Members Potts Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 EDIT: sorry I should have put this in the Solo forum LOL.. I played a weekly gig on Thursday nights for about 9 months and it was awesome! It was packed every week. He moved me to Wednesdays because of Thursday night football and it's dead. There's nobody there. I trimmed the night down to 2 hours to cut him a break in hopes that we could get it rolling. We can't- last night I stopped after 90 minutes. Sure I charge the guy $50 an hour and get free food but it's getting old. I still have to go there, unload and set up and tear down. I'm surprised he wants to keep me. I would have canceled my ass weeks ago. I really don't want this gig any longer on Wednesdays. It's over in at the end of December because I have a class for school now that night. I'd just rather be done now. It feels like a waste of time. I feel like I can't tell him that because I don't want him thinking I simply don't want to play there anymore. After football is done he may move me back to Thursdays. Any advice other than sticking it out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimiv Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 Originally Posted by Potts EDIT: sorry I should have put this in the Solo forum LOL.. I played a weekly gig on Thursday nights for about 9 months and it was awesome! It was packed every week. He moved me to Wednesdays because of Thursday night football and it's dead. There's nobody there. I trimmed the night down to 2 hours to cut him a break in hopes that we could get it rolling. We can't- last night I stopped after 90 minutes. Sure I charge the guy $50 an hour and get free food but it's getting old. I still have to go there, unload and set up and tear down.I'm surprised he wants to keep me. I would have canceled my ass weeks ago. I really don't want this gig any longer on Wednesdays. It's over in at the end of December because I have a class for school now that night. I'd just rather be done now. It feels like a waste of time. I feel like I can't tell him that because I don't want him thinking I simply don't want to play there anymore. After football is done he may move me back to Thursdays. Any advice other than sticking it out? I'm confused, you get 50/hour and you used to do 4 hours on Thursdays? So that's 200/night and you went to 100/night on Wed because you are putting in 2 hours, but last Wed you stopped at 90 minutes so now you are at 75/night? I assume you made a lot more with tips when the place was packed? That's why you don't want to play a dead bar for 100/night? If you're doing 2 hours for 100 bucks and getting home early, Is that so bad? Load out for a solo can't be that bad. I must be missing something here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 How about Christmas, Kids right? Wife? Bills? Retirement? IRS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 If you gave him a firm commitment, fulfill it.If not, say "These Wednesday gigs aren't working for me" and stop doing them.That'll be five cents, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted November 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 Originally Posted by jimiv I'm confused, you get 50/hour and you used to do 4 hours on Thursdays? So that's 200/night and you went to 100/night on Wed because you are putting in 2 hours, but last Wed you stopped at 90 minutes so now you are at 75/night? I assume you made a lot more with tips when the place was packed? That's why you don't want to play a dead bar for 100/night? If you're doing 2 hours for 100 bucks and getting home early, Is that so bad? Load out for a solo can't be that bad. I must be missing something here. Wow! you're floating a lot of numbers around there It was a three hour gig at $150.It just blows playing to a dead bar when I could be home with the family or whatever. But like someone else said it's only a few more weeks so I'll just suck it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotastic Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 Originally Posted by Potts Wow! you're floating a lot of numbers around there It was a three hour gig at $150.It just blows playing to a dead bar when I could be home with the family or whatever. But like someone else said it's only a few more weeks so I'll just suck it up. I hear ya. $150 ain't all that bad, but I'd also probably just stay home vs. what you described about the gig. If you're smooth enough, you can try to make him think it's his idea to have you take off the rest of the month and come back to Thursdays once football is over. Then it's a win for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vermoulian Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 I don't think you ever want it to be his idea to have you stop playing. But you could propose a hiatus over the holidays with a firm plan to start back up on Thursdays after football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vablows Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 Have you asked him how he thinks Wed are going for you guys? I would start out with that,then you can feel out where he is at from there. There could be worse gigs, though, to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted November 30, 2012 Members Share Posted November 30, 2012 It sounds to me like he's afraid of losing you altogether, so he's taking a loss by temporarily moving you to Wednesdays. If you let him know that you'd be happy to return to Thursdays once football season is over but these Wednesdays are not working for you, you guys would be able to work this out. Just sit down and talk it over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 1, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 1, 2012 Great advice you guys and I appreciate it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted December 1, 2012 Members Share Posted December 1, 2012 True. Mention that it's not really working out, it's money out of his pocket. Maybe he's cool with you taking a break until football is over and then pick it up on the Thursday's agains, which have been proven to work.We tried to get an open mic going, on Tuesday's. It was really hit or miss. If my buddies could make it, it wasn't too bad. But more often than not I was playing for the same 6 regulars. I was getting $150/night. But factor in being tired for work, dead or no real crowd and it just got to the poker where I was almost dreading going. I figured it would start slow, and they were cool with it. But after close to 3 months, we decide to call it. No hard feelings at all. We gave it an honest go, and it just didn't work. I do bar gigs for them 2-3 times a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OldGuitarPlayer Posted December 4, 2012 Members Share Posted December 4, 2012 Originally Posted by Potts Wow! you're floating a lot of numbers around there It was a three hour gig at $150.It just blows playing to a dead bar when I could be home with the family or whatever. But like someone else said it's only a few more weeks so I'll just suck it up. Keep taking the sucker's money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted December 8, 2012 Members Share Posted December 8, 2012 Originally Posted by Potts Wow! you're floating a lot of numbers around there It was a three hour gig at $150.It just blows playing to a dead bar when I could be home with the family or whatever. But like someone else said it's only a few more weeks so I'll just suck it up. Think of it as well-paid rehearsel, and try out some new tunes and/or arrangements of old tunes... Besides, who knows if a crowd won't come in next Wednesday? If the venue management is cool w/ the situation, accept their wisdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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