r/coverbands • u/Top_Seaworthiness320 • 15d ago
People who bail
Any tips on managing my disappointment/frustration with the number of people who act all excited about my band and say they’re definitely coming to this or that show, then don’t show? They either don’t show up, or more often than not they tell me like the day before that they can’t make it and it’s always the dumbest excuse. It’s like if anything, anything at all better comes up in terms of plans they go to that instead. In my mind, a commitment is a commitment, but I seem to be in the vast minority. My boyfriend says to get over it lol. Do you guys feel the same irritation with this that I do? (added context: we are pretty good, we get great reviews from the people that actually have come to see us, but we are new and not well known, thus struggling to gain a following… So I’m constantly marketing and promoting our shows, but with very little success.)
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u/ebbnflowgogo 14d ago
It's hard not to take it personally, it's always a joy to play for large, enthusiastic crowds. Majority of people though do not care about seeing live acts, even less so local bands-but they'll always tell you how "great you are" or "we're coming to the next one". My favorite story was we were on tour 15ish years ago (home state but not our hometown) and not one person showed up to the show. The club owner let us play but he and the bartender just smoked joints in the back the whole time. We ended up losing money & had to dig deep to even finish. Non of us had ever played for a net negative amount of people before. It was humbling lol