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Anything New Going On With Anyone?


sventvkg

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IT's SLOW aRound here man!......;)

 

Anyway, My drummer from my corporate band isn't into the Bon Jovi material so he stepped out of that tribute but we got another drummer who is and that's ongoing. Got 10 tunes worked up with tracks etc. Also, we're working on the first 10 tunes for our U2 Tribute and the first rehearsal will be in couple of weeks. It's going to take the time it's going to take to get these 2 bands operational. I estimate by the end of the summer we'll have everything in place, the show down, videos, websites, EPK's etc and start booking.

 

My Corporate Wedding band has worked A LOT since the beginning of May and I did a quite a few weekends out of town and lots of van miles. Made good money though...We've got a Casino in W. Memphis Arkansas this weekend, and weddings on the 11th and 13th. The bandleader and guitarist is leaving for a European Tour with Alan Parsons so he'll miss the 13th wedding and will return to the band the end of August. We've got subs for all the gigs.

 

On the original front..ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAS GOTTEN RECORDED, FINISHED or even worked on since last year. My partner is busy making $$ and trying to build these bands with me and there simply has not been any time to work on Originals which is a big bummer because THAT'S why I moved here to Nashville. After these first 2 tributes are up and running we'll shift focus for a few months and work on getting the original material finished to pitch while doing the initial work on the next tribute....

 

So that's me....What about you?

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Not that much to report.

 

This year has been a bit slower than the last couple. I'm attributing it to the fact that our video demo is at least a couple years out of date (largely because that's the only thing I could attribute to that I have any real control over). Various issues have kept us from having it done already (procrastination being among them, of course...) but it will get done over this summer one way or another. It has to.

 

One of the reasons it's been held up is the "what to do with the lead singer" issue. If you remember, I posted awhile back about Tiffany losing her voice, and eventually it got to the point where she turned in her resignation. But many auditions later and we haven't found a suitable replacement and she doesn't really want to leave the band anyway. And the gigs have all been going just fine with her singing what she can as well as she can and Sarah singing the rest, so it seems we'll probably just keep going the way we're going until something/someone better comes along. But we're keeping an eye open and also considering adding a third (male) singer to the lineup if the right one comes along as well.

 

And that's not a real reason to not do a new video anyway. The main reasons to do one are to show we actually have a 2-singer frontline, and to have some current material in the video. Which 2 girls are in the video is pretty much irrelevant from a booking-the-band standpoint.

 

Updated the light show which has been a plus. Replaced the trees with trusses and added some new fixtures and new software/controller system. Decided against tracking the show because it would be really hard to do and maintain the same flow and energy to the performances. We stop and restart songs mid-stream several times during the course of a night for various effect and being tracked would make that pretty hard to do. But I created various scenes for each song and switch between them with a foot controller. I've still got to get a bit more fluid with the whole process, but I'm getting the effect I want from it. Debating whether to add movers to the show. They certainly would help to create a nice look, but I don't think that having them would get us any more gigs/$$ or generate more positive after-gig reviews from clients, so they might not really be necessary. Probably putting them off until next year at the very least.

 

 

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Music has pretty much been on auto-pilot for me lately. Still have two projects going - and still knocking out 2-3 gigs a month ... with the normal summer "bump up" to 4-5 gigs per month. Both bands are actively learning new material and are essentially drama free. At the moment the "Satisfaction/Effort" ratio is in a good place - so I have no complaints.

 

So ... with my musical stuff cruising smooth for the time being - I've diverted my attentions to riding my bicycle. Between March 15th (the first day the roads were clear of ice and snow around here) and today - I've managed to pedal 2,170 miles. Today's ride got me to a total of 815 miles for the month of June alone.

 

Life is good! ;-)

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My band played a party a couple weekends ago. Played for 6 hours. Our next gig is on the 17th and 20th. I DJ'd a wedding this weekend, have another one on the 26th. It's crazy how much DJ'ing pays compared to my band. Picked up something called a Chauvet Nimbus, a dry ice "dancing on clouds" kinda thing.

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What's new? My keyboardist resigned and I found a new one all in the span of a week. Fortuitous timing, and ultimately might be for the best. Wades, I took the guy with the experience this time. :p But I avoided the guy who told me he had a $20 an hour rate. Looks like some doors to some new venues might be opening. Busy learning a lot of new material over the summer to unveil a substantially revamped set list in the fall. Looking at adding some new lighting.

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When my band plays' date='y cut is between $400 - $600. When I DJ, I start at $900, and usually end up at $1200 - $1300 for my services. I try to sell the band as its a helluva lot more fun.[/quote']

 

I think it's a helluva lot more fun for the client too. I asked because I don't really know what good DJs get. I know we charge $3500 to $5000 for a wedding. I figure a good DJ is charging around $1500-$2000. Asking them to put out $2-3K more is, on one hand, a lot of dough. On the other hand though---not that much for a wedding that's already costing them over $50K.

 

It's just about selling it as an 'extra' that they can't do without.

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My band played a party a couple weekends ago. Played for 6 hours. Our next gig is on the 17th and 20th. I DJ'd a wedding this weekend' date=' have another one on the 26th. It's crazy how much DJ'ing pays compared to my band. Picked up something called a Chauvet Nimbus, a dry ice "dancing on clouds" kinda thing.[/quote']

 

But to DJ a wedding is much more work, it's not 4 sets and 4 hours, more like 10 hour day if you start social hour tunes at 5 etc, start dance at 8 get over at 12 (depends) plus you get to MC, babysit all the brats and convince them that "no those bars are for lights, not a jungle jim little guy" lol, Would like to see video of your nimbus though. What raw materials do you need to run it? (too lazy to go look sorry).

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But to DJ a wedding is much more work, it's not 4 sets and 4 hours, more like 10 hour day if you start social hour tunes at 5 etc, start dance at 8 get over at 12 (depends) plus you get to MC, babysit all the brats and convince them that "no those bars are for lights, not a jungle jim little guy"

 

A band puts in the same long day most times.

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I have my first gig on Thursday... as a bass player? I'm by no means a bassist, but I can play a little bass, and a friend's band is doing a six-song set at a local open jam. Since the bass player can't make it, she asked if I wanted to do it. These are by no means hard songs to play:

 

Radiohead - "Creep"

 

The Romantics - "What I Like About You"

 

Hole - "Celebrity Skin"

 

The Cranberries - "Zombie"

 

Joan Jett - "I Love Rock and Roll"

 

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - "Paris"

 

... but I'm stoked for the experience and fun of doing it! So I guess THAT'S new.

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We're on hiatus until further notice and it's KILLING ME! I'm really itching to play. In the meantime, I bought a new guitar and I'm starting to really focus on a new project, which will be all 50's / Early 60's rock. Lots of Elvis, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, etc. People down here eat that up. Thy love to jitterbug down here and that music is perfect for it. I'm probably going to take a couple 1-hour gigs doing the 50's stuff just to get out and play.

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I recently joined a Beatles tribute in addition to my main 80s-new wave cover band. It's a band that prides itself on nailing the arrangements, and I'm a sort of utility infielder for that band, so I end up doing lots of hand percussion, the occasional third guitar part, and harmony vocals. It's fun, but it's been a challenge to get up to speed on a huge chunk of the Beatles oeuvre in a fairly short amount of time, while adapting to new band dynamics. I thought I was fairly conversant with the Beatles' body of work, but I now realize that I never really payed that much attention to the maraca and tambourine parts. On the other hand, I'm hearing the Beatles' songs from a fresh perspective after many years.

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I think it's a helluva lot more fun for the client too. I asked because I don't really know what good DJs get. I know we charge $3500 to $5000 for a wedding. I figure a good DJ is charging around $1500-$2000. Asking them to put out $2-3K more is' date=' on one hand, a lot of dough. On the other hand though---not that much for a wedding that's already costing them over $50K. It's just about selling it as an 'extra' that they can't do without. [/quote'] As a band we aren't crazy expensive. $1600, and $2600 for big parties. Everyone gets $300 or $500 each and I get an extra $100, so $400 or $600 for providing the PA & Lights. That nimbus link I posted was video I took for the party. Here's the band setup: 9B120B38-9A4F-4A4E-A94A-6FE649659A7C.jpg46979C7E-DAF0-469F-99B3-0411C39BE5F2-1376-000000B37ECB127A_zps115cbbbc.jpg
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Do you find yourself having to scale that down often for smaller rooms? One of the reasons we went to IEMs is that trying to fit 4 big-ass monitors across the front of the stage wasn't practical in so many venues.
We've been lucky in that almost every place we've played we are able to use the works. If worse comes to worse' date=' I'll share a monitor with our bass player, skip the center fill, and let the other 2 each have a monitor. The keyboard player likes lots of keys in hers and the other guitarist not so much. Good god the smallest stage we fit onto was 8x12, when we were first starting out. Old home made lights, colored extension cords of shame, milk crates of shame. 5 people on the stage, keys were placed on the floor and she played them sideways. [img']http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z398/robare99/88da9e62.jpg[/img] we ended up pricing ourselves out of that gig when we raised out price. No big loss. Big staircase as well. (Curling rink)
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We specify a minimum 24' x 16' stage in our contract, but we're lucky to ever get that. Most of the venues we end up playing simply don't have the room. People spend a lot of money to rent out these beautiful venues for their weddings and while the places ARE beautiful, accommodating large stages and bands isn't usually part of what is considered in their design. I get that, so the stage specification is much more of a "request, if possible" than any sort of actual demand.

 

So yeah, the monitors really needed to go because they were just so ugly and junky and usually ended up being out on the dancefloor, and really as much a safety hazard as anything else.

 

The back line? We only go 10' across with it. Any wider and we'd probably be cutting it down most of the time anyway. Plus the projection screen is only 10' across. But I'm considering other options. i.e. another 10' truss across the back so we spread that out to 20' when we have the room and a couple of 5' black cloths to frame the projector screen with.

 

As it is, we can't use the backline at all about 20% of the time. We're either shoved in a corner, or the stage is too shallow (we have to bring the drum riser out a couple of feet to make room for the backline) or the ceiling is too low.

 

Also thinking about getting rid of all the cans across the back and going with lighting bars.

 

Whatever it is, the setup has to be flexible enough to accommodate the various rooms and stages which, 90% of the time, we have no idea what it is going to be like until we show up.

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Lots for me (new account, couldn't log in with the old one for some reason).

 

My main band, Broke By Sunday, has continued on the path of doing bar and nightclub gigs, but has also done some sporadic work for a huge agency in the state. A few frat gigs, a black tie gala, some other private events.. in addition to a few private events on our own. Opening for Uncle Kracker in September as well. My goal for this project has always been steady nightclub/county fair work mixed in with some colleges and frat gigs, so it's on the right track. Although we've seen a little less work in terms of how many days a week we're booked, we're getting a little more dollar per date, so it is evening out.

 

The second band I've been working on, Popwire, is coming together, just not as quickly as I'd hoped. I am designing and marketing this band as a wedding/corporate/event geared band. Personnel changes have set it back, but all of the framework is in place. Website, songlist, logo, stage attire.. all of the "packaging" is setup. With any luck, the project should be up and bookable within the next two months.

 

I've also created a satellite band from Popwire, a 90s to early 00s group called The Feenies. That project's aim is two fold. The first is to play a recurring weeknight club show locally, to attempt to build that night, and our brand simultaneously. The second part of the goal is to have that band as an option for the agents we work with, so that if someone wants a 90s alt rock/pop group, we have what they need. We'll be dressing the part, in addition to the setlist having that vibe. Planning on keeping the PA and light rig fairly minimal for this.

 

 

 

Lots going on.. I'm still not over hating the whole "hurry up and wait" thing though!

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This might be the most extreme example, but the M.O. is pretty typical:

 

Beautiful venue, but virtually NO room for the band. Beautiful venue at the top floor of a historic building in downtown San Francisco. We're shoved in a corner and just barely have enough room to put the drum riser and the guitarist's riser up, but no room to put up the back truss. And even if we did, we risk detracting from the vibe of the room too much. The Big Rock Band look isn't always the most appropriate for these sorts of gigs. At this one, we didn't even have room for two light trees, so we just went with one. Floor monitors would have just been in the way and would have taken up way too much of the dancefloor.

 

Hella fun crowd though, and it paid great, so you do what ya gotta do!

 

 

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For me, my dance/party/wedding/corp band is a little slow this year. We are experiencing some band member upheaval and are looking to replace 2-3 members. Like a lot of bands, we use a google calendar that everyone shares. We have had to cancel quite a few gigs because a select few band members are blocking out dates AFTER we had already booked those dates. I don't think we've done more than 3 gigs this year without a sub player. The 3 of us, who basically run the show, are beyond frustrated and not even sure we want to continue after this year.

 

The good news is the 3 of us have started up a "New Country" band with some real good players. It's an 8 piece band and it's sounding fantastic. We've done 3 gigs so far since the beginning of May and the response has been awesome. The word is starting to get out and we're getting calls for dates. A lot of the calls are coming from venues our other band has built relationships with. I'm really excited about the country band. It's a lot of fun and I'm playing music I've never played before. I had a feeling the country band might attract a fair amount of people to the gigs because there just aren't that many country bands in our area, yet there seems to be a fair amount of demand.

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Playing with 3 different bands, in a duo for country club gigs, and also the usual cocktail solos, weddings etc.- all on weekends. It seems that I am totally shut out from the mid-week music scene.

 

Our guitar player left my main band when work got slow, was replaced by the original guy who is stronger on harmony vocals. So we're sounding more country than before. Here is a short clip of the insanity that is our club gig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP7ClGnZ9lg (intentionally not embedded).

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A band puts in the same long day most times.

Our days from start to finish are anywhere from 12-16 hours and I make $3-$500 for them..In my view it's {censored}ty money compared to making $250 for 4 hours total of playing solo most anywhere etc..The pay for the effort is a lot less than I've ever made. That's why i'm building Tributes because it's better cash, shorter gigs, less gear etc...That said, I'm definitely going to start a DJ business wrapped up in my production company because it seems like killer money for the amount of work comparatively speaking.

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