A Doubleheader (And Much More) at Higher Ground

For the first time I can recall, both rooms at Vermont's biggest and busiest music venue will be bumping wall to wall hip hop. In the big ol' ballroom, Shoreline Mafia breakout star OhGeesy will be bringing his GEEZYWORLD tour through the Green Mountains. If you're not familiar with the name, he self-describes as "the 2Pac of Mexicans," which is wild flagrant past the point of blasphemy, but young men love to talk shit.

Meanwhile, in the Showcase Lounge, something completely different: collective/label exociety is like a Soundcloud-era Anticon; a gathering of art rap weirdos with diverse approaches to pushing the envelope.

This Sunday doubleheader is no anomaly, though. Higher Ground has been booking rap shows since they were in a strip mall across the river in Winooski, and the popularity of the genre, especially in terms of the college crowd, has grown immensely since then.

Sure enough, ever since the Democrats decided that Covid was over, Higher Ground has been filling up their monthly calendar with tons of hip hop shows. Next week, Smokepurpp will attempt to sell out that ballroom on a Thursday night, and BTV legends Belizbeha will reunite on Saturday. Don't expect tickets to be available at the door for that one; they're just about gone as of today.

In May, JPEGMAFIA will be coming on the 19th, followed by Philly rapper PNB Rock on Sunday the 22nd. Lil Tecca has already sold out the main room — on a fucking Monday, no less. Whatever his team is doing, they're doing it right. On Tuesday the 24th, in one of the single oddest pairings on the calendar, Denmark rock band Iceage will be playing with NYC rapper Wiki opening up.

Now, while all this is undeniably good for the local scene in terms of visibility and viability, few of those shows equate to opportunities for local artists. This has been a subject of much discussion, but little of it is grounded in any understanding of the modern business of touring.

National level acts are often (if not always) reaching out to talent buyers with a "package," a complete lineup they're taking coast to coast, and they don't need or want openers. Their fans are paying to see them, not stand around through your set. Adding local openers to the evening is little more than a liability. Their managers and tech crew aren't keen on adding more variables to the equation, nor do they want anyone else backstage. That's not because they're assholes, it's because they're professionals.

And let's be real: there are very few local acts who can bring enough fans in the door to make a difference for the headliners. Especially at $20+ per ticket.

That said, if you still want to be proactive about this, your best bet is contacting the management team behind these shows directly, not asking Higher Ground for table scraps. That contact information will often be hard to find, and that's for a good reason. Buddhists call that a "gateless gate" -- if you're not resourceful enough to track that down, you're not resourceful enough to be of any use to them, either. This is basic social engineering, and it comes down to being both polite and relentless.

When you're making a pitch, be concise. They don't want your bio, your story, your dreams, they just want to know what you can offer them. This comes down to three very simple things and only one of them involves your music and stage show. The most important concerns are whether your name can sell tickets and whether your ass will be hustling every day, between right now and the day of, to promote their show.

With those first two assurances established, then the expectation will be that you deliver a tight, high energy set, starting exactly when the fuck you are told to play and lasting exactly as long as you've been given. You will not hang out in the green room. You will likely go on without a soundcheck, too. If all that still appeals to you, don't let anything discourage you from your making your dream happen.

One final bit of advice: artists rocking the Ballroom are far less likely to be interested in your pitch than acts who are playing in the Showcase Lounge. Good luck bumrushing the stage in 2022.