Members Vito Corleone Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Big weekend for us old guys: 3 shows in 3 days in 3 cities. Good news is---we survived! You know you're getting old when "how much sleep we get" is the major concern of the weekend! Friday night was a 40th anniversary party for a really nice couple. Nice event. About 150 people in attendance. Tiffany shows up having been sick all week and with not a lot of 'voice'. So getting her through the three days without totally blowing it out will be a big concern as well. Pulling out the oldies for Friday's night crowd. I think the newest song we played was "Rebel Yell" and we lost 'em on that one. That's fine. Sticking to the old stuff means more 'guy' songs and less reliance on Tiff anyway. Easy 90 min set. Highlight was the husband surprising his wife by getting up and singing "You're All I Need to Get By' with us. Done by 10 PM. In the motel by 12. Girls will be driving home, so we just get a "cheapy" room for a quick sleep and shower and back on the road. Room is a joke! Rooms this old and worn out are still legal? Bed is like sleeping in a taco shell. So much for 'good rest'! Oh well, we'll be joking about this room for a long time.... By the time we're on the road the next morning to head to the next gig 4 hours away, this review shows up on Gigmasters which helped energize us: Simply awesome. Easy to work with, accomodating, great energy and talent, and music selection was on the money. The only other thing we can say is - were we to hire a band in the future for this type of event, Jumpstart is the only choice. Everyone at the party (100+) raved about them Saturday's gig is a wedding. Outdoors. Beautiful venue on private estate in the hills above Clear Lake, CA. Playing on two flat bed trucks that are commensurate with playing in a bounce house. Questionable power situation. Good food and all the Coors Light we can drink. Tiff's voice is the worst of the three nights, but she's a trouper and rocks through it. Crowd is mostly young, drunk and fun. Almost completely different setlist from the night before. Here's a video clip: [video=youtube;xW9tjpXS5Eo] Issue with getting paid though. End of the night and drunk bride doesn't have check for us and can't find her checkbook anywhere. Searching through her car, she finds an envelope with $2K and hands us that and says she'll pay the rest tomorrow. First thing the next morning we call the groom and have him pay the rest on his credit card. Time to consider having payment-before-we-start being part of the contract. This review comes in on Gigmasters: Jumpstart completely rocked my wedding reception. Stan was the emcee during the reception and he was absolutely amazing, he had the crowd engaged and laughing the entire time. The band was able to go with the flow so well, and had the dance floor packed by the end of the night. They did an amazing job, they were definitely worth the money. Book them, I promise you won't be sorry. We rent a nice house for the next two nights. I like renting houses better than hotels for the most part. Fun when we all hang out together. Sunday's gig is a public event at a small lake/community about 90 minutes from the one the night before. Tiff's voice is coming back a bit. We're the pre-fireworks entertainment. Different set list again that's kind of a mix of the two previous shows. The little kids love us. Must be the blow up guitars and tambourines. We're big with the under-12 demo in this place. In bed by midnight and home by 5PM on Monday. Long weekend. Fun, but might be getting to be too old for all of this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 55fmj Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 I hear ya ! Just doing two nights in a row can wear me out ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 sounds like an awesome weekend! When I do 2 nights I am hurting on sunday unless I am very careful. And even then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 992gnt Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Sounds like a great weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leftcoast123 Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 The bride had 2k in her car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CliffordN Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 My kind of woman! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 The bride had 2k in her car? yeah, go figure. A wedding gift, I presume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Issue with getting paid though. End of the night and drunk bride doesn't have check for us and can't find her checkbook anywhere. Searching through her car, she finds an envelope with $2K and hands us that and says she'll pay the rest tomorrow. First thing the next morning we call the groom and have him pay the rest on his credit card. Time to consider having payment-before-we-start being part of the contract. Sounds like you had a productive weekend. The "trouble getting paid" thing is different than the usual discussions about "trouble getting paid" involving bar owners that we read about on the forum. My experience has been that payment issues involving bars usually means the bar owner is trying to re-write the agreement after the fact and is actively trying to take advantage of you. "Trouble getting paid" issues at private events is usually one of poor planning and logistics ... the person with the check got drunk and left early, the folks within the organization got their wires crossed in terms of who was going to deliver the check to you, etc. On the rare occasions I've run into payment issues at "private events" over the years - I've never felt like our getting paid was in any sort of jeopardy ... only that it was an inconvenience that I would much rather have done without. Our "performance agreement" is very clear about payment for private events - first, we require that we be provided with the name of the individual who we are to contact for payment on the day of the event. Second, we make it very clear that payment is due after the band is setup and "walk-in" music is being played through the PA ... but before the band takes to the stage for the first set. We also make a point of reminding our clients of this policy during our "pre-gig confirmation" discussion that we have with our client during the week prior to the gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Great weekend man. With one singer, 3 gigs in a row are killer for him, and usually for us, because we're creeping in the door at 4am. Still you have to strike when the iron is hot! I can relate to playing on a Flat Bed. Every movement makes the bed's suspension move. We played a Community Day a few years ago on a tow flat bed and our singer moves around... alot. The sway was causing our backline to sway, so I spent one arm playing keys and the other arm anchoring a two speaker stack until someone arrived with bungees to secure to the bed. Great arrangement of 'Sexy and I know It'. I've been wondering how other bands have been covering it. It has a definite groove and you nailed it. We play it more uptempo and rock stomp it.... but we're also in a night club setting. Still it's cool to see how another band arranges the song for a slightly different audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gspointer Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Excellent report! I too am getting old, my "strap" shoulder is sore after one night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Our "performance agreement" is very clear about payment for private events - first, we require that we be provided with the name of the individual who we are to contact for payment on the day of the event. Second, we make it very clear that payment is due after the band is setup and "walk-in" music is being played through the PA ... but before the band takes to the stage for the first set. We also make a point of reminding our clients of this policy during our "pre-gig confirmation" discussion that we have with our client during the week prior to the gig. Yeah....there's no surefire plan here. Our contract is very specific too about we needing the balance due of the payment (we've always taken a $500 deposit way in advance. No date on our calendar is secure until a signed contract and deposit check is in hand) at the end of the event. In this case, if she didn't have the check at the end of the event, she wouldn't have had it at the beginning either. Insisting on payment at the beginning of course gives us the option to refuse to play and/or set up until we've got the check, but it's hard to see how being THAT big of a hardass is going to help in the long run. Especially for weddings. So much of what we do is based on faith---most people who hire us have never seen us. They are going on faith that what they see on the website is what they are going to get. And we sell a lot of that based on the fact that we're very friendly, accomodating and spend a lot of time with them in advance on details. So that "faith" relationship goes both ways. I'd hate to spoil any of that by suddenly being "all business" right at the time they are stressed with all the other nonsense of a wedding. Those two reviews I posted above? I have no doubt that a big, big part of the clients feeling that happy is due to all the prep-work we put into their events and the level of communication we keep going with them for weeks prior. These private events are all high-dollar affairs by customers with fat wallets. 9 times out of 10 these people are the sorts that are big on details, big on results, used to having people answer to them and kiss their ass, and we provide as much of that as seems necessary to make things go well. So I'm sure that even if we did ask for the money in advance, and the girl didn't have the check, we'd still just set up and play and deal with it afterwards. The only real advantage, I suppose, would be that they'd have a few more hours (and more sober time) to rustle the check up. On the other side of that coin is we often get some very substantial tips after the performance that I sometimes wonder if the client would bother with had we already been paid hours ago. Like you said, I've never felt that getting paid was in any sort of jeopardy. It's just how much of a pain in the ass is it going to be. So we're discussing the benefits of maybe moving to a pre-gig-payment requirement. But we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Great weekend man. With one singer, 3 gigs in a row are killer for him, and usually for us, because we're creeping in the door at 4am. Still you have to strike when the iron is hot! I can relate to playing on a Flat Bed. Every movement makes the bed's suspension move. We played a Community Day a few years ago on a tow flat bed and our singer moves around... alot. The sway was causing our backline to sway, so I spent one arm playing keys and the other arm anchoring a two speaker stack until someone arrived with bungees to secure to the bed. Great arrangement of 'Sexy and I know It'. I've been wondering how other bands have been covering it. It has a definite groove and you nailed it. We play it more uptempo and rock stomp it.... but we're also in a night club setting. Still it's cool to see how another band arranges the song for a slightly different audience. LOL i must play for superman ,, he has been doing 5 and 6 days a week ever since I started playing for him. We have done three shows in one day and quite often do two shows a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Great weekend man. With one singer, 3 gigs in a row are killer for him, Lucky for us, we bring a spare. Great arrangement of 'Sexy and I know It'. I've been wondering how other bands have been covering it. It has a definite groove and you nailed it. We play it more uptempo and rock stomp it.... but we're also in a night club setting. Still it's cool to see how another band arranges the song for a slightly different audience. Yeah, we decided to take this one more "techno" and see how it goes (and because it's so simple). The bass player comes over and plays the bass line on the Venom and the guitarist is playing electronic drum pads along with the drummer on the acoustic kit and his e-pad. It grooves along nicely, so we might do that some more on other such tunes as they come up. It's a fun diversion for us musically. But had we rocked it out with string bass and guitar, I'm sure it would work just as well. Such arrangement stuff really just becomes a "how do WE feel like doing it" affair. Obviously, the connection we have between the song and the audience isn't whether we're playing synths or not The big thing was how do we do the song when A) the only of us who could come close to doing the male vocal right was the drummer and B) it's obviously not a song girls can sing. So bringing idiot guys up on stage and turning the choruses into a 3rd person lyric for the girls to sing TO the guys has turned into kitschy gold for us. There's no shortage of guys willing to comply. Especially when it's the girls asking them to come up on stage. I have a feeling we'll be keeping this bit in the setlist for a long time to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fingerpicker Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 Man....most white people just cannot dance. (Myself included!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted July 3, 2012 Members Share Posted July 3, 2012 LOL i must play for superman ,, he has been doing 5 and 6 days a week ever since I started playing for him. We have done three shows in one day and quite often do two shows a day. LOL Well... I'm sure your singer has alot more chops than ours does. Given he's a singer/songwriter I'm sure singing every day is good to keep things loose too. You have to understand though... Singing after working a 50 hour work week, back to back Friday & Saturday nights 75-80 songs per show, in rapid fire, in a three hour span, PLUS enough jumping around and movement within the set to qualify as a PX90 workout... you'll understand why his pipes get a little freyed. I have enough trouble breathing while running in place. I can't imagine breathing, moving around and singing all at the same time. I'd be without a voice by Sunday. He's fine... he just likes his day of rest. Pushing 3 in a row gets him pretty grumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members capitalist Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Man....most white people just cannot dance. (Myself included!!) +1! At least they "danced" with a lot of enthusiasm. When I dance(lol!), I look like an elephant stuck in the mud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leftcoast123 Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Pushing 3 in a row gets him pretty grumpy. Ah, the care and feeding of lead vocalists. They sometimes get a bad rap but they do deal with all kinds of variables like allergies, summer colds and poor lighting.:poke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 and poor lighting.:poke: That's why we have the girls set up the lights.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leftcoast123 Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 That's why we have the girls set up the lights.... Now that's the answer! Great weekend for you guys BTW, realized I hadn't said so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Do you ever get nervous when people come up to party and dance on stage? I seem to when that happens (believe it or not it does at my acoustic gigs)... lol I can't help but notice people not paying attention to gear and it gets me a little bit paranoid.- Not enough to show on my face but still somewhat nervous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Do you ever get nervous when people come up to party and dance on stage? I seem to when that happens (believe it or not it does at my acoustic gigs)... lol I can't help but notice people not paying attention to gear and it gets me a little bit paranoid.- Not enough to show on my face but still somewhat nervous. It's a regular part of the show, so we've worked that into the setup. The guitarist is up on a riser next to the drummer so his gear and pedals are "safe". We did that after he got a couple of cords stomped on and broken. My keyboard stuff is pretty much is a safe 'zone' as nobody wants to hang out with the keyboard players anyway. We're just not cool. So the front line is essentially clear. And we even put up an idiot mic for them to yell and sing into that is turned way down. If somebody is too drunk and starts to get out of hand, the girls are both very good about 'escorting' them off the stage. People are rarely (like never, really) rude and angry at our gigs. I guess that's a benefit of not playing in bars. This same wedding though, we had a bunch of little kids up on stage with us playing tambourine and the plastic guitars (another very common feature of our shows) and Tiffany had, among the couple of water bottle on stage, a bottle that was mostly brandy to help soothe her sore throat (or so she said.....) This one little kid just kept making a bee-line for it for whatever reason. The girls tried to re-direct him, but he just kept going for it. Finally Amy just picks him up and starts dancing with him until his mother (or someone) gets the hint and goes and grabs him. Funny, but COULD have been bad. I didn't even notice what was going on. But women get that "mom" instinct built into them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 If somebody is too drunk and starts to get out of hand, the girls are both very good about 'escorting' them off the stage. People are rarely (like never, really) rude and angry at our gigs. I guess that's a benefit of not playing in bars. You would never think that I'd have to deal with that crap at acoustic solo gigs. Yep it happens all the time... alcohol + testosterone = moron. I'm usually in a corner not on a stage and people think it's just a place to go and hang out and talk to me while I'm playing or more often than not, they just want to randomly start singing over my shoulder. Oh well.. it's still a good job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 You would never think that I'd have to deal with that crap at acoustic solo gigs. Yep it happens all the time... alcohol + testosterone = moron. I'm usually in a corner not on a stage and people think it's just a place to go and hang out and talk to me while I'm playing or more often than not, they just want to randomly start singing over my shoulder. Oh well.. it's still a good job I used to play in a duo so I know what you mean and I think people think solos and duos are even more "fair game" for that sort of stuff. Like you're not in a "real" band and are just some dude in the corner singing, so they can go and do it too or something.....I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Great weekend man. With one singer, 3 gigs in a row are killer for him, and usually for us, because we're creeping in the door at 4am. Still you have to strike when the iron is hot! I have 20 in the next 27 days and I'm getting a little worried with the singing thing- they're all solo gigs. I think the difference is that singers that carry the entire load in "full bands" actually may have it harder. It seems like when I was fronting bands, people would want to pick tunes that would push my vocal limit/range. At least while playing solo I get to pick every tune and have at least 85% of them be in a range that's comfortable for me. That many gigs is still going to blow a little bit though. I should start thinking about changing to water instead of Pepsi- it simply cant be good for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 I used to play in a duo so I know what you mean and I think people think solos and duos are even more "fair game" for that sort of stuff. Like you're not in a "real" band and are just some dude in the corner singing, so they can go and do it too or something.....I dunno. Yep but it's tough because like clothing (lol) I have a stage persona that goes with the show. I have to have it or it would be boring and they could just go to a coffee house and see some dude playing The Byrds . Part of that is communicating both verbally and musically with people, trying to be likable and "cute", humorous and also serious at times when needed. It's all a big charade- for three hours I can basically be something for everyone. And that gets me private gigs I like everyone to feel comfortable enough to engage with me about tunes or requests but some don't know where the line is. The solo gigs are not for the faint of heart sometimes. You're most certainly "exposed" as a musician and as an individual. **Oops sorry for the hijack** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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