late, missing equipment you needed etc so if you can get a handle on this yourself, you're golden AND you will make more $$. If you find someone who can do this for you as well as you could without getting you blacklisted from gigs, TAKE IT!

I get asked about booking....a lot. If you don't know...Ty and I play A LOT. At LEAST 1 show a week. Average 2. Sometimes 3 and on a crazy week 4 but that's VERY rare. But still..its not quantity. its quality. I could make us play every night if I wanted to but we still work full time and that's rough. Because I am able to get us booked on a consistent basis for months at a time, I somehow have started getting asked advice. At first I though it was unfair for me to give advice on something I know very little about. Then, I started talking to the people who were asking and it occurred to me...We have been doing this...this intense.... for a few years now.
I decided that perception is 99% of success. If you ask someone when their next opening is, and they say 2 months or 3 months down the line, its a little impressive. If you ask and they have no shows nor prospects, it takes away a bit of dazzle. Tell me I'm wrong here.
Some of the people who ask have yet to play out live.
I encourage this. Performing live  scary as hell, and yet empowering and suddenly your song is over, and unless your crowd is a bunch of ass holes, you get this feeling that can't be beat. It may be applause, it may be silence, we all have our own desired result. Nothing is better than playing a song you really feel with all your heart and nailing it and then that rush that comes.

So. Here is my advice. This is not the bible. This is not set in stone in any way. Something I do may NOT work for someone else. As a matter of fact...adopt that idea NOW. If someone else is doing it, try something else. Sorry...its the way of the music world.
First. Do an open mic. You'll NEED to make sure you like it. I have seen people that said 'I want to play music SOOO bad!!!! and then they hated it...not many...but a few. Rinse and repeat. You need to play a bit before you start asking people to book you at venues and even more to ask them to pay you. Why would you hire someone to babysit your kids if they have never been around kids in their life?
Next, where can you perform? Obviously, If you're under 21...there's no reason to call bars.
Lets say you're us. Why? Because I don't know what has happened to everyone else....sillies.:)
Don't DECIDE where you can perform. Unfortunately, at least in Utah, very few "venues" besides clubs pay the musicians. This means, if you want to make a living, you need to figure out how to play a bar crowd. Do you HAVE to? Remember earlier when I said this isn't the bible? Ok. :) (playing a bar crowd...there is no advice. Figure it out your way because someone else's way is not YOU and crowds sense that.)
Play anywhere that will take you if you have to for the first little bit. Some places never even listen to your music and you open for heavy metal. This is perfectly normal. And I think good for you. If you can't hang with what ever is put in front of you, you'd better get good at it. Our first gig in SLC was at Burts Tiki Lounge. Nice folks. More than that though, you're getting experience.

How do I find gigs????
Ready??????
Get a phone book, or, if you are against hard, hold in your hand books with paper, go to google.
I will continue with phonebook reference. Translate to Google where necessary.
Open it.
Go to the yellow pages.
Look up bars, clubs, coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, entertainment....anything you can think of that associates music.
Pick a place.
Call them.
When they answer ask first (if you don't already know) 'Do you have live music there?' If they say no thank them and move on. If they say yes, ask them how a band would go about booking a performance there sometime. They will direct you one way or another from there. Do what they say. email? Call? Call after a certain time? (very common) Do it. If you keep calling back doing every thing you weren't supposed to do they will hate that.
Build your list and keep it. As you go you will run into multiple repetitive listings and you don't want to call the same place 3 times asking if they have live music. Also, you're building your call list. This is imperative to booking. I literally went down a copy of the phone book bars and restaurants yellow pages with a highlighter, called them all, asked if they had live music, and highlighted the ones that did. On each call I got any info on booking or took notes if I was to call back later.
My point of this initial calling was to get my list done and ready so I could call and look to it next time.
Its something I try to do again later and then will continue to do periodically to keep my listings up to date.
Booking is hard. Its scary. More than that, its time consuming to start. Just get to the point and be polite and courteous and professional. Booking people can be assholes, dicks, and bitches. Don't let it get you down. And remember, something bad has to happen at least once or you're dreaming.
A few years (Yes more than likely years) in, you will have met many new people along the way. Sometimes a gig you play for free will lead you to a paid opportunity. (Remember also, the easier you are to work with, reasonable, and nicer you are, the more likely they are to want to have you around). We have scored SOOO many amazing gigs from free gigs. We got booked at pride because we played at a free fundraiser gig and a guy who books for Pride happened to be there. Funny thing was we finished our set and Fox13 came in to film for the news so they missed us and we were sort of sad we were missed but then booking at Pride Fest is AMAZING and it was 100% worth playing that free gig.
We did a free gig at The First Unitarian Church that has music all the time and it lead to a few people that now email and hook us up with gigs.
We played at a summer concert the other day for free that lead to the manager of the restaurant giving us his email to book paying gigs.
Do NOT think you are above a gig. Either you love playing or you don't but you are not better than anyone or anything if you're just doing what you love. Otherwise, it becomes work. I don't want to work my life away. I want to play music.
Just remember, if you love something, you will find a way to have it. You will do what ever it takes, to get that to stay in your life, and you will be glad you did. Push through the crappiness of the first year of booking and then all of a sudden it pretty much does it on its own.
Remember that feeling older musicians? :)
Here are a few tips to help you.
Try this website indieonthemove.com  You can find venues you know or don't know and even gives you contact info for many places. It also lists the styles of music that they book and sometimes tells you if they pay. You can book in town or across the country and you can contact other musicians all over the US about gig trading.
Also, if you're stumped and google isn't helping try face book. It takes a little patience to find the right place to go but there is a way to search for live music in different cities. Its cool because many places wont be in a google search but they do have a face book page.
Good luck guys :) And remember. Booking SUCKS but if you can get good at it its so easy and pretty much does it on its own.