Gigging in Asia

[etcetra]

Hi, I recently moved back to Asia because of family situation and I've realized that things are really different here. It seems like things that are rare or even unthinkable happens here on daily basis.. I have to deal with people being drunk before gigs or showing up 30min late, or sometimes even people disappearing during gigs. I even had a good paying gig where they said they have a keyboard at the venue only to find out it's a toy casio!!

 

Those things may sound outrageous, but believe it or not, it happens quite often even with working musicians who make their living from doing music. I've talked to a lot of foreign players here, and they say double booking, horrible equipment, and really unprofessional situation are quite common here.

 

I am also experiencing that there is a clan like mentality here which makes it hard to break in.. I used to be puzzled when people would hire abject beginner over me, and they know how I play.. but then again I found out it was happening to other good players too. I met this bass player who is exceptional.. If it was up to me, I'd call him for gigs every chance I get. so I was surprised to find out that many of the local musicians never called him for a gig and choose to player with lesser musicians instead. I've also met this horn player who used to tour with people like Tom Jones, and he told me that local musicians may feel threatened by good players, and they feel like they need to protect their turf.

 

I am sure the same thing happens elsewhere, but feel like when I lived in US people who were better than me were more willing to work with me. I was really surprised when my teachers, some who are world class players were willing to practice with me or my friends, even though they were in a different level than we are. There really wasn't anything in it for them, other than the fact that they want to help us get better, or they are just excited about the energy/enthusiasm of younger players even if they don't have everything together. I've actually got good number of gigs in US going to jam sessions, and it's ironic that I have not gotten a single call from going to jam sessions here, even though the level of competition/musicianship much higher in the US.

 

So does anyone have experiences playing in Asia and did you guys have to deal with weird stuff like this also?

[etcetra]

Another thing to illustrate the point.. I had a gig last night that was supposed to end at 10pm, but things dragged on and by the time it was our last set it was 10 already. I insisted that i had to leave because we had to drive far for this gig, but the horn player who hired me talked about people here tend to drag on, and he learned that it's important to be flexible and "help each other" here. We did finish at 10 because people were leaving anyways but if we didn't i was ready to say something about that.

 

I remember in US, most of guys would say how it's their problem for not following schedule and how they will need to charge extra for playing overtime. I think that's more professional but things just doesn't work that way here.. people here are really loose about time.

 

I also remember I was doing rehearsals with my friends for this gig, and the owner of the venue was actually impressed with how organized we practiced.. we didn't really do anything special, we just ran things efficiently, like all working musicians should, and apparently that was enough to surprise the owner.