Piss-poor attempt at keeping a secret

After having seen the Longnecks so much in the past few weeks, I thought I’d bring up how strangely organised the shows were.

In the past, this name has been used as a secret name for very small shows to be played, only to fans who know or can work out who they were, in order to try out new songs for a new record. It’s worked well in the past, with shows staying mostly secret and the band managing to get feedback on the shows. However, this time around, it was all change. They had a myspace account, and the logo for them was a picture of the band (used in their promotional material), very badly disguised. The shows were posted on both the secret and proper myspace accounts, as well as the band’s forum. So already, we have a huge number of people knowing about them. But if you’re not on the Internet? Well, some stress press and newspapers were listing both names, and venues themselves were warning how quickly the shows would sell out. All up, a handful of shows sold out, but the others were all pretty full anyway. On top of this, they played 2 all-ages festivals, where the MCs kept almost slipping up.

Now, if the plan was to play a secret show, they did very poorly. I’ve spoken to people who only know the real name in passing but had heard they were playing other shows. The picture as logo was a dead giveaway and to be quite honest, I doubt they’ll be able to play many more secret shows in future now that everybody knows they’ve been doing it. The idea of playing secret shows in the first place is a brilliant one, and a good chance to see the band up close and personal, with their new stuff. However when you have a mass of fans pushing you forwards, all shouting for their old songs, it kind of defeats the point. They brought it on themselves though and have no right to give the crowds dirty looks. Having been advertised almost as a show of the real name, pictures and all, the crowd will expect that band to be playing – rather than just the new stuff.

Not that I’m complaining, at $15 for a ticket and free for the festival…

It isn’t too hard to work out who the band is, but I will not post it here out of principal.