I've also been contacted by BigTime but now they're called AFTON and are in Milwaukee. Freakin scams.

is this bigtime with billy ray jack

Thanks for the info. I just got an e-mail from them about my soundcloud account, which is super funny because all I have on there is slam poetry and they wanted to book me for a concert
this is the email word for word:

Hey,

Afton Dallas (Ryan Kintz) sent you a message with the subject Id like to discuss Booking you for my Shows:

"

My name is Ryan Kintz and I book shows for Afton in dallas. We are a nationwide concert production company and we've been doing shows for over 8 years. I found your account on here, and I'm digging the vibe. I think you might be a good fit for some shows I have coming up. One of the dates I'm setting up is on 16th Feb @ The Door. But I also have other options in the next few months as well.

I wanted to see if we can exchange info? Then we can see if that show or other shows I have on the books can work out. Contact me at my booking email:

dfw@MyAfton.com

Then I can get you all the info you need for this show and the others I have in the works!!

Ryan
AFTON, LLC
503-914-6597, ext. 757

I have been playing in bands all over Northern California and the Pacific Northwest since the early 90's, booking shows, and doing all aspects of what is involved in promoting musicians and trying to provide benefit and a great experience for everyone who attends; fan or band. Afton is becoming something of a fixture now in cities like Portland, Seattle, San Jose, and most recently San Francisco. I have played on 3 Afton promoted bills and have a few other friends in bands who have as well.

I agree completely that the business model that Afton uses is disingenuous at best, a rip-off at worst, but as you noted there are (sadly) plenty of inexperienced bands or those who have no problem compromising their time/talent while making Afton and the local venue who partners with them wealthy. The issue for me is that Afton (and the half dozen other national promotion companies who are similar) are not invested in trying to recognize the unique potential of the local music scene as it stands and leverage that, but instead forces their model of what a show is on that scene.
As an example: In San Jose and now San Francisco Afton has started booking shows at just a few clubs, the nights they do shows at these venues look and feel totally different from the shows booked by the local promoter, and often result in a contentious internal relationship between the bands playing that night which eventually leads to a fracturing of the music community as a whole.
Afton show nights have between 5 and 7 bands playing on a Thursday night with a door charge of between $10 - $12 per head. Other non-Afton nights there are typically 3 bands playing with the opener starting at 9:30 and the admission is between $5 - $7. No one in SF that I know (including myself) goes out to see a show before 9 just based on the logistics of work, school, and mealtimes not to mention the well-established club culture already in place for many years.

The Afton shows create tension and sometimes anger because of the bands who are obligated to play before 9 (I refer to these bands as cannon fodder) because they never play to anyone except the bar tender and the other bands queuing up. Since Afton never provides a specified set time for any of the bands until the night of the show (or if they do often changes that at the last minute based on information that none of the bands have access to) this leads to infighting and hard feelings between the musicians rather than promoting a supportive community where we can encourage each other.

Often at Afton shows fans (and the other bands) do not stay for anyone except the band their friend is in because of this kind of manufactured contention, as well as the fact that Afton never provides a locally sourced contact who is invested in not just the take at the door, but the development of the scene and potential of return bands/fans based on an overall positive experience for everyone. The best way to get your band shows is to network with other bands, in this kind of environment all the bands feeling such intense competition and having no promoter at the show to speak with, causes zero band networking in most cases. Divide and conquer should be the Afton motto in my opinion. My experience is that Afton is a booking machine, with no more regard for local talent, color or flavor than Warner or Sony; this attitude actually discourages bands on the same bill from collaborating or supporting each other. It is not in Afton's interest to have this kind of community, because if all bands are in heavy competition to pre-sell tickets and jockey for the few coveted time slots announced only at the night of the show this creates an easy opportunity for them to capitalize, control and profit with the least amount of work for them. Fans don't want to commit to buying tickets for a weeknight show (especially if their friends band is playing at 6:30!) because often it's hard to gauge the logistics I mentioned above in relationship to making it out of the house especially if a ticket is $10 or above.

I guess the best I can hope for is that Afton will attract and siphon off the "low hanging fruit" so that better shows will be available at venues that refuse to succumb to this one size fits all booking model. So while I think the idea of pre-selling over priced tickets to over booked weeknight shows is abhorrent and I won't be playing any more Afton booked events, this is a free country and Afton are just another money-making music business; the fact that they have such blatant disregard for the local musicians, community and culture is what really makes their business model and policies totally unacceptable.