Members dogtownmax Posted October 28, 2005 Members Share Posted October 28, 2005 Well, my gothtronica band had a rare gig last night at a drag bar in the castro. They normally dont do live music, but wanted something halloween themed, and we are gothy enough for that. everything went long, and our 10pm start went to 11:20, which is ok. I drank my complimentary drinks and enjoyed the lip synch drag competitions. We finally got on and were playing really well, except various bar staff kept telling me to turn down. I was using a blues delux set to 3, so i want too loud. i sort of tried to comply but they kept coming back untill i finally turned the volume to 0 and mimed strumming. they still wanted it lower! when i pointed this out (mind you, while we are playing) they suddently realised that the music was coming from the PA! DUh! So now they began to harass the electronics player who tried to comply, but we just were not really that loud. eventually there is nothing to turn down. a bar person, maybe the manager then started to try to manipulate the volume on the PA speakers (they are powered)! At that point, I had enough, but before I could do anything, my band shut down! They then started screaming at the bar manager! Not terribly professional, but pretty funny. I started packing up and getting out of there. the bar manager was screaming stupid stuff like "youll never play this bar again!", when after all, we havent played it yet! Normally I dont burn any bridges, its a small industry, and all that, but i no longer really care that much. I was more amused than pissed off, but my band mates and the bar manager were really into screaming obseneties at eachother! oh well. rock and roll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BndGrl Posted October 28, 2005 Members Share Posted October 28, 2005 Originally posted by dogtownmax oh well. rock and roll. Don't you mean... oh well. gothtronica. I'm just sayin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dogtownmax Posted October 28, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 28, 2005 Originally posted by BndGrl Don't you mean... oh well. gothtronica. I'm just sayin'. well, technically we were a gothtronica band (no drums, guitar part consists of long feedback atmospherics, heavy electronics...) but anytime the police are called, it's R&R! the cops were nice enough. i think they recognized a sissyfight (lots of cursing and drama, but no violence) when they see one. WhAt we needed was a semi-professional groupie to set the mood . well, a female one anyway. apparently a crowd of drag queens whooping it up doesnt mean theyre excited about the band... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lewie Posted October 28, 2005 Members Share Posted October 28, 2005 respect, i hate it when other people give you "helpful and experienced critical adive" seriously though, drink after the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dogtownmax Posted October 29, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 29, 2005 Originally posted by lewie respect, i hate it when other people give you "helpful and experienced critical adive" seriously though, drink after the show. well, i appriciate your input, but im afraid we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. i would explain it if you really want, but i suspect this topic has been covered here before. "gin makes a man mean - booze up and ride!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wikwox Posted October 29, 2005 Members Share Posted October 29, 2005 Not an uncommon situation. I usually resort to things like,"remember, if you can hear us, tell us, we'll turn down". If your going to do the zero volume trick it's best to have everybody do it and then of course express amazement when they get pissy. Of course by then the gig's lost so have all the fun you can, then get out fast. To top it off , in this situation the DJ is usually ten times louder than the band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LIMEgreenBLUES Posted October 30, 2005 Members Share Posted October 30, 2005 if you have a bar and invite a band - they are going to be loud! i mean who didn't see that one coming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hollow body Posted October 30, 2005 Members Share Posted October 30, 2005 Yeah, the volume issue can be maddening. I mean, I hate it as much as anyone when the band is stupid loud, but if you're playing, as we often have, at a volume where you can hear conversations at the tables, or where you can't hear yourselves over the crowd noise, you're just not too loud. The thing that gets me is that a 20 piece swing band would be way louder than a R&R band whose guitarist is playing through a BD on three, and no one would complain, because they're not amplified. Unfortunately, the money gigs, like weddings, usually need to be whisper soft, and there are usually assholes doing the enforcing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zekmoe Posted October 31, 2005 Members Share Posted October 31, 2005 Originally posted by Hollow body Unfortunately, the money gigs, like weddings, usually need to be whisper soft, and there are usually assholes doing the enforcing. Hence the reason I don't do those kind of gigs anymore. I don't need the money and it's not fun. So why bother? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Krashpad Posted October 31, 2005 Members Share Posted October 31, 2005 Originally posted by LIMEgreenBLUES if you have a bar and invite a band - they are going to be loud! i mean who didn't see that one coming? Anybody who doesn't go out to see live rock music on a regular basis, that's who. People are freaking clueless. Several years ago my punk rock and roll band got invited (not our idea, unsolicited e-mail) to play at a local record store, part of a chain called Media Play. Purely a PR opp for us, they wouldn't pay, and we had to provide our own PA. We gave them our CD which even says "PLAY LOUD" on it so they'd KNOW what they were getting. We did one song. Then we got the "turn down or stop" crap. We were already as low as would work. So we declared them in breach of their contract to let us play, and demanded payment for our time, effort, and out-of-pocket costs in setting up the show. Their choice-- they could let us play or pay us. They in turned called the sherriff, who sent 3 patrol cars. The cops laughed when they arrived, we were already loading out. The best part, I called their store manager and told him if we didn't get paid, we'd sue them in small claims court and the regional music magazine I wrote for would get sent all our press releases abou it. Their corporate counsel called me a couple times and we argued a bit, but I pointed out that once they hired a local attorney to defend, and the lawyer did so much as an hour's work, they'd be in the hole even if they won. And we had both photographic and audio tape evidence that we'd shown up and had been ready to perform, but had been cut short by their staff We got paid $100 for a gig we'd agreed to play for free. And at which we performed for about 2 minutes and thirty-five seconds. The store closed a year later. So we had the last laugh, twice. The band's 10th anniversary is in March. BK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Edward Posted November 1, 2005 Members Share Posted November 1, 2005 Proof positive that being a lawyer ain't always such a bad thing.... We did a convention showing of Rocky Horror last year and some argy bargy got started with the organiser... he started threatening people and all sorts, at which point the freak with the hunchback and questionable looking hygiene (me, in full Riff Raff costume & make up ) pipes up "speaking as a lawyer...". Funny how quickly some people change their tune when they think you know more than them about legal niceties.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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