Hey recession screwers. I’m psyched to introduce you to our latest contributor to Screw You Recession!, Adil Dhalla. As founder of his own self-service online box office, Ticket Trunk, and creator of Creativity Killed The Recession, Adil knows a thing or three about saving cash and the entertainment industry. Each Friday we’ll get his low down on how to keep up the without breaking the bank…

Live A Little With Some Live Music

About me: I like to get around. But not in the way you’re thinking. What I mean is that I’ve got a social appetite that’s never satisfied so I tend to go to a lot of events and meet a lot of people. The good news for me is that I found a way to make a living while doing this by launching Ticket Trunk. My day-to-day job involves finding and speaking with small and medium sized organizations (e.g. bands, student clubs, community groups, charities, etc) that could use my little self service box office. So going to see a show is like going to work for me. Pretty cool, eh?

What’s not cool, however, is that with 72% of us aged 18 -34 cutting down on entertainment spending, there’s a sense that the recession is sullying our social lives. Friends, this is defeatist talk and we’ll have none of that here. Screw you recession, you might limit our spending but you will never take our social lives. The recession actually provides a great opportunity for us to find new ways to have fun by doing things we never considered before. Not to mention, each time we go out we’re doing a little bit to nip this recession in the bud.

There’s no better place to start this series than with live music. If spending 50.00 on those concert tickets digs too deep into your monthly budget, why not consider going to several smaller shows and spread out the cost over multiple dates rather than crapping out in one night? You’ll find that new and amateur bands are eager to generate interest so their shows are always accessible, the seats are always great and often you can hang with the band when they’re done their set. Best of all, admission to these shows is dirt cheap and often free. The price is important not only for you but for your friends as you’ll find that the cheaper the ticket, the easier it’ll be to get a big group going. Finally, don’t forget that every band starts by doing small gigs so you never know who you might stumble upon now that’s going to be huge later. This happened to me once when I saw this tiny band from Montréal called Arcade Fire play for an audience of about 50 people. Who knew maximizing your budget could be so fortuitous?

In terms of finding these events, I suggest you stop looking at the normal sites and start searching for ‘live music’ sites online, portals like Craigslist, urban magazines like Now, city-centric blogs and small-event ticketing companies. Also, you could just try the old approach and Google “your city” + “music” or try the super old approach and check out a record shop to see if they sell tickets to local events. They might not have what you’re exactly looking for but they’ll certainly know where to find it and have a good story that you can impress your friends with later.

Take that recession. There’s plenty more where that came from but for now, have a great weekend.