Members Potts Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 Discuss... Article from Buffalo News Entertainment Section Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 I think about 9:30-1:30 is pretty much perfect. If I have a night off and go out to see live music I usually don't get there until 10:30-11:00. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vort Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 I think it's venue specific. As someone who works a full time job and does the band thing on the side, I wish all venues would go early. However, I remember my early twenties when our going out to club nights didn't start till 10 o'clock. Anything earlier involved deciding where to go or pregaming in another bar... but I digress... Here has been my experience: For the clubs with younger crowds, the 10 - 2 timeslot is appropriate, as this is typically when the crowd is there. For the bars... 8-12 or 9-1 seems to be the best. These places don't have the late night crowds, and when you go earlier, you have a chance of catching the dinner crowd and get them to stay for a couple more drinks. At these places (restaurants, sports bars, etc), it's difficult to get people to stay out to 2 am. It seems the crowd has a built in clock that as soon as they see midnight, it signals "time to leave". We intentionally play a longer set to make sure we play past that magic time so that the set at least ends around 12:30 or 12:45, and we keep the crowd a little longer. But that last break after midnight is the largest exodus in those places. In the end, the venue dictates the play times, to their benefit, if they know their crowd, or to their/our detriment sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 most of the bars I play around here start to fill up around 10:30-11:00. Usually fairly dead the first set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 vort wrote: I think it's venue specific. As someone who works a full time job and does the band thing on the side, I wish all venues would go early. However, I remember my early twenties when our going out to club nights didn't start till 10 o'clock. Anything earlier involved deciding where to go or pregaming in another bar... but I digress... Here has been my experience: For the clubs with younger crowds, the 10 - 2 timeslot is appropriate, as this is typically when the crowd is there. For the bars... 8-12 or 9-1 seems to be the best. These places don't have the late night crowds, and when you go earlier, you have a chance of catching the dinner crowd and get them to stay for a couple more drinks. At these places (restaurants, sports bars, etc), it's difficult to get people to stay out to 2 am. It seems the crowd has a built in clock that as soon as they see midnight, it signals "time to leave". We intentionally play a longer set to make sure we play past that magic time so that the set at least ends around 12:30 or 12:45, and we keep the crowd a little longer. But that last break after midnight is the largest exodus in those places. In the end, the venue dictates the play times, to their benefit, if they know their crowd, or to their/our detriment sometimes. this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 Between my two current projects - I'm essentially playing a once a month gig in three different venues. One is a sports bar that has us play 9:30 - 1:30. The place is packed from 8:30 ... and starts to thin out around 1. The 9:30 -1:30 thing works pretty good for us there.A second venue is a bar/pizzaria type joint - that's a bit out of town (semi-rural area). We play a 9:00 - 1:00 shift there. The time slot works pretty good. It's a family crowd early in the evening. Starting earlier than 9:00 pm would likely run out the family crowd. On the backside - the crowd starts to thin around 12:30 ... so having us play until 1 likely helps keep folks for an extra drink at the end of the night. My third regular venue is the lounge that's part of an upscale microbrewery/steakhouse. We just shifted from a 9:00 - 1:00 shift to an 8:00 - 12:00 shift. Changing to the earlier start as a good move. When we were playing the 9-1 shift - the dinner crowd was well on the way to getting thin by the time we started - and the place really cleared out at midnight. (It's an upscale (translate: somewhat pricey) venue. The older, more affluent crowd goes home ... they're either tired from working all day or gotta get up the next morning to work (that's how they've come to be more affluent). The 8-12 shift means we're keeping more of the dinner crowd and aren't playing to chairs for the last set. The bar staff is happy as hell about it to - because when the crowd thins at midnight - we're done, packed and gone by 1. Nobody gets stuck there till 1:45-2:00 waiting for us to pack and get out. Personally - I'm all for the earlier start times. The older crowds (30-50) we play start their nights out earlier - and go home earlier - than the kid crowds (20 somethings) that I used to play to in my college days. It makes sense that we adjust our start times to better serve them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 I can't tell you how many times I've decided to just stay home when I've heard that the act I want to see won't be playing until at least 10 o'clock....that means killing 5 hours between work and "listen", only to arrive home completely exhausted and screwed up the next day. What time is last call in Buffalo? Bands started earlier here 20 years ago when last call was at 00:50. Now it's 01:50 and the music scene is much deader. I wonder if the two are related... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mutha Goose Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 I used to hate playing NYC because we didn't even start until 1:00-2:00 am.Now-a-days we typically start between 9:30 and 10:00 as that is the same time the clubs start to fill in. If we started any earlier, we'd be playing to a mostly empty room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 The gigs start between 10:00 - 10:30 depending on the crowd. People don't show up until later. The odd time we've started at 10, or even 11. 2 bands work out the best. Tonight we should be starting at 10. There's 3 bands and they have a good draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted March 22, 2013 Members Share Posted March 22, 2013 I wish we could start at 9 and be done before midnight. I don't know how to get crowds out that early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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