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I was talkin' to a friend of mine who three years ago was running one of my mixers I loaned him in his only rig - now he's doing all rider gigs and has one this weekend (of three I think) where he's renting an LED screen for $6K for the night freak.gif. Guess he's doing something right LOL. OTOH he has to normally travel out 2+ hours. Even myself I typically travel out an hour - the closer bands act like I'm trying to rip them off asking for the kind of money I can get non-local. C'est la vie facepalm.gif.

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Yep, I've been asked to put in a bid for a pretty large event in my area. Due to a little "friendly" info, I have a fairly good idea what has been paid in the past. If I land it; it will be by far the biggest paying gig I've ever done. I think I've finally got to the point that I can dabble in the lower end of the upper gigs.

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RoadRanger wrote:

I was talkin' to a friend of mine who three years ago was running one of my mixers I loaned him in his only rig - now he's doing all rider gigs and has one this weekend (of three I think) where he's renting an LED screen for $6K for the night 
freak.gif
. Guess he's doing something right LOL. OTOH he has to normally travel out 2+ hours. Even myself I typically travel out an hour - the closer bands act like I'm trying to rip them off asking for the kind of money I can get non-local. 
C'est
 la vie 
facepalm.gif
.

 

Even in a large urban area, I don't see how anyone could be successful on that level w/o being willing to drive a few hours to a gig. Looking at where I live (Boston area), a one hour drive for a company based right in downtown, will cover roughly Nashua to Providence (assuming no traffic), but it won't get you to the Cape, Newport, or past Worcester (and there are a bunch of shows in central & western MA).

If you set up shop on the north of the city, the 1 hr limit excludes out RI, and if you set up south of the city, you exclude NH. 

 

When I was working in Rochester, NY, we did almost as many shows near Pittsburgh as we did in western NY, and were starting to get more in Buffalo when I left.

 

-Dan.

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Tomm Williams wrote:

More wish lists than real riders but talent is good. One cable monkey, everything else provided by promoter.

Hopefully your CM can help pre-stage and de-stage the acts. Who's going to relieve the monitor and FOH engineers when they need to hit the can and get them stuff to eat and drink? Love that one handed mixing LOL facepalm.gif.

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RoadRanger wrote:

Even myself I typically travel out an hour - the closer bands act like I'm trying to rip them off asking for the kind of money I can get non-local. 
C'est
 la vie 
facepalm.gif
.

I was thinking about this local vs. regional thing awhile back and came to some dawning realizations... although the market here might be somewhat different than your local market... but here's what I realized:

Preface:  An old soundguy told me a few decades ago:  "Bands come in two types:  Either they suck or they don't suck."

Background info:  Locally there's plenty of "cheap bands" "available" for $50 - $200 or free or will "play for the door" (couple dozen audience at $2 ea.).  Most (well virtually all) of the local bands that play locally... suck.  Regional bands (bands that typically come in from 100 miles or more away) cost real money, typically $1,500 - $3K per show, and they're typically "really good" and generally are booked the better part of a year in advance doing high profile events.

Question:  Why are local bands generally cheap, but almost universally suck, while regional bands generally cost real money, but they generally kick-ass? 

Answer:  I don't think driving miles and miles makes better entertainers. 

I've come to the conclusion that it's a cause and effect thing:  Crappy local gigs that pay nothing or close to nothing self define.  Upscale better gigs also generally self define... it takes money to make money.  If the promoter or LIC is "cheap", it's because the event is cheap... a $200 or even $50 band will be "fine"... and there's lots of those bands locally to choose from... you don't need to go out of the area to find a cheap band.  And here's the dawning conclusion:  If the event promoter/LIC is looking out of the area for a dirt cheap band to cover the gig, it's likely because the local $50 - $200 bands won't bite on the gig, because it really is a bottom of the barrel **** gig because all markets generally have $50 - $200 local bands available.  And generally, if the band is traveling some-odd hundred miles to play a gig, it's because the event organizers are looking to value add their event and the local talent isn't generally there to meet the event organizer's level of quality.  As an event organizer, I've come to realize there's more to it than that, but that's part of the tip of the iceburg.

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I'm not even talking about the $200 and under bands. Even at $600 (which are pretty good bands IME) they end up playing for chump change after paying any decent sound provider so either do sound from the stage (which if they have a decent system really costs them more but they don't look at the real cost of owning all that stuff), hire the $100 pile'o'crap guy or try to talk you down to that facepalm.gif.

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agedhorse wrote:

Still run and own 2 carbon arc super troupers.

Those in your venue? I can't remember how long the carbons would burn for but I remember the operators knew how to change them as part of the job. A local company has some carbon arc  searchlights, they've been in business since cavemen used to holler through hollow logs to scare off the dinosaurs: http://www.worcestersound.com/SEARCHLIGHTS/

They have some weird stuff like band organs and calliopies biggrin.gif.

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