"October Snuck Up On Me"

There's this thing called a calendar with boxes that tell you what months and days will be coming up in the future. It's amazing how many people fail to put their eyes on it. Last year in the second week of December, some bar got a wild idea to throw a party and inquired about booking Bamberdost for New Years Eve.

"How many people do you think you'd draw?"

"On two weeks notice? None. I imagine everyone is spoken for by now. We should have had this discussion in September or October."

I won't bullshit anybody. Admittedly, I've been having the most fun of my entire life not performing music in the bars. I hit audiences I'd never hit at a bar and I think they're more receptive to what we're serving up.

The wanna be rock stars shit on the porchfests and sometimes it's rightfully so, in the last year I've seen as many great acts on porches as I have lousy ones, but I see the same thing at bars. Ego fuelled cover bands struggling to get through the most rudimentary of songs. People staring it iPads to find the answers. No audience besides the other cover bands. I love watching videos of bands "performing" to empty 100 capacity rooms. Nothing sells the awesomeness of a rock and roll show like a mile of empty dance floor.

The last minute schedulling nonsense happens around Halloween every year too. It's October 11 and in the last 36 hours three people have offered me a bar Halloween gig, A trilogy of "No's" because nobody will be at any of them. I've done it in the past. It's a bust if it's not booked months out with a solid headliner.

Tonight I'm going to play a fundraiser at a bar, first NJ bar gig in over a year, Mad Jack booked it months ago and we have been promoting it aggressively. I bet we'll get 80-100 people at 20 bucks a head and we'll get the Hoboken Shelter PAID. The other two bands on it are bands I'll enjoy watching. All in all it will be a great night because we're all working very hard to make it a success. There were was an article in the local paper, it got mentions on the local radio.

When the photos drop, my friends will see a room full of people enjoying themselves to the sweet sounds of rock and roll. The clout chasing coat tail riders will see an audience and fill my inbox with "hey, wanna play with us next week?" like we're going to show up with 100 people in tow.

We're booking February, thanks.