Members Piano Whore Posted February 4, 2014 Members Share Posted February 4, 2014 I'm of the opinion (reinforced by laziness) that 2 hours straight is just too long. My brain, at least, needs oxygen and an occasional recharge to play my best. Sometimes sit-ins are a tremendous help, because they not only give you a break but can give you a very much-needed kick in the pants and light a fire under the rest of the band. But they seem to be anathema on this forum (and yes that's because they're not an option for several here).As far as extra gear, I don't worry about it much as long as I have more than one keyboard device, although bringing 2 powered speakers is extra insurance too. I do like to have extra cords and power supplies in my gig bag.My current piano is 70 lbs and with the case is 140+ lbs. So for in-town gigs I just throw it into the back of the jalopy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twostone Posted February 5, 2014 Members Share Posted February 5, 2014 Kevin T wrote: Whats next waiting on tables ? What would be even better the OP can buy all the customer drinks all night long and play for free and have the crowd play musical chairs with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted February 17, 2014 Members Share Posted February 17, 2014 Chicken Monkey wrote: That is, staggering each band member's breaks so that you're filling the entire night. My bass player just went to Nashville and said all the bar bands are doing it this way, rather than going back to the jukebox every hour or so. I wouldn't do it on a really dancey night, where we'd want to keep the energy up the whole time, but there are a lot of things that we could do as a duo or trio (with some minimal instrument trading along the way) while band members sat out individually or in pairs. Any tips, or red flags? Not totally but many times we will shorten our break from 10-15 minutes down to 5 by having one of us do a solo song to start out the next set, or sometimes a duo. But we always have break music cued up and ready as soon as we hit a break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted February 17, 2014 Members Share Posted February 17, 2014 This weekend, we played from 9pm and ended at 2am. Private party, took our breaks but the sets were good and solid. Took some requests, had a lot of fun. But man, every 45 mins to an hour a guy has to hit the can, cool off, and just chill for a bit. The manager of the bar where the party was hosted songs in a coupe bands. I've known her for years, so we got her up a few times to sing some songs with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted February 18, 2014 Members Share Posted February 18, 2014 We've played a couple of places that had iron-clad break times. One was a festival with multiple tents (not to mention beer gardens), where I think they didn't want people parked in one place too long. Or maybe the the soundman (who was a real rod about enforcing the breaks) had a vested interest in getting that time off for himself. A local casino was another one--of course, they didn't want us keeping the bar full all night. We were pretty much there make the place seem fun, rather than a soul-crushing money pit. But more and more, we're playing places where we set up while people are eating dinner, and our job is to keep them ordering drinks/dessert for as long as possible.---------------------------- When I provide sound for a small 2 day event with bands, everyone gets their slot, technically, an hour. I don't care what time they start, but its a hard end time. If you play from 2 - 3, the band before ends at 2. They move off while you move on. House kit, couple Marshall's available and a bass amp. If you take 10 minutes to get ready, you get a 50 minute set. If you take 20 minutes to get ready, you get a 40 minute set, etc. if something in your rig is screwed and you take a half hour figuring it out, you get a half hour set. The ball is in the bands court to have their sh... stuff together. It has to be that way. That way there's no overruns, because if you don't, the last band gets screwed for their time. Been to too many gigs where the last band gets a 15 minute set because everyone else ran over on their time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted February 18, 2014 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2014 In the festival I was referring to, we were playing multiple sets, so it wasn't about respecting the next act. We did 3 or 4 hours, with out the option of doing, say, two hour and a half sets rather than 45s with 15 min breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.