Gig Gab - The Working Musician's Podcast

Twenty years ago, Pat Watters looked at Texas country’s self-sustaining scene, where bands lift each other up and fans proudly claim their own, and asked a simple question: why only Texas? He’s spent every year since 2008 answering it in Wisconsin, building the Pat Watters Band on unapologetic regional pride. As a marketing agency partner, he knows exactly how bands get found. Stop pitching your gig like a fallback. “If you’re free Friday night” tells people you’re the last resort, so talk like you’re the best option and they just haven’t heard about it yet. Guard against oversaturation, because if fans can see you anytime, they’ll never actually come. Load your originals early while the room is still listening, and give every song a story worth leaning in for.

Then work all three relationships: artist to artist, artist to media, and artist to fan. You’ll hear how the Midwest Country Music Organization turned rival bands into a real community, and why one musicians’ dinner on a slow Monday could start the same thing in your town. Pat shares his show-promotion formula: title every Facebook event with your band name and the venue, drop the event link in the comments, and post one simple day-of line that gets your followers asking where. Don’t build on rented land. Own your domain and your mailing list, and spend a few smart dollars on Meta ads. Then dress like you meant to be on that stage. Become a bigger version of yourself, and Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 557 – Monday, October 26, 2026

October 26th: National Chicken Fried Steak Day

Guest co-host: Pat Watters

00:02:24 Texas, a collaborative musical environment

Pat Green from Texas, an inspiration!

00:06:24 Leveraging regional pride

00:10:56 Assume you’re the best option, they just don’t know about it yet

Marketing your band in 2026

Re-making room for music post-COVID-lockdowns

“If you’re free Friday night”

Create FOMO…ASSUME FOMO.

00:13:50 Manage saturation, resist the temptation to play too often

“If somebody can go see you anytime, they’ll never go see you.”

00:15:32 Beware the three-year arc

Make yourself less available

00:16:26 Playing covers as an original band

Play originals at the beginning of the night, covers towards the end

00:19:38 Give the audience a reason to pay attention

“Upbeat Songs About Death” – Bitter Pill AND the Pat Watters Band

00:21:18 That public talk is also self-talk

Our job is to entertain

00:23:16 SPONSOR: Tidal Upload. Visit https://Tidal.com/giggab to create an account and start uploading your music for free.

00:24:27 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/giggab to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

00:25:54 Three relationships: artist-to-artist, artist-to-media, and artist-to-fan

Midwest Country Music Organization

Related: Building fans through theatrical live shows with Neonautica (Gig Gab 555)

00:31:59 Create an evening for yourself

00:36:11 Formula for marketing your shows

Learn your audience’s demographics

Facebook event and a Facebook post (with a link to the event in the comments)

Keep website up-to-date

“I get to play country music today.”

Related: Social media for musicians with Chris Cron (Gig Gab 554)

00:47:14 Always create your own event

“The Pat Watters Band at [Venue]”

00:48:10 Don’t Build on Rented Land

Joe Pulizzi – The Content Marketing Institute

Have a website and a mailing list

00:53:51 Marketing on Facebook Ads

Meta Business Manager

Keeping a band together

00:59:46 Intentionally Wear a Costume on Stage

“Performers are all figments of our own imagination” – Kris Kristofferson

The Alter Ego Effect

“Be an exaggerated version of yourself”

01:07:31 Gig Gab 557 Outro

Contact Pat Watters

PatWattersBand.com

Facebook: ThePWB

IG: ThePWB

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The post You’re Not Their Backup Plan: How to Market Your Band’s Shows with Pat Watters – Gig Gab 557 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Every club at SXSW sounds good, every night, all week, and we’ve often wondered how they maintain that consistency. This week Dave finally gets the answer from Nate Cross, SXSW’s Director of Production, who went from intern to Assistant Production Manager to running the whole show. You’ll hear how his team builds out 55 to 60 venues (down from 100+ before the pandemic), why they mic everything even when it looks like overkill, and how 20-minute changeovers actually run on time with bands who’ve never met. Then there’s the backline story: trading the free band beer for a drum kit and amps at every venue, which enhanced everything.

Want to be the band every festival wants back? Show up on time, keep it simple, and put your current input list first, since it matters more than your stage plot. Add one sentence describing what your band should sound like so the engineer isn’t guessing. Nate also explains how SXSW went from a flat “no” on in-ear monitors to welcoming your split snake, and shares how his two-drummer, nine-piece band Water Damage turned one showcase into a challenge accepted. Whether you’re under the lights or behind the scenes, Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 553 – Monday, September 28, 2026

September 28th: Ask a Stupid Question Day

Guest co-host: Nate Cross from SXSW

00:01:16 Arrived in Austin 2003, interned with SXSW in 2006

Finally in 2012 the phone rings…Assistant Production Manager

00:07:33 Learning the SXSW flow

00:11:20 Dozens of Venues, 5-6 bands per night per venue

00:12:40 Building out stages and PAs

00:15:01 Setting up the stages for success

Everyone coming to that stage wants it to sound as good as possible…and so do we!

Micing everything

00:17:18 Changeover

00:18:10 Keeping the schedule running on time

Managing the 20-minute changeover

00:22:44 How many production staff assigned per venue?

FOH engineer

Stage manager

Student Production Crewmember

Plus 2-3 stage crew

00:24:05 Adding backline to every venue in 2026

00:27:22 Setting Your Band Up For Success at a Festival

Punctuality

Communication

Simple Is (usually) best

00:31:04 Advancing with Success

Stage Plot is truly for space allocation. Make sure your layout is up-to-date and correct.

Input List is the most important aspect

Update your Stage Plot and Input List once per year

00:35:08 Put that “what my band sounds like” sentence on your input list

00:41:21 IEMs, Split Snakes

Pre-pandemic the answer to IEMs at SXSW was “no”

00:49:40 “My band doesn’t use monitors”

00:51:27 Water Damage, Nate’s band

Water Damage Instagram – @wwwaterdamage

00:54:05 The Thread of Serendipity That Runs Through SXSW

Dave says get a Platinum Badge!

01:02:14 Gig Gab 553 Outro

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The post How Every Club Sounds Great: Running SXSW Stages & Changeovers with Nate Cross – Gig Gab 553 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Skylar Hamilton is back by popular demand for round two of your questions, recorded across an Airbnb kitchen table in New York City where a roll of paper towels doubles as a mic stand, because it’s the right height and it kills table rumble.

Set lists first: your opener sets the tone, and the tone is yours to set. Easing a dining room into rock-band mode calls for something catchy and upper-mid-tempo with room to breathe; a room that came to see a band wants to know right away what kind of show they walked into. Start cold off a click in your ears instead of a count-off if you want crisp. Put the across-the-board crowd-pleaser second, not first. And treat the night as an exchange of energy: it’s great when the audience offers first, but you can’t plan on that, so you make the first offering. Always Be Performing, right from note one.

From there you get a genuine on-air disagreement about AI and episode artwork, and where the line sits between using a tool and removing the human creator. The audience for your art is other humans, whatever you used to make it. Then stage etiquette, with Rush handing you both answers on one tour: Anika Nilles quietly fixing a wardrobe malfunction mid-song while the show rolls on, and Geddy Lee stopping 2112 to get a dead bass sorted. The call is yours in a split second: if you’re the focal point and the problem has you distracted, name it and bring the crowd in; otherwise let it go and keep playing.

Crowd work closes it out: banter is a skill you learn to summon on demand, not a personality you’re born with. Pick one person or an avatar and talk to them, build a stage character the way Billie Joe Armstrong is already St. Jimmy every night, treat what you wear as a costume your audience assumes you chose on purpose, borrow the bits you love from the front people who inspire you, and then watch yourself back a few days later…alone, and generous enough to find one good moment for every three you’d fix.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 552 – Monday, September 21, 2026

September 21st: National Pecan Cookie Day

Guest co-host: Skylar Hamilton

00:02:28 Use a paper towel roll

Keep Rolling With It

00:04:45 Setlist Management

Starting Songs

00:18:33 How do we continue using AI to maximize efficiency without removing the artists?

Waves NS1

00:31:51 Send us your questions: feedback@giggabpodcast.com

00:32:09 Stage Etiquette: What happens when something goes wrong?

The Alter Ego Effect

00:43:13 Crowd Management: Being a front-person

01:03:01 Gig Gab 552 Outro

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The post The Opener Sets the Tone: Set List Strategy, AI vs. the Artist & The Craft of Fronting a Band – Gig Gab 552 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Monitor engineer Kevin “KG” Glendinning joins you live from a Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia: eight countries in seven days into the Lorde world tour…and he’s got the receipts. You’ll hear how fifteen trips through the SNL stage started with a Carson Daly taping, why the rooms that treat you well are the rooms you remember, and what happens when a 32-year veteran finally plugs in a source expander and realizes the “new guys” were right. That’s the through-line: always be learning, always be open-minded, and never let a get-off-my-lawn attitude about new tech be the reason your phone stops ringing. Then it gets into the real in-ear monitor conversations: recreating a Celestion cab with a 2.6mm armature, the one-ear trick that quietly costs Adam Levine and John Mayer another 25% of volume, and why ear fatigue deserves the same respect a pitcher gives his arm.

The road stories land hard from there. Super Bowl XLV in Dallas with snow, the Black Eyed Peas, and a lesson in letting the pros run their own show. Red Rocks (aka “Wet Rocks”) and why a mountain full of shuttle trucks is worth every minute. A locked-up console mid-residency and telling Christina Aguilera the audio will come back, all while genuinely hoping it would. A charter plane struck by lightning over the Amazon, an emergency landing at a decommissioned airfield, and waking up to the news about Taylor Hawkins. Plus the covert phone call that became seven years with Justin Timberlake, and the soft ask years earlier that made it happen. Rehearse enough that nerves turn into muscle memory, thank the people who opened doors for you, ask for the gig you want…and Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 549 – Monday, August 31st, 2026

August 31st: Eat Outside Day

Guest co-host: Kevin Glendinning

00:02:38 Pula, Croatia. 8 countries in 7 days

00:04:36 SNL stage for The Deftones with the Carson Daly show

00:06:20 Making an impression on touring musicians with

00:08:35 Always be learning about the new tech

Learning from the “new” guys

Neve 5045 Primary Source Expander

Waves PSE Plugin

Digico Mustard Source Enhancer

00:13:55 Always be open-minded

00:18:57 Mixing ears and the respect of it all

00:21:02 Chris Rabold mixing monitors for REM

00:22:06 Now some REM stories

00:24:23 Helping get Adam Levine & John Mayer through ear fatigue with one ear monitor

00:26:46 OzFest System Engineers and hearing fatigue

00:27:45 Sometimes it just doesn’t sound right

00:30:44 Super Bowl in 2011 in Dallas…with snow!

And The Black Eyed Peas

00:35:45 Being rehearsed enough to just do the gig (and fix what goes wrong when it goes wrong)

00:36:25 Lorde’s large-and-resilient fanbase

00:39:21 Working Red Rocks..”Wet Rocks”

00:44:33 Christina and the reboot

“Don’t worry…the audio will come back.”

Dave’s issue with the Mackie DL32S losing input signals

00:49:58 Batteries Matter

00:52:31 Miley Cyrus, Taylor Hawkins, Lightning-stuck aircraft, oh my!

00:56:28 Getting paid to see the world

The pros and the cons

00:59:11 The “covert” phone call… and Justin Timberlake

Get to know ML who works for ShowCo

Ask for the gig you want (and, specifically, ask Anthony Giordano)

The Victoria’s Secret Awards!

Watching Muse with Justin

01:06:11 Have gratitude for everyone who you’ve worked with

01:08:14 Kevin wants to answer your questions!

01:09:52 Gig Gab 549 Outtro

Follow Kevin Glendinning

IG: @kev_chitown

LinkedIn: Kevin ‘KG’ Glendinning

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The post Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road – Gig Gab 549 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Your voice is the most temperamental instrument you’ll ever own, and this week Victor Carrillo Tracey – original company member of Broadway’s The Outsiders – walks you through what it takes to keep one working eight shows a week. Hydration and sleep swap places at number one, alcohol and caffeine cost more than you think, and inspiration doesn’t get a vote when downbeat is 8pm. You’ll hear how a single college voice lesson with a head cold taught Victor to navigate around a compromised instrument years before he needed it on Broadway, and why nerves usually answer to preparation rather than talent. Book the room. Play your opener as the last song of soundcheck. Always Be Performing starts well before anyone’s watching.

Then it gets nerdy. Victor breaks down what a swing actually is (think relief pitcher), and how he covered nine tracks at once before working his way up to playing Paul full-time. You’ll pick up forced perspective, the staging trick that tells an audience exactly where to look and translates straight to your own stage. Plus the band sealed in the pit under the apron, monitor wedges in the floor and sidefills in the wings, a rig that tracks each voice around the house, watching a Broadway book get written in real time, and Dave’s case for mixing your in-ears in stereo instead of piling everything up the middle. Victor’s last Outsiders show is October 11th, right around performance number one thousand…and he still tells himself this is the best job ever before every show.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 548 – Monday, August 24th, 2026

August 24th: International Strange Music Day

Guest co-host: Victor Carrillo Tracey

00:02:45 The voice is the most temperamental instrument

00:06:04 The benefits of an education

Always Be Learning – Beginner’s Mind

00:08:54 Learning to navigate around your voice when things are non-optimal

00:13:28 Taking care of your voice

The most important thing is hydration.

Except Sleep is the most important thing.

Be aware of alcohol and caffeine

00:17:01 Inspiration won’t always strike

00:18:35 And taking care of your body

00:20:55 Preparing yourself for success

Play your opener as your last soundcheck song before the house opens

You can visualize this, too!

Book the room to rehearse in advance

Always be preparing

Having a preparation mindset

00:28:40 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/giggab to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

00:30:08 Being a Swing

Kinda like a relief pitcher

Nine tracks at once!

00:33:33 Ok, a detour into musical theater and The Outsiders

00:39:02 Forced Perspective

00:43:12 Missing playing a non-voice instrument

00:45:19 Playing with the band in a theater show

…without seeing your bandmates

00:50:46 Watching the Broadway book being built

And recording the Cast Album at Power Station at BerkleeNYC Music Studio

Jamie Eblen

Justin Levine

00:56:11 Mixing a musical…and hearing it on stage!

Monitor wedges in the apron

Sidefills in the wings

Cody Spencer

01:04:55 Previews are grueling, and great!

01:05:45 Mix your in-ears in stereo

Nothing up the middle: kick one degree right, snare one degree left.

01:07:43 Victor’s leaving The Outsiders after 2.5 years

Choosing your destiny…follow your gut

And make it happen!

Gratitude!

“This is the best job ever” before going on stage every time.

01:12:37 Gig Gab 548 Outtro

Follow  Victor Carrillo Tracey

IG: @victorctracey

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The post From Broadway Swing to Principal: Eight Shows a Week – Gig Gab 548 with Victor Carrillo Tracey appeared first on Gig Gab.