In A Band? Go See A Band

A great chance to support other bands.

So it’s the kickoff to the North By Northeast music festival here in Toronto, which is Canada’s version of the SXSW fest.  NXNE isn’t anywhere near as big as it’s southern brother, but in some ways that’s better… you don’t feel like you miss out on as much.  Oh, there’s lots happening, more than enough to fill your evenings with many options of great bands at each timeslot, but not to the point where every show you choose to see means that you are choosing NOT to see ten other shows that you really wanted to see.  Maybe only five.

At any rate, the above is beside the point I’m going to make, though it’s the NXNE festival that was the inspiration for the post.  The fact is, there’s a ton of great bands out there and they’re all looking for support.  If you’re in a band, and you want people to come see you, why not return the favour, or better yet… why not just get out there and support some other bands, for the fun of it?  Not only is it going to be educational, in that you’ll get to see more about who else is out there playing around in your town, but you might see a good band, you might get inspired, you might make some friends, make contacts for future show swapping, meet a bar booker, a potential manager, who knows what can happen.  But bands need to support each other these days more than ever, so why not put yourself out there?  Just being out, supporting your local community of bands and bars is a good thing that will come back to pay off for you when you aren’t even expecting it.