Just turned down a gig

[Kramerguy]

A high paying private party no less.  /sigh.

In the process of shopping, a lot of people see "live band" as a universal thing- In my questionaire, I generally state what we do, but refrain from stating what we don't (just wanted to avoid negativity), so in this last negotiation the person had already accepted our bid/offer, and the contract was sent, but in a responding email, the lady asked if we knew a few country songs she listed, then she listed a few hiop-hop artists from the 90's, also asking if we could play some of that material, and even asked us to learn a few of her husbands favorite songs from those genres.  

I replied back with our full song list, telling her that "this" is what we do, and explained how we do it, and that I didn't think we were a good fit for her needs.  She replied back agreeing, so poof goes the gig

I think I need to update our profile online and be more specific as to what kind of band we really are.

 

[jeff42]

That sucks but Sometimes you may not be the right band for the gig. Totally understand that and have been there before. I turned down a bike rally cuz IMO we don't have enough "real rock" to satisfy. Or remember my post last year about the bar not wanting "urban music" or any light show... We are not one size fits all and we shouldn't be.

We do always offer to learn a few requests for private parties. (usually 2-4 depending on the money) but the clients always see our master song list 1st. They SHOULD know what kind of band we are. If there are a few tunes they don't want, sure we can pull em out but sometimes I would love to ask the client... did you ACTUALLY look at our song list? LOL 

[Vito Corleone]

It's important for everyone involved to be the right band for the gig.  Doesn't matter how much it pays---being the wrong band for the gig will end up just being painful for both the audience and the band.

We have a bit of slow period in July so we're open to taking some other gigs and an agent in Reno called us the other day saying there's a new nightclub opening up having a grand opening weekend and that they didn't want to have a local band, they wanted to bring in a really good out of town band.   She suggested our band. 

Now we don't play nightclubs anymore.  And while the money is good for club work ($4K for a 3-night weekend), it's what we usually get for a single private event.  But we have no work that week, and 3 nighters a great way to tighten things up, etc....so maybe we should consider taking it.

But we turned it down not really because of the money or the amount of work involved---but because I don't trust this agent when she says we'd be a great band for this gig.   I have to believe we'd be a poor fit.  They need a younger band with a heavier emphasis on newer music than we are.  As much as the gig sounds like it could be a lot of fun, the last thing I want to do is ruin some new nightclub's grand opening event by being the wrong band for the crowd.

[Vito Corleone]

 

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Kramerguy wrote:

 

 

I think I need to update our profile online and be more specific as to what kind of band we really are.

 

 

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Do you have your songlist online?  That alone should go a long ways towards keeping people from asking for a bunch of stuff you don't do.

[tim_7string]

Turning down gigs is always a drag, especially when it seems like they are few and far between. We had a couple of gig offers a few weeks ago from two completely different sources. One wanted us to drive all the way to the Twin Cities, the other wanted us for a party on the other side of the state. Neither of them would have been cost-effective, as we would have driven across the entire state of Minnesota one way and the entire state of North Dakota the other way. Neither was interested in paying very much, so I turned them both down.

We're primarily a bar band, but we have played private parties and other events before. I put up our song list on our website so that people know what kind of music we do. When I'm contacted, I always let them know that we can tailor it more towards their needs (more country, less 70s, etc.). It's been working out well so far.

It's a good idea to be firm on what you feel comfortable doing and what you don't want to do. Even though it sucks to lose a gig (I recently lost out on a local private party that wanted us to play dirt cheap), it's better when you know you are the right band for the job too.

[jeff42]

yes it does suck when  you have to turn down a gig... but sometimes the people who want to book you are clueless about who you are or even better... what it takes to do a show

I just had a couple want to book us for their wedding. they said they loved the band and the set and we are perfect...

 

I said no cuz:

• they want specific lighting we would have to rent (but they wont pay for) It must be ALL shades of blue
• they though paying for our hotel rooms was silly even though it would be a 400 mile round trip
• their budget for "music" is $800 tops. 

[Kramerguy]

 

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guido61 wrote:

 

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Kramerguy wrote:

 

 

I think I need to update our profile online and be more specific as to what kind of band we really are.

 

 

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Do you have your songlist online?  That alone should go a long ways towards keeping people from asking for a bunch of stuff you don't do.

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I cherry-picked about 20 songs from our total list and have them on our profile.  The songs I picked are a good mix of everything we do- to see the rest of our song list would yield no surprises, but I've thought on it and intend to post the entire list just as a method of being more forthcoming and informative.

[TrickyBoy]

We regularly get asked if we play private parties or weddings.  I always answer "yes, but we're not your typical wedding band.  You really need to see us live and make sure that is what you want for your event.  We've had great private function gigs and would live to play yours, but if you're looking for "September" or "Run Around Sue", we really aren't the band for you.

[WynnD]

As a person who played a well paying corporate gig where we wondered what the people who hired us were thinking. It sucks big time to be playing in a place where no one wants to here you. Load in/out was a pain. (30th floor, freight elevator, one block walk and 4' lift over height. Pay couldn't make up for not feeling the love.

[Kevin T]

That why I don't do much corporate or weddings "Little to no Love.

[Kramerguy]

yeah, we played a private party back in 2009 where the only one who wanted to hear what we played was the guy who held the party.  It got to the point where we were heckled a bit during our final set.  

A night we still cannot forget, but a good lesson was learned, and really it's the lesson that brought me to turn this one down.

[Vito Corleone]

Of course. But that is universal. I guess the difference might be that a country bar is more of a known quantity so the metal bands can more easily stay away? If you book a private event without finding out who is going to be there and what sort of music they are going to want, then you can pretty much expect there to be problems.

 

Just asking what the expected age range of the guests will be will pretty much take care of that.

[Kramerguy]

well guido, much like the above states.  We played in a bar- a patron loved us, approached "our guy" about playing a private party.  A deal was struck and that was that.  Now, our guy, knowing that this guy just sat thru our nite and loved us, assumed that the guy who hired us knew what he was doing / what he wanted.

So he never even thought to ask the qualifying questions.

Nevertheless, we rolled in as a heavy, heavy rock band, and the demographic at this party was pop-culture young adults (18-25) requesting taylor swift, and a lot of kids requesting Justin beiber.. so you can imagine our dismay at our set only being armed with judas priest, metallica, and grunge hits.

Needless to say, we got heckled a bit.

So, 4 years later, I am well remembered in what went wrong, which qualifying questions to ask, and yes, just turned down a gig because the qualifiers failed to properly match the client to our band.  Now do I have flashbacks to that party 4 years ago?  No!  Of course not.  But the lesson itself has been learned.  Hell, even you are carrying lessons today learned when you were 4 years old.. like not to fall down and skin your knees on concrete.. it's just human nature.  If we didn't learn anything, then I would expect you to be surprised.

 

 

[SpaceNorman]

I've done a few corporates where there wasn't alot of love to be had (crowd was alot more interested in professional networking than in wild and crazy partying).  I've also done a few weddings where one look at the age of the crowd told us it wasn't going to be a wild and crazy night (young...ish bride and groom - but crowd of predominately made up of older folks).  In each case however, the crowds were appreciative - albeit not over the top in terms of dancing and "showing the love". 

I'm gonna say that these sorts of situations come around every 1 in 15 or corporate/wedding gigs we do.  By the same token - the 14 out of 15 corporate / wedding gigs that don't fit that profile are every bit as good if not better than most bar gigs in terms of "love received".   The likelihood of a corporate / wedding gig being a great time (combined with the minimum 3x the typical bar gig pay) makes playing corporate / wedding gigs a worthwhile risk everytime in my book!

[Vito Corleone]

 

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SpaceNorman wrote:

 

 

I'm gonna say that these sorts of situations come around every 1 in 15 or corporate/wedding gigs we do. 

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I'd say that's about our ratio as well.   At this point, it's usually less about us being the right band for the gig than it is that having live music was a bad call on the part of the event planner.    Most recent really bad gig I can remember doing was a Christmas party year-before-last.   In addition to live music they had casino games going on across the ballroom.  No matter how hard we tried or what material we pulled out, we just couldn't pull more than a few people away from the games.  I could be wrong, but I'm not sure ANY band could have done it.  It was just one of "those" nights with one of "those" crowds.

I'll also add that I find that one of the things I like about such gigs is they are less genre-driven than your typical nightclub.  (Which is why 'variety' bands do well at them, I suppose.)    The same people who might consider themselves to be, say, modern country fans, and who usually hang out at the local country bar suddenly become much more open-minded about music at a private event.   The same people who might take a seat or leave the venue if the band at the modern country bar started playing, say, "Dynamite" or "Pour Some Sugar On Me", pack the dance floor for those songs at the private events as much as they do for the genre they prefer.

Sometimes this job seems to be as much about being a sociologist as it does being a musician....

[tlbonehead]

I/we have turned down quite a few especially for that reason. Makes no sense to try and play gigs that don't fit the intended crowd.