Backstage With the Band

[deepflight]

Regarding the photos on your website, I don't like the "ice scraped from a windowpane" effect that you have applied to all of them.  The borders are too busy, particularly on the photos page, and worse yet you have lines running through the pictures.  It makes me not want to look at them.  I appreciate the idea that you are going for, for the photos to look sort of distressed, but I'd do it in another way.

Also, the "gingers infact have souls" line-- cute, but you have a typo.  This should read, "gingers in fact have souls."

[Potts]

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Blackbird 13 wrote:

Made the changes Potts mentioned, as well as a few things that Zeromus-X brought to my attention in PM and in person.

Still working on a solid band picture, and still coordinating the "dressing nicer" part, although that's also coming along. New bass player, so getting him up to speed on the set has been the major step right now.. but both of those things (as well as adding new songs) are in the works!

Any additional feedback is welcome.. on the press kit, video, songlist, or anything else you guys can think of that would help better what we've got going on!

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Looks good bro!

[mstreck]

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deepflight wrote:

Regarding the photos on your website, I don't like the "ice scraped from a windowpane" effect that you have applied to all of them.  The borders are too busy, particularly on the photos page, and worse yet you have lines running through the pictures.  It makes me not want to look at them.  I appreciate the idea that you are going for, for the photos to look sort of distressed, but I'd do it in another way.

Also, the "gingers infact have souls" line-- cute, but you have a typo.  This should read, "gingers in fact have souls."

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"gingers DO,in fact, have souls..." (I believe that commas are also needed)

[Blackbird 13]

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deepflight wrote:

Regarding the photos on your website, I don't like the "ice scraped from a windowpane" effect that you have applied to all of them.  The borders are too busy, particularly on the photos page, and worse yet you have lines running through the pictures.  It makes me not want to look at them.  I appreciate the idea that you are going for, for the photos to look sort of distressed, but I'd do it in another way.

Also, the "gingers infact have souls" line-- cute, but you have a typo.  This should read, "gingers in fact have souls."

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Yeah.. although it was my idea.. I haven't really liked the photo effect since I've done it... I just haven't gone back to change it, and it does a good job of masking some of the more low-res images. Now that I have a few nicer pictures to replace some of them with... I will look at changing the effect. I probably wont even have an effect on the pictures that are on the photos page. Again.. kind of a placeholder. I know that sucks though.


Thanks for the heads up.. went right over my head! Commas will be used as well!

[TrickyBoy]

We're working with an agent a lot now, and one of the things he stresses is creating an image for the band.  This doesn't mean "costumes" per se, but it does mean more than just jeans and T-Shirts onstage.  At first I was kind of against the idea, but I've gone out and watched several of the really successful cover bands in the area, and they all have one.

So I think we're going to be working on that for the first part of this year.  It might be something that helps differentiate you from other bands in the area.

[Blackbird 13]

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TrickyBoy wrote:

We're working with an agent a lot now, and one of the things he stresses is creating an image for the band.  This doesn't mean "costumes" per se, but it does mean more than just jeans and T-Shirts onstage.  At first I was kind of against the idea, but I've gone out and watched several of the really successful cover bands in the area, and they all have one.

So I think we're going to be working on that for the first part of this year.  It might be something that helps differentiate you from other bands in the area.

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Definately something we want to look at.. especially since many of our area's top bands DON'T have any sort of "stage attire"....the question is going to be WHAT do we want to wear to differentiate ourselves.

[TrickyBoy]

I can't do it at work because of our silly web filter, but when I get home tonight, I'll post a few examples of what successful bands are doing here.

EDIT: I lied.  Here's a few:

[jeff42]

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Blackbird 13 wrote:

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the question is going to be WHAT do we want to wear to differentiate ourselves.

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I've been asking the same question to my trio. The other band never had much of an image and even when we tried to dress a certain way it seemed like 2 guys never got the memo... LOL

[StratGuy22]

(No quote option)


Out of those 4, I like #2. The rest just look like clowns.

#2 looks sharp and hip.

[Actionsquid]

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StratGuy22 wrote:
(No quote option)


Out of those 4, I like #2. The rest just look like clowns.

#2 looks sharp and hip.

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Are you telling me you take yourself too seriously to relish the thought of gigging dressed up like Pee Wee Herman or some kind of shirtless clown man that lives under a bridge? Well, Mr Stuffypants, not all of us are so inhibited!

[StratGuy22]

Haha yeah. Even I have limits.

[TrickyBoy]

The band with PeeWee is probably the highest grossing band in the state. They did right under $1M a couple years ago.  They play baton rouge 4-6 times a year and draw around 1000 people at $15-$20 a ticket.  Very professional sound and lights, televisions all over the stage integrated into the show.  Very slick.  They play all 80's tunes.

[Blackbird 13]

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TrickyBoy wrote:

The band with PeeWee is probably the highest grossing band in the state. They did right under $1M a couple years ago.  They play baton rouge 4-6 times a year and draw around 1000 people at $15-$20 a ticket.  Very professional sound and lights, televisions all over the stage integrated into the show.  Very slick.  They play all 80's tunes.

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Molly Ringwalds?

[TrickyBoy]

Yes sir

[guido61]

This ground has been covered a thousand times here, but while every band doesn't need to go full Molly Ringwalds, the biggest money generally IS in the 'gimmick' bands and most bands DO need to apply some sort of that same attitude to what they do.  Especially if what they are doing musically is pretty standard otherwise.

If you're playing Top 40 or Classic Rock/R&B or Modern Country, the truth is that even if you're musically really, really good, you're STILL offering a product that is very similar to dozens and hundreds and thousands of other bands out there.

Having a defined look and and image is as basic as having a good song list and a decent sound system.  It's really just part of the basics.   Or should be, anyway.  When and where bands got off on this "it doesn't matter how we look" thing....I'm not really sure.   But it certainly doesn't HELP any band.   At MOST, a band might be capable of saying "we're so good in all the other departments that it doesn't hurt us."   Very few are THAT good.

A band like the Molly Ringwalds obviously know that if want to make bigger money, you gotta deliver on ALL fronts.  They are obviously a band that "brings it" musically.  But they also know you have to bring MUCH more if you want to take things to the next level.  With "just the music" they'd still obviously sound just as good.  But they'd only be able to make a fraction of what they do now.

Again, not everybody wants or needs to take things that far.  In fact, most people don't.  Like all else in life, you draw lines about how far you want to take things just for money.   But just because you're adding a lot of extras on top doesn't mean you're sacrificing your musical integrity at all.

        

[Actionsquid]

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A band like the Molly Ringwalds obviously know that if want to make bigger money, you gotta deliver on ALL fronts.  They are obviously a band that "brings it" musically.  But they also know you have to bring MUCH more if you want to take things to the next level.  With "just the music" they'd still obviously sound just as good.  But they'd only be able to make a fraction of what they do now.

Again, not everybody wants or needs to take things that far.  In fact, most people don't.  Like all else in life, you draw lines about how far you want to take things just for money.   But just because you're adding a lot of extras on top doesn't mean you're sacrificing your musical integrity at all.

        

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They're obviously a good band but visually that's just... bizarre. Apparently there's a market for "it" (it being Pee Wee herman singing Tom Sawyer I guess) so god bless 'em but that just seems very strange to me.

[Blackbird 13]

I don't think it's bizarre at all. It's good marketing. All you have to do is see one picture of that band to know that they bring a party... and honestly, they are the type of act that you can ALMOST book without even hearing the music.

If a band brings that combination and level of fun and professionalism together on just a band photo... they've obviously got it together.

I can't imagine how anyone would say that being in a band like the Molly Ringwalds would be a bad thing. If you think that you'd be "selling out your musical integrity to do something like that", then you probably aren't the kind of person that kind of band needs anyway .If you see that and think "damn, that looks like fun!".. that's the kind of person those types of bands thrive with!

That particular schtick would never work for Broke By Sunday.. but it would be nice to find something, visually, that would.

[guido61]

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Actionsquid wrote:

They're obviously a good band but visually that's just... bizarre. Apparently there's a market for "it" (it being Pee Wee herman singing Tom Sawyer I guess) so god bless 'em but that just seems very strange to me.

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I don't think there's any particular market for Pee Wee Herman singing Tom Sawyer specifically, but I don't think that's what they are selling.

The look is part of an overall gimmick--who sings which songs once the show starts?  That's more just a matter of how much effort they want to put into changing costumes and the like.  I imagine that once you're into the vibe of watching the performance for an hour so who, that Pee Wee guy who you've already seen sing a dozen songs coming out to sing Tom Sawyer probably isn't as jarring as it look in a random video.

On the flip side of that?  Had the guy taken the time to switch over to a Geddy Lee outfit?  Even better.  And an obvious opportunity for some other band to take what the MWs do to another level.

But my point wasn't to suggest that every band need to have as much of a gimmick as they do.  Or even any "gimmick" at all, really.  Simply that they need to look at what they do, understand how and why it works for them, and then apply some degree of that same attitude and professionalism to themselves.  

They could be the exact same band playing the exact same songlist with no gimmick and casual dress and earn several hundred to maybe a grand a night.  Or they can add all that other stuff and end up makes several times that amount every night.  And there are all the possibilites that exist in between the two extremes.

[guido61]

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Blackbird 13 wrote:

That particular schtick would never work for Broke By Sunday.. but it would be nice to find something, visually, that would.

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You've also got to understand your market as well.

A few years back, I had the idea of doing a similar 80s costume band.  I knew I couldn't do it with the band I had, so I was looking to do with other players.  I eventually couldn't move the idea forward but I wasn't that upset about it because in the meantime I realized we'd end up going to head-to-head with another, very good, already well-established band in the same market doing the exact same thing.  And, intent on being an 80's cover band, not really giving ourselves a whole lot of room to carve out a separate niche for ourselves.

Those type of bands work a lot, but they also work very hard to get where they are and stay where they are.  There's no shortcuts or easy money in this business.  As someone pointed out earlier (maybe in another thread) a lot of times by the time you add up all the extra cost involved in putting on that sort of a show, you're not making any more money than you were when you playing the bars.   That's where the business part of it comes into play.  You got to understand how to manage your costs and maximize your profits.

Grossing a million a year as a cover band though?  I can think of worse things to do with my week.  I might even dress up like Pee Wee Herman for that kind of dough. 

[mstreck]

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TrickyBoy wrote:

I can't do it at work because of our silly web filter, but when I get home tonight, I'll post a few examples of what successful bands are doing here.

EDIT: I lied.  Here's a few:

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From around here...

Super popular regional bands that play the A-List beach venues around here: