Solo and Duo Acts

[SusieP]

The recent snow here has been a pain in the bum.

We only tend to get deep snow 2 or 3 times a year and because it is so erratic, we aren't geared up to cope with it like countries who get the snow regulary every year and for long periods of time.

And sometimes the roads are a nightmare to pass and it causes chaos.

Last weekend our Saturday gig was cancelled because the venue was under a foot of snow and the owners closed it for the day.

This Saturday night went ahead, we got to the venue at 6pm, it was in darkness. The car park was covered in snow and most of it had turned to ice. Our Transit van was just skidding and we got stuck trying to turn it into position near the doors. No snow had been cleared. There had been no fresh snowfall that day.

We carry shovels in the van in winter - just in case - so we started to dig and managed to get the van into position. When the staff arrived to open up at 7pm they told us the stage was round the back and they expected us to drive all the way around there to unload the gear. We explained that we'd already got stuck in their car park and asked if we could carry the gear in through the front. That was ok. Of course, it was a long way to the stage from the front but we didn't want to get stuck again in the snow.

Nor did we want to have to dig a load of snow to clear a path for us.

This was now 7pm - we'd been there an hour, they said we had to be set up and sound checked for 8.15pm as that's when they wanted us to start the show.

So, why is it that venue owners show so little consideration for their entertainment?

Why hadn't they cleared some snow so we could get in their premises easier?

Why didn't they open the place up earlier because they knew their car park was covered in snow and that it might take us longer to get all the gear in?

And to make it even more fun, the dressing room was FREEZING.

And of course at the end of the night we had to dig a bit more snow out of the way because of the ice.

I feel better having got all of that off my chest.

What else annoys about venue owners being inconsiderate?

Oh by the way, the crowd in there are used to having solo acts on so they all thought we were a pleasant change and they really enjoyed our show. And they have said they will get us to come back again when there is no snow!

[Bob Dey]

I thought you were gonna say they cancelled the gig. That's the only complaint I can think of, but you learn not to expect to get a lot of respect after a while. I also have hated some of the place I've had to set up, like kind of in the middle of the room as opposed to having a wall behind. Oh, and some kind of stage would be nice!

[pogo97]

So, why is it that venue owners show so little consideration for their entertainment?

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It's funny. You would think that good social skills would be a prerequisite for being a venue owner (host). In practise, though, many owners seem to have only enough social skills to cadge the next quick buck or other personal perk (nudge nudge wink wink).

I imagine snow is a different issue for you than here, where it's expected and simply dealt with. But even here, driving in winter is a risky, messy business and I wonder about the wisdom of my friends who will drive many kilometres to a gig in bad weather for insulting money and no thanks.

[Potts]

Great topic. I was always joke with friends and family that I play "rock star" for a living. I chuckle every time I get to a gig and step in french fries (chips for you Susie) or mashed up food on the "stage". There's your rock star!

Could it kill you to sweep up before you turn table 8 into my stage?

[SusieP]

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Potts wrote:
Great topic. I was always joke with friends and family that I play "rock star" for a living. I chuckle every time I get to a gig and step in french fries (chips for you Susie) or mashed up food on the "stage". There's your rock star!

Could it kill you to sweep up before you turn table 8 into my stage?

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That makes me think of another gig years back, where the smell of stale chip fat in the air combined with cigarette smoke and the cooking of chips in that stale stinking fat caused the air to be so full of greasy smoke that my eyes were watering so much that my Contact lenses almost came out.

Oh was that a horrid place!

Makes a foot of uncleared snow sound like luxury!!!

[SusieP]

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pogo97 wrote:

So, why is it that venue owners show so little consideration for their entertainment?

---

It's funny. You would think that good social skills would be a prerequisite for being a venue owner (host). In practise, though, many owners seem to have only enough social skills to cadge the next quick buck or other personal perk (nudge nudge wink wink).

I imagine snow is a different issue for you than here, where it's expected and simply dealt with. But even here, driving in winter is a risky, messy business and I wonder about the wisdom of my friends who will drive many kilometres to a gig in bad weather for insulting money and no thanks.

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I wish snow was dealt with here, but we never know when it's coming and that phrase "four seasons in one day" is so true of England.

For example, last Friday one of our major Motorways had to be closed because 12 inches of snow fell in one hour, two articulated trucks got stuck and all the other traffic got lined up behind them and they all had to stay in their vehicles overnight. The authorities did their best to sort it out, but it still happened.

And the day after, that area got torrential rain, the snow thawed and today the authorities have given out flood warnings. That's all in the space of three days and I am not joking.

If we got a month of heavy snow every year I guess we'd be able to cope.

Anyway, where's your Avatar gone. Iliked that little guy.

[SusieP]

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Bob Dey wrote:

I thought you were gonna say they cancelled the gig. That's the only complaint I can think of, but you learn not to expect to get a lot of respect after a while. I also have hated some of the place I've had to set up, like kind of in the middle of the room as opposed to having a wall behind. Oh, and some kind of stage would be nice!

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I just get fed up of having to dig my way into a car park and dig my way out again before a show.

That is not my job.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

But, no, they didn't cancel it - which would have been worse.

.

[chemikool]

For me, last night wasn't so much the venue owner as it was the "crowd" that was there.

All night long this one table of 4 kept calling "HEY!"  It took awhile before I realised they were yelling at me!  Once I knew they were "cat-calling" me, it was tough to act like I didn't hear them 

After playing 4 straight requests in a row for a large table (without a tip) they preceded to rip me a new butt for not playing a David Alan Coe song. 

One gripe about the venue last night...they changed the drink policy and didn't tell me.  At the end of the night when I go to get paid the bartender hands me the money, and a bill.  I inquire, he tells me the new policy, I sit and think for a sec and say "you guys didn't tell me about this; I'll start next time"

So I ate and drank for free, but apparently that will be the last time.  Venues are getting tighter with the perks...moan and groan indeed...

[chemikool]

And another thing while I'm moaning and groaning!

When I got to my venue last night...the band from the night before STILL had all their PA set up.
So I'm going to moan and groan about crappy bands that don't move their equipment at the end of the night for the next band. 

Get your f$@*ing gear at the end of the night you stupid f$@(ing cock star!!!

Ok I feel better now!

[Miko Man]

There is a reason that the contracts for theatrical productions have several clauses about the stage being cleared of sets, props and trash, swept, etc, set aside for the exclusive use of the act, and that dressing rooms be adequately lit and heated/cooled as appropriate. Those provisions are the result of hard-learned experience from producers/promoters/venue owners (often three separate parties) who don't do any more than what's called for in the contract.

It's nice to work in the entertainment industry, isn't it? Mark C.

[Sick boy78]

Geez, the last band left the pa?? That's a joke! I'd never do that unless I was playing the next night. You should have taught em a lesson

Most places around here are good to the acts. Comp drinks all night and pay accordingly. If I ever got a bill after playing ala blues brothers, I'd never be back.

[SusieP]

If the Band left their gear behind it would serve them right if some of it went missing.

They must be crazy!

[pogo97]

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SusieP wrote: Anyway, where's your Avatar gone. Iliked that little guy.

He's waiting on my desktop. He say that the new avatars are too small and he's waiting for that to be fixed.

Then he'll come back.

He's Pogo, by the way. A comic strip character from my childhood and still a favourite of mine. He's my role model. What Would Pogo Do?

[Shaster]

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Potts wrote:

Could it kill you to sweep up before you turn table 8 into my stage?

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That's a variation on one of my pet peeves.  They book you in.  They know you're coming. And then they sit a bunch of people at the table(s) they need to move for your "stage".

I gig at a place I've been playing for about eight years, maybe once a month.  Last week I walk in and there's a table full of people where I'm supposed to play. The hostess says, "oh sorry I forgot you were coming in. - I'll try and get the patrons to move".

Another thing I dislike is having a two or three day gig, but having to set up everyday because of crime and theft.  I used to be able to set up a PA in a place and leave it.  Now because of the (albeit suffering) drug addicts, all my downtown gigs make us tear down each night of a multi day run.

And to top it off, in one of the gigs that has an everyday set up, my duo only has thirty minutes to get everything up and running. And that's if the cocktail hour piano player that plays before us doesn't go overtime. And he always does.

Still... a gig is a gig. They're easier to lose than find, so I don't complain at the gig.

[Howie22]

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Shaster wrote:

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Potts wrote:

Could it kill you to sweep up before you turn table 8 into my stage?

---

That's a variation on one of my pet peeves.  They book you in.  They know you're coming. And then they sit a bunch of people at the table(s) they need to move for your "stage".

I gig at a place I've been playing for about eight years, maybe once a month.  Last week I walk in and there's a table full of people where I'm supposed to play. The hostess says, "oh sorry I forgot you were coming in. - I'll try and get the patrons to move".

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This one bugs me to no end. They know I start at 8:00. I get there at 7:00-ish, and there's a recently seated table right where I need to set up. They don't move until like 7:50, and I have ten minutes to set up if I'm to start on time??

Fortunately, the owners have never given me any hassle for starting a little late in those situations. Still, I like to get set up early. I hate having to start playing the second I finish setting up.

[SusieP]

Do you ever wonder if some people actually do not know how to enjoy themselves?

That they just CAN'T let go and have a good time?

Friday night we played at a large venue we are regulars at.

It's a restaurant seating approx 400 people. It has a dance floor and a resident DJ.

We sometimes get booked by the owner to play for 'party nights' - which are public parties for which tickets are sold and sometimes the venue has been hired out for a Corporate event or a Charity fundraiser or private party etc.

Last Friday it was the annual dinner dance for a load of Accountancy Firms in the city.

Price Waterhouse Coopers and other large companies like that.

This event is really for all the junior staff members etc. Their big bosses attend but it's mainly full of younger people.

This is the third year they have booked us.

But we can't understand why they bother.

They are all just so busy talking, talking, talking that they hardly seem to notice the music.

They stand on the dancefloor every year just talking, talking, talking. A few move their feet a bit to the music, but it's more like a twitch than actual dancing.

Even the DJ could not get them to dance and just let go. And he has a million tunes he can play - but they just don't seem to notice what's being played.

Sure they applaud at the end of your set etc, and thank you when they take to the mic to make their after dinner speeches etc,

but they just seem so BORING and square.

And to say they are all youngsters - they look so old for their age. Dress like middle aged people - all of them.

Although, whilst I'm bitchng & moaning, I have to be fair and say one young guy did seem to have discovered hair product. He still looked like a twelve year old kid in his older [and taller] brother's suit, though.

It's as if they don't know how to have a good time.

It was Square city.

Or WERE they having a great time and we just can't see it because we aren't part of the Accountant's Tribe?

[Notes_Norton]

We played at an annual Christmas/Holiday party for a big construction engineering firm in town for about 15 years (before they moved the party to another town). 

Two and a half hours of free booze, free food, people in business attire, all talking, and perhaps a few paying attention to the band and a couple of couples might dance a song or two.

Basically, the band is there for two reasons (1) to add something festive to the occasion and (2) so that the people in conversation group A can't hear what conversation group B is talking about.

It doesn't annoy me though. A gig is a gig, as long as you aren't misbooked, they are all good. Some are just better than others.

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Years ago we were playing in the dining room of a high-end hotel. We were behind a dance floor with lights shining up through it Saturday Night Live style only less severe. The hotel holds dance contests, mambo nights, and other high-energy music events on different days. Being a duo, we were there on a Saturday "dinner night".

So it's after most people are done eating, we turned up the volume to a moderate level (I'd guess between 90 and 100 dba) and the dance floor is full. The maitre d' seats an elderly couple at the table right next to the right speaker. They complain that the music is too loud.

We turn it down, they complain some more he tells us to turn down again and again and again and before long we are running at about 60dba. The dancers are asking us what happened and before long most of them left. 

Why couldn't the maitre d' just seat them away from the speaker? The way the room was set up, we couldn't have put it in any other place, but there were other tables open.

Sheesh.

Oh well, it wasn't as much fun, but we got paid anyway.

Notes

[daddymack]

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SusieP wrote:

Do you ever wonder if some people actually do not know how to enjoy themselves?

That they just CAN'T let go and have a good time?

Friday night we played at a large venue we are regulars at.

Last Friday it was the annual dinner dance for a load of Accountancy Firms in the city.

Price Waterhouse Coopers and other large companies like that.

It was Square city.

Or WERE they having a great time and we just can't see it because we aren't part of the Accountant's Tribe?

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Susie...they are accountants! They do not know how to do anything but count beans. They are born to it...it is in their genetic makeup...and the concept of letting go in a 'professional' (the boss is there) setting would never occur to them...they are there to 'brown nose', schmooze and network. Next worst are bankers...and then stockbrokers...

[pogo97]

Went skiing this weekend at Titus Mountain Ski Resort in upstate New York.

Last night they had some poor snog playing the bar. He was rock solid, knew his material and used good equipment. They placed him at the top of a set of wooden stairs leading down from the bar to the lockers, cafeteria and picnic tables. All night, THUMP THUMP THUMP of families and other people crashing up and down the stairs in their ski boots.

The guy was certainly a better entertainer than me and I thought to myself: "I want to work my ass off to master a repertory, buy good equipment, travel really nasty winter roads, haul shit, and bare my soul to do this?"

Back to songwriting and recording at home.

[MDLMUSIC]

There's a local bar/restaurant near me that also has some hotel rooms upstairs. They have a small stage in the dining room area where I have played with my trio a few times and always went over pretty well. The weird thing is that in order to go upstairs, the people have to walk right across the stage. So in the middle of a song, three or four drunks come staggering between the drummer and the guitar player (me) on their way to their rooms. Seems like somebody could have planned this a bit better.