Don’t.
Or at least, not before considering a few things.
NYC is a bucket-list city for many people, especially if you’ve never been before. Times Square, the Statue of Liberty (technically in Jersey), and band pictures with the skyline are all cool things. Playing a show as a relatively unknown band in our particular slice of punk rock is a different experience.
New York is Expensive and No One Cares
If you’re thinking about making New York a stop on your tour, you should go into this with realistic expectations.
First is the cost. New York is expensive. Hotels are worse. Unless you can crash on someone’s floor, staying in New York can blow a hole in your budget faster than you can say, “but it’s a Tuesday night!”
Also, don’t play on a Tuesday night, but we’ll get into that later.
Not staying in any major city while you’re on tour is generally good advice. Bunking outside the limits, in the direction of your next stop, is generally cheaper, safer for your gear, and you’ll thank yourself in the morning when you’re not dealing with rush-hour traffic.
As a corollary, booking a venue isn’t cheap. The room rate for a venue with backline, lighting, sound, security, and, if you’re lucky, a bar, in New York is between $250-$400 on average. That comes off the door before bands see a dime. If you’re charging $10 (we wouldn’t recommend much more for an unknown bill), that means the money from the first 30-odd people through the door goes to the venue. So, you’re relying on merch sales for gas and food, kids. Forget about riders, and consider yourself lucky to get a drink ticket per person. Though remember, at no point should you ever have to make up the shortfall.
Second, though related, consider your draw. You might think that playing a 20-million-person metropolis means there’s at least a residual in-built crowd at any show. There is not. A city the size and scale of New York means the opposite – there are so many things going on, on any given night, that you need to fight to be noticed or cared about. We’ve seen bands with more than 100,000 monthly listeners barely draw 10 people. We’ve seen nobodies pack out a room.
Good promoters will push on socials and even flyer for you, but there is a limit to what they can do, and venues won’t do shit. New York isn’t one scene; it’s really a collection of them. Even local bands that sound like they should be touring together can stay unaware of each other for years. Unless bands tend to hang out together in a broader scene, such as at Fest, they won’t really interact, and their audiences won’t overlap as much as you’d think. It’s not easy to get new people in.
Similarly, if you’re expecting local support to provide the draw, you’re dreaming. Even established bands, those who have played big stages and headlined international festivals, often struggle to draw locally. Locals can draw three people. They can draw 30 people. It depends.
There is no science to a New York show. It’s a blend of timing, how busy or tired people are, how much money they have in their pockets, how motivated they are to schlep out to a warehouse district in Brooklyn that’s a 15-minute walk from the subway, whether that day was one of their mandated RTO days (and if tomorrow is), if it snowed that weekend, if there’s more than one band they want to see, if their friends are going, if there are other shows on (there are), if they’re just ground down by the interminable misery of living and working in a place that actively hates you, if the trains are down… it goes on.
For melodic punk in particular, the scene is dedicated but small. It’s an older crowd, and though a few stalwarts go to most shows, you’re often relying on bands to convince their friends, colleagues, dog-park buddies, and families to come if you’ve done nothing to warrant a crowd of your own.
You Decided You Do Care
If you still want to play NYC after all that, here’s how to give yourself a fighting chance:
1. Book ahead, and be flexible. Weekend dates in summer, when people actually want to be out, fill up months in advance. If you’re trying to book these in May or June, you’re looking at a matinee on the weekend, if you’re lucky, or you need to settle for a school night.
2. If you want a draw, play days when people go out. That means Wednesday at a pinch, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Forget about Monday and Tuesday, take a rest day, and go try that slice your cousin who visited the city years ago still raves about.
3. Venues in Brooklyn and Queens are dying and vanishing; there aren’t many left who will cater to heavy music, let alone our kind of punk rock. They’re in a tight spot right now. Consider whether Brooklyn (the scene is largely in Brooklyn, not Manhattan, guys) is really the right spot – do you have a bill that will get people excited, will people come to see you? Would you be better served by playing somewhere other than Brooklyn or Queens, where the local scene is stronger and more unified, such as Long Island, Westchester, or Staten Island?
4. Likewise, consider whether you’d be better off asking bands with existing shows that night if you can squeeze on their bill, rather than booking your own thing. Most are happy to help touring bands; many are even happier not to have a competing show 10 blocks away.
5. Find out who the local promoters are. Look up flyers from local bands and see who is putting on the shows. Reach out for advice, don’t immediately ask – or expect – them to book your band. New Yorkers respect putting in the work more than “my friend said you book bands.” Ask what would work for you, which bands you should be contacting, and what venues might be a good fit.
6. You can ask local bands to help; most will. Particularly if you’re willing to return the favor. But don’t just go to local bands and say, “We want to play this date can u book us pls.” Try it yourself first. An approach of “Hey, we’ve tried emailing and calling venue X, Y, and Z, but we haven’t heard back, do you know them or could you suggest some other places?” goes a lot further.
7. In general, do the groundwork beforehand. Find local bands you want to play with, enlist them, say you’re going to try to book a show around these dates, and ask if they’d be keen. Going to a promoter or a venue with a few locals already in tow is far more effective.
8. You can forget about guarantees. A door deal will be the best you’ll get – most local bands in New York are decent and will give you their share (most of the time, for some local bands, it can still be a two-hour drive to play), but see our previous comments about room rates for how much you’re likely to make from the door.
9. Do not, do not ask a band to book your venue and recruit the support acts, then be picky about where in the order you play, or make unreasonable demands. You are not getting that $300 guarantee, you cannot expect a band bigger than you to be your support, and if you barely drew 20 people last time you played, no one is going to promise a 100-crowd draw. We’ve had out-of-town bands who have played NYC maybe once before ask all of those. If you want to get paid, you need a guarantee or prior proof that you’ll sell tickets at least equivalent to that guarantee (plus, as mentioned, the room rate).
10. Expect the worst. New York is notorious for venues double booking bands. You should not consider your show confirmed by the venue until the ticket listing is online. We’ve had venues cancel a few days before because they’re skittish about ticket sales, despite their room rates. Sometimes they’re just overloaded and double-booked, sometimes they’re greedy, sometimes they just get a better offer. Have a backup plan and handle it with grace when it happens.
11. It goes without saying, but don’t book venues that require you to sell a certain number of tickets, particularly certain predatory booking mills or venues in lower Manhattan or midtown. Room rates aren’t the same as pay-to-play. Ask us if you’re not sure, we’ll help – those clowns ruin live music here, and we don’t think highly of bands that feed into it.
12. In fact, expect nothing. New York doesn’t owe you anything. Nobody showing up might be shit for your tour, but we guarantee it’s worse for the promoter or the local band who helped book you – it could be existential for their relationship with the venue, and they’re the ones who took the personal risk on you. Everyone’s trying. The less you expect, the more you’ll enjoy it.
Most of all, have fun. Yes, booking a show in New York is hard, and getting people to show up – especially in our slice of middle-aged punk – is harder. It’s also rewarding, good fun, and friendships that last a lifetime have been formed in those venues. If you put in some work and show common sense and basic respect, you’ll be invited back for better shows.
And do not tell us about how good your fucking pizza is. It’s not as good as ours. This applies to you, Chicago.
