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How to plan a house show tour for a loud indie band
#1
Hey guys,

Just wanting to see if anyone here has attempted to book a house show tour for a 5-piece plugged indie rock band. Just thinking about planning a tour right now has me anxious and worried. Having to beg for a slot at a venue to play for just 5-10 people that could care less, all while probably starving and not making any money...well it doesn't sound fun.

If anyone has advice on how to approach Shannon's method from the standpoint of a full band that's a little more rambunctious, please let me know?

Best,

Aaron
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#2
Hi Aaron! Welcome to the forum!

I'm eager to hear responses from other loud-indie-band-types, too. I'd love to hear what kind of creative solutions you guys come up with. 

Also, here's a bit from a private message convo that you and I had on Facbeook on this topic, to get others thinking about some possibilities, too:

Quote:It's true: a house concert would probably look a lot different for an indie rock band than for a solo singer-songwriter. I actually think this is one of the cool things about this model, though -- it's going to look a little different for every artist/band who does it, and the model allows for infinite flexibility. There are no rules!  Everyone who attempts this will have to think about what works/doesn't work for their particular situation -- the music they make, who their demographic is, etc. I would encourage you to think about those things for your band and think like an innovator -- how can you make this work for you?

It might require a bit of trial and error -- it certainly did for me. It's not like we had our method down pat the first time out the gate. We did a lot of "let's try this" or "what if it looked this way" before settling into what works best for us. We're still trying new things out, actually. I'm in the middle of writing an update to the book that includes some new ideas we implemented on last summer's tour. 

Is it possible for you to play a stripped-down acoustic set for house concerts? Do you need to find places where more noise can be made so you can play a fully plugged-in set? Or perhaps if you just did the louder shows earlier in the afternoon / evening so you're not violating any neighborhood noise ordinances? If you're doing louder shows, perhaps helping your hosts come up with a nice note (or invitation?) specifically for the neighbors so that they know to expect the noise on the day of the show? These are just some ideas off the top of my head. But I'm sure you could put your heads together and think of more. 
 
Please do let us know what you and your bandmates come up with, Aaron! 
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#3
This is very different than the type of house show that I do (solo classical guitar) but, having played with punk and metal bands for years, it seems to me that two of the biggest factors is going to be the space it takes up and the volume levels.

Most of the space is going to be the drum set. If you could eliminate that by having a small electronic drum pad, some of which are very comprehensive and sound great (example in the link below), you could save a ton of space. With this model, you'd need to amp the drums, but you could also lower your drum volume and you'd no longer need to have high volume amps for guitar, bass, keys, etc., so you could use smaller practice/combo amps, which saves more space, and also can sound great.

With this you could probably save a huge amount of space, allowing for more audience members, lower your volume so you don't have to worry about blowing out ears, bothering neighbors and all that.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-per...1870555867
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