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'm designing a t-shirt with a simple message: "Bands: The Only Paying Customers Who Must Bring Their Own Crowd". Perhaps this sounds bitter, but I think the message is justified as bands are being increasingly required to pay to perform, one way or other, and it's not only unfair - it's bad business.

You may not realize it, but original bands these days are not only required to perform great and write great songs, they must also be the marketing team for the clubs in which they play as well as paying customers. Clubs seem to be contributing less and less to their own promotion, preferring to chastise musicians for small crowds. In other words, bands are held responsible to the unpopularity of venues and become, by design and default, the only regular customers many clubs actually have.

We, as bands, are responsible for the popularity of the clubs in which we play, plain and simple. As clubs are also less inclined to offer musicians even the cheapest draft beer, we're often required as well to pay for our drinks, something that used to be the exception, not the rule. Bars almost universally use the excuse that previous bands had nearly "drunk them out of beer" and they can no longer afford. Personally I would love to meet those bands as they sound like my kind of people.

I will defend clubs in one respect: original music can be a tough draw and offering a guarantee isn't always the wisest business move. I cannot, however, side with a club that will promise a band the door, then at the end of the evening, informs them that both the doorman and the soundman will be paid from the bands money. The club also takes their own cut. If a band requests bringing their own doorperson, the club will say no, citing responsibility for underagers. If the band requests their own soundman, the club will oblige, but only with the understanding that the regular soundman will least give them free draft) and they will be loyal. Promote yourselves and get known as a great venue, and you won't be nearly as dependent upon musicians who often don't know the first damn thing about marketing anyway. If your venue has a