Members TrickyBoy Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 So we play a club regularly that supplies its own sound and lights. Unfortunately the last two times we've played there things have just been "off". Nothing in particular.. Crowd was still into what we were doing, but it just didn't feel right. So last night between sets, I had a long talk with the owner and he agreed. According to him, and I paraphrase "we're one of his favorite bands. The crowd always loves us and hangs out until close and they always ring really well. But he too agrees that something ain't quite right when we play sound-wise" So..... The Sunday a week after Superbowl Sunday, he's paying his sound guy to come in and we're going to set up on his stage and we're going to figure out what the problem is and remedy it. In his words, it might take 30 minutes and we'll just drink for a couple of hours or it might take 5 hours. Either way, he wants to make sure we get it remedied for the next time we play. I thought that was really cool on his part. I know a lot of clubs get there ass kicked on this board, but there's also plenty out there that want to do it right. BTW, this club has been hosting live music Thurs - Sat since 1991 and they ALWAYS have 250+ people there. The only way to get a gig at this club is to have the owner come and see you you and like you. They are serious about live music and as a result, they make a boatload of money with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 BTW, this club has been hosting live music Thurs - Sat since 1991 and they ALWAYS have 250+ people there. The only way to get a gig at this club is to have the owner come and see you you and like you. They are serious about live music and as a result, they make a boatload of money with it. There is so much RIGHT there, I don't know where to begin. That's exactly the way it should be. I think so many of these problems have been just this long downward spiral of clubowners who don't care about the quality of the band---->bands don't try to be good--->bad money for everyone. Great to hear about a clubowner who actually CARES about the music! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TrickyBoy Posted January 31, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 There is so much RIGHT there, I don't know where to begin. That's exactly the way it should be. I think so many of these problems have been just this long downward spiral of clubowners who don't care about the quality of the band---->bands don't try to be good--->bad money for everyone.Great to hear about a clubowner who actually CARES about the music! Yeah, it was a really nice discussion we had. I've mentioned this club before, because they market the club, not the band. People just go there, not knowing who's playing, because the KNOW the band will be good. It was a watering hole of mine long before we started playing there and it still is. Not saying every band is see is GREAT, but I've yet to see one that wasn't good and that I didn't learn something from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 You'll have to keep us posted on the results of that night. It might be interesting to see just what is the nagging problem. I love bar owners that will talk to me and go out of their way to do things for me. I am always friendly to them but sometimes, they just don't like me. Other times, it's a great relationship. One bar owner gave me the cell phone numbers of other bar owners he knew (numbers you can't find in the phone book) for places that book bands, and said, "Just tell them *I* gave you their number" in an effort to help me out with my band. I still have those numbers. I thought that was great! Who the hell does that these days? So, it's true. They aren't all monsters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Yeah, it was a really nice discussion we had. I've mentioned this club before, because they market the club, not the band. People just go there, not knowing who's playing, because the KNOW the band will be good. It was a watering hole of mine long before we started playing there and it still is. Not saying every band is see is GREAT, but I've yet to see one that wasn't good and that I didn't learn something from. Yep. yep. That's the way it used to be back in "the day": clubs marketed themselves, and provided a consistant quality product. Yeah, not every band was great, and some bands certainly had their own draw, but the main thing was that everybody knew that Club X was the place to go. Somewhere along the way, clubowners seemed to have completely lost sight of that. I don't know how that all happened--I'm guessing maybe some clubs got so confident that they could put ANYBODY in their rooms and still draw that they decided to do just that and save money. It probably worked for awhile until things started to go bad and by then, it was too late to figure out the genesis of it all. A lot of people want to blame the DJs, but discos were around in the 70s and dance clubs existed all through the 80s as well. I went out dancing in many a packed disco on my off-nights way back when. Live music clubs did just fine back then. DJs probably can take some of the blame, to be sure, but not all THAT much, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 I agree... for every bad club owner there are good club owners. Well lets kick the ratio down a bit... for every good club owner there are 2-3 bad club owners. Seriously though, clubs are either serious about book entertainment or not. We play on the outside edge of a club circuit so competitive that if you sneeze the wrong way on stage your band might lose it's booking. These rooms accomodate 500-1000 people nightly, have in house sound and lights and stages where national acts have played. Most of these clubs pay competitively and treat the bands fairly... but you have to be at the top of your game... always. I prefer not playing such high pressure gigs and I'm thankful that we've built a name and a rep that puts us in a differen't negotiating position with bar owners. Most of the 'fun' rooms we play are not sexy by any means, but in many cases they beat the experience of playing some of the "a" rooms. After all... a bar is just a bar. Some I've talked at length on this board: one was a resturant where they would clear out the entire dining area after 10pm and squeeze 200 people into this place. The manager/owner was insane... in the most fun possible way... everytime we played it was like 'his party'. He promoted, ran events, advertisized and took pride that he was able to book us there. Things don't last forever and he had to sell after he was caught skirting state sales tax. Another room we play where the owner totally 'gets it' is an old roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. Nearest town is 9 miles away. It's down a dark country road. Owner is young enough to appreciate his patrons, and old enough to run a respectable establishment. On Thanksgiving Weekend we drew over 450 through the door. As appreciation he took most of the band (myself and one other had to work) to NYC for a night of dinner, cocktails and debauchery via limo. In each one of these cases we were able to help build the room's rep as a 'destination' and in turn we were able to grow our audience to a set of people that would normally not travel to see us. I take it as being lucky that we are in a market, where if we've come across either a bar owner who didn't care or didn't get the business we would just avoid or limit our time there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Austincowbell Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Sadly, I can only think of 5-6 clubs in Austin "the live music capitol of the world" that are consistently packed because the owners are so careful about their bands that they don't need to worry about "Draw". Every other place only gives a {censored} about draw and basically they will book mediocre bands who draw well but alienate normal customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Sadly, I can only think of 5-6 clubs in Austin "the live music capitol of the world" that are consistently packed because the owners are so careful about their bands that they don't need to worry about "Draw". Every other place only gives a {censored} about draw and basically they will book mediocre bands who draw well but alienate normal customers. Somewhere this whole thing got twisted around and clubowners began relying almost exclusively on bands who can bring in their own fans and friends and 'draw'. That's all well and good on an individual basis, but does NOTHING to build the reputation of your CLUB, except maybe as some place you went and saw a couple of bands you liked a couple of times. It's hard to imagine that any live music clubowner wouldn't want to make his CLUB the draw the same way every other DJ club or restuarant is. But apparently that's the way it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TrickyBoy Posted January 31, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Somewhere this whole thing got twisted around and clubowners began relying almost exclusively on bands who can bring in their own fans and friends and 'draw'. That's all well and good on an individual basis, but does NOTHING to build the reputation of your CLUB, except maybe as some place you went and saw a couple of bands you liked a couple of times.It's hard to imagine that any live music clubowner wouldn't want to make his CLUB the draw the same way every other DJ club or restuarant is. But apparently that's the way it is... Look, I work in computer consulting, but I'd never stake the reputation of my company on the ENGINEERS. They come and go, the key is that when you call my company you get good quality service. Why many club owners miss this is a mystery to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Austincowbell Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Look, I work in computer consulting, but I'd never stake the reputation of my company on the ENGINEERS. They come and go, the key is that when you call my company you get good quality service. Why many club owners miss this is a mystery to me man.. that's a pretty great analogy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Austincowbell Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Jason - your inbox is full... delete some stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members theficklefinger Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 So what's your point? That you have a bar owner that agrees you suck, or that you have are on board with sucking and you and want to change it? Or that you want to sit around and drink trying to figure out why you suck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members modulusman Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Just wondering, if they have house sound and lights do they have a soundman or do the bands run the sound from the stage. EDIT Just re-read the OP and see they do have a soundman but does he know what he is doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members modulusman Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 So what's your point? That you have a bar owner that agrees you suck, or that you have are on board with sucking and you and want to change it? Or that you want to sit around and drink trying to figure out why you suck? I'll be glad when it summer and you can go back outside and play in your bathrobe. Maybe then you will have less time to post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 There is so much RIGHT there, I don't know where to begin. That's exactly the way it should be. I think so many of these problems have been just this long downward spiral of clubowners who don't care about the quality of the band---->bands don't try to be good--->bad money for everyone.Great to hear about a clubowner who actually CARES about the music! ^^^THIS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Sadly, I can only think of 5-6 clubs in Austin "the live music capitol of the world" that are consistently packed because the owners are so careful about their bands that they don't need to worry about "Draw". Every other place only gives a {censored} about draw and basically they will book mediocre bands who draw well but alienate normal customers. Geographics always come into play when gauging club owner's committment to 'the scene'. As I said, we're on the fringe of a competitive market where all they really care about is draw... and have one bad night and you're dropped from the roster. I haven't been to Austin in years... but I know it's got to be a tough town to gig in. It suffers from over saturation... too many bands, too many clubs and much of the 20-30 yr old population coming and going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JonChorba Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 Why can't they all be like that??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 A manager at a local dive once told us that we didn't bring in a big enough crowd to have us back. He said we needed to do more "networking" to make sure our friends and family come out to see us when we gig. Our bass player made the observation that if the crowd only came to see us, that meant that they'd never go to that place when we weren't playing there. I made the observation that most of the people I associate with wouldn't be caught dead in a dive like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pickinatit Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 "....I made the observation that most of the people I associate with wouldn't be caught dead in a dive like that. :lol:You really know how to win friends and influence enemies!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted January 31, 2011 Members Share Posted January 31, 2011 I made the observation that most of the people I associate with wouldn't be caught dead in a dive like that. That's why we don't play dives. The couple that we did play back in the earlier days, we weren't even interested in going back. One of our main criteria in booking is: "Is this the type of place where our friends and family would feel comfortable?" If the answer is no, we don't book there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 There are a few that really pay attention to doing live music right but alas... not many. I am glad to read the post and see there are still a few that give a {censored}. One of the 1st places we played was owned by a guy who really promoted and actually cared about the live bands and his business- this was a neighborhood bar and it was awesome! After he got divorced the bar ended up in the hands of a VERY shady fella. A place we play often only lets certain bands play, he only wants local bands that do well for him, this is understandable. I am glad we are on this small roster. The owner pays what he says he will pay, even on not so great nights. (luckily we have only had one not-so great night) On great nights, he tips the band. Another place in my area lets any band that wants to play there, play there (most play for door money). To me this is hurting the regular crowd. Sometimes there is a decent band but most times there is a god awful one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele-vania65000 Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 It does make your band look somewhat incompentent that the owner has to bring in a sound guy to figure out what is "off". Part of being in a band is knowing how to sound good and knowing how to work a PA. That is not the role of the owner or manager of the club and lots of bands don't know how to dial in a PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 It does make your band look somewhat incompentent that the owner has to bring in a sound guy to figure out what is "off".Part of being in a band is knowing how to sound good and knowing how to work a PA. That is not the role of the owner or manager of the club and lots of bands don't know how to dial in a PA. The club supplies the PA and the guy to run it. So how does the band look bad in all of this? Seems to me it's the soundman that's looking bad here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele-vania65000 Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 True. I forgot the club supplies their own sound and sound man. I'm used to supplying our own PA and being in control of our sound. I hate turning that over to anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 That's cool how they resolved it though. Though part of me tells me the soundman should be able to get it together better without all this extra hassle for the band, at least he's been given a chance to figure out what's up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.