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  • You’re Not Their Backup Plan: How to Market Your Band’s Shows with Pat Watters

    You’re Not Their Backup Plan: How to Market Your Band’s Shows with Pat Watters
    2026/10/26
    Twenty years ago, Pat Watters looked at Texas country’s self-sustaining scene, where bands lift each other up and fans proudly claim their own, and asked a simple question: why only Texas? He’s spent every year since 2008 answering it in Wisconsin, building the Pat Watters Band on unapologetic regional pride. As a marketing agency partner, he knows exactly how bands get found. Stop pitching your gig like a fallback. “If you’re free Friday night” tells people you’re the last resort, so talk like you’re the best option and they just haven’t heard about it yet. Guard against oversaturation, because if fans can see you anytime, they’ll never actually come. Load your originals early while the room is still listening, and give every song a story worth leaning in for. Then work all three relationships: artist to artist, artist to media, and artist to fan. You’ll hear how the Midwest Country Music Organization turned rival bands into a real community, and why one musicians’ dinner on a slow Monday could start the same thing in your town. Pat shares his show-promotion formula: title every Facebook event with your band name and the venue, drop the event link in the comments, and post one simple day-of line that gets your followers asking where. Don’t build on rented land. Own your domain and your mailing list, and spend a few smart dollars on Meta ads. Then dress like you meant to be on that stage. Become a bigger version of yourself, and Always Be Performing. 00:00:00 Gig Gab 557 – Monday, October 26, 2026 October 26th: National Chicken Fried Steak DayGuest co-host: Pat Watters 00:02:24 Texas, a collaborative musical environment Pat Green from Texas, an inspiration! 00:06:24 Leveraging regional pride00:10:56 Assume you’re the best option, they just don’t know about it yet Marketing your band in 2026Re-making room for music post-COVID-lockdowns“If you’re free Friday night”Create FOMO…ASSUME FOMO. 00:13:50 Manage saturation, resist the temptation to play too often “If somebody can go see you anytime, they’ll never go see you.” 00:15:32 Beware the three-year arc Make yourself less available 00:16:26 Playing covers as an original band Play originals at the beginning of the night, covers towards the end 00:19:38 Give the audience a reason to pay attention “Upbeat Songs About Death” – Bitter Pill AND the Pat Watters Band 00:21:18 That public talk is also self-talk Our job is to entertain 00:23:16 SPONSOR: Tidal Upload. Visit https://Tidal.com/giggab to create an account and start uploading your music for free.00:24:27 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/giggab to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.00:25:54 Three relationships: artist-to-artist, artist-to-media, and artist-to-fan Midwest Country Music OrganizationRelated: Building fans through theatrical live shows with Neonautica (Gig Gab 555) 00:31:59 Create an evening for yourself00:36:11 Formula for marketing your shows Learn your audience’s demographicsFacebook event and a Facebook post (with a link to the event in the comments)Keep website up-to-date“I get to play country music today.”Related: Social media for musicians with Chris Cron (Gig Gab 554) 00:47:14 Always create your own event “The Pat Watters Band at [Venue]” 00:48:10 Don’t Build on Rented Land Joe Pulizzi – The Content Marketing InstituteHave a website and a mailing list 00:53:51 Marketing on Facebook Ads Meta Business ManagerKeeping a band together 00:59:46 Intentionally Wear a Costume on Stage “Performers are all figments of our own imagination” – Kris KristoffersonThe Alter Ego Effect“Be an exaggerated version of yourself” 01:07:31 Gig Gab 557 Outro Contact Pat Watters PatWattersBand.comFacebook: ThePWBIG: ThePWB Contact Gig Gab! @GigGabPodcast on Instagramfeedback@giggabpodcast.comSign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List The post You’re Not Their Backup Plan: How to Market Your Band’s Shows with Pat Watters – Gig Gab 557 appeared first on Gig Gab.
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    1 時間 9 分
  • How Every Club Sounds Great: Running SXSW Stages & Changeovers with Nate Cross

    How Every Club Sounds Great: Running SXSW Stages & Changeovers with Nate Cross
    2026/09/28

    Every club at SXSW sounds good, every night, all week, and we’ve often wondered how they maintain that consistency. This week Dave finally gets the answer from Nate Cross, SXSW’s Director of Production, who went from intern to Assistant Production Manager to running the whole show. You’ll hear how his team builds out 55 to 60 venues (down from 100+ before the pandemic), why they mic everything even when it looks like overkill, and how 20-minute changeovers actually run on time with bands who’ve never met. Then there’s the backline story: trading the free band beer for a drum kit and amps at every venue, which enhanced everything.

    Want to be the band every festival wants back? Show up on time, keep it simple, and put your current input list first, since it matters more than your stage plot. Add one sentence describing what your band should sound like so the engineer isn’t guessing. Nate also explains how SXSW went from a flat “no” on in-ear monitors to welcoming your split snake, and shares how his two-drummer, nine-piece band Water Damage turned one showcase into a challenge accepted. Whether you’re under the lights or behind the scenes, Always Be Performing.

    • 00:00:00 Gig Gab 553 – Monday, September 28, 2026
      • September 28th: Ask a Stupid Question Day
      • Guest co-hosts: Nate Cross from SXSW
    • 00:01:16 Arrived in Austin 2003, interned with SXSW in 2006
      • Finally in 2012 the phone rings…Assistant Production Manager
    • 00:07:33 Learning the SXSW flow
    • 00:11:20 Dozens of Venues, 5-6 bands per night per venue
    • 00:12:40 Building out stages and PAs
    • 00:15:01 Setting up the stages for success
      • Everyone coming to that stage wants it to sound as good as possible…and so do we!
      • Micing everything
    • 00:17:18 Changeover
    • 00:18:10 Keeping the schedule running on time
      • Managing the 20-minute changeover
    • 00:22:44 How many production staff assigned per venue?
      • FOH engineer
      • Stage manager
      • Student Production Crewmember
      • Plus 2-3 stage crew
    • 00:24:05 Adding backline to every venue in 2026
    • 00:27:22 Setting Your Band Up For Success at a Festival
      • Punctuality
      • Communication
      • Simple Is (usually) best
    • 00:31:04 Advancing with Success
      • Stage Plot is truly for space allocation. Make sure your layout is up-to-date and correct.
      • Input List is the most important aspect
      • Update your Stage Plot and Input List once per year
    • 00:35:08 Put that “what my band sounds like” sentence on your input list
    • 00:41:21 IEMs, Split Snakes
      • Pre-pandemic the answer to IEMs at SXSW was “no”
    • 00:49:40 “My band doesn’t use monitors”
    • 00:51:27 Water Damage, Nate’s band
      • Water Damage Instagram – @wwwaterdamage
    • 00:54:05 The Thread of Serendipity That Runs Through SXSW
      • Dave says get a Platinum Badge!
    • 01:02:14 Gig Gab 553 Outtro
      • Contact Gig Gab!
        • @GigGabPodcast on Instagram
        • feedback@giggabpodcast.com
        • Sign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List

    The post How Every Club Sounds Great: Running SXSW Stages & Changeovers with Nate Cross – Gig Gab 553 appeared first on Gig Gab.
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    1 時間 4 分
  • The Opener Sets the Tone: Set List Strategy, AI vs. the Artist & The Craft of Fronting a Band

    The Opener Sets the Tone: Set List Strategy, AI vs. the Artist & The Craft of Fronting a Band
    2026/09/21

    Skylar Hamilton is back by popular demand for round two of your questions, recorded across an Airbnb kitchen table in New York City where a roll of paper towels doubles as a mic stand, because it’s the right height and it kills table rumble.

    Set lists first: your opener sets the tone, and the tone is yours to set. Easing a dining room into rock-band mode calls for something catchy and upper-mid-tempo with room to breathe; a room that came to see a band wants to know right away what kind of show they walked into. Start cold off a click in your ears instead of a count-off if you want crisp. Put the across-the-board crowd-pleaser second, not first. And treat the night as an exchange of energy: it’s great when the audience offers first, but you can’t plan on that, so you make the first offering. Always Be Performing, right from note one.

    From there you get a genuine on-air disagreement about AI and episode artwork, and where the line sits between using a tool and removing the human creator. The audience for your art is other humans, whatever you used to make it. Then stage etiquette, with Rush handing you both answers on one tour: Anika Nilles quietly fixing a wardrobe malfunction mid-song while the show rolls on, and Geddy Lee stopping 2112 to get a dead bass sorted. The call is yours in a split second: if you’re the focal point and the problem has you distracted, name it and bring the crowd in; otherwise let it go and keep playing.

    Crowd work closes it out: banter is a skill you learn to summon on demand, not a personality you’re born with. Pick one person or an avatar and talk to them, build a stage character the way Billie Joe Armstrong is already St. Jimmy every night, treat what you wear as a costume your audience assumes you chose on purpose, borrow the bits you love from the front people who inspire you, and then watch yourself back a few days later…alone, and generous enough to find one good moment for every three you’d fix.

    • 00:00:00 Gig Gab 552 – Monday, September 21, 2026
      • September 21st: National Pecan Cookie Day
      • Guest co-host: Skylar Hamilton
    • 00:02:28 Use a paper towel roll
      • Keep Rolling With It
    • 00:04:45 Setlist Management
      • Starting Songs
    • 00:18:33 How do we continue using AI to maximize efficiency without removing the artists?
      • Waves NS1
    • 00:31:51 feedback@giggabpodcast.com
    • 00:32:09 Stage Etiquette: What happens when something goes wrong?
      • The Alter Ego Effect
    • 00:43:13 Crowd Management: Being a front-person
    • 01:03:01 Gig Gab 552 Outtro
      • Contact Gig Gab!
        • @GigGabPodcast on Instagram
        • feedback@giggabpodcast.com
        • Sign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List

    The post The Opener Sets the Tone: Set List Strategy, AI vs. the Artist & The Craft of Fronting a Band – Gig Gab 552 appeared first on Gig Gab.
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    1 時間 5 分
  • Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road

    Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road
    2026/08/31
    Monitor engineer Kevin “KG” Glendinning joins you live from a Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia: eight countries in seven days into the Lorde world tour…and he’s got the receipts. You’ll hear how fifteen trips through the SNL stage started with a Carson Daly taping, why the rooms that treat you well are the rooms you remember, and what happens when a 32-year veteran finally plugs in a source expander and realizes the “new guys” were right. That’s the through-line: always be learning, always be open-minded, and never let a get-off-my-lawn attitude about new tech be the reason your phone stops ringing. Then it gets into the real in-ear monitor conversations: recreating a Celestion cab with a 2.6mm armature, the one-ear trick that quietly costs Adam Levine and John Mayer another 25% of volume, and why ear fatigue deserves the same respect a pitcher gives his arm. The road stories land hard from there. Super Bowl XLV in Dallas with snow, the Black Eyed Peas, and a lesson in letting the pros run their own show. Red Rocks (aka “Wet Rocks”) and why a mountain full of shuttle trucks is worth every minute. A locked-up console mid-residency and telling Christina Aguilera the audio will come back, all while genuinely hoping it would. A charter plane struck by lightning over the Amazon, an emergency landing at a decommissioned airfield, and waking up to the news about Taylor Hawkins. Plus the covert phone call that became seven years with Justin Timberlake, and the soft ask years earlier that made it happen. Rehearse enough that nerves turn into muscle memory, thank the people who opened doors for you, ask for the gig you want…and Always Be Performing. 00:00:00 Gig Gab 549 – Monday, August 31st, 2026 August 31st: Eat Outside DayGuest co-host: Kevin Glendinning 00:02:38 Pula, Croatia. 8 countries in 7 days00:04:36 SNL stage for The Deftones with the Carson Daly show00:06:20 Making an impression on touring musicians with00:08:35 Always be learning about the new tech Learning from the “new” guysNeve 5045 Primary Source ExpanderWaves PSE PluginDigico Mustard Source Enhancer 00:13:55 Always be open-minded00:18:57 Mixing ears and the respect of it all00:21:02 Chris Rabold mixing monitors for REM00:22:06 Now some REM stories00:24:23 Helping get Adam Levine & John Mayer through ear fatigue with one ear monitor00:26:46 OzFest System Engineers and hearing fatigue00:27:45 Sometimes it just doesn’t sound right00:30:44 Super Bowl in 2011 in Dallas…with snow! And The Black Eyed Peas 00:35:45 Being rehearsed enough to just do the gig (and fix what goes wrong when it goes wrong)00:36:25 Lorde’s large-and-resilient fanbase00:39:21 Working Red Rocks..”Wet Rocks”00:44:33 Christina and the reboot “Don’t worry…the audio will come back.”Dave’s issue with the Mackie DL32S losing input signals 00:49:58 Batteries Matter00:52:31 Miley Cyrus, Taylor Hawkins, Lightning-stuck aircraft, oh my!00:56:28 Getting paid to see the world The pros and the cons 00:59:11 The “covert” phone call… and Justin Timberlake Get to know ML who works for ShowCoAsk for the gig you want (and, specifically, ask Anthony Giordano)The Victoria’s Secret Awards!Watching Muse with Justin 01:06:11 Have gratitude for everyone who you’ve worked with01:08:14 Kevin wants to answer your questions!01:09:52 Gig Gab 549 Outtro Follow Kevin Glendinning IG: @kev_chitownLinkedIn: Kevin ‘KG’ Glendinning Contact Gig Gab! @GigGabPodcast on Instagram feedback@giggabpodcast.com Sign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List The post Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road – Gig Gab 549 appeared first on Gig Gab.
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    1 時間 11 分