They may have showed up for the much more known band, and had to leave because it got so late. Just my experience from touring almost 300 days a year for 5 years. Is what it is!

That’s a good question tbh. Our name was always the biggest on the flyer, our following online in comparison to the local bands was 10x, and in general it was just thought of as “these are the guys bringing the crowd”. The local bands were good and def helped bring in people, no doubt. But, it was always a bummer when we would see everyone lines up to get in, and our set would start at something crazy like 12:45 or 1. Half the crowd was gone by then, or drunk 😂

Ill play devils advocate from the POV of a touring musician in my early 20s.

Bars like to keep the crowd for as long as they can, so bar sales can be higer. This becomes an issue when you are on a show with 4 other bands, 3 other bands, or 6 other bands. The crowd is always the BEST between 10 and 1145 at night. Usually the middle bands get the best all around crowd attendance due to people not wanting to stay till 1 am to watch a show.

We were the headling band, on tour, and would play at the end of the night around midnight...when half the crowd had already left. The local bands would have a great turn out to play for, and we would have a little less than half if lucky. This was mostly notable by the messages we would get about "man, i had to leave and bummed i didnt see you guys!"

We started stating in contract that we played no later than 11, and the big local band that was part of the deal could headline if they wanted, or a DJ could take over. Fixed a lot of our issues and our merch sales went up as a by product. So, while I can see it being weird if the headliner wants the better spot...ask the local band if they could put 750 people in a venue without the headliners name... if they say no, then maybe playing for less people isnt such a terrible thing, leaving the headliner to play for the crowd that showed up for them.