Members mstreck Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 People just haven't been going out - most of the places around here aren't booking bands - or are booking really cheap ones. Our winter schedule hasn't been this thin for a very long time. How are you guys making out compared to last year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We actually have a packed schedule for OH. 7 gigs between now and end of the year. The crowds have been up and down though... last Friday we had a thin (but fun) crowd but Thanksgiving weekend (Saturday) was awesome. I have a feeling it will be thin as we get closer to Christmas. Hope I'm wrong though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Everything went to {censored} in October.. we had a great run through 2012.. but crowds lately are just thin. We're playing a gig this weekend at another regular hotspot, and if we don't really bring it, I think we might be in jeopardy of not getting booked there in 2013.. Nearly every place we play has told us they are holding off on 2013 bookings, either to decide whether to have them, or decide on slashing pay and bringing in bands willing to work for nothing (I'm guessing). Notably, one place we finally got into booked us on a rotation, based on how well we did there in the summer on fill-in gigs.. so there's that. We are going to weather this storm.. but it's looking pessimistic for the near future. A lot of places can't even sell out for new years.. and are starting to panic. We're not booked new years.. only offer we got was for peanuts (less than our minimum), so we declined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members urca Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Back in April or so when we were booking fall/winter, we purposely didn't book dates from Thanksgiving until second week of Feb. We did this knowing that the crowds are thinner throughout that time period, plus to accomodate band member schedules for vacations and family time, as well as to retool the setlists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rog951 Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We're going on a little hiatus while one of the band members works through some personal stuff. Too bad, the last few gigs have been great and it felt like a little momentum might be building for us. I think we only have one January gig left on the calendar and we're not booking anything new until we see how things shake out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted December 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We have three rooms that we can depend on to book us in the winter - and one of them is in trouble, so I don't know how long they will last. We've dropped two rooms since last year ($$$$) and another room isn't booking until 2013 and then wants us for their new beach location, so we don't know how that will work out. Two other rooms are seasonal, so we need to wait for them. There is one other room where we have one more show to play and they haven't been doing much in the booking department other than DJs.It's not like we're over-saturating the market, but people aren't going out like they did just a year ago. We haven't maxed out our best-drawing room since last year. Our venues tell us that our crowds are still better than most/all of the other bands that they have, but if that is the case, then they have got to be feeling the crunch.This is not the best thing to happen after purchasing a major PA upgrade and my own investment in a keyboard rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted December 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Originally Posted by urca Back in April or so when we were booking fall/winter, We can't get venues to book that far out. It's always been a fight to get them to do more than three gigs at a time, no matter how well we draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 we are slow for the off property stuff. Got a regular rotation mkt days show in jan. The new cd is charting in the top 10 on the cashbox pop country chart so , we may see some insteresting stuff happen after the first of the year. Its always feast or famine with us it seems lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We've mostly been off since our singer had her baby. Played a couple gigs in Oct with her sub that went well crowd wise. November we had 1 bar gig that was packed and then a private gig last weekend. We booked nothing for December by design. January we have 4 gigs booked, which is about the limit we'll do in a month. 2 restaurant/bars, a casino, and a private. Both bar/restaurants are excited to have us back after the layoff and I'm sure they will be crowded since we haven't been there for a while with our usual singer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Slow, slow, slow for us so far. Winter's usually are, but this one seems even slower than usual. After NYE, I don't think we have anything yet on the books until May. Stuff always seems to pop up, but I think we had at least one gig a month booked at this time last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Louis Schwartz Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 It's been slow for us after a busy spring and somewhat busy summer. One of the venues that was booking us monthly cancelled their Friday night music series (including dates we had booked in both Nov. and Dec.), another place is keeping us on for dates this month and in January, Feb, and March, but they've reduced their pay-scale substantially. Ah, well. Onward..... Louis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 I still have my day job that's for sure. I'm going to blame it on the economy. Double booking new years eve for DJKJ but that's normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members n8cJohn Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We were recently in self imposed slow period while we changed drummers. This Saturday - we'll resume our regular schedule of about 1.5 gigs per month spread out over 5 venues. That is the speed at which we like to move. I am glad we dodged college football season if we had to have any down time. This being the weekend after the SEC championship game - I am hoping that the focus will be back on music at the places that we play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 It's slow for me. I was doing 18-20 a month in the summer, I predicted it would drop down to about 12-15, and it's actually looking like about 8-10 if I'm lucky. Considering I play full-time I was getting a little nervous. I'm so burned out at this point between gigs and school I simply don't care and I'll live off student loans for a couple of months if I have to. I will say that when I'm done with school in a year I won't be doing more than 75 dates a year. Playing full-time at 43 is not even close to being fun after awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Oh! The biggest issue in the NorthEast is from the lack of hockey. That is THE SOLE reason the bars are dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 I've got shows this weekend and next, and then my calendar is open because the band is done! Yikes! Lots of possibilities in the hopper for next year, though. A piano/ soft drum duet (likely won't happen), a modern cover band 4-piece (promising so far) doing the bar circuit, a wedding/ event band with keys and horns doing a lot of groovy tunes (YES!!!!), and possibly even an `80s pop thing. Hmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 The first 8 months of 2012, we basically averaged two nights a month.From September on, it's been more like twice that, with 4 nights a month for us. Actually, in September, we had three nights, in October, we had 5 nights, for November (officially wintertime), we had a whoppin' 8 nights and in December, we will have 5 nights. In January, we are scheduled for 4 nights. Averaging out from Sept to January, that's 5 nights a month.So our wintertime is actually going very well at the moment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 That's great brother!!! Originally Posted by tim_7string The first 8 months of 2012, we basically averaged two nights a month.From September on, it's been more like twice that, with 4 nights a month for us. Actually, in September, we had three nights, in October, we had 5 nights, for November (officially wintertime), we had a whoppin' 8 nights and in December, we will have 5 nights. In January, we are scheduled for 4 nights. Averaging out from Sept to January, that's 5 nights a month.So our wintertime is actually going very well at the moment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We don't play a lot. We have NYE booked For providong sound: Dec 7 & 8:comedians Dec 22: 3 bands Dec 28: 2 bands Possibly Dec 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 We don't play a lot. We have NYE booked For providong sound: Dec 7 & 8:comedians Dec 22: 3 bands Dec 28: 2 bands Possibly Dec 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted December 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Funny how things play out... we *just* booked a new room for this Friday. It's a new venue down near the beach and this is their second weekend being open. We'll see how it goes - hopefully, we can add this to our "reliable" room list in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarguy19 Posted December 5, 2012 Members Share Posted December 5, 2012 November and December were / will be our biggest 2 month stretch as a band. 10 shows in November and 6 in December...with multiple gigs in the $700-$1200 range. Very very good way to close out the year. The downside is that we're all a little burnt out and our singer's voice is definitely fatigued (partly due to working so much and partly due to a nasty cold). Next year is going to be a slight tick down in the clubs for us. One room decided to start capping their bands at $400 a night...we politely declined. Another room passed us over for the 1st quarter...not sure why. We'd been pretty successful with them for about 2 years straight. They did indicate they'd touch base in Jan...so maybe we'll get another opportunity. I'm hopeful but not really counting on it. The plus side for next year is we've landed in the rotation in 2 rooms that pay $1200 and $1k which is huge for us. Also making our debut in Dec in an $800 room with another gig booked for Feb. We expect to knock this gig out of the park and get in their rotation for the long haul. So there are some good things in the hopper in terms of higher paying gigs, but I think the number of gigs we'll play in 2013 will drop. I still think we'll be close to about 50 for the year though which is right around our target of 50-60. This year we played 64, in 2011 we played 52 if I remember right. To supplement, we're really digging in trying to get some festival type gigs in the summer. Also we're putting MAX effort over the next 2 months into redoing our promo stuff, making a new promo video, etc, and going after the private market and more A list clubs when we get it done. We know it won't be easy, but we're really going to go after it hard and try to make it happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members capitalist Posted December 5, 2012 Members Share Posted December 5, 2012 We are a hobby/dad cover band. We'll play a modest size restaurant/bar on the Dec. 21st and may play NYE. We usually get a good crowd at this venue, and according to Facebook it is going to be packed more than usual. That's plenty for of gigs for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted December 5, 2012 Members Share Posted December 5, 2012 Originally Posted by guitarguy19 November and December were / will be our biggest 2 month stretch as a band. 10 shows in November and 6 in December...with multiple gigs in the $700-$1200 range. Very very good way to close out the year. The downside is that we're all a little burnt out and our singer's voice is definitely fatigued (partly due to working so much and partly due to a nasty cold). Nice. It cool to see you guys move through the 'ranks', improving your shows, venues and setlist material. I remember when you first came here and you were a 'wee' band. Now you are growing into a 'mighty oak'. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted December 5, 2012 Members Share Posted December 5, 2012 Originally Posted by guitarguy19 November and December were / will be our biggest 2 month stretch as a band. 10 shows in November and 6 in December...with multiple gigs in the $700-$1200 range. Very very good way to close out the year. The downside is that we're all a little burnt out and our singer's voice is definitely fatigued (partly due to working so much and partly due to a nasty cold). Nice. It cool to see you guys move through the 'ranks', improving your shows, venues and setlist material. I remember when you first came here and you were a 'wee' band. Now you are growing into a 'mighty oak'. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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