# Booking: Dealing with A**holes when booking shows.



## Sofos (Jul 3, 2012)

Here's the story:

Recently, myself and a couple of my friends were put in charge of booking a large metal show at our clubs' new venue, The Plughouse. I booked the headliner, Abigail Williams, and the other 2 covered the rest. Here is the final bill:

Abigail Williams (Black Metal)
Beeravore (Death Metal)
Vesica Piscis (Black Metal)
Sathariel (Black/Death Metal)
Shattered (Thrash Metal)
Hungry Wolf (Power Violence)

Another band wanted to play, but our bill was already filled. So instead, the guitarist (M) posts this on facebook, talking with one of the band's vocalists who recently moved (H):







I explained to him before he posted that there was only one hardcore band on the bill, and they add alot of Black Metal influences to their music. He promptly started calling myself and the other promoters names. I forwarded the conversation to all promoters in our club, as well as our club's owner, and recommended that we cut all ties with the band and (M).

How would you have reacted and handled the situation?


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 3, 2012)

Same thing. He's a dick. 

I'm not a huge fan of hardcore/deathcore/whatevercore but so long as people are respectful I am respectful. 
















Unless I can get some good lulz by trolling them of course.


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## Leuchty (Jul 3, 2012)

Bitching Bitch is a Bitch.

Bitching wont get Bitches.

Bitching wont get shows.

The guys a Bitch.






Bitch.


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## MaxOfMetal (Jul 3, 2012)

Eh, he's just a frustrated kid, and as his buddy is talking to him he's starting to calm down. I wouldn't call him an "asshole" exactly. I'm sure he'll look back on this, after he winds up getting a few more shows under his belt, and feel quite silly. 

Why are you stalking this kid's FB anyway?



Stealthdjentstic said:


> I'm not a huge fan of hardcore/deathcore/whatevercore



Aren't you in a generi-core band?


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 3, 2012)

I was but i quit


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## mikemueller2112 (Jul 3, 2012)

Someone who listens to black metal is acting like an elitist douchebag. Well I never...


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## butterschnapps (Jul 3, 2012)

That's pretty stupid of him.
Just tell him "Du kan suge kuken min", since he wants to be a bitch.


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## Sofos (Jul 3, 2012)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Why are you stalking this kid's FB anyway?



(M) was a friend of mine and the rest of the promoters and (H) has been my friend for years.


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## MaxOfMetal (Jul 3, 2012)

It just comes off to me like a frustrated kid letting off steam with a buddy, not a raging asshole hell bent on ruining your show.


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## ZXIIIT (Jul 3, 2012)

You handled it well, that kid will know later on that bitching about not being on a show on fb will only hurt him and garner more attention to the show 

I hope Ken see my comment about booking them down here in SD!


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## cwhitey2 (Jul 3, 2012)

1) does his band suck?

2) hes a bitch

3) I would personally never work with them (see #2)

4) I book shows in my area and deal with these kind of people. Im also in a band so I see both sides of the table.

5) I have lost friends over this kinda 12 old shit.

Ok enough with the numbers u guess. No one said the music biz was a walk in the park. Its all about who you know and are friends with.

I have begging promoters outside of the area I live for a show....i get nothing. My friends band wanted us to play a show outta town with them. One of the promoters who has been ignoring me was at our show....we are now on a festival, plus have more shows lined up all because he watched us slay. I never once bitched about the 15 times he ignored us



I dont know if any of what I said is relevant


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## TheKindred (Jul 3, 2012)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Eh, he's just a frustrated kid, and as his buddy is talking to him he's starting to calm down. I wouldn't call him an "asshole" exactly. I'm sure he'll look back on this, after he winds up getting a few more shows under his belt, and feel quite silly.



This. He definitely didn't handle it right of the start but he seems to at least be willing to listen to the voice of reason that his friend is offering.

How I miss the inarticulate rage of youthful angst.


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## sage (Jul 4, 2012)

The kid states in his last post that he only enjoys music when he plays shows. Even if he gets a tour placed in his lap with no work on his end at all, he's still only going to be playing 45 minutes a day. The other 23.25 hours a day are going to suck for that guy. He won't like where he sleeps, the food won't be good enough, the other bands will be less worthy of stage time, the groupies will be too pimply and fat, the fans won't mosh hard enough, he won't get asked for enough autographs... You get the picture. This kid would complain about the gas mileage of a free car.

As a band playing only local shows, we used to rehearse together 6 hours a week, I'd practice alone 6 hours a week, I'd do all the bookings - about an hour a week, all the graphics - 2 hours a week, all the postering - 2-3 hours a week, all the radio tracking - an hour a week, and all the driving and management of the shows - 4 hours every two weeks. That's 20 hours of work per week for a 45 minute show every two weeks and worth every minute. 

Mrs. sage plays roller derby. That's 9 hours of practice a week + 6 hours of board administration duty. 15 hours a week to play one game a month for an hour and a half in front of 1500 screaming fans. I've never heard her complain about it.

Moral of story (tl;dr): spoiled brats who expect good things to just land in their lap tend to sit around complaining while the rest of us are working our asses off to make good things happen to us.


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## -OTW- (Aug 12, 2012)

No sense in bitching about the bitch. Yeah hes a bitch, dont give him the show, make him work for it. If he asks again make him sell 40 tickets. Then you get paid, kid gets a show everyone's happy.


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## Strobe (Aug 13, 2012)

All of the people I know who are excellent at handling such situations do so by not giving a fuck what people are saying on the internet.

I do not mean that to sound harsh! What I mean is that the best way to handle these situations is not to handle these situations.


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## Andromalia (Aug 15, 2012)

Anyonce can have a bad angry moment. The horrific thing is that guy actually is doing it on an open FB account. /facepalm


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## roast (Aug 16, 2012)

So many bands burn bridges with promoters over silly tiffs and disagreements. As far as I'm concerned, a promoter deservers more respect than that! A bad name can spread very easily.


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## Danukenator (Aug 16, 2012)

There nothing I can't stand then people who whine while spreading misinformation of Facebook. That and using lowercase I to refer to yourself.


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## TaylorMacPhail (Aug 16, 2012)

It's close minded metal heads like him that give metal and its fans a bad name. 

The funny thing is too, that they usually end up being in shitty bands anyway so I mean, at the end of the day we're #biwinning, right


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## Decipher (Aug 16, 2012)

I think you handled it the right way. At some point, people need to be reminded that the internet is not just a place to vent and/or say inappropriate things. It's a public place and it's not so secure or easy to hide in as many think. Look at political figures or celebraties when they say the wrong thing through Social media... These things that get said are found and put out for everyone to see.

I have had to deal with my fair share of A-holes/immature kids in my local scene and those that want to behave that way get black-listed. It's a business and you gotta work with each other on a somewhat professional level.


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## highlordmugfug (Aug 16, 2012)

SoldiersOfFilth said:


> I explained to him before he posted that there was only one hardcore band on the bill, and they add alot of Black Metal influences to their music. He promptly started calling myself and the other promoters names. I forwarded the conversation to all promoters in our club, as well as our club's owner, and recommended that we cut all ties with the band and (M).
> 
> How would you have reacted and handled the situation?


Exactly the way you did. Everyone has to learn to be professional one way or the other, he chose the hard way. That's not your fault, and you and the other promoters shouldn't have to put up with it if you don't want to.


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