I haven't seen the movie, but what you are describing sounds exactly like what the "indie" bands did beginning in the early 80's. There are still some bands who do this. They would just load up the van with their equipment, with maybe only one or two gigs officially lined up. Once there they would talk to everyone to see if anyone knew someone in the next town that could get them a gig. Sometimes the gig would even be at someone's house. They had no booking agencies. It was all part of the punk ethos of D.I.Y., do it yourself. And yes the pay was often quite low. Even today a lot of up and coming bands get $200 or less for a gig, just to get their foot in the door. But any gig on the road that paid even a little was better than no money. In the immortal words of tHE mINUTEMEN's bass player, Mike Watt, "If you're not playing, you're paying." This was the start for many of the most influential bands of my lifetime, Black Flag, Minor Threat, tHE mINUTEMEN, Fugazi, and even R.E.M. An excellent book that documents all of this is "Our Band Could Be Your Life."
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sandrasguy
17 years ago
kwhitmer is about 99.9% right. What's left out is what bands made back then. A band with a booking agency made anywhere from 2k to 3k a night. I was in a very popular band in a rural area. We were actually much in demand and had a dedicated following of about 400. We started out getting paid 100 for our first gig, 250 for our second, and made 500 a gig for the rest of the year (until the band broke up).
We met bands who weren't with agencies who did the DIY thing. They were envious of us, so they made less than us.
Also, in reference to the "you pay" thing. In Los Angeles, and a few other places if you are a band and want to play somewhere the owner of the place asks YOU for 5,000 bucks and hands you a large roll of tickets. You then have to sell the tickets to break even, and maybe make a profit. My band had a dedicated following, but we would've lost money had we gone that route (we had that discussion).
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