On one hand though, I don’t see it problematic if you’re asking an out of town band to come in and they 1) ask, at the very least, for gas money or 2) ask for a place to stay/crash.

I completely agree. I just don’t like when locals have those demands.

I’ve never been in a position to ask for a guarantee (it’s usually offered first – you know “we’ll give $X for playing”). However, I’d never ask for a guarantee for any show taking place in what someone could consider a “dive bar” or conversely a “rock and roll dive bar”. Especially locally. That’s just arrogant and, at best, really fucking lazy.

On one hand though, I don’t see it problematic if you’re asking an out of town band to come in and they 1) ask, at the very least, for gas money or 2) ask for a place to stay/crash.

Now, all I’ve said should be taken with a grain of salt – I’ve only started booking shows with my band. My old band, someone else did all that. I think hands-down, the door-system is fair. Everyone suffers if no one pulls people out, everyone does well if everyone works together to draw a crowd in.

As a general endorsement though, there are two bands that have always been great to get on any show because they do it for the fun of it and have never been stupid worrying about money – Hotness (four of the nicest guys playing locally) and Scarlet Oaks (actually, anything Steve McCauley is in). I know there are plenty more really nice people in bands around town, but these always stand out in my mind because I personally see more eye-to-eye with them on what it means to play in, for better or worse, a local band that ventures out of town once in a while and hold down a day job – even if you surf music blogs while at work.