Members Vito Corleone Posted January 14, 2014 Members Share Posted January 14, 2014 Got to thinking about this recent gig while doing the thread about the guy who wants to sing with us:We were hired recently to play a 50th birthday party. We were told it was going to be an 80s themed party and we were asked to dress in 80s costumes. No problem. We like doing that sort of thing.Well, we get to the venue and there's no 80s theme and nobody who shows up in dressed in 80s garb except for us. Still no big deal. They've rented a big casino convention room for the event. Big stage. Concert lighting and sound. Except we can't use the lighting and sound. Still no big deal. Tough part is that there are maybe 50 people at this event. Which is way too few for the size of the room and the dance floor. And they are all Filipino. Which doesn't really make a difference, but just added to the slight disconnect of the entire event. First set goes just "ok" at best. Some songs the dancefloor is full; most it's about half-full; a couple of songs it's empty. Feels more concert-y than dance-party. Which is cool, but just not really what we do best. They are clearly liking the band, but we're just not knocking it out of the park.At gigs like this, I feel a bit like a football coach: you go into the gig with as much knowledge about the opposing team as you can, and give it all your best plays from the get-go and you play some pretty good ball, but after a bit of back-and-forth you find yourself down 10 points at half-time. Time to regroup, rally the team, draw up some new plays, go out and throw a couple of long-balls and hope something connects so you can change the momentum and turn this thing around.In this case, after a couple of songs to opened 2nd set that again just got a so-so response, we decided to drag the birthday boy and his wife up on stage and make them the center of attention. Called everyone up to the front of the stage and told the couple to dance with us. Cameras come out and everyone enjoys the bit. From that point on, we had the small crowd eating out of our hand for the rest of the night. We were able to keep it more intimate and keep the crowd involved in spite of the oversized room and kept everyone on the dancefloor the rest of the gig.Video to follow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MartinC Posted January 14, 2014 Members Share Posted January 14, 2014 My group did a private in a park which turned out to be more like a forest. It was drizzling a little and only like five people turned out. After a set we were the only ones there, but the sound in that forest was so incredible we played a few more tunes for our own enjoyment. I like how you made adjustments at halftime to improve your gig. I hope the trees appreciated our efforts as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 14, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 14, 2014 MartinC wrote: My group did a private in a park which turned out to be more like a forest. It was drizzling a little and only like five people turned out. After a set we were the only ones there, but the sound in that forest was so incredible we played a few more tunes for our own enjoyment. I like how you made adjustments at halftime to improve your gig. I hope the trees appreciated our efforts as well. Haven't a gig like that in a long time, but certainly have done those "let's just play for ourselves and have fun with it" sets as well. Sometimes the most fun gigs end up being when you are only playing for one table or two of folks and just turn it into some sort of living-room-jam-set thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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