Mikey In The Pit

Ten days before a metal show at the venue, we had sold seven tickets. Then we canceled it. And apparently everybody was going. This episode is about the giant difference between what people say they support and what they actually support with a ticket. We get into: Why social media engagement means almost nothing if nobody buys. Why venues can’t just “wait for walk-up.” How much financial risk can...

Your favorite band announces a tour. San Francisco. Portland. Seattle. Reno. Sacramento? Nothing. I’ve spent years looking at schedules like that and thinking, “You’re literally driving right past us. What the fuck?” Now that I’m actually booking bands myself, I’m finally learning what’s happening behind those tour posters. Episode 3 of Mikey in the Pit gets into tour routing, venue availability,...

I’ve spent 25 years around concerts, and until I became a talent buyer, I thought the math was pretty simple: book a band, sell tickets, pack the room, make money. Nope. In this episode, I’m opening an actual concert deal and showing you where the money really goes. We’re talking artist guarantees, venue expenses, support bands, hospitality, backends, split points and all the other shit quietly ea...

Three months ago, I had never bought talent for a concert. Now I’m negotiating guarantees, calculating break-even points, chasing local support, obsessively refreshing ticket counts, and pretending words like “backend” have always been part of my vocabulary. After more than 25 years in radio, I thought I understood the music business. I interviewed the bands, hosted the shows, covered the festival...

Ryan Brown from Titan and Titan Fest jumps on Mikey In The Pit and basically pulls the curtain back on how this shit actually works. From a Halloween house show with 300 people and no cops, to a full multi‑day Titan Fest and playing Aftershock, he’s fronting costs, teaching himself design, and bleeding for a festival he refuses to hand over to suits. We get into why “pay‑to‑play” is trash, how his...

Thomas Flowers from Oleander jumps into The Pit with Mikey to talk about the band’s Sacramento come‑up, playing early Aftershock, and having their first show outside Sac be freaking Woodstock ’99.  They get into hustling radio with donuts, getting ‘Why I’m Here’ into heavy rotation, landing songs in American Pie and Dawson’s Creek, and why the band is finally having fun again.  Thomas shares plans...

🧨 Foo Fighters might crash Aftershock. Maiden’s bringing the nuclear heat. Sam Rivers is gone. And Ian Watkins? Still dead — now with bonus arrests. This week’s pit report hits harder than Gary Holt’s guitar tone: Foo Fighters drop stadium tour dates, new music, and a suspicious gap around Aftershock 2026 👀 Iron Maiden’s 50th birthday meltdown is official — Megadeth and Anthrax are joining the f...

OG nu-metal survivors Spineshank sit down backstage at Aftershock 2025 to talk about their first run of shows in decades, old-school OzzFest chaos, upcoming tours with Drowning Pool and Head PE , and why this scene still hits harder than your Stepdad. If you’re into real music news, raw festival coverage, band interviews, and your shot to win free concert tickets follow the show. Mikey In The Pit...

Death. Delusion. And a goth Christmas tree. 🪦🎄 Ace Frehley’s gone. Mudvayne’s calling themselves classic rock. Ian Watkins finally met karma. Spineshank rose from the grave. And apparently, Christmas now wears black eyeliner. It’s a hell of a week in rock. Follow @mikeyinthepit for the loudest rock news, festival coverage, and artist interviews every week.

Paul McCoy of 12 Stones is back — and he’s got a lot more to say than just “wake me up.” In this episode of Mikey In The Pit , we talk about everything from surviving melanoma to ditching the 9-to-5 grind and getting back on stage. Paul opens up about sobriety, mental health, his love/hate relationship with the industry, and why this isn’t some cute little comeback story — it’s about purpose. We a...

164,000 people. 115 bands. Four days of noise, sweat, and total mayhem. Aftershock 2025 was the biggest one yet and I somehow survived. From Blink-182 and Good Charlotte to Korn, Rob Zombie, Manson, Chimaira, and GWAR… this year hit different. This episode covers everything you didn’t see on the livestream: Thursday’s pop-punk flashback Friday’s food poisoning blackout Saturday’s pit insanity, the...