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How do you know when you're not wanted?


FloridaFrailer

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Gigs... you either have them or you're looking for them. I shotgun new areas, going for any job that any one will give me a shot at. Sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a miss. Sometimes you can tell, sometimes you can't. It's crazy, I've done a few jobs where I've got the best tips ever, but the club owner felt I wasn't "over the top" enough. I've done some that I thought I really missed, but have ended being booked on a regular basis. This last week, I thought I'd reach out and ask one of the folks that booked me what objections they might have to booking me again. This is someone who was quick to criticize me for taking NOT taking breaks. Had a really great time at the gig. It was a family restaurant and we were playing for the wait. Kids dancing, people smiling, high fiving youngsters and such, but the general impression I got from the booker was very, "meh". As always, I texted a thank you message and gently tried to ask for another gig. Here's the way it went....

 

Me: Thanks for the work last night. We really enjoyed playing music for your guest. We hope we might return again and wanted to let you know we're available as the season gears up. Please let us know if we need to get in touch for future bookings, or if you'd prefer to contact us for such. Thanks again and hope to see you soon!

 

Booker: I will contact you if needed. Thank you for your time.

 

Me: I appreciate your professionalism and am grateful for your input. I hoped I might trouble you for one last thing, which would be very helpful for us.... can you please let us know what your principle objection would be to hiring us again? We are constantly looking for ways to improve what we do and the smallest tidbit of honesty from someone in your position would mean a great deal. I promise not to pester you after this, but your opinion is extremely valuable to us. Many, many thanks in advance.

 

Given the bookers less than stellar response to our show, I felt it worth the effort to see what it was he didn't like about what we do. He never replied to the last inquiry and given his response to our thank you note we're not overly optimistic about future prospects. It's ok... it's the nature of this business. We're not overly put off... like the saying goes... "There's plenty of fish in the sea". But it did leave me with some questions for my fellow working stiffs.....

 

1. When do you think it's appropriate to ask "what can we do to better suit the needs of your venue"?

2. When do you know there is no way in hell you have a shot at another gig at a venue?

 

 

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This is one of the most frustrating things about gigging. With my solo gigs, I have narrowed down my niche over the years, and am comfortable in it. I like playing restaurants, mostly fine dining. I never take a break when I do solo gigs. I have developed a steady circuit of gigs and have learned to stay away from taverns, brewpubs and ale houses, or cocktail bars, though there is one cocktail lounge/restaurant I play that really likes what I do. The places that are more alcohol oriented have more often than not declined to book me back because I'm just too light for them. I play fingerstyle acoustic guitar and do a lot of mellow stuff. things like Avett Brothers and Gregory Allan Isakov and Lyle Lovett, etc, a lot of alt country, singer/songwriter, neo-folk and reworked classic stuff from the 60s and 70s. I don't play current hits, and the truth is, I only play what I want to play, when I want to play it, the way I want to play it, if I want to play it. I have about 300 songs in rotation I can do if I want. I don't play a single song I don't like, but the ones I do play are songs I really do like, so I put a lot into them. It took a couple of years, but I stuck to my guns and now it's paying off. I wouldn't say my approach is for everybody, but I've been able to make it work for me. I have solid bookings all the way into October. And the cool thing is, I never have to call them and ask for a gig. They call me, either the agent or the venue, which is every musician's dream.

 

The band I play with is another story altogether. My last band was really popular in the blues/R&B circuit. We had a horn section, which made us stand out. When I shut it down in 2004, we were playing summers from April to October, every weekend, doing mostly big stage things in a 500 mile radius for good money, 1200 or $1500 for a 90, minute set with sound and lights and some backline provided. In winter, we moved into clubs, same travel radius, that paid us 750 to 1000 for a night.

 

Today, I'm in a smaller 4 piece blues band, we made a CD that is very well produced, the band went to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge and made it through the first few rounds. Everyone who comes to see us says they think we're great. But we can't always get a crowd, and even when we play new venues and do well, with lots of cheering and dancing and so on, we seldom ever get asked back. When I contact them to re-book, they ignore us or tell us they'll book us in a few months but then never contact us again. I will contact them one or two more times, but at some point, it seems like we're pestering them and the maddening thing is, I can't get any of them to even talk to me to tell us what it is we're lacking. There are just so many bands with so few venues that I guess they have the pick of what they want. It really is a buyer's market, not necessarily a seller's.

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FF, how you present teh query is paramount to how you get your response...and the tone of the response [and that tone is not in the fingers...;) ]

 

"can you please let us know what your principle objection would be to hiring us again? We are constantly looking for ways to improve what we do and the smallest tidbit of honesty from someone in your position would mean a great deal. I promise not to pester you after this, but your opinion is extremely valuable to us. Many, many thanks in advance."

 

1)Starting the 'askit' with a negative [objection] sets you up to fail. Don't ask them to dump on you. If they feel they have to, they will

2) Asking for 'a tidbit of honesty' implies they have not been honest with you in the past. I know it seems innocent, but people are funny that way.

3) Applying a generic 'someone in your position' makes it seemed canned. Make it seem personal with just 'you'.

4) 'I won't pester you' means that other wise you would. Trying to get a gig is a business call, not pestering.

5) It all comes across as not professional and chatty; to do business, be busiiness-like. Short and to the point, without opening any potential negative doors.

 

Because you sent this as a text [where the less you say the better] it would better to slim it down to:

"We are constantly looking for ways to improve our act, and your opinion, now that you have seen us perform, would be most helpful. Many thanks in advance, and we look forward to the opportunity to entertain your clientele again in the near future."

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Pat, unfortunately I struggle with the same thing...blues is not treated well in the entertainment business, and I have to blame the plethora of mundane and weak bands that call themselves blues bands and who really do not understand what the blues is for damaging the genre, possibly irrevocably. [Even our drummer's wife said to me, 'I wouldn't go see a blues band ever again'...I gave her our old CD from our first BB King's show, and now she wants to see that band, which only does 'corporates' now...sorry baybee...]

When I put the new band together [with the horn section*] they wanted me to put my name on it and I refused because I am associated with my blues band [and another one where I was a featured sideman] very strongly here; so I made it sound local and not blues-y. We are intentionally focusing a lot of attention on the horns, and are doing a lot of jazz instrumentals to keep that 'blues' label at bay.

 

*this same horn section went to the Int. Blues Challenge/Memphis competition a few years ago backing another band and went to the final round....I am very lucky they are willing to work with me.

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Appreciate your candor. Sometimes, the life of a solo guy makes one forgetful that a BUNCH of other folks are going through the exact same things at the same time. I'm going to copy and paste a famous musician's Facebook post here, as it also let me know that I was not alone.....

 

So I'm about to do this Irish tour, right? And I'm hoping some folks will come to the shows. And some people not in Ireland will ask why I don't tour more in their area, particularly when I grouse a lot here on Facebook about the plummeting value of my work in the marketplace due to illegal downloading and microscopic fragments of royalty payments via Spotify and Pandora and such. Quite often people---smart people---suggest artists like me should just go out on the road and tour more and make loads of money that way.

 

Well, guess what? The music business is a business just like any other business, and when one revenue stream dries up, the nearest possible stream is overrun by any and all participants in that business paradigm. So when I go out on the road, particularly here in the US, I am greeted with wall to wall amazing artists who, like me, often play to nearly empty rooms. From current indie darlings to the countless darlings from various alternative music epochs, like Dinosaur Jr., Garbage, Sun Volt, Hayden, Blitzentrapper, Boston etc. etc, everyone is out there on the road touring, trying to make a living, but most are NOT making pile of money on the road.

 

And because the road is crawling with quality acts, it's important to put together a good show--right? You can't half ass it. Last time I toured in the US I took out a modest three piece band and we toured the northeast (typically a strong market for me) and after 3 weeks, despite being incredibly frugal, I was four thousand dollars in the hole. So I was losing a thousand dollars a week to have the privilege of driving 300 miles a day, staying in dive motels with bed bugs and crack heads in the next room, to play a show to a handful of lovely, devoted fans. After one such show I realized I could have just sent each person in attendance $100 and saved myself the trouble.

 

Which brings me to this tour poster (which someone sent me last year and which I may have posted previously) and looking at the line up for just this short span of time listed there you find amazing band after band playing this venue. And it's that way all over.

 

Last time I played in New York Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle were also playing shows that same night. Plus a bunch of lesser luminaries. So who's gonna come see me? 35 people did, most of whom were old friends who I cajoled into coming.

 

And it's not just musicians. I spoke to a promoter last year in Virginia who guaranteed Al Stewart, who was a huge star in the 70's with his hit record Year of the Cat, a cool four grand to play his large venue there. The promoter only needed 150 people to show up to cover his out of pocket. When show time came his audience numbered not in the hundreds, not even in the tens. There were four people there when Al Stewart hit the stage.

 

So please friends of music, understand, we aren't making up this story of vanishing livelihoods, times are real hard for musicians, and until some kind of legislation is put in place that protects the intellectual property of musicians, like the royalty system that was developed pre internet, then we are truly living up to the title of "starving artist".

 

So wish me luck in Ireland. I've got a good feeling about this particular junket, thanks in great part to solid advance work by the promoter, who is making virtually nothing on the deal and basically doing this as a labor of love. Thanks Willie Meighan!

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Well, if you call them back asking for more dates and they don't give you any, you're not wanted right? Most owners of bar & restaurant venues don't like musicians in the first place.

 

I had a really nice gig a couple of years ago in the summer. The manager kept giving me more bookings. The next year he wouldn't return my calls. I think he found a new favorite act that fit in to his place better than I did. It's hard to know for sure since he won't even talk to me!

 

Now that I'm primarily doing retirement homes, some book me once a month, some a few times a year, and others never give me a 2nd booking. There's a lot of competition in this market too.

 

1. When do you think it's appropriate to ask "what can we do to better suit the needs of your venue"?

Probably while you have the gig.And also when they aren't busy - at the end of the night or around 2pm.

 

2. When do you know there is no way in hell you have a shot at another gig at a venue?

I give up pretty easy myself. I want to work at places that really like what I do. I've made adjustments when asked of course, but I'm not gonna make big changes to my act for one venue.

 

You could try lowering your price I guess or don't call them back until they have a new manager (person in charge of hiring entertainment).

 

 

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NEVER LOWER YOUR PRICE!!

 

Okay, not an absolute...if you used to charge them $150 for two hours, you can charge them $100 for 1 hour...why? Because you still are hauling the same gear, setting up, tearing down...y'know, the unpleasant part of being an independent contractor...the physical labor stuff.

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