Had a good night buuuuuut... $16 for a local band is bullshit, i dont care how good you are - local bands aren't worth that much....
For real? You got 5 bands for $16, that's $3.20 per band!!! Dunno about you guys but i still think $16 is a cheap night out. At least with door costs, a large portion of the money actually goes to the bands, not some club owners holiday fund or porche repayments. How much did you piss away over the bar that night anyway?
Well its not just me that thought it was steep - everyone I spoke to about it thought it was overpriced too... I can understand if we maybe got a copy of the EP or a discount on merch but we didn't so I don't see how you can justify a $6 a head increase in price.
Merch was cheap as shit...Nearly everything was discounted more than 50%. I can totally justify the extra $4-$6 because that is what it costs to put out the CD, put on a good launch and pay the bands a handsome amount for their quality services.
And people can talk all they like about "de-valuing" the scene but what happens when EVERY band decides to start charging 15-16 bucks a head? You can guarantee you'll start seeing a lot less people at gigs thats for sure, especially with the way drink prices are going at live venues...
Given the current state of the economy this will happen within a year or 2 anyway. What does drink prices have to do with it anyway? Do you go to gigs to drink or to support local bands? Would you rather help local bands support themselves or is it more important to you to put those extra couple of bucks towards half a beer? An extra couple of bucks isn't going to deter people from going to gigs if the bands are worth seeing.
Bands can't put on big gigs with fancy lights or pyro or whatever without money so if that's what people want, they need to cough up some dosh.
Bands also can't take their music on the road or record decent sounding albums, both of which are necessary if the 'scene' is to grow, without a healthy bank account.
Finally!!! Someone who actually has an understanding of the costs involved in being a self-financed local metal band. The way some of you carry on, you'd think the upper level local metal bands spend all day in a jacuzzi doing lines off porn stars. Unfortunately this isn't the case. How are bands like Chaos Divine & Voyager supposed to be able to take their show to audiences in Europe without being able to cover their expenses? How is Dyscord supposed to fund their many east coast tours and continually release albums that have such a high level of production without a healthy income?
There aren't many local bands I'd pay $16 to see, but for $10 I'll check out almost anything if I'm in the mood.
I think that kinda pricing would deter heaps of people like myself, who aren't fussed either way about the bands prior to turning up- and these tend to be the people who you need to get in if you want more fans, because you hardly need to convince the locals who already know and love your stuff 
Exactly!! This gig was marketed to people who wanted to see the bands on the bill, not the average Joe who is looking for somewhere to be on friday night.
You've missed my point - what WARRANTED the increase? Or was it just an increase for the sake of it?
Shit maybe I should start putting on gigs and charging a 20 or 30 bucks a head, could make some decent coin doing that.... *shakes head*
Go on then. If you put on a great gig and then used the proceeds to push your music over east or overseas and widen your fanbase, then I would applaud you, as I'm sure many of you on WF would too. We're talking about a couple of extra bucks to cover production/manufacturing costs here, not double or triple the expected 'average' amount.
I can tell you straight out that no one profiteered from this show. Costs were covered and good times was had by all. Case closed. Whilst not being a very profitable venture, I would still do it all again in a heartbeat. Should I be expected to make a formal apologise for not putting my band in debt just to save you a couple of bucks?
Well at the end of the day if the price was advertised I wouldn't have a problem with it, but it wasn't.... So basically my only option after cabbing it in on Friday was to pay the extra or go home. In that case obviously i'll pay the extra, doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.
How much was your share of the cab fare that night? About 4-6 bucks? $16 wouldn't even get you a 6-pack of VB and a meat pie. You begrudge bands covering their costs but you seem happy to line the pockets of cab drivers and club owners. Granted these people rely on this income to live but it's not like any Perth bands are making any kind of wholesome wage from their music. We all still have to work hard at our day jobs just to be able to afford rehearsals, vehicles & the other ever-increasing expenses involved in playing in a band.
Yeah, it doesn't matter who it is, $16 for a local gig, at a normal venue, where other shows have done fine with $10 entry, is over the top.
If it was told to people beforehand and they were happy to pay it then thats fine, but if you went along expecting to pay $10 or so and get told at the door it's suddenly 60% more for nothing extra then it would be pretty disappointing.
If it was for a charity or benefit then that would be ok.
Being for a cd launch makes no difference as Eloise pointed out. Recoup costs? What, are you expecting noone is going to want to buy any of your cds?
It was advertised, the door price was included in all press-releases etc, it wasn't on the flyer because the two gigs had different entry fees, catered to cover the expenses of that gig. The launched EP was also only $10 on the night too, I could've offered a door deal where you get a CD + Entry but instead I just made all merch dirt cheap. To be honest I only expected about 200 people to show up to this show, the fact that 450 people showed up was definitely a surprise to me. I also didn't expect that we would sell as many CD's as we did. I had exepcted to wear bulk debt with this CD but I was somehow lucky enough to not to have to fork money out of my own pocket just to put out a CD. Now I will actually have some funds to be able to push this CD abroad...Shame on me...I don't know how I sleep at night.
I remember Karnivool put on an amps show a few years back that was $20 for 3 local bands, whatever they did worked because now they are a household name and have done wonders for their scene. They couldn't have done this if they didn't have the funds to produce their product effectively.
This whole argument is over a difference of 4-6 bucks, most of which actually goes to the bands involved. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but this is one of the lamest arguemuents i've ever seen on WF. Do all the complaining/boycotting/witchhunting you want but at the end of the day if local bands can't cover their costs they will perish.
I realise my rant will most likely rub some of you up the wrong way, it always does but that's what makes this forum oh so much fun
Thanks to all who came down, moshed and/or bought merch. It was a great night.
