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Halloween Weekend- Big Gigs or Parties?


wheresgrant3

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Halloween weekend is one of the top three big events for my band every year. In no specific order I'd say Thanksgiving Eve, Our Annual Mardi Gras (Feb)party and this weekend are our busiest nights of the year. Friday night is usually a well attended bar/nightclub gig. Saturday is an annual costume party held by the local radio station. This is our 7th year playing this event. This was actually the first event we had done for the station when they agreed to sponsor us. I talked about it in this thread.

6 years off managing local sponsorship paying dividendsIt started as a invite owner listener party for 100 people and it's grown into 1,000 plus person event at a local civic auditorium. We provide lights, sound and show... they give us 160-30 second ad slots to plug the band. A terrific trade off that's has made us one of the most recognized bands in the area.

 

Just finished a video promo for it on Monday. Not our best work... but the station loved it. They've plastered it on their FB page for the event and on the station site.

 

[video=vimeo;31121071]

 

 

Anyone else have anything going on this weekend? Any parties? Costume events? I'm thinking that Halloween is a big northeast thing? Weather gets cold and rainy... leaves change, winters coming so people love to get in costume and get loaded!

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We have two Halloween parties this weekend. Friday's gig is close to home. Same place that the cops parked out front last year! :mad: We've already been told by quite a few people that they won't be coming back this year. :facepalm:

 

Saturday is at a deck bar about an hour away. Turns out we're supposed to get a couple of inches of snow on Saturday. WTF????

 

I hope this weekend doesn't suck as much as I'm afraid it is going to...

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We have a charity event for the Arthritis Foundation, a semi formal/costume party they have every year called the "Bone Bash". About 200 people expected, some local celebrities, a dinner dance type of thing. It should be a fun night and hopefully some good networking and exposure for the band. Above average pay for us, and we're playing 2 sets, done at 11. We're not dressing up, wearing our usual sport jacket/slacks garb.

 

Saturday we have off. Fire in the fireplace, some beverages and lazy time.

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We are playing a pretty fun gig this sat. Halloween, dress up etc. we are all dressing as zombies, my name is Rob, so I'm going as Rob Zombie!!!!

 

 

Get it?

 

Get it?

 

 

:idea:

 

The only things:

 

1: the stage is only 6 feet deep!!! They used to have a whole level, with tables etc. they renovated, and left a stage. But it's only 6' deep. 8' would be usable, since we could stand in front of the drums. 10' would be ideal. We had to share monitors, but this time we will have a couple boxes to set them on...

 

45529bcb.jpg

 

2: we can't use our lights, as there's no room for our stands. They just eat up too much real estate. The owner was going to rig some sort of shelf or hangers to hang the truss' from. But then he figured there wasn't enough power for everything and the lights. He REALLY needs to install a 220v plug, then it would be smooth sailing.

 

3: our regular rate is $1600. For some reason, we are doing this for $1200. The owner is nice, but a bit on the cheap side. She's friends with a member of the band, so I think that's why. She wants us to play boxing day, but I think we are going to draw the line. We will play for $1600, and of she doesn't want to pay, we just won't play the gig. If others catch wind we gave her a deal, they will all be "well you played so & so for $1200, that's all we are going to pay"

 

So it will be a fun gig, aside from those points. We will make do with lights, like in the pic....

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Playing an acoustic gig Saturday afternoon for a local Harley Davidson dealership Halloween party. Later that night my band 3 fold theory is playing our fourth annual Halloween bash at a local club. My wife and I are going to be Johnny and June. Got the band to work up Folsom prison blues to open. Should be fun!

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Trio gig (Ostrich Hat) tonight and full band gig (There & Back Again) tomorrow. Should be good gigs.

 

I wanted to put a video promo together this week but because our guitar player suffered some health problems this week we didn't really know if we would be playing the gigs.

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We're actually off this weekend. We had offers, but our drummer wanted to go to Vegas and honestly, my deal with weekends like this one and New Year Eve is that unless someone is going to pay us more than our standard rate, I'd rather be in the crowd.

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We're actually off this weekend. We had offers, but our drummer wanted to go to Vegas and honestly, my deal with weekends like this one and New Year Eve is that unless someone is going to pay us more than our standard rate, I'd rather be in the crowd.

 

NYE is like that for us but this year we got a sweet offer from our hometown that is WAY above our normal rate and we are done by 11pm.

 

This year is the 1st year we are doing Halloween weekend. It used to be off limits because of a wedding anniversary & annual halloween party but since that day doesn't matter anymore we are playing. :D

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My dance/party band has 2 gigs this weekend. Playing one of the better bars in the South Bay tonight and doing a private party tomorrow. The gig tonight should be good, but I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's party. It's being held in a barn that been converted to an awesome mancave. Tons of room, full bar, fully decorated, and at least 200 people. Should be a blast.

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Your video skills keep getting better. Wow, what a promo device! I look forward to the day that video can actually be embedded in email. But still, this is great work...

 

 

Thanks... these are pretty sloppy 'chop jobs'. This one took about 2 hours. Most I try to get done in under an hour. Still I don't try to spend a lot of time doing them. On average I spend about 4-5 hours a week on these and other promotions for the band. Then again... I have no other responsibilities in the band. Our Bassist handles the setlist and books, our singer the van & trailer, our lighting guy 'the lights', manager PA & Bookings. etc. So we spread things out and my focus is spent on videos, posters and website updates. Do these promos work... get new people out to our shows. I'd say not really, but it keeps us in conversation and reinforces with the people who do, to talk about us and pass along to their friends.

 

Since I've been doing these for two years now I even got one of our clubs into doing video promos. The owners son when to Syracuse U. and studied film. He shot this one for tonights show! Turned out terrific!!! Shot on a Canon T2i.

 

A Shining spoof. A little long but really well done! Well worth the view!

 

[video=vimeo;31023077]

 

 

BTW the caretaker in the video is our roadie/helper who's been with the band for the entire time. He's seriously a local celebrity. A few years ago the local newspaper had a readers poll for Best Local Celebrity that included people like Jimmy Sturr, American Choppers, Armand Assante. We encouraged people to write him in... and he won.

 

The ZIP Files (The Misadventures of a Roadie named Zippy)

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BTW the caretaker in the video is our roadie/helper who's been with the band for the entire time. He's seriously a local celebrity. A few years ago the local newspaper had a readers poll for Best Local Celebrity that included people like Jimmy Sturr, American Choppers, Armand Assante. We encouraged people to write him in... and he won.


 

 

LOOKS AWESOME GRANT! I love it!

 

BTW this zippy guy won over American Choppers and Armand Assante? THAT IS AWESOME!!!

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My UFO cover band - This Kids played a 3 band all tribute show and halloween costume party, headlined by a Kiss tribute - Heroes at the Avalon club in Santa Clara, CA last night. Attendance was dismall. Would have been much stronger turn out on a Friday or Saturday night. Perfect idea, just a case of bad timing and maybe not enough promotion. It was still pretty fun, the venue is great - killer sound system, big stage, nice green room.

 

Tonight my cover band plays a halloween party at a tennis / swim club. Tomorrow we play a 50th anniversary dinner / party for a private grade school. Not quite halloween themed, but 2 out of 3 were. I am going to be quite tired by Sunday....

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