🚀 go-pugleaf

Baltimore sucks for live entertainment anymore and so do its people, at
least as far as rock goes. If you don't suck ass with a certain booking
agency here (whom I won't mention because our manager asks me not to) -
you're doomed from the start. You'll never play the "bigger" rooms here. And
the biggest local radio rock station only works with ass biters too, (again
I'm asked to keep names out of it). They'll promote the same old bands over
and over and over - even if they stink or if they're just plain OLD and
dried up. Or, they'll play their fake games of promoting really talentless
bands that you never hear from twice, just to keep up appearances of being
interested. I've heard them play "basement" tapes of bands that sound so
terrible I wouldn't play them to scare off farm rodents, then claim that the
band is "hot" and "up and coming". Too many good bands are put asunder by
the clubs and radio pandering to really lousy, inexperienced, bad sounding
bands that'll play for next to nothing and claim to have been treated
fairly. This goes for original and cover bands.

The club owners just don't get it. They ask if you have a following. How the
hell can you have a following if you never get to play the big rooms and get
publicity? They all play stupid. Everyone knows that you can sell dirt if
you advertise it right. They expect you to bring hundreds of people into
their dinky little bars on a Saturday night. Where do these followers come
from? Perhaps the even dinkier bars we played just to get this far?!?!?

We don't put bands down. In fact we try to do just the opposite by looking
for a strong suit in any act we see. Sometimes we'll volunteer our sound
reinforcement system just to make a band sound better. But to call a bad
band a bad band is simply calling a spade a spade. We've seen some really
terrible acts headline at what used to be respectable establishments, with
opening acts that we wouldn't even let carry our equipment.

We've played next to some talented acts and we know we're good. We know
we're better than 90% of the local bands out there. But because the morons
in charge know that we know we're good, and because of the problems I've
mentioned, combined with the overall lack of local support for ANY live band
in these parts, from fans, club owners, radio stations and personalities,
and the general public, we go unheard. And that's sad for any band - good or
bad.

I personally ran a web site dedicated to MD and area bands for two years. I
shop all the live music web sites. You're wasting your time trying to
promote anyone in this city. We're all Bmore born and raised. We've been
playing for years doing covers because they ask for covers. We'd glady show
them our originals, but they wouldn't know what to do with them. It's all
money now and quite honestly, and quite frankly - Baltimore sucks for live
bands anymore even if you have the money.