5 Key Takeaways From My Friend’s Band Opening For Alien Ant Farm
And how you can open for your very own Alien Ant Farm
Last summer I drove ten hours to watch a wonderful, shitty pop punk band play in a sweltering garage in Salt Lake City. That band is called Frick. and watching them play was worth every single second of the schlep. But this isn’t about my music tourism.
Frick. was fresh off of having opened for 90’s alternative rock band Lit at the time, a fact I asked singer Brad about after their set. He shrugged and explained that he’d simply asked to play and the venue said yes. Last week Brad announced that they’ll soon be sharing the stage with none other than Alien Ant Farm and I realized that there are some valuable lessons we can all learn from Frick. about marketing your music to legacy audiences, going after opportunities other people might ignore, and a third secret thing that I haven’t come up with yet.
Without further ado, these are my 5 Key Takeaways From My Friend’s Band Opening For Alien Ant Farm:
1. Make a practice of asking
I suggest making a monthly ritual of looking at nearby venue calendars, Pollstar, etc for national bands you’d be a great fit opening for. You can reach out to the venues’ talent buyer or the artists’ booking agent or manager or both. Here are some important pieces of information about that.
Prepare to be ignored
Most of the time people probably won’t respond to you. As someone who worked as a publicist for the better part of a decade, I can tell you that you will survive this indignity. Radio silence doesn’t mean they hate you, it just means they’re busy.
But, in the immortal words of Steve Harwell, you never know if you don’t go. Likewise, you’re never going to open for Alien Ant Farm unless you get good and comfortable with sending out emails that will probably get ignored.
If you don’t get a response, follow up once a week later, and then let it go. But if the person you’re hitting up is a talent buyer, go ahead and email them the following month with whatever new bill you’d like to hop on!
You’re helping
It might feel cringe, but remember that when you reach out to inquire about opening slots, you’re actually helping the person you’re emailing do their job. Finding a good opener for a national band in a local market can be tricky, especially if and when the artist is Alien Ant Farm.
Be specific
I know you know this, but please do not hit up a venue’s talent buyer and ask to be kept in mind for any dates they think you’d be a good fit for. They’re already keeping six billion things in their mind, many of which will likely be forgotten. Instead, make their life easier by emailing them whenever you see a bill you’re a good fit for.
Be a fan
Go after opening for artists you absolutely love. Your excitement will come through in the email and maybe they’ll even be able to recognize energetic similarities in your music. You’ll be so lit up at the show that you’ll knock it out of the park and win over a million new fans. You’ll make amazing connections with the artist and their tour staff that could last a lifetime.
As an aside, friends of mine in SF garage/pop band Milk For The Angry hit up Death From Above 1979 on Reddit and got to open for them in front of a sold out show at The Independent. Their guitarist Michael got to play drums on one of the DFA songs. That kind of magic doesn’t happen with bands you’re lukewarm about.
2. Everyone wants to open for hip bands
There’s always going to be less competition going after opening for less hip or of the moment bands. This goes for a million other things in music. Put your creative mind to finding opportunities and niches outside of the labels, artists, festivals you think of as being most prominent and important in your broader sphere.
3. Don’t be a snob
Great fans come from everywhere. And you know who are the most dedicated fans of all? People buying tickets to see Alien Ant Farm live in this, the year of our lord 2024. Almost all of those people became Alien Ant Farm fans 25 years ago, dug their heels in and committed. Your project should be so lucky as to have fans like that.
4. Look outside of big cities
When you look for show opportunities, it’s worth checking out who’s playing at a casino or fairground a few hours out of town that you might be able to open for.
But also even just townie dive bars are often amazing places to play. For my money, there really are no fans like fans in a small town. It’s been my observation over the years that small town fans consistently turn out, bring friends, and rage harder than audiences in bigger cities where there are more options of things to do and a higher concentration of good bands to check out.
5. Plan to collect fans
The job of an opener is to get the audience all gassed up for the headliner and to win over fans. This means prioritizing making it easy and fun for people to give you their information so you can stay in touch with your new fans. Before you go open for a bigger act (or before you play any show ever) think about what the first point of contact will be with someone who wants to stay in touch, follow, join your email list, etc. What’s the first message they’ll get from you? What’s the second? When will you come back to their town? How will you make them feel like a part of the world you’re building around your music?
As always, thanks for reading! I’m always interested to know what challenges you’re up against in your own music career so please send me your questions and gripes!
It would also mean so much to me if you shared this with your bandmates or any other awesome musicians in your life.
Sending you all kinds of frickin’ love,
Cass
This is all great advice! I particularly appreciate #5. I've come to Substack for this very purpose and this really helps me think more deeply about how I'm going to use this platform. Thank you for writing this!
"What’s the first message they’ll get from you? What’s the second? When will you come back to their town? How will you make them feel like a part of the world you’re building around your music?"