Event Preview: The Serfs @ the Empty Bottle 2/3/23

Event Preview

The Serfs

@ The Empty Bottle

Chicago, Ill.

(2/3/23)

The past three years have been tough on touring musicians!  First there was essentially two years of no touring at all, or really even playing live locally, followed by inflationary economic conditions that raised relative costs compared to revenue earned on the road.  This has impacted artists at every level in true Darwinian "survival of the fittest" fashion- only the strong have survived.  For any artist that was only getting started prior to the plague years, the past three years: 2020, 2021, 2022 have been a total wash.  I'm guessing that this spring will be the first year that there is some semblance of a normal touring schedule for newer artists since 2019.  That is an important fact to consider when evaluating the impact of new artists since 2019- the sample size is heavily/exclusively weighted towards artists that made an impact online, either through social media followings, streaming numbers or some combination thereof.  Whereas, the number of artists who have established themselves since 2019 via a combination of killer live shows and the sales of vinyl records/other physical formats is closer to, I don't know, zero. 

No artist is better set to benefit from the current difficult touring situation than The Serfs, who are playing the Empty Bottle in Chicago on February 3rd, 2023.  I saw them play live in Los Angeles last fall, and they were amazing live.  I have no doubt that this show, like the New Year's show they played at the Earl in Atlanta- another stalwart of the pre-pandemic indie band touring circuit- is an indication that they are essentially prepared to tour the US without a booking agent and perhaps could make money on the whole deal in the bargain.  Like a Nashville based artists, the Serfs, who are located in Cincinnati, can tour on weekends in a series of fri/sat/sun shows...  So weekend one you play Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland.  Weekend two you play Boston, NYC, Philly, Weekend three you play Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Weekend four,  Oklahoma City, Dallas, Austin, and then take off for a week and do the west coast/southwest and play Denver on the way back home.

So right now the Serfs could do the first weekend easily, second weekend, easy, third weekend, easy, etc- they already have relationships in many of those markets.