Members 992gnt Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Interesting weekend! Had a show Saturday night at the biggest (and probably most important) room in my bands short existence. We didn't fill the place very well (lots of no-shows), and struggled with some PA issues in the first set. Second set a wedding party showed up - this has to be a good sign, right? Finally we had some dancers, and things were looking up. At least until the wedding party fight broke out. Once they cleared out, it looked like there were less people than before they arrived. Kinda sucked the air out of the room too. We soldiered on and were rewarded with another wedding party showing up (apparently there is a reception hall just down the street). They behaved and hung out until closing time. Was a lot of fun, and we all stayed pumped up even when we weren't playing to hardly anyone. The booking guy seemed to take things in stride (shocking really, he's a real db), and had positive things to say, knowing we are new and don't have much of a following. Obligatory pic: [ATTACH=CONFIG]346234[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Onward and upward! So important to stay pumped and play every gig with your 100% best effort. For one, it raises the bands "lowest bar" level. If that's what you guys do at a not-great gig, imagine how much better you'll be at the great ones. And for another, the few people that ARE there deserve the full show. It isn't their fault nobody else showed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members antonioctd Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 I have a recent band too. I also play an Iron Maiden tribute with a decent following, so starting a new thing and building following again can be very frustrating. Always give your best and deliver the full show even if it's just a 1 person crowd! And just have fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OldGuitarPlayer Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 From your picture it looks like the folks there were enjoying the music and you guys look like you are having a good time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 First weekend with our new drummer and he crushed it . He had about 5 weeks with the material but between work and vacation we were only able to schedule two rehearsals and both were without our singer. In turn he had to nail 11 song medleys comprising of 65 songs. As a band we had been off two weekends in a row (a rarity for us) for personal vacations so this weekend was really focused on getting him onboard and moving forward as a band. Friday Night we had an indoor night club gig. That was the first time we played together. He navigated through the song material perfectly and there was a nice crowd there. Still it was a good show to shake out the cobwebs. Saturday afternoon we played an outdoor charity event for an hour. He played even more confidently. There were alot of local musicians in the audience and they took notice. Saturday night, an outdoor nightclub gig. He knocked it out of the park. His fills were on point and he even sped up some of the dance material to be at the right tempo. It felt like we had been playing together over a year. Friends from a popular regional band were present in the audience and we called them up to sit in with us. Unbelievably they didn't know "Don't Stop Believing" or "Sweet Caroline" (and they are a party band), so we settled on Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping off to Boston" which he had never played with us, and neither had them. They nailed it (even the last double snare hit at the end that we never seemed to do). I have video... I'd post it but I don't want to come across as 'bragging'. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 It's summertime ... which makes bar gigs pretty damn unpredictable. My experience has been that it's either feast or famine in terms of crowds in the summer - and very little of the in between. My Saturday night gig was one of those strange "famine" crowd situations that ended up being a ball. The "band" was a complete throw-together lineup - hastily assembled to play out some bookings that a drummer acquaintenance was stuck with when his band of several years disintegrated two weeks ago. Rather then cancel the dates - we tossed together a bass - guitar - keys lineup and plopped it in front of the drummer who "owned" the gig. We did it with one rehearsal. The bar was the typical tiny corner bar type joint that does music on the weekends - except that the owner is a musician himself - and has really gone out of the way in terms of supporting live entertainment. He's put in a house PA (not stellar gear - but what he has gets the job done), a nice big stage complete with a large drum riser, a boatload of lights (that the bar owner himself runs). Even though the crowd was thin - they were very supportive. Personally, I had a ball - it was somewhat of a reunion in that the guitar player and I go back 30+ plus years - but haven't done much together during the past year or so. I spent a good part of the night screwing around with my keytar ... To be honest, it was one of the more fun gigs I've played in awhile. We threw this little four piece together to play out a string of 5 gigs that the drummer had on the books. However, after seeing how well our first night went, it looks like we may keep this little project rolling in between dates with our primary projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leftcoast123 Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 First weekend with our new drummer and he crushed it . He had about 5 weeks with the material but between work and vacation we were only able to schedule two rehearsals and both were without our singer. In turn he had to nail 11 song medleys comprising of 65 songs. As a band we had been off two weekends in a row (a rarity for us) for personal vacations so this weekend was really focused on getting him onboard and moving forward as a band. Friday Night we had an indoor night club gig. That was the first time we played together. He navigated through the song material perfectly and there was a nice crowd there. Still it was a good show to shake out the cobwebs. Saturday afternoon we played an outdoor charity event for an hour. He played even more confidently. There were alot of local musicians in the audience and they took notice. Saturday night, an outdoor nightclub gig. He knocked it out of the park. His fills were on point and he even sped up some of the dance material to be at the right tempo. It felt like we had been playing together over a year. Friends from a popular regional band were present in the audience and we called them up to sit in with us. Unbelievably they didn't know "Don't Stop Believing" or "Sweet Caroline" (and they are a party band), so we settled on Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping off to Boston" which he had never played with us, and neither had them. They nailed it (even the last double snare hit at the end that we never seemed to do). I have video... I'd post it but I don't want to come across as 'bragging'. . That's not bragging in my book, that's a very successful weekend. Good on you Grant. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 We did a wedding on Saturday in Sonoma. Beautiful winery location. Long day. Control-freak bride has everything scheduled to the minute and she's been changing the schedule every day or so. We get an email with the latest revised schedule while we're setting up. Of course, just as we tried to tell her, nothing goes as planned and her ceremony schedule was too long. She had us playing at least bits and pieces of six songs during the ceremony. Three of which we end up not doing at all because once the actual ceremony starts even the pastor (who obviously has done a gazillion of these) can tell the flow isn't happening and he just buzzes right past a couple of the cues where we were supposed to start the next song. All the better. Thank you Reverend. Set starts late, (as is usual for these things). What was supposed to be 2 sets over 3 hours ends up being a single 90 minute set. Drummer and bass player get into a tuft onstage about tempos which results at one point with a drumstick buzzing past the bass player's ear. I know---I brag a lot about how well we all get along, and it's true---but even in tight families there are dust-ups. And we DO have them. But, like brothers they always end in a hug and a "I Love You Man" afterwards. But we need to have a little convo afterwards about keeping that stuff OFF stage. Crowd has a good time though. Very much an older crowd, so I blow past most of the current material and stick to the classic. the 91 year old grandma dancing up a storm and getting on stage with us to play tambourine was the hit of the night. Small crowd of about 50 or so, but they loved it. Night went by so fast that I lost track of time and suddenly it's time to play the "last dance" song before I had a chance to call out our usual 4-5 song party-song night-enders. Oh well. They would have kicked up the party another notch most likely, but it didn't seem like anybody missed anything. But note to me to pay better attention next time. Gigs like this are funny. Between all the hours we have to be there from set-up to load-out, and providing little incidentals like mini-sound system in the dining area, etc, the money can seem not-that-great from a per-hour perspective. But from the per-songs-played perspective, we made something like $200 per. Not sure which is the best way to measure it. Earlier dust-up results in everybody getting drunk back at the hotel amid discussions of how to make things go better in the future. Big sappy "I Love You Man" fest at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 992gnt Posted June 11, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Good to hear things went well with your drummer Grant, sounds like you got a keeper. Ours was better this weekend, but still playing WAY too loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roadappledrumme Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 First weekend with our new drummer and he crushed it . He had about 5 weeks with the material but between work and vacation we were only able to schedule two rehearsals and both were without our singer. In turn he had to nail 11 song medleys comprising of 65 songs. As a band we had been off two weekends in a row (a rarity for us) for personal vacations so this weekend was really focused on getting him onboard and moving forward as a band. Friday Night we had an indoor night club gig. That was the first time we played together. He navigated through the song material perfectly and there was a nice crowd there. Still it was a good show to shake out the cobwebs. Saturday afternoon we played an outdoor charity event for an hour. He played even more confidently. There were alot of local musicians in the audience and they took notice. Saturday night, an outdoor nightclub gig. He knocked it out of the park. His fills were on point and he even sped up some of the dance material to be at the right tempo. It felt like we had been playing together over a year. Friends from a popular regional band were present in the audience and we called them up to sit in with us. Unbelievably they didn't know "Don't Stop Believing" or "Sweet Caroline" (and they are a party band), so we settled on Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping off to Boston" which he had never played with us, and neither had them. They nailed it (even the last double snare hit at the end that we never seemed to do). I have video... I'd post it but I don't want to come across as 'bragging'. . HAAAHAAAHAAAAAA! better than getting your panties in a twist because you weren't allowed to sit in with an ex-band! lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 We did a wedding....Gigs like this are funny. Between all the hours we have to be there from set-up to load-out, and providing little incidentals like mini-sound system in the dining area, etc, the money can seem not-that-great from a per-hour perspective. But from the per-songs-played perspective, we made something like $200 per. Not sure which is the best way to measure it. I find civic organization "banquet" gigs (Chamber of Commerce, Lions Clubs, Charity event and even some of the corporate ones) to be the absolute worst in that regard. There's always a cocktail hour, followed by dinner that invariably starts late and takes longer than anybody planned, followed by an hour's worth of speeches and awards ... all of which precede the band playing a note. Of course - we had to be set up prior to the doors opening --- which means we've been on site 4-5 hours before we play a note. It's no surprise that half the crowd (who were there strictly to shown some face and to do a little "networking" to begin with) are all networked out and running for the doors as soon as the speeches are done. In the end, the organizing committee who were so concerned about getting a "full night worth of music" while we were selling the job are soon wandering around a 3/4's empty room divvying up centerpieces ... and giving us the nod to shut it down for the night. We were of course got paid before I put the wireless in their hand 3+ hours ago ... and are doing the $$/per song calculations. Even though we do our best to convince our clients to "split" the night - and have us play an "easy listening" set of instrumentals and jazz during the cocktail hour - way to many of the organizing committees who plan these things simply don't understand the dynamics that are going to come into play with their crowds - and want us to just play during the "dance" portion of the evening - and are disappointed when their crowd thins out before a note is played. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 I find civic organization "banquet" gigs (Chamber of Commerce, Lions Clubs, Charity event and even some of the corporate ones) to be the absolute worst in that regard. There's always a cocktail hour, followed by dinner that invariably starts late and takes longer than anybody planned, followed by an hour's worth of speeches and awards ... all of which precede the band playing a note. Of course - we had to be set up prior to the doors opening --- which means we've been on site 4-5 hours before we play a note. It's no surprise that half the crowd (who were there strictly to shown some face and to do a little "networking" to begin with) are all networked out and running for the doors as soon as the speeches are done. In the end, the organizing committee who were so concerned about getting a "full night worth of music" while we were selling the job are soon wandering around a 3/4's empty room divvying up centerpieces ... and giving us the nod to shut it down for the night. We were of course got paid before I put the wireless in their hand 3+ hours ago ... and are doing the $$/per song calculations. Even though we do our best to convince our clients to "split" the night - and have us play an "easy listening" set of instrumentals and jazz during the cocktail hour - way to many of the organizing committees who plan these things simply don't understand the dynamics that are going to come into play with their crowds - and want us to just play during the "dance" portion of the evening - and are disappointed when their crowd thins out before a note is played. Yep. We've certainly done a few of those too. And weddings can sometimes go that way as well. One of the advantages we have based on our location (Wade can gloat about being right about 'location' in this regard) is that most of the weddings we play are destination weddings so the crowd really has nowhere else to go and the vast majority of the people DO stick around until we start playing and then it's on us to keep the crowd. But one thing we try very hard to tell organizers of any of these sorts of events is that you can only keep people's attention for so long. You can't keep people interested and awake for 6+ hours. If they want a successful dance portion, they need to keep the dinner and awards ceremony as short as they possibly can. Give out the awards DURING dinner. People can eat and applaud at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Sounds llike a good gig weekend - same here! As SpaceNorman said, summers are feast or famine, with little in between. We feasted. A bit of a concern came up as my singer is getting a little too drunk a little too early... we're a beerfest kinda band, and him and beer is kinda like Popeye and spinach, but during our one-month break (as of Saturday night) we're going to all talk about how to best make the shows go forward and get him to pull back. A big change was that we ignored his attempts to change up the set list on the fly (which normally results in confusion and no flow) and stuck to the nicely-flowed set list, keeping the night bumping. Oh, highlight! The venue is the downstairs towny bar in a central Mass town, and the upstairs is CLUB DEN, which is a townie dance club. Yes, a townie dance club. Apparently they were holding a "Sexiest Lady in Town" contest, so walking through the room all night were comedically out of place girls in ridiculous slutty club outfits. By the end of the night, most were downstairs singing along and dancing to us. A great way to end a string before vacation! Drummer note: I went back to using two rack toms for this gig (10" and 12") and tried out a new ride cymbal (20" Sabian HHX Evolution) for something new - definitely fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 And for another, the few people that ARE there deserve the full show. It isn't their fault nobody else showed up. +1 great advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 So is tonight's gig part of my weekend gigs or the beginning of this weeks gigs? In all seriousness I'm waiting by the phone. Thunderstorms are rolling in and this place has a very cool cancellation policy. They can call me up to two hours before the start time of the gig which gives me another 30 minutes. If they cancel after that I get $100, if I get there and and play one lick I get $125... all on a $200 gig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JailTime Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Had a great outdoor gig on a hot slob of raised concrete. Great energy from the band, but every time I looked at my bass player as he was jumping around like an idiot, I thought his head was going to explode - tomato head! Good reason to be pumped, tho, this festival had about 75,000 in attendance (a fraction - 10,000+ - could hear the music, but still...). Good times, rock on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Ha! Forgot to mention -- someone offered up $10 for us to play "Black" by Pearl Jam, and my guitarist didn't know it. Well, I play a wee bit of guitar and happen to have that one in my head, so we did the switcheroo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Yep. We've certainly done a few of those too. And weddings can sometimes go that way as well. One of the advantages we have based on our location (Wade can gloat about being right about 'location' in this regard) is that most of the weddings we play are destination weddings so the crowd really has nowhere else to go and the vast majority of the people DO stick around until we start playing and then it's on us to keep the crowd. But one thing we try very hard to tell organizers of any of these sorts of events is that you can only keep people's attention for so long. You can't keep people interested and awake for 6+ hours. If they want a successful dance portion, they need to keep the dinner and awards ceremony as short as they possibly can. Give out the awards DURING dinner. People can eat and applaud at the same time. We've done a handful of "destination weddings" over the years - usually summer gigs at "up north" country club venues along Lake Michigan between Traverse City and Harbor Springs. Those always turn out to be good nights provided the weather cooperates! Unfortunately, most of our gigs have usually had a little drive between country club and lodging so folks are still a little tentative! Northern Michigan is pretty nice - but it ain't Reno!!! Although I gotta say I've never seen it done before - I really like the "awards during dinner" idea! Just curious, do you find that the banquet facilities are willing to go along with that? Obviously they'd have servers on the floor at that point ... and I'm just wondering if you've found them unreceptive to that approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 We've done a handful of "destination weddings" over the years - usually summer gigs at "up north" country club venues along Lake Michigan between Traverse City and Harbor Springs. Those always turn out to be good nights provided the weather cooperates! Unfortunately, most of our gigs have usually had a little drive between country club and lodging so folks are still a little tentative! Northern Michigan is pretty nice - but it ain't Reno!!! Well, we've yet to do any destination weddings in Reno, (Tahoe and Napa Valley are the places for those...) but Reno IS good for destination corporate parties. One of the reasons (I'm presuming) that corporate party I posted the video to earlier was such a hit was that those people could drink all they want and then just stagger back to their hotel rooms. Although I gotta say I've never seen it done before - I really like the "awards during dinner" idea! Just curious, do you find that the banquet facilities are willing to go along with that? Obviously they'd have servers on the floor at that point ... and I'm just wondering if you've found them unreceptive to that approach. I've never seen the facilities have any issue with it. Not sure why they would. Just gotta get it past the coordinators who think everyone has to be finished with dinner first so they can pay attention to the awards. (Really, nobody cares about the awards. That's WHY you have dinner, booze and a band. Otherwise nobody would show up for your silly awards ceremony...) Give 'em 15 minutes to eat and then let the awards start. With any luck, they'll be handing out the grand prize right along with dessert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 ....the few people that ARE there deserve the full show. It isn't their fault nobody else showed up. +1 to this! The one thing that I've come to realize is that when we tend to be two very different bands depending on whether we're playing to a large crowd or a small crowd. The "big crowd" gigs like those seen in the video you recently posted in another gig see a show that is as close to a seemless "bang-bang-bang, hit 'em hard and keep 'em dancing" show as we can muster. The "small crowd" gigs however have a completely different feel. The "small crowd" gig has a whole 'nother vibe ... much more intimate banter with the crowd, more song "dedications", more direct response to comments from the crowd - a little less emphasis on "polish" and a little more emphasis on "personable". I don't view it as being a difference in quality - as much as I see it as a difference in feel. To be totally honest - I usually enjoy delivering the "small crowd" show every bit as much as I enjoy the "large crowd" show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 We did a church carnival on Thursday, it was fun. Lots of people, great crowd response. Not much in the way of dancers but the people in charge said they got a ton of compliments. They really take care of us, food, beverages, easy setup, easy gig. Offsets the lower than usual pay, but this is one of those gigs where it's not about the money. Here's a pic of the crowd: Friday we played one of our regular casino gigs. 1st time outdoors this year, and it was good. Lots of dancers, decent crowd. The casino itself was pretty dead so overall we had a good night. We were off Saturday, went to my nieces's graduation party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SeniorBlues Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 . . . . The "band" was a complete throw-together lineup - hastily assembled to play out some bookings . . . . We did it with one rehearsal. This past Saturday was our one rehearsal for exactly this kind of scenario for a gig this coming weekend. The trumpet player and female vocalist won't be there, so half of the stuff I played last week for my first gig with this band is out the window. We've got a new drummer, and I'm told we'll have a second rehearsal this Thursday evening with a guitar player who the band leader has played with. This musical chairs thing is all new to me . . . but it sure beats rehearsing for months on end without a gig in sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flanc Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 We did an outdoor gig at a beach place that books us regularly through the summer. A large supportive crowd is good for all that ails you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SeniorBlues Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 +1 to this! The one thing that I've come to realize is that when we tend to be two very different bands depending on whether we're playing to a large crowd or a small crowd. The "big crowd" gigs like those seen in the video you recently posted in another gig see a show that is as close to a seemless "bang-bang-bang, hit 'em hard and keep 'em dancing" show as we can muster. The "small crowd" gigs however have a completely different feel. The "small crowd" gig has a whole 'nother vibe ... much more intimate banter with the crowd, more song "dedications", more direct response to comments from the crowd - a little less emphasis on "polish" and a little more emphasis on "personable". I don't view it as being a difference in quality - as much as I see it as a difference in feel. To be totally honest - I usually enjoy delivering the "small crowd" show every bit as much as I enjoy the "large crowd" show. Kind of lame for me to quote the same guy twice . . . . . . . . . but that's well worth repeating. You relate to the people who are there, and the level of "intimacy" can be quite different one gig to the next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 One of the dissapointing things about playing out of town is I was going to miss the opportunity to take my daughter to the carnival. She's 4, and there's only going to be a few more years she'll want to go with Dad before I have to just drop her off on the corner with 50 bucks so she can hang out with her friends and not be seen anywhere near me.... So I asked my wife to text me photos of her and the family. Gee. Maybe I didn't miss much after all. Guess which kid is mine..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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