Members Vito Corleone Posted November 18, 2013 Members Share Posted November 18, 2013 We try to, but unless its a venue we've played before where we know the ins-and-outs of the load-in pretty well, it can be hard to determine ahead of time just how difficult it is going to be.Case in point: this last Saturday we were booked to play a wedding at a very nice 15th floor ballroom in San Francisco's financial district. Like with many big cities, SF locations are almost always difficult but this one we thought would be reasonable. The client got permission from the city for us to leave our car and trailer parked on the street in front of the venue (not a lot of traffic in that part of town on a Saturday night anyway) and we were told that because it was a Saturday, we'd have access to all six of the venue's elevators.Well....it wasn't QUITE like that. Yes, the parking situation worked out OK, but the venue told us we couldn't use the elevators because they don't allow anyone to roll things across their marble floors. So we have load everything down to the basement via the open-ended street elevator, roll everything a couple of hundred feet around the corridors of the basement, use the service elevator up to the 15th floor and then roll everything around narrow hallways a couple of hundred feet to get to the stage. Adding an extra hour to both load in and load out. I think it'd be reasonable and easy enough to add an extra charge for the difficulty of the venue, but being able to figure out exactly what the difficulty would be early on in the bidding process for the gig would be the hard part. (I hate trying to come back later and ask for extra money for "unforseen events", but I suppose that wouldn't be out of the question.)Contrast that with the gig the night before which was a corporate party held in a warehouse where we were able to back the trailer up to within 20 ft of the stage. Both gigs paid the same, but one was much more difficult than the other.OTHO, the sound in the ballroom was much nicer than the sound within the concrete-and-metal of the warehouse! But that's another issue entirely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members modulusman Posted November 18, 2013 Members Share Posted November 18, 2013 Just wondering what was so heavy that it couldn't be carried instead of rolled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 18, 2013 Author Members Share Posted November 18, 2013 modulusman wrote: Just wondering what was so heavy that it couldn't be carried instead of rolled? Probably nothing. But they weren't going to wait to find out. The venue just puts in a strict "nothing gets moved using the front elevators except people" policy in and leaves it at that. Welcome to the big city, I guess.Similarly, down in the basement we hunted around and found a flat dolly. But the guy standing guard over it said he couldn't just let us use it. He'd have to be told by somebody above him that it was OK for us to use it. So when we ask whoever seemed like they were most in charge if we could use it we were told that "the head of maintenence would have to approve that and it's Saturday and he's off today...." I, yi, yi. By that time we had already moved most of the stuff anyway....I get it all to the degree that this is San Francisco and if you don't have tight rules then people will just walk off with your dollies and scratch up your floors, so if it was my building, I'd probably be as big of a dick about it all too, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain in the arse for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted November 19, 2013 Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 Does anybody charge more for difficult load-ins/load-outs? Hell yes!!!! Unfortunately, unless you know the specifics involved with the load-in/load-out at a specific venue - there really isn't much that you can do about it when you're booking your first appearance there. I do work with a couple of rules of thumb however. For example - when a client tells me it's anywhere "downtown" that's unfamiliar to me - I ask what floor is the event going to be held on. Anything other than the ground floor gets an additional hour added onto our minimum 2 hour prior to show access requirement - and an extra $200 gets tacked onto our price. If we're quoting a gig at a venue that I know to have a difficult load-in/load-out - extra time and $$$ goes into our bid up front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted November 19, 2013 Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 We've got one place downtown Denver that really sucks. It's the Pinnacle club. (Used to be the Petroleum Club.) You start by driving into the underground loading dock. (Designed for tractor/trailer rigs.) You pull things out of your car and lift them up 4 feet to the dock. Load them up on some wheels and roll down the corridor to the half height elevator that will drop them down to the level of the underground parking, then roll them further until you get to the freight elevator. Push the 30th floor button, wait and exit into the kitchen, then roll the stuff into the banquet room about an additional 200 feet on carpet. Adds at least an additional hour to load in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted November 19, 2013 Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 we got a place down here that is up three flights of stairs. Lots of times they will spring loose a couple of bus young boys to help grunt the heavy stuff sit us old guys. They know its a tough load in. The key to that is everyone humps gear and we will slip the guys a few bucks. Act like a jerk and be demanding and they are pretty hard to locate lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted November 19, 2013 Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 We do the occasional wedding in the room shown in the link below. The venue has more character than any room in the city. The stage is the size of the stage that's in the typical 1950's vintage elementary school gym. It (and the dance floor) is all hardwood. There's storage for cases in the wings adjacent the stage - as well as a legitimate "green room" for the band. Definitely a cool room. The large dance floor and terraced floorplan makes it a great place to see a band from the audience's perspective.http://www.thelafayettegrande.com/lafayette-crystal-ballroom.htmlHowever, it's on the 4th floor of an old building in downtown Pontiac. There is a single elevator that serves the building - for both freight and passengers. The elevator itself is the ricketiest thing I've ever ridden ... slow, doors that must be manually opened, anything within 3 inches is considered "good" according to the elevator's control system - which makes rolling things on and off a challenge. Of course, the load-in is through the basement - and the schlepp from the elevator to the stage is pretty much the width of the building. Put simply, it's a miserable load-in/load-out. A gig here gets an automatic $200 bump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 19, 2013 Author Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 To be fair, this was the entryway they didn't want us loading in across to get to the elevators. Can't really say I blame them. I probably wouldn't let me in there either.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomm Williams Posted November 19, 2013 Members Share Posted November 19, 2013 Short answer is yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kl285528 Posted November 20, 2013 Members Share Posted November 20, 2013 Makes me think of a gig we played in the backyard of a guy who lived on the lake. The house was at street level. The flat area by the water where we were to set up was at least 150 steps down. the yard for the most part was a 45 degree slope! Thankfully we actually got some help from people at the party for the load in, and most fortunately we got a lot of help at load out, despite massive tequila swilling by a lot of the attendees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SLScott86 Posted November 22, 2013 Members Share Posted November 22, 2013 We just played a prison over the weekend. We had to clear every single object in advance, and at load in they had to inspect every single one. And again at load out. We didn't get paid a penny. It was sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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