The Breakfast should open for UM

[Me!]

This is the biggest no brainer ever!!!

you\'re right it\'s an absolute no brainer..........  they\'re gonna be on the road.  no go.

[Todd]

But as Todd said it\'s pointless cause they\'re gonna be on the road anyway.

[Me!]

:no: They\'ll still be out of town anyways, but...:no:

[Overexjoesure]

how the fuck do people from New Haven area like UM and not know about the breakfast by now? THat doesn\'t really seem possible to me.

Because there isn\'t a scene. Whenever I mention the band to locals I get the obligatory, "oh, they\'re still around.. hehe, I remember when they were called Psychedelic Breakfast".
Their reputation is that of a local bar band, not of a developed and up and coming rock band. There is no buzz and no real outlets to create this buzz.  The band really has to play their cards right by touring nationally and networking with as many notable acts as possible.  As I told Dave at Daniel St, it\'s either shit or get off the pot at this point. Musically they\'re shitting all over the place, but it\'s the marketing, management, booking and promotion that needs to shit!!

[skalnbyc]

I think it\'s a good idea for all the points mentioned plus they don\'t even have to drive more than a few minutes to get there (they could drive hours somewhere else to play the same show).  Playing to the same audience over and over again in New Haven is not going to get enough new people on board.  Plus the people may be coming from much farther away than the New Haven suburbs for the UM show.   I\'m excited to see them getting back out on the road next month.

I don\'t understand why they would lose face?  It\'s an honor/privilege to play with a more popular band.

[Wolfman]

*sigh* We just did this thread 5 weeks ago.  And this is at least the 30th iteration of this thread in .info history.  This topic is just old and beaten to death to me.  I guess there will always be some people who are unsatisfied no matter what the band is doing.  I have found my Breakfast life to be much more enjoyable and satisfying ever since I learned to support what they are doing rather than get bent about how they should be doing something else.  If the Breakfast wants to open for UM, fine.  If not, fine.    

Anyhow, Ill just repost what I posted 5 weeks ago.  I went out on a limb a bit and made the case against opening a tour for a big act.  This doesn\'t prove that opening is a bad idea.  It might be, it might not.  What this does prove, however, is that opening can be a very complex issue.  It is far from a "no-brainer".  If it were a "no-brainer" then it wouldn\'t be possible to make such a strong case against it.

Two months on the road without headlining a show? Playing 45 minutes a night for 25 shows? That’s a solid quarter or more of the year’s touring schedule without any serious musical accomplishment. How is the band supposed to get any momentum going playing 5 songs a night? Matt and Chris might even forget how to play the tunes. And would we ever see anything like the Middle East/Toad’s/Electric Company run of serness? All that touring and not a single epic set II or encore to show for it. If you’re in a band, you’d have to hate that. I don’t want the guys to go on a tour that they wouldn’t like playing.

How about money? Opening acts get chump change. The band doesn’t need to be driven broke to pick up a couple more fans. They do well enough on their own.

Do we really know for sure that fans of these types of bands even like opening acts? A lot of big bands that The Breakfast might open for almost never have openers. Their fans expect a full night from their band every time. Some will like having an opener. Some won’t.  Most won’t care and will show up late or drink in the back without listening.

Would The Breakfast really make more fans doing 6-8 weeks on the road opening for a larger act than they would on their own? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that they would play a lot less music, build a lot less momentum, and make a lot less money. There are better ways to not headline. Festivals? Absolutely. Late-night afterparties for bigger bands? Yes, please. Opening act? Not worth it.

   

JKing also made a good post:

to break it down and be completely honest, what the band *really* needs to do is tour. a lot. opening for someone, co-billing with someone, after partying for someone, doesn\'t matter. what matters is that they get on the road and stay there. no more of this one or two months on the road and ten or eleven months of weekend warrioring around the northeast. in fact, if anything (sorry NE\'ers) they need to spend ten or eleven months *outside* of the northeast where potential new ears are. everyone up there has had their chance to heard the band. it seems to me like most people up thataway made their decision about these guys years ago and have no reason/desire to go check out their latest incarnation (which is why toad\'s places doesn\'t keep getting more full), especially since they know they can see the breakfast on pretty much any given weekend if they really want to. get out on the road to new ears who haven\'t had a chance to see the band they may have heard about. and once a tour is done, start scheduling the next one within a month and don\'t let eons pass before they get back out that way. its simple, really. difficult to do, but simple to figure out. tour. tourtourtourtour. tourtourtourtourtourtourtour. not one single jamband has ever made it without spending a year or two on the road nearly non-stop. why does tlg outsell the breakfast in their own hometown? tlg toured like hell. why are um and bisco selling out sizeable places around teh country? why hasn\'t max creek ever really done anything and still can\'t fill up places outside of their hometown? why did barefoot manner have to break up? they didn\'t tour and thus it wasn\'t feasible to be a band any longer. its called putting in your dues. now, this band has paid some hefty dues over the years, but in terms of promoting the band and increasing the fan base, not so much. spend two years on the road and then they can coast with the 70/80 shows a year and less intensive travel. but until then, the same exact frustration will cause these same threads to appear every so often. now, the good part seems to be that this is closer to what the guys seem to have in mind with v4.0. so, they\'ve got that going for them.

[derickw]

I don\'t see any reason.... if they were in town.... to open for UM. for exposure sake alone, just getting in front of a lot of people who dismissed the guys for whatever there reason was. Plus there is a young crowd that are just starting to seriously come out to shows and for them to find out about a band like this in there own backyard..... opening and just getting extra people into the door a couple weeks later for a full two sets would be worth it alone.

that being said, whose gonna go down there to do promo.......

[Overexjoesure]

me...

I think this would be a good time to hand out some audio sampler discs as well.

[derickw]

me...

I think this would be a good time to hand out some audio sampler discs as well.

i fully agree. i burn sampler disks all the time but unfortunately they aren\'t as nice as the ones Boozt puts out but they are something right. i always say, "hey it\'s free you want something better buy it." I\'ll start burn cd\'s now

[Overexjoesure]

We should make it a compilation of the new lineup. Make sure the disc opens with and closes with The Message

[derickw]

We should make it a compilation of the new lineup. Make sure the disc opens with and closes with The Message

as soon as they can split it up that wouldn\'t be a problem. right now i\'m burning

1. breakfast2008-01-26d1t03- Space City Affair.flac
2. breakfast2008-01-26d1t04- Escher\'s Etchings (Parts 1 & 2).flac
3. breakfast2008-01-26d1t05- The World Needs Us.flac
4. breakfast2008-01-11d1t06- Doughboy.flac
5. breakfast2008-01-26d2t03- The Sound.flac
6. breakfast2008-01-26d2t04- Buquebus.flac
7. breakfast2008-01-26d2t07- Cult Of Personality.flac

[SlimPickens]

There\'s that ego again. This is about connecting with probably the top band in the jamband touring circuit right now. It\'s about helping out a band outside of their primary market with hopes that maybe UM will reciprocate.  It\'s about networking. It\'s about band members being invited to jam onstage.

THIS is HOW the band is going to grow!!!

Someone jaming onstage is one thing completely, but I don\'t think they need to be opening for nearly anyone in their hometown.  especially when they are playing their own headling show not long after that.  But as Todd said it\'s pointless cause they\'re gonna be on the road anyway.

As much as it pains me to agree... I think Joe\'s right.  What\'s it going to do, ruin their rep?  They have a great rep w/ such a limited group of people, that I\'m not sure it would do that much damage.  Everyone else doesn\'t pay enough attention to them for it really to matter.

But you get them onstage at Toad\'s in front of a sold out house, and they\'re bound to turn some new heads, open some new eye\'s and melt some new faces.

but, since they\'re outta town, it doesn\'t even matter.

[ds673488]

i think a better idea would be to open for them at higher ground on the 16th.  im pretty sure they will be back by then since they have a show 2 days after in northampton.  since they have their own gig (probably at the smaller HG venue) about 10 days after, I think opening for UM would turn a lot of heads and get a really solid crowd at their own show on the 25th.  plus, they already tore it up on FF9 there.

[FreeSpirit]

Personally, I never go to a show to listen to an opening band... I\'m there to see a headliner, not another band.  Often I show up too late, or go somewhere else during the opening slot.  OK, so I\'ve been pleasantly surprised for a few openers (like last week - The Bridge) but often it won\'t make me buy their album.

[weekapaug19]

Personally, I never go to a show to listen to an opening band... I\'m there to see a headliner, not another band.  Often I show up too late, or go somewhere else during the opening slot.  OK, so I\'ve been pleasantly surprised for a few openers (like last week - The Bridge) but often it won\'t make me buy their album.

that\'s you tho, not other people.  Alot of people, even if they aren\'t there for the opener, walk in during them.  And yes, after last week, I too am going to be downloading some stuff by the bridge