Times are changing...

As much as I would love to announce new amazing shows with amazing bands I have to confess, that I currently don't book any shows. And it's even more sad that I don't think this will change in the near future.
The reason is a combination of different things. The first and probably biggest one is, that the venue I used to book shows in decided to only have very few shows per month from now on. So it is very hard to get a date even if I wanted to set up a show. All other venues in this area are just so expensive that it does not make any sense. Which brings me to the second issue, money. Booking agencys are asking insane amounts of money nowadays which no small d.i.y. promoter can afford. Bands themselves, even without a booking agency to do their job, won't play without guarantees anymore. This is understandable to some degree, but leads to the fact that I just have to decline most of the requests. I never make any money with shows. Whatever money comes in on the night of the show I give to the bands that played that night. Yeah, maybe thats not the smartest way to do it but it feels like the most honest one.
Last but not least: I started NOB to support bands with a message. But where are they? I mean, I get tons of requests every day (of course I don't have the time to answer all of them), but there is so little content in those requests. I don't care when you started and what took you so long to record a proper demo, I don't give a damn which overhyped bands you shared the stage with and the amount of facebook likes or clicks on youtube your band has means nothing to me. What I care about is the meaning of your lyrics and the reason why you are playing music.
So I guess everybody gets the point of this. It has become very hard to set up shows, but it is not impossible. Right now it just doesn't feel like it's worth the hustle. Prove me wrong.

Tommy XVX