Online touring resource Vroom aims to take the pain out of booking an interstate show, but does it actually work? We asked three touring musicians and a label manager to take the beta version of the site – which was developed by Sydney-based singer-songwriter Tracy Redhead – for a spin. Photo of Tracy Redhead by RENAE KELLY.

Matt Banham

Musician, No Through Road

Vroom is a pretty interesting site. I think if I was a musician just starting out this would be a great tool to find what venues are available and where. It really is a clueless person’s dream. That said it would be hard to know from this site what type of people go to these venues, and if people actually go at all. For example, when I go to cities like Melbourne, it’s important to know where the “cool” venues are; the kind of places people go to almost regardless of what band is playing there. You need a crowd to be there, especially when you’re just starting out. There’s no real indication of what these venues are really like and its pretty hard to trust a description written by the venue itself.

I think this could be vastly improved by some sort of section where punters, bands or bookers can add comments or reviews onto a venue’s page: ratings or short comments about what it’s like playing there, what the people were like to deal with, whether of not they screwed you over and if you would happily play there again. If properly moderated, that information would be a bigger help to a band starting out, or even bands who are looking to play somewhere different for a change.

This does seem like a good resource though. I will probably tell some of my friends about it if I can’t be bothered telling them the good places to play myself.

Simon “Tig” Huggins

Label manager, Two Bright Lakes

I like the site. I think it’s a great idea. Generally it seemed to cover venues I would book our acts for, however, it didn't have any warehouse information. I think this is something that’s really needed. Two Bright Lakes would book all-ages warehouses for their tours all the time if there was a decent system involved in booking them. We're all pretty sick of shitty pubs and their shitty staff and management. Also, some of the venue searches returned strange results. Case in point: I searched [Melbourne’s] “The Corner” and it wasn't anywhere on the first page. Maybe updating the search to filter colloquialisms is a good idea? Lastly, when I pressed the back button it led me to "page can't be displayed". It’s pedantic but this is a pet hate of mine.

Matthew Saliba

Musician, Hira Hira

After having a look through the website I can tell already I’m going to get a lot of use out of it. I wish I knew about it a couple of months ago when I was booking my band’s first interstate tour.

I loved the ease of searching venues, and it was especially handy to be able to search specific fields. For example, a venue that caters to punk music with a capacity of 250. Perfect! The amount of information available on grants and the links available will save hours of research.

Recently, a friend and I began compiling a list of venues, promoters and band contacts into a database. While we will still keep that list, this has done away with a big slice of the hassle to fill out more contacts and has superseded the database in other fields. The venue information supplied will make contacting promoters easier. With access to information such as capacity and licensing, I’ll be able to conduct a conversation with a booker in a more professional manner and know what to expect on the night of the show.

A listing for record stores would be a useful addition, as they’re a great place to play when you’re on tour. I think a discussion forum would also be great for communication between bands and promoters.

I’m about to organise a small-scale NSW tour outside of Sydney, heading to places I’ve never even visited before. This site will cut down hours of venue research and emailing people back and forth waiting for replies and relying on other bands/promoters for info.

Kristin Murphy

Musician, Yeah Bears

I was introduced to Vroom by a friend who regularly visits the Music NSW site among other resources. I was able to create my own database of venues relevant to my bands – some of theses venues I knew by reputation others just looked like good possible venues.

I particularly liked the fact that most provided contact details, which would help us book shows ourselves as opposed to relying on other bands or promoters to book all our out-of-town shows for us. Capacity details are also a big plus. They give us a good indication of venues we might be able to book and fill. Another handy bit of information is the payment method as there is nothing worse than going to show and expecting payment on the night to cover fuel or accommodation and finding out that they need your ABN details which you left at home, like a twit.

The only thing I'd like to see improved would be a few searching filters ie. search by capacity, over 18s/AA and maybe even genre if that wasn't too hard. I made most of my database at work so I had about 20 windows open adding these details to my spreadsheet (while I should have been doing work, but that's irrelevant). If these filters were in place I wouldn't have had to sift through cafes that only accommodate jazz, solo acts etc, but this is only a minor issue. Overall, I found this site invaluable. I've since passed on my database to friends and it's enabled us to organise our own little tours and help out other touring bands.

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