Four bands have been announced already for Alternative Press’ “AP Tour 2009.” Visit the site below to find out who, hear tracks, and get information on the pre-sale beginning January 12th.

Someone in the band has to deal with getting your band shows. Here’s something my band has learned recently about how to build a good relationship with venues. We all know that it can take multiple tries sending out emails and demos every couple weeks to a venue, and that you might wait to hear back for awhile. This is because bookers’ calendars fill up fast and they often try to book the calendar for a few months ahead of time.

Once you do hear back, you have a tendency to think that since the booker took so long to reply to you, you have awhile to get back to them. That would be a fatal mistake! As a band, you should do everything in your power to make the bookers’ job as easy as possible to book you. This means, first and foremost, that you initiate good communication with the booker.

When you receive an email with an offer for a show, reply back immediately! You don’t have to say yes or no right away. We usually say something like, “Awesome! This show sounds great! Let me double-check with everyone that we’re available and I’ll get back to you right away.” Then we text message everyone in the band to double-check. Usually we’re talking about a show a couple months away, but we all try to keep our schedules in front of us as much as possible so we know if we’d be available or not. (We actually use a shared Google calendar so that whoever is booking the show can just go look at when people are available.)

Then, follow up. If a day or two goes by and you still don’t know, send another email back saying, “Hey we are looking good for the show but our drummer is making sure he can get the day off work. We’ll know by tomorrow.”

Having good communication like this, rather than just three days of silence, reassures the booker that you are taking him or her seriously and that you want the show. We’ve found that this practice has resulted in a couple of great relationships with venues in our hometown. Good luck!

Hit the Lights has posted a new video blog at MTV Buzzworthy. Check it out!