Is anyone else having a slow Fall for gigs?

[New Trail]

We don't have much booked for Fall, or Winter either for that matter! Is anyone else experiencing a slow down of gigs?

[Vito Corleone]

We usually have a big drop off in gigs over the winter and, while I was really hoping to rectify that problem this year I so far haven't figured out how to do it. So we'll spend the time working up some new material and bits and try to kick some serious ass next year which seems to be booking up pretty nicely so far.

 

On a related note: I recently had a conversation with a professional wedding coordinator in the area and she was saying that it is her impression that there is a increase in the use of live bands for weddings. The trend seems to be that it's is considered more desirable and classy to have live music.

 

I hope this is true and wonder if any other wedding bands out there have heard or noticed such a trend?

[beatpoet]

It's always the same once the Christmas adverts come out and the weather turns bad.

[guitarguy19]

Always seems to slow down in Jan/Feb for us.

 

For whatever reason, any time from Oct on it's hard to get many people to think about next year and open their calendars. Everyone's busy planning holiday parties and such. Maybe next year I'll have to start in Aug or Sept!!??

 

Fall for us is typically red hot, Jan and Feb are usually slower. Not all bad though. It sucks loading in the snow.

[dan88z]

5 nights this month, 3 per month thru April, which is done by design. I target 3-4 gigs a month for the band. Then we can do other stuff on the free weekends, be it family stuff, other gigs with different bands, whatever it may be.

[wheresgrant3]

I hasten to say that we are having one of the best boon periods locally that we've had in years... despite the temporal economy. Our regional and travel gigs have shriveled up, but our local opportunities have exploded. I think that has more to do with our focus and retooling (putting all our energy toward local bookings). We limped into 2011 after losing 3 out of state venues (they all cut back on agency bands) and we're throttling into 2012 with two new exclusive gigs and a terrific new room we worked over two years to get into. A room that we've refused to book out of competitive concerns has offered us more than $300 our usual guarantee (which is quite high) just to try them out. We're still holding back. More rooms than ever are interested in trying out bands and they want us to lead it off. Whether they succeed and fail is another story. Maybe this is a fluke... or maybe just our efforts... but we're finally seeing some local progression (better gigs and pay) after hitting a ceiling a few years back. We're 70% booked through March 2013 averaging 7-9 shows a month and all of these gigs are 45-60 minutes from each other. However I feel like one dastardly swing from the DOW and it could all come crashing down. People here have jobs but feel strapped. Just like the depression, it doesn't stop people from dancing and partying.

[Vito Corleone]

 

I hasten to say that we are having one of the best boon periods locally that we've had in years... despite the temporal economy. Our regional and travel gigs have shriveled up, but our local opportunities have exploded.

 

 

One odd thing that has happened with us this year, at least so far, is that while we upped our asking price significantly for 2012 we're booking MORE gigs in the local Tahoe area than in the other regions we market ourselves in. (Sacramento, San Francisco, Napa Valley primarily). I thought it would have been the other way around---that we would have essentially priced ourselves out of the local market and would have to travel more to get the higher fees. Maybe it's just the way things have fallen so far for 2012 and we'll book a lot more travel gigs as the year wears on, but if for some reason we've stumbled on some magic price-point that works in this market, I'll certainly take it!

[wheresgrant3]

One odd thing that has happened with us this year, at least so far, is that while we upped our asking price significantly for 2012 we're booking MORE gigs in the local Tahoe area than in the other regions we market ourselves in. (Sacramento, San Francisco, Napa Valley primarily). I thought it would have been the other way around---that we would have essentially priced ourselves out of the local market and would have to travel more to get the higher fees. Maybe it's just the way things have fallen so far for 2012 and we'll book a lot more travel gigs as the year wears on, but if for some reason we've stumbled on some magic price-point that works in this market, I'll certainly take it!

 

 

Dave,,, I know we've discussed this before... especially on the club level in your region. You have two big tourist seasons... summer and winter. I understand the casino and club pay being low... it's a tourist/destination area and the venue owns the audience not the band. Still I can't believe there's not more money flowing through the private entertainment pipeline (I vacationed there in 09'). I'm thinking you've retooled your band, refocused your approach and now you are getting some of those opportunities that may have always been there but your previous bands/formats weren't privy too. I think alot of local/regional markets are like this. There's a door and when you know the secret handshake to the better paying gigs everyone seems to welcome you. If we were based there we would be working that lake from the North end to the South end for private events every weekend with whatever opportunities we could find in Carson and Reno. Sacramento seems like it would have so much more competition for what you are doing/offering... yet I also thing people get tired of the same flavors... they see you're from Tahoe think you're exotic (lol) and that may play into some decisions.

 

Mostly I think it's your new presentation and approach as a band. The ladies certainly help sell it. The video/website/promo materials... all much better than when you first arrived here at BSWTB. Oh how you've grown over the years.

[Vito Corleone]

I think alot of local/regional markets are like this. There's a door and when you know the secret handshake to the better paying gigs everyone seems to welcome you. If we were based there we would be working that lake from the North end to the South end for private events every weekend with whatever opportunities we could find in Carson and Reno. Sacramento seems like it would have so much more competition for what you are doing/offering... yet I also thing people get tired of the same flavors... they see you're from Tahoe think you're exotic (lol) and that may play into some decisions.

 

There's so many things that can play into what makes a market and a marketing plan work and we're constantly re-tooling it. It's all a learning experience and it seems to always be in flux.

 

Tahoe IS a destination location with virtually no local scene. The private events we book up here are almost totally from outside clients who come up here to host their event. So it's a nice little place to be in that regard. Not too many bands are based out of areas such as this so we work as hard as we can to take advantage of it. But based on what we knew from our previous work up here I thought we had pretty much maxed out what we could ask. Apparantly I was wrong and there's still some more money that can be mined out this area.

 

We market to Reno, and do some work there, but it is surprisingly difficult to find many good pay casuals down there. Apparently the more well-heeled clients take their business to Tahoe or Vegas? Or maybe we just haven't figured out how to pry our way in there fully as of yet?

 

Sacramento, SF and other Northern California spots DO have a lot more competition, but that's also where the population base is. Gotta go where the work is---even if it means more work to get it. (Plus the girls live down in Sac so it makes sense to semi-base our operation down there now.)

 

Raising our fee offers new challenges of course. Fortunately, it seems to be working for us up here at least. So far, we haven't gotten QUITE the response from the other areas I was hoping to get, but it's still too early to tell. I do have the concern, of course, that while we may have been considered a great value at $XXXX, there might be a lot of other bands considered to be better than us at the $YYYY price point. If that plays out to be an issue, then we'll just have to up our game again!

[TIMKEYS]

december can be a slow month because of people spending and having their focus on the holidays. We are seeing some of that now. After christmas we will get bombarded with winter people and it will go strong till march.

[Austincowbell]

we are but it's mostly band issues:

I work a ton Nov-Dec, my bassist and drummer are traveling a lot and one of our venues stopped doing live music because we were the only band that made them money so they stopped having it alltogether.

 

check that... they still have it Sun-Wed but we don't want to play midweek as it makes work the next day miserable.

[jimiv]

We had a good fall, but after November things really slowed down. We are taking this down time to work up some video, retool the setlist and do some marketing. I've found that this is the now time to book for weddings and such for next summer.

[wardjames]

 

We had a good fall, but after November things really slowed down. We are taking this down time to work up some video, retool the setlist and do some marketing. I've found that this is the now time to book for weddings and such for next summer.

 

 

We're in the same boat. Rather than sit there and fight for $300 bar gigs, I'm really focused on getting marketing materials ready to go after higher end summer shows, where we can get $1000+.

 

We're having a show next Friday, and I've higher a videographer to film it for a new marketing video, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also working on getting a new website up for me as a solo and duo act to go after some smaller venues.

[TrickyBoy]

Our fall/winter has been very steady. A gig a week with the occasional 2-gig weekends. Looking back, since July, the only weekends we haven't played has been by choice (vacations/birthdays/etc.)

[jimiv]

 

We're in the same boat. Rather than sit there and fight for $300 bar gigs, I'm really focused on getting marketing materials ready to go after higher end summer shows, where we can get $1000+. We're having a show next Friday, and I've higher a videographer to film it for a new marketing video, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also working on getting a new website up for me as a solo and duo act to go after some smaller venues.

 

 

That's exactly our feeling. We haven't done a bar gig since last April. We can't take the low pay and high abuse factor any longer. The privates pay so much better, but you really have to have your marketing chops together. We had a good summer and fall (better than I thought we would do for dropping clubs and start new).

 

Here's new to a better and more prosperous 2012

[J.Paul]

We typically play almost as much during the winter as we do during the rest of the year, not all of them are paid shows though....

 

This year is different though,

switching things up

cancelled our month of November at The Widlhorse in Nashville as well as our 2 week Texas run for December,

working on larger venues for next year which keeps us from working our typical winter and spring

[Kramerguy]

We book heavily mid sept thru mid december, then later in Jan thru memorial day. We don't bother booking anything but carnivals and private parties between mem day and labor day simply because everyone is at the shore or other summer spot and the bars are dead. Most places will of course blame the band when it doesn't get packed on a saturday night in July, so we just choose not to play. but the fall / winter / spring are GREAT so long as you pay attention to the holidays and NEVER EVER book on mem day or labor day weekends... even july 4 weekend in a BAR is a poor choice (all around here of course, YMMV)

[tim_7string]

Not really. We had a fair amount of gigs from August to the end of October. However, November was really slow for us and I consider that month as part of Winter.

 

Up here, the seasons are a bit wacky. Winter goes from the tail end of October until mid-April, although there have been some freak snowstorms in early May at times (that happened in 2004).

[mstreck]

You should move here. A lot of the bands that played the same rooms as us broke up recently, so now we seem to be getting booked TOO much for my tastes - at least too often in the same rooms. Two venues have booked us once a month through May. And one of them recently had us play three gigs - all spaced just two weeks apart - and to rather small winter crowds (no surprise there). Thankfully, a couple of venues have the sense to only book the same bands every 6 - 8 weeks. I'm afraid we're going to oversaturate and book ourselves right out of everyone's rotation if we don't start saying "no".

 

I shouldn't complain, I think we were playing anywhere from 1 - 3 shows a month a year ago.

[TIMKEYS]

 

We typically play almost as much during the winter as we do during the rest of the year, not all of them are paid shows though.... This year is different though, switching things up cancelled our month of November at The Widlhorse in Nashville as well as our 2 week Texas run for December , working on larger venues for next year which keeps us from working our typical winter and spring

 

 

Dont feel band about not getting to south padre this dec. Its pretty slow. I dont think we have near the number of people in town that we had last year when you guys were down here.

[ned911]

We've got nothing until April and it's annoying as sin.

[ggm1960]

 

It sucks loading in the snow.

 

 

Our main guy e-mailed the rest of us last month about getting out to book some more gigs soon. I wrote back that I'd prefer to block out January. Not only is it usually cold and crappy, there's still no light at the end of the tunnel on my recent move into the new house.

[tim_7string]

Our main guy e-mailed the rest of us last month about getting out to book some more gigs soon. I wrote back that I'd prefer to block out January. Not only is it usually cold and crappy, there's still no light at the end of the tunnel on my recent move into the new house.

 

That's a great idea. Unfortunately, my band would probably break up if I took an entire month off. I have to have at least one gig a month to maintain their interest, preferably as much as possible. I'll never book every single weekend, but if it gets busy sometimes, I'm fine with that.

 

However, I made it a rule that for the most intense winter months (January-March), we're only playing IN town (no out of town gigs). I don't think a band is worth risking my life over and that happened a couple of times last year.

[ggm1960]

That's a great idea. Unfortunately, my band would probably break up if I took an entire month off. I have to have at least one gig a month to maintain their interest, preferably as much as possible. I'll never book every single weekend, but if it gets busy sometimes, I'm fine with that. However, I made it a rule that for the most intense winter months (January-March), we're only playing IN town (no out of town gigs). I don't think a band is worth risking my life over and that happened a couple of times last year.

 

That's what I like about these guys, they are pretty relaxed, friendly and easy to get along with. I'm not likely to lead my own band anymore. I'm just the guy who does the lead guitar playing, plays some keys and sings some backup and lead vocals. They seem real happy to have me onboard and constantly tell me they hope I'll stick around for a while. The main singer (and ryhthm guitar player) does solo gigs so perhaps gets his fill.

 

I wouldn't normally ask to block out a month but I've got so much I want to do now that I'm in the new house. I still have a number of things that need to be moved. I have cabinets, desks and benches that need disassembled just to get them out of the old basement and then I'll need to clean and do some painting before I get the old house listed. The sooner it sells the sooner I can get started on turning the new basement into studio/rehearsal space which is something I'm really looking forward too.