DoomsdayZach
The Professor was right
The problem is the scene is based on who you know. This is a smaller example, but when i saw the Iron Maidens play, there was a local opener called Listen Louder (i wouldn't even promote their name if it wasn't so fucking stupid) that was some gay rock band that had horrible musicians, etc. etc. etc. It wasn't bro-metal or shit death metal, it was rock. But unlike rock that rocks, this was just a bunch of 45 year old burnouts who were drunk as fuck and playing shitty songs in the vein of other songs. Literally, you could say "oh, that's their iron maiden song, that's their green day song, that's their blink 182 song, that's their journey song", etc. I talked to the promotor and said "dude, next time you gotta book our band. we'd fit opening for them way better than this shit" and he said "i've known these guys forever and they sold a bunch of tickets" and i just rolled my eyes and said 'yeah... but this sucks dude'. He's a friend of mine so it's not like i burned a bridge. He just laughed and said "jesus Zach..." Point is, shit bands who spend more time on making connections and less on making awesome music still get the slots. Fuckin' gay.
On the flipside of what i just said, obviously locals should not cut into the time, but that's the venue's responsibility to plan the start time of the show around that. If the locals aren't on top of their shit getting set up in a timely manner and loading in on time, their set should get cut. That's a given. But the venue should account for time between sets, give a slight bit of leeway for problems and delays that are sure to arise, and take some responsibility on their end as well. THAT SAID, i don't know how it is in your area but local bands here doing any show that is opening for a national touring band in a regular venue (not a bar) has to sell tickets for said show, often times are obligated to sell at least 100 tickets or else they won't get to return as openers at that venue. There's a lot of work that goes into it, and they are bringing a lot of people to the show so locals should get a fair shot at a decent set. Again, the venues should plan around the fact that there is a local band rather than cutting into the touring band's set. And for christs sake, there are good bands out there! Let them play!
edit: by the local getting a decent set, i think half hour to 40 minutes is more than fair. Having a band sell tickets and giving them 20 minutes is a bunch of shit IMO.
