How Has Your Experience Been with Gorilla Productions?

By Annie Zaleski Thu., Jul. 29 2010 at 11:24 AM

Categories: News

Occasional RFT freelancer D.X. Ferris has a long feature in this week's Cleveland Scene about Gorilla Productions, a company that self-describes as "a concert productions company that specializes in working with and developing unsigned talent across the country." Although Gorilla is based in Cleveland, it holds battle of the bands and "takeovers" in mamy cities, including St. Louis. (It's sponsoring a battle of the bands at Fubar this Sunday, August 1.) The article highlight the positives and negatives about the company, its associates and its booking/promoting practices. There's no shortage of controversy in the piece, especially because, well, there are plenty of lawsuits and ill will swirling around Gorilla. But after reading the (balanced) piece, it's clear that its supporters are as vocal as its detractors.

So I'm curious: St. Louis musicians, how has your experience with Gorilla Productions been? Good? Bad? Neutral? Have the shows you've played helped you? Hurt you? Speak up in the comments.

Tags:

battle of the bands, cicero's, fubar, gorilla productions, st. louis, takeover

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Those 5 friends do not go to shows. Nor do their friends. How do you suggest getting to that second step? Because the first step sounds a lot like being successful to begin with. Is the suggestion to treat local musicians like a booking agency? Should one track them down and harass them at their homes and day jobs? I would hope not. Should there be no infrastructure in this town to support local musicians, only local hustlers and hucksters?
Kjle, the Gorilla shows don't feature "known" bands, either. How do they get people out? Who do you think these bands are selling tickets to? It's their friends and family. Even if your band totally sucks you probably have 5 friends per band member who will come see you if you ask them. That how ticket sellers work, they get their friends to commit to coming out to see them. There's no reason grown-up bands can't do the same. Getting in front of known bands is the second step, not the first. If you can't get anybody else to the show you don't deserve the opening spot for a band who does. On the other hand, if you get people to come see you consistently, you won't have to resort to pestering anybody to get a gig with them. And here's another thing to think about- how much good can a flier with the names of a bunch of unknown bands on it possibly do?
Andrew E pretty much sums it up. Kjle, if local bands go to the shows of similar bands in the area, its amazing how quickly they can get to "know" people. If you aren't out supporting whatever scene you are trying to get involved in, you shouldn't expect those people to care about your shows.
One thing that is often left out of the "book your own shows" argument is how much this depends on knowing people. A band can book shows all day long, but unless they can convince an known band to play these shows, or to convince a known band to add them to a show, no one is going to show up. Should start up bands treat established local bands like booking agents and start pestering them for shows?
I actually called them one time to book a show (unknowingly), but I wound up never playing because of band issues... Anyway, when we were all signed up, they sent us a packet with a bunch of promotional materials and tickets to sell with our name printed on them. They promised us there was no minimum ammount of tickets we had to sell, and that our ticket sales would reflect what spot in the lineup we received. That doesn't sound like a bad deal to me, so I'm unsure of what all the hostility toward them was about? Personally, I would rather book my own shows then wind up on a bill with a bunch of highschool metal bands, but for a band starting out, you'll get quite a bit of help with free promotion.
It's a scam. If you take part in this then you deserve what you get. If you are in a band get off your ass and put together a show yourself.
Well, I cannot speak personally about GP as I've never played in a band foolish enough to play a "ticket buy" show. No one should be playing those. Promoters can offer them all they want, but the truly guilty party are the bands who willingly participate. It's much easier to start a band nowadays than it ever was. Compared to when I started playing guitar (12 ys old), instruments are now cheap and everywhere. Through the internet, booking is fast and easy, and recording is now cheaper than it ever has been. It stands to reason that someone will come along and take advantage of this glut of new bands, marginally dedicated to their craft and innocent (foolish) enough to think "this is how you play shows," and then later complain about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the bands who play these events get what they deserve... er... wait, yes actually, I am. Bands should know better and fully understand what they're getting into. No one's forcing their hand, they are signing up willingly. Hey bands: you don't ever have to play a battle of the bands or a ticket-buy show. And ultimately.... so you played a ticket-buy show/battle of the bands and got hosed. So what? Lesson learned. Play somewhere else. Book your own shows. No one will book you? Book shows in your basement.