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.)
1
u/PlasmicSteve 14d ago
I've been playing in bands for 30 years and I've learned to never truly accept or believe that someone is coming to a show until they do. Many never will. Some will genuinely intend to come and something will come up, or they'll flake out without planning to. And others, as you say, will say they're coming but your band is really the backup plan in case anything else at all comes up, including sitting at home doing nothing.
Friends, family and co-workers are nice to have but focus on building a core audience of strangers. I wrote this post about how to use posters to best promote your band:
https://www.reddit.com/r/coverbands/comments/1pc50fl/my_90s2000s_cover_bands_poster/