Good places to tour a band - 1000 seats and up

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Nick Sevilla
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Good places to tour a band - 1000 seats and up

Post by Nick Sevilla » Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:38 pm

Hi guys,

One of my new activities is now as a booking agent / band manager.

Weeee.... as if engineering was not enough!

Anyways, I am planning the band's tour, across Texas, and the Southern US, possibly going all the way up the East to Washington DC, depending on how the venues line up.

I wanted to ask all of you, which venues are RIGHTEOUS, and which ones we should avoid.

Keep in mind, we will be booking only places at or above 1,000 seats, mostly in larger cities, due to the bands fan base being mostly latino, and somewhat concentrated in cities.

Cheers and thanks!!!
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:40 pm

Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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markjazzbassist
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Post by markjazzbassist » Wed Jul 05, 2017 6:55 am

LA - Wiltern, Fonda
SF - Great American Music Hall, Fillmore West
Phoenix - Mesa Arts Center
Dallas - House of Blues
Houston - House of Blues, Warehouse
New Orleans - Orpheum Theatre, Civic Theatre, House of Blues
Atlanta - Center Stage, Variety Playhouse
DC - 9:30 club
Philly - Filmore, TLA (Theatre of living arts)
NYC - irving plaza
Boston - House of Blues, Paradise

when i toured we used to play around 1k cap rooms, these are the highlights.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:33 am

Thanks Mark!!!
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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markjazzbassist
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Post by markjazzbassist » Thu Jul 06, 2017 7:44 am

one further note, pretty much any House of Blues will work. They are all (except 1) at 1k or above, have good catering, nice green rooms, space for busses/vans/trailers, have able bodied crew to load in/out, clean bathrooms and showers and you get plenty of booze.

they are the corporate venues but honestly they do it well and they were always a joy to play because you knew you would be taken care of.

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Post by vvv » Thu Jul 06, 2017 11:47 am

Chicago has a few, but the kinda prestige places of that size are The Chicago Theater (cap. 3,600), and the Civic Opera House (3,500).

After that, The Riviera is a 2,500 capacity but a sketchier neighborhood near north; The Cubby Bear holds 1,200 and is a bar across from Wrigley Field; Cabaret Metro (I played there a few times - they treat you well, do all loads themselves) is up the street and holds 1,100; a very nice The Vic Theater is 1,000; not so nice northside 5,000 is the Aragon.

Some good info on some of the latter cited is here:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/top-lists/b ... n-chicago/

Pilsen is a large (the largest?) Latino neighborhood and it's biggest venue (840) is Thalia Hall.
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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:14 pm

markjazzbassist wrote:one further note, pretty much any House of Blues will work. They are all (except 1) at 1k or above, have good catering, nice green rooms, space for busses/vans/trailers, have able bodied crew to load in/out, clean bathrooms and showers and you get plenty of booze.

they are the corporate venues but honestly they do it well and they were always a joy to play because you knew you would be taken care of.
Yes, this band has played in there a couple of times, we are in talks for more now. Their fans love going there.

Thanks!!!
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:24 pm

Thanks VVV!!!

They have been in Chicago before, so this will help in the future. Just not in the WINTER. LOL.

vvv wrote:Chicago has a few, but the kinda prestige places of that size are The Chicago Theater (cap. 3,600), and the Civic Opera House (3,500).

After that, The Riviera is a 2,500 capacity but a sketchier neighborhood near north; The Cubby Bear holds 1,200 and is a bar across from Wrigley Field; Cabaret Metro (I played there a few times - they treat you well, do all loads themselves) is up the street and holds 1,100; a very nice The Vic Theater is 1,000; not so nice northside 5,000 is the Aragon.

Some good info on some of the latter cited is here:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/top-lists/b ... n-chicago/

Pilsen is a large (the largest?) Latino neighborhood and it's biggest venue (840) is Thalia Hall.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Gregg Juke
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Post by Gregg Juke » Thu Jul 06, 2017 3:01 pm

There are those bigger "corporate" venues and the self-contained/managed clubs, but don't you also want to find out who the concert promoters are in those towns, that might deal with your genre of music?

GJ
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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Jul 06, 2017 7:58 pm

Gregg Juke wrote:There are those bigger "corporate" venues and the self-contained/managed clubs, but don't you also want to find out who the concert promoters are in those towns, that might deal with your genre of music?

GJ
I am in the middle of that.

The band was rather unorganized, messy, with no real idea of what was going on outside their music. I'm amazed at how ignorant they are.

I'm now in talks with a LARGE worldwide promotion company, (not AEG though... LOL), to start hopefully developing this band's potential. I have to go to MExico City to have some talks with them and their "management", to get a lot of lack of information sorted out. Like concert attendance numbers (they don't know how many people actually show up, and believe me, it's in the hundreds every single show). And other important band business stuff.

Hopefully, in 3 years when they hit their 30th Anniversary, things will be a lot better, and they can have a good time while making money as well.

Thanks guys!!!
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by vvv » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:44 am

?Boner suerte!
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