"I've also noticed that if too many people or promoters are involved in a show, then the money always seems to disappear a lot faster," Rodriguez adds with a laugh. "Houston has been a good city to us, and I'm not sure we can compare it [with] much, though. We try our best to not trick ourselves into shows with bad turnouts."

In a city that isn't recognized for its music scene, plenty of bands are thriving. And not just hip-hop artists are making it in the City of Syrup, either.

"Pay always varies, and sometimes it seems like we're more a charity band than anything," says vocalist Mikey Seals of A dream Asleep. "When we put together a big local show - for example, one of our CD release shows - and get paid by head count, we can get $250 to $500."

Similar to Hollywood FLOSS, Seals and the other members of A dream Asleep are willing to play shows for less if they see it as an opportunity to promote their band. He says they have only been paid $50 to $100 for shows that brought the band publicity.

"Touring is quite different," Seals says. "For us, not being a well-known band in other cities, we can't count on a head count, plus we can't expect the venue to give us a guarantee not knowing who the fuck we are. On top of this, if you're using a booking agent, you will be paying them too, so that's even less money for [the band]."

When on tour, A dream Asleep's members focus on selling merchandise to pay for food, hotels and gas. The money they get from the door, Seals says, is just a little something extra. It's beer money, really.

"We all have side jobs to pay the rent," says Micah Walker, lead vocalist and songwriter of VerseCity. "One of my guys plays guitar and saxophone in his church band... there's a lot of churches, especially the big churches, where guys make $300 to $500 every Sunday."

In the past year, Walker says VerseCity has made somewhere between $6,000 and $10,000 from live performances.

"Basically, every penny we make as a band goes back into the band," Walker says. "Our starting asking price is $800 to $1,200, depending on if it's [an] acoustic or a full-band show, and it can go higher."

The last show VerseCity played was at the Fort Bend County Fair. The band was asked to lace its original music with cover songs and was paid $2,000 for three 45-minute sets.

"Sometimes we have fans who want us to come play an acoustic set at their birthday party or something," Walker says. "And they can't afford all that, so we'll bring our own PA for our die-hard fans, and if they can only pay $200 or $300, we'll go that low."

VerseCity is also known for playing a variety of benefit shows, for which the band is willing to play for free and only asks to be compensated for gas and food.

"That way," Walker says, "we play for free, but we aren't losing money out of our own pockets."

And, of course, musicians can always make some extra cash by giving music lessons, performing on other bands' albums. Also, let's not forget, that there's a large market out there for cover bands.