Perils of gigging for weekend warriors list

[DanRH]

Venue hires a jazz trio, then staff comes up to me every song complaining about the volume. I was barely touching the drums or cymbals with my most quiet brushes. I could not even hear myself over everyone’s conversation, they still thought it too loud. I mean if you want truly background jazz that no one will hear at all, just put on a CD…

Yeah, people hire your rock band and complain before you’ve started about volume. A DJ or Musak would’ve been the real answer…

 

[Tubwompus]

Yeah, people hire your rock band and complain before you’ve started about volume. A DJ or Musak would’ve been the real answer…

Man, I can’t count how many bar gigs I’ve played through the decades where the oldest people in the joint would sit right in front of the PA cabinets and then bitch about the band’s volume.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

Was in a band with a well known punk artist and our band was asked to be a part of the Skatopia festival. There were big acts like Fishbone, Meat Puppets, CJ Ramone, GWAR, etc. We were paid 1/3 up front then the other 2/3 was contracted and agreed to be received after the performance. We rented a van and trecked several states over to Ohio and found that it was this huge outdoor natural amphitheater like Woodstock, but with like 100 people there. Apparently, they didn't promote it. We played on day to in mid afternoon. It was so hot that the drummer puked and passed out from heat stroke. All the roads for bringing equipment etc. were covered in some kind of white ashy crap that just went airborne and got all over everything, including our sweaty skin and in our lungs. The food backstage was the grossest I had ever eaten in my entire life, and there was nothing else for miles around but redneck forest. Some processed meat product and chips... that's all we had for three days, three meals a day. They had two port-o-pottys for the whole thing, concert goers and artists alike. Even with 100 people and another 100 people in the bands, they were over run with waiting lines, no sanitation to wash hands, and they filled up so the contents were bulging over the rim and running down the floor (I want to hurl just typing this). The real slap in the face was that since Skatopia lost their shirts on all their expenses and didn't recoup them from ticket sales, they decided not to pay the performers. Once more, they did pay only the top few performers since they didn't want bad publicity and figures less chance of lawsuits from performers not on a big enough label. We almost made enough in the initial 1/3 to break even on our own costs to get there, etc... almost. File this under performance adventure #846. Should have taken a photo of the Port-o-potty. It would have made an excellent, memorable EP record cover or show flyer. I just wanted to get out of Rutland, Ohio so bad. Gross.

and people here keep talking about how undesirable staying local and playing covers for decent money is.

 

[5 Style]

NOTHING will take the air out of the audience faster than slipping in a poorly placed original in a set a set of covers.

I was in a very good cover band playing a lot of Police, U2, REM, English Beat kind of stuff. Our lead singer/keyboard player fancied himself as a songwriter and always wanted to slip in one of his sappy love songs or dark emo tunes in the middle of a high energy set. The effect was as if the entire audience being told their beloved dog died.

Well... I'm certainly not going to be one of the folks advocating for a blended covers/original kind of approach, but even within that playing original songs which with aren't that great or are a totally differnt vibe than the covers that you play seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Tornado]

Yeah, people hire your rock band and complain before you’ve started about volume. A DJ or Musak would’ve been the real answer…

People are almost always more tolerant of a loud DJ than a loud band. Probably some takeaways from that.

 

[5 Style]

Add to all of that really bad acoustics. Though it wasn't my gig and just a palce that some friends took me to that had a jazz jam and signed me up to sit in. I would have been happy just eating a meal, drinking a bit and watching the jam but my friends put me on the list so I ended up sitting it. It would have been fine as I'm pretty familiar with the kind of jazz standards the band was playing, but the acoustics were so bad that I felt like I really couldn't connect with the other musicians at all. The place was all exposed brick and the band set up right on a wall. It seemed like the sound of the other instruments, even though they were set up pretty close to the drums, died off before they reached my ears, but the sound of the drums, even hitting them lightly jazz-style was unusually loud and the character of what I was hearing was like some kind of fun house mirror effect, where the initial hit and the echo were blurred into something that made it all but impossible for me to get any kind of accurate feedback as to what I was playing...

Of course, if you're a giging musician, you have surely dealt with plenty of spaces with less than great acoustics... and you deal with it. It can take a place with really horrible acoustics though to amke you realize just how much that sort of thing can ruin a performance.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

Well... I'm certainly not going to be one of the folks advocating for a blended covers/original kind of approach, but even within that playing original songs which with aren't that great or are a totally differnt vibe than the covers that you play seems like a recipe for disaster.

"We're a working band with four radio-ready originals!"
Pass.
That's not a business providing a product to a target demographic. That's rock star fantasy camp on a tiny, crappy stage, with a disappointed audience.

(btw- blues, jazz, and *sometimes* country can get away with that. Rock/pop... no dice. "Blues-Rock," I'm instantly passing on that in the first place, so I wouldn't know how their originals are received.)

 

[Derrick]

and people here keep talking about how undesirable staying local and playing covers for decent money is.

Eh... where's the reward in that?

Wishoot
NOTHING will take the air out of the audience faster than slipping in a poorly placed original in a set a set of covers.

I was in a very good cover band playing a lot of Police, U2, REM, English Beat kind of stuff. Our lead singer/keyboard player fancied himself as a songwriter and always wanted to slip in one of his sappy love songs or dark emo tunes in the middle of a high energy set. The effect was as if the entire audience being told their beloved dog died.

The problem wasn't the band trying to play originals in with covers, it was the band playing bad originals. Big difference. If nobody tries to do something creative, all we ever have is old music. I view a band attempting originals as a good thing and ya gotta start somewhere.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

Eh... where's the reward in that?

I mentioned money, which is generally considered to be included in the "reward" category. Rewards also include: sleeping in your own bed, firing up the grill whenever you want, spending lots of time with family, having a vegetable garden, being near your telescope when interesting things happen in the sky, being able to stock up on things to save money, not living debt-to-debt and couch-to-couch (or hotel-to-hotel if you're lucky), etc.

And if the originals are good enough, why isn't the band on the normal established circuit for the promotion of their music instead of punishing an unexpecting and usually unreceptive crowd with something they didn't show up to hear?

 

[trynberg]

My band does slip in a few originals during the typical three sets of covers...I consider them good songs and they fit into the genres we cover. Usually we get a decent reception to those songs. It's certainly something to be very careful about doing.

 

[Roch]

Being told that if we don’t play some Garth somebody is going home with no teeth..

Drunks trying to be helpful and carrying some of your stuff outside so you lose track and forget something there when you live an hour drive away.

A gang shows up during your last song and shouts, demanding an encore.

Drive home by yourself at 30 miles an hour in the middle of nowhere following snowmobile tracks at 2:30 in the morning.

 

[5 Style]

I mentioned money, which is generally considered to be included in the "reward" category. Rewards also include: sleeping in your own bed, firing up the grill whenever you want, spending lots of time with family, having a vegetable garden, being near your telescope when interesting things happen in the sky, being able to stock up on things to save money, not living debt-to-debt and couch-to-couch (or hotel-to-hotel if you're lucky), etc.

And if the originals are good enough, why isn't the band on the normal established circuit for the promotion of their music instead of punishing an unexpecting and usually unreceptive crowd with something they didn't show up to hear?

I would argue... and I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I look at cover bands as a means to make money with your music skills and paying original music a way to follow your creative muse. Obviously it is possible to get lucky and to create original music that folks respond to, that you can market and make a living with but I think that you're far better doing it as a labor of love and creating something that is meaningful to you personally, rather than attempting to create something that some imagined audience is going to want to buy. I've pretty only created music to satisfy my creative jones, much of it in retrospect wasn't really all that great, but some was music that I'm still proud of. Either way, I was never expecting to make any money from any of it and was resigned to playing it at the kind of bars that cater to original bands, which typically don't pay much. The real reward was getting your own music out there and occasionally getting a crowd that was really receptive to it. The way that I look at it is that the kind of places where this happens is a totally differnt scene then the one where cover bands get paid good money to play fmailar songs to entertain people who could care less about hearing original music. Unfortunately, it seems that one has to pick sides and deal with the add and disadvantages that each one has.

 

[Derrick]

I mentioned money, which is generally considered to be included in the "reward" category. Rewards also include: sleeping in your own bed, firing up the grill whenever you want, spending lots of time with family, having a vegetable garden, being near your telescope when interesting things happen in the sky, being able to stock up on things to save money, not living debt-to-debt and couch-to-couch (or hotel-to-hotel if you're lucky), etc.

Not sure why you feel these things aren't possible if you play originals... I have always had all of these things and I have played originals for quite some time.

And if the originals are good enough, why isn't the band on the normal established circuit for the promotion of their music instead of punishing an unexpecting and usually unreceptive crowd with something they didn't show up to hear?

Simple answer... Because you are still building a following. Your scenario/question wouldn't apply to established original bands.

 

[Action_Potential]

I hope the Yamahas are OK.