It’s day one of my week-long hunt for gigs. I haven’t have a lot of time, so I decided to just look online rather than going out to places. I searched myspace for semi-well-known Vancouver artists such as “Said the Whale”, “Hey Ocean”, “Mother Mother”, and “Dan Mangan” . I sent them a message asking to be an opening act for them sometime. Dan Mangan replied saying that my music sounds good and it could be a possibility in the future (I don’t think he’s playing in Vancouver any time soon). I haven’t heard from the others yet.
I eventually realized that it would help to be asking to open for artists who are actually playing in Vancouver sometime soon. So I looked up all the upcoming shows in town and started sending out messages. This was taking a really long time and many of the artists were actually DJs, cover bands, metal, or electronica (none of which would fit well with indie-folk). So I limited my search to folk music and continued messaging artists. I made sure to listen to them a bit and compliment them on their music.
I was surprised to see four replys (not including Dan Mangan’s) within an hour… all possitive! One of the bands said they could add another date to their tour if I can book the venue for us. The other three said that I could open for them. So there you have it - four prospective gigs, all from just a couple hours’ work. Not too shabby. If I can keep this up, I’ll be touring in no time.
Well I gotta get ready for my show tonight. It’s at 8pm at SFU’s Highland pub. Hope to see you there.
Tags: Dan Mangan, gigs, Hey Ocean, Highland Pub, hunt, Jeff Hawker, messages, Mother Mother, myspace, opening act, Said the Whale, SFU, Vancouver, venues
Hey Jeff - a good friend of mine (my pastor’s son) is the drummer for Hey Ocean! So if they get back to you, tell them I play for you and know Dan and it may help getting a gig!