Opening is sometimes good for one or two shows in another band\'s local area but doesn\'t really make sense for a whole tour. Getting on a festy bill like Camp Bisco, Camp Creek, or moe.down is really the way to go. Those three fests have all provided very important Breakfast shows in the past. Also instead of a full tour, consider something like this: In the summer of 2002, PB played their first two shows in Washington (Seattle and Bellingham) opening for a band called Flowmotion. Who the heck is Flowmotion, right? Well, they were packing 250 people a night into Washington clubs that The Breakfast would have drawn 20 people to. It\'s great to ride locals for a night or two.
Full tours with big acts don\'t really make as much sense. Fans are so into bands like UM, Bisco, and moe. that they don\'t really want time taken away for someone else. I can\'t blame them either. When I throw down $28 for a UM ticket or $45 for a Phish ticket, if some other band takes their first 60-90 minutes away I kind of feel like "WTF just give me the band I came to see." The opening band, if there is one, is kind of a joke. I swear that for every fan the opener picks up, someone else idiotically turns against them no matter how they play because they were taking time from the headliner. Do you ever go to hiphop shows? There are always at least two opening acts at every one. I want to kill them sometimes. I understand they have to at hiphop shows because no hip-hop artist can take the stage for more than 90 minutes; they only do the current album tracks and the old hits. They never ever perform old material that wasn\'t a hit and all songs are only 3.5-5 minutes long so none of them can really go more than 90 minutes. I know this full well going in and I still want to kill the opening acts sometimes. Now you switch over to jambands who can all play all night...try to justify to the fans why you took 90 minutes away from the headliner. It\'s hard to do. And it\'s hard to play a good jamband show in 45 minutes. A hiphop or pop act, you rip your 5 hottest tunes in a 45 minute set and if someone liked those tunes, you got them. It just doesn\'t work like that with jam. Really, most fans of jambands such as The Breakfast don\'t want to pay moe. prices to see The Breakfast play for 45 minutes. Well, maybe I would once but I\'m not repeatedly driving all over the northeast and paying $25 a night to see the Breakfast for 45 minutes. Also, what is the benefit for the headliner? Does the Breakfast draw enough extra people to help them book a bigger venue? (Not really.) If you\'re the Breakfast, how do you sell the headliner on going through with this?
On another side, I think egoism may sometimes play a factor specifically in working with The Breakfast. It\'s not a constant factor like the economic factors above, but it happens. Most bands would not fear The Breakfast and would rightfully assume that their real fans would never feel that The Breakfast is better than they are. But some bands might be scared of being shown up by The Breakfast, you have to allow for that possibility. I have long maintained on these pages that PB didn\'t get asked back to Camp Creek after 2001 beacuse they completely showed up Max Creek and were the talk of the fest. It could even come down to one band member and not a whole band. The guitarist for band X might believe that his fans would never walk away from the show saying the Breakfast is better than his band...but he might worry that they would walk away talking about how that Tim Palmieri guy is the best guitar player ever. He doesn\'t want that. Like I said, I don\'t think this intimidation thing happens often, but I\'m sure it\'s happened.
So that\'s the case against touring with a bigger act. If you\'re an upcoming jamband, stick to appearing at other bands\' festivals and maybe one night opening with a bigger act in thier home area. Other than that, play your own shows.
