Local band politics – will playing one show with a “problem” band hurt us?

Hey all,

We’re a newer local band (about 2 years in) in a smaller city (under 700k, scene isn’t huge). A more established local band that’s been around for ~10 years just invited us to play a bill with them.

Since that was announced, 4 different people reached out to our singer saying we should “be careful” and that playing with this band “looks bad on us” and could hurt our reputation/positioning in the scene. No one’s given us super concrete reasons beyond vague “bad vibes” and “they’re not a good look.”

I’m torn. On one hand, I get that who you associate with can affect perception, and I don’t want to tank what we’re slowly building. On the other hand, it feels like playing one show with a band (even if they’re not respected or have drama) probably isn’t going to define us forever.

If you were in my shoes, would you lean more toward taking the show or passing on it?