Top 5 Most Dispiriting Scenarios When You’re in an Unknown Band

Nobody shows up to your show. It can be pretty demoralizing to get up on stage and play for three people. Talk about killing your band’s energy. Also, this sets up the scenario where the venue never wants you back, or you’re so mortified by your turnout you don’t dare ask to play there again.
Your album drops like a lead balloon. You slave away for months or years creating your masterpiece—screwing up your social, mental and physical health in the process—and finally get it done and out. . . only for it to get 10 likes on social and promptly effectively disappear from existence. This is the landscape we live in now with music. It can crush the human spirit.
Your social media accounts remain a wasteland. Unfortunately, social media popularity has a very direct correlation with the amount and types of opportunities you get as a band. If your Instagram is a barren wasteland of hardly any followers, likes or shares, it can and will imperil your fortunes.
Your show inquires go unanswered. In this scenario, you lose momentum as a band, as the people you’re playing with you start to question the point of being in a group that can’t get shows. You want to fix it by getting some bookings, but the venues ignore you because. . . well, either #1 or #3.
The de facto band producer/writer kills momentum by taking too long to finish an album. But what if it’s worth it? What if it becomes Loveless? Or better yet, Hysteria?