Do you think club owners complain about

[MarshallStack]

musicians on club owner discussion forums because they feel bands are unreliable, greedy, don't bring in enough patrons, etc...? just wondering....

[Austincowbell]

 

musicians on club owner discussion forums because they feel bands are unreliable, greedy, don't bring in enough patrons, etc...? just wondering....

 

 

knowing a fair amount of club owners I'll say that they all complain about the same 3 things

1. Musicians with a sense of entitlement - "I am awesome" therefore... they don't promote their own shows and are mad at the bar owner when the bar isn't packed at 8pm on a Monday.

2. Musicians are, in general, unprofessional - You agreed to play at 10pm. The contract says 10pm. Everyone is aware that the start time of the gig is 10pm. What's going on at 10pm? The bassist is loading his rig onstage and saying "I just need to plug in two chords, whats the big deal?".

3. Musicians don't earn their money - TONS of bars are experimenting with nights that once had live music and they are playing their computer's itunes instead and you know what? The itunes seems to be beating the band in terms of revenue AND itunes is free.

 

in short - bands need to realize that any paid gig is a short part time job. If you have a job you need to be professional and show up on time. Part of being professional is promoting your gig. Don't act like your band is so amazing that you are above promoting your show... do your job.

 

rant over.

[wheresgrant3]

A discussion forum? In my neck of the woods most bar owners don't even use a computer. If they do have a website they either paid for it or had their sister make one on AOL Homepage 10 years ago. The internetz scares them.

 

But seriously... bar owners do talk. And word gets around who is easy and who is difficult to deal with. Who delivers what they promise and the bands that consistantly fall short. A few months back there was even a chain letter distributed between club owners about one band and their 'attitude'. Needless to say they went from having 6-8 rooms in regular rotation to 2-3. Nevert bites the hand that feeds you.

 

We've always felt a partnership between the club on any given nightb that we are booked. And yesm we go above and beyond when we promote.

 

Winter Semester Promo

 

Thanksgiving Eve Promo

 

April Promo's

[newmaxnew]

One thing I have noticed with a lot of bands in my area is the inability to start on time. I think the band I am in is part of a small percentage of bands that can actually be ready to play when we are supposed to. Do these guys show up late every day for thier day time jobs also?

 

Max

[Austincowbell]

 

One thing I have noticed with a lot of bands in my area is the inability to start on time. I think the band I am in is part of a small percentage of bands that can actually be ready to play when we are supposed to. Do these guys show up late every day for thier day time jobs also? Max

 

If you have a band with people who have serious day jobs they will ALL arrive on time and start on time and have the stage cleaned off right away. If you have a band of full time musicians... not so much.

-that's just a general observation but I've noticed it a lot. Seems when responsibility is required in one aspect of your life you let it bleed into others.

[Cirrus]

 

If you have a band with people who have serious day jobs they will ALL arrive on time and start on time and have the stage cleaned off right away. If you have a band of full time musicians... not so much. -that's just a general observation but I've noticed it a lot. Seems when responsibility is required in one aspect of your life you let it bleed into others.

 

 

This certainly fits with what I've observed.

 

I think bar owners probably have plenty of valid things to bitch about regarding bands, but at the end of the day if you run a decent place, part of that is sifting through crap bands, looking for the good ones. If you don't have good bands wanting to play your place I think you'd be asking what was going wrong.

 

And wheresgrant3, I agree with you about the diea of events beign a partnership between the bar and band. Where it breaks down is when you play on a Tuesday night and only bring say 10 people because all your friends/family have already seen you 3 times that month, and the club owner openly tells you off for not bringing more people even though they themselves have drawn nobody.

 

I do personally think that if you're running an entertainment venue you shouldn't expect the bands you book to bring in all your clientel. If that's the case, why does the band need you?

[Austincowbell]

 

We've always felt a partnership between the club on any given nightb that we are booked. And yesm we go above and beyond when we promote.

 

 

I completely agree with this. It's a partnership. Its in the best interest of the club and the band to have a lot of people there. Our favorite shows are those where the bar has heavily promoted the show because so many new faces will be there in addition to our crowd.

[TrickyBoy]

Having a professional attitude is IMO extremely important in every aspect of being successful in a band. This includes:

 

1. Being prepared

2. Being prompt

3. Being courteous/respectful

4. Meeting ALL of your contractual obligations (whether written, oral or implied)

 

I think one of the reasons that we're having such success booking some of the better rooms here has as much to do with our professionalism as it does with our actual music.

[bnelly428]

 

Having a professional attitude is IMO extremely important in every aspect of being successful in a band. This includes: 1. Being prepared 2. Being prompt 3. Being courteous/respectful 4. Meeting ALL of your contractual obligations (whether written, oral or implied) I think one of the reasons that we're having such success booking some of the better rooms here has as much to do with our professionalism as it does with our actual music.

 

 

We have only been playing out since Sept 09, but we are constantly getting comments about how professional we are and how easy we are to work with. Then they tell us some stories of other bands etc. If is a great feeling to know that you're band is being compared to with some of the best bands out there. ALL the best bands in the best room are professional 100% of the time.

 

I've mentioned this a couple times, but owners do talk. We used to play at one place with a couple of other bands, and then slowly we were the only band left playing there. Turns out the other bands were kicked out of said venue and other venues because they were very difficult to work with and used the "oh we can bring 200 people here any day of the week" promotion, while I'm fairly certain there is only 1 or 2 bands in my area that has the potential for that good of a night.

[newmaxnew]

At one of our recent gigs I heard someone from the staff comment that we were actually going to start at 9:00 and that none of the other bands were ever ready to go at 9:00. At that venue bands are supposed to play from 9:00 to 1:00.

 

I guess I have noticed that the bands full of unemployed guys don't seem to have much sense of urgency about nearly anything.

 

Max

[vanlatte]

 

One thing I have noticed with a lot of bands in my area is the inability to start on time. I think the band I am in is part of a small percentage of bands that can actually be ready to play when we are supposed to. Do these guys show up late every day for thier day time jobs also? Max

 

 

My theory is we all suffer from the "Lets wait for the place to fill a little more before we start" syndrome.

[twostone]

Don't own a bar myself but my step father did at one time and the number one complaint was money and 2nd was the clientele.

 

No club owner wants a empty bar it's why they invented happy hour, drink specials,

gimmicks like free pool night, free ladies night, free food at our local strip joint.

Karaoke, Djs, and bands, any thing to make bank.

 

Second is the clientele some bars don't want bikers or metal heads

and esp. rowdy drunks like we had to deal with at my step father bar. We had a guy come in that was already sloppy drunk and my step-father refuse to serve him and told the guy to leave.

 

He left alright and came back in with a gun and started busting off rounds bitching about he wanted more booze which afterwards. That pretty much ended the bar for good. We were lucky the guy didn't kill no body but it gave my step father bar a really {censored}ty reputation as a gun and knife bar and the next day the regulars just quit coming and eventually he had to close the doors because it.

 

Just gotta ask would you go to bar knowing that it bad clientele?

[WaterMoc]

My theory is we all suffer from the "Lets wait for the place to fill a little more before we start" syndrome.

 

Not me! Since I took 5 years off I'm ready to play. What ticks me off is the guys almost always find something wrong with the PA, subwoofers not working, something sounds wrong..and tinker around with it forever while we all go TESTING TESTING 1-2.

 

Then I had words with one of the guitar players who wanted to try different ways of playing Honky Tonk Women 5 minutes before start time because there was only one guy in the immediate vicinity at the time, though plenty in the bar. "Ok let's try it as a shuffle - " and I said jesus let's just PLAY...I hate that song anyway.

[bish0p34]

 

If you have a band with people who have serious day jobs they will ALL arrive on time and start on time and have the stage cleaned off right away. If you have a band of full time musicians... not so much. -that's just a general observation but I've noticed it a lot. Seems when responsibility is required in one aspect of your life you let it bleed into others.

 

 

It's a shame how true this can be.

 

I've been in "weekend warrior" bands for 6 years, and we were all punctual...minus the occasional emergency. The last 4 years have been spent in a successful band, and my sole source of income.... Try getting the whole band there on time!

 

The keyboard player, our last 2 drummers and I are all reliable and punctual. The bass player is meh, and the singers (we have 2)? We start at 10:30 almost everywhere we play. I can count 3 times w/o any thought that we've gotten calls between 10:20 and 10:40 asking us not to start till the late one du jour arrives. What the f?

 

It's no wonder they don't have real jobs. I hate showing up early, like 7pm soundchecks, or being in Rhode Island for 5pm soundcheck (5hr drive for us), but it's what we agreed upon and what the guy paying me wants! We even had a big local club deny us due to a rep for being late.

 

As I said...I hate showing up real early, but not as much as I hate rushing to start and I hate punching a clock at a crap factory job!

 

See you on-time for soundcheck:thu:

[ChordGirl]

 

musicians on club owner discussion forums because they feel bands are unreliable, greedy, don't bring in enough patrons, etc...? just wondering....

 

 

Absolutely.

[Vito Corleone]

 

My theory is we all suffer from the "Lets wait for the place to fill a little more before we start" syndrome.

 

 

It's an easy trap to fall into. Who wants to play for an empty room? On the other hand, the room will likely fill up much more quickly if the band is playing.

 

I long ago instituted a "we start right on time regardless" rule unless the clubowner specifically asks us to do otherwise. After starting on time for an empty room a couple of times, the band doesn't even notice anymore when it happens and certainly doesn't bitch about it. It now just part of "what we do".

[bnelly428]

 

I hate being in Rhode Island !

 

 

We're not too fond of you either!

[jeff42]

I am BIG on starting when we are scheduled to start. If we are booked for 10pm we start at 10pm! Empty room, full room whatever! About 2 years ago we arrived at a club at 9pm to start at 10pm because of icy roads. Even though the club owner understood why were late we did our best to start at 10pm! We went on at around 10:15pm but we cut our breaks down.

[Austincowbell]

 

My theory is we all suffer from the "Lets wait for the place to fill a little more before we start" syndrome.

 

this happened at a last minute solo acoustic show I played last night. There wasn't a soul in the bar at 9pm but I was supposed to start at 9pm. So... I started. People would walk by, see me playing and come inside. It wasn't packed when I was finished but I'm sure the 25 or so people who were there at 10:30 wouldn't have walked into an empty bar if there was nothing going on.

[drewl]

With all six of us band members being avid drinkers, we tend to know alot of the bar/club owners and employeesof all the venues, and yes.....they constantly bitch about the annoying things bands do.

[newmaxnew]

We played a local venue a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday. The night before they had a popular metal bands and couple of other bands opening for them. I asked the manager how they did on that night, he said they did just fine at the bar but they would be lucky to break even for that night after they repaired all the damage to the bathrooms and other parts of bar caused by the bands fans.

 

Max

[wades_keys]

 

One thing I have noticed with a lot of bands in my area is the inability to start on time. I think the band I am in is part of a small percentage of bands that can actually be ready to play when we are supposed to. Do these guys show up late every day for thier day time jobs also? Max

 

THIS

 

We actually got a memo from one of the rooms we play, informing the "entertainment" that pay will be docked accordingly for late starts and early finishes.

 

We've also had one place refuse to run a band tab without a credit card, due to other band member's not paying their tab.

 

And at one of the bike night gigs we do, they used to have nickel beer for the band, but they stopped doing that because some bands were buying the nickel beer on behalf of non-band members.

 

Just like in life, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch.

 

We pride ourselves on being on time and not finishing early: our sets are all timed to within a minute or two. We also don't soundcheck or noodle when people are eating and conversating.

[jeff42]

The bar manager at a place we play always tells me about the other bands and which ones are dicks. Some demand to use the kitchen to do warm up jumping jacks, or demand a certain bottled water, what band takes a 45 minute break, what bands start late, who drinks like a fish, what bands pull in 3 people and act like rockstars... all that good stuff. We have a good relationship with this bar and I hope the manager doesn't talk about us to other bands. We try to be as nice as possible and as easy to work with as we can be.

[vanlatte]

 

We had a guy come in that was already sloppy drunk and my step-father refuse to serve him and told the guy to leave. He left alright and came back in with a gun and started busting off rounds bitching about he wanted more booze which afterwards. That pretty much ended the bar for good. We were lucky the guy didn't kill no body but it gave my step father bar a really {censored}ty reputation as a gun and knife bar and the next day the regulars just quit coming and eventually he had to close the doors because it.

 

 

Wow, that's harsh! Sometimes I forget that anytime I am in a bar something crazy like this could happen.

[kurfu]

1 - Start on time

2 - Watch your volume

3 - Take reasonable breaks

4 - Don't piss anybody off

5 - Don't piss anybody off

6 - Leave the place the way you found it

 

'nuff said.