my response

[Matt Condon]

One suggestion that might help attendance for local openers and such --

Down here in DC, several venues give their local openers advance tickets 
to sell.  Now frequently here there's some minimum number -- if you want 
to get another show at the venue, you have to sell, say, at least 20 or 
30 (the actual number tends to depend on when the show is and what draw 
the venue expects).  I don't think that placing a number on it is 
necessarily a good idea, but . . .

When band members are actually actively going up to their friends and 
acquaintances and offering to sell them tickets, people have more of a 
tendency to purchase them rather than simply making promises to be 
there.  And people who already have tickets that they've already paid 
for in their hands are more likely to show up and less likely to make 
excuses on the actual night of the show (and really, at that point, if 
they do bail out, at least it's another ticket paid for anyway).

So, why not do something similar?  Make up advance tickets, give them to 
the bands to sell at Ceremony, other shows, and such.  Put it more in 
the hands of the bands to get people to come out, and less in the hands 
of the apathy that tends to hit people when the day of the show comes 
around.  Sure, it's a bit more of a pain to deal with, but if it 
increases your attendance and sales enough, it might be worth it.

Matt