I visited the entertainment director of a local club a couple of weeks back and booked a gig for Nov. 30. The club is having a special dinner and although they normally have karaoke on Friday night, they booked us for the dinner (Prime Rib w/all the trimmings). I paid a follow-up visit to the guy last night to find out what time we could load in and the start time and he promptly booked us for two more gigs! Including New Years! He hasn't even heard us yet and I quoted the NYE gig at double standard rate. Didn't bat an eyelash. Turns out he has some members that have heard us before and are giving a favorable response to the Dinner night. He plans on doing one the last Friday of each month and will book us as such pending the response to the upcoming three gigs! I just posted this to let you guys know - The gigs are out there if you just go after them. Don't let an existing band or DJ keep you from touching base with the entertainment directors. People in clubs are always looking for something new to attract more patrons.

i think that deserves an attaboy :D

I just had another thought on the gig coming up Nov 30. Since they normally have karaoke on Friday night, what do you guys think about asking the crowd to recommend some of their better singers to come up and take a look at our setlist and maybe sing one? Good idea? Bad idea?

I was just thinking that this may improve our chances of making this a regular gig, warming up to them (OK, sucking up to them).

What do you think?

Good idea, most of the time. It can go bad if there's no "quality control." But if you know who the folks are, or if they come recommended, or PARTICULARLY if they are involved in booking, paying or recommending, bring 'em up and let 'em sing one or two. They'll love it and the crowd'll love it.

Just don't get to open mic, or some drunk schlub will ruin the mood.

Another thing we do is ask for a bunch of volunteers to come up and group-sing a popular song. We did it out of desperation the first time. Had "That Thing You Do" on the set list and the singer was sick--just couldn't do it. So we asked for volunteers. About 20 people came up and had a blast. We let them all surround one mic, while we kept the others for the harmonies. Went great. So it was a regular for us, for a while.

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I also thought about having one of the regulars come up and play Tambourine on Proud Mary. It just seems that these are a couple of ways to get in with the crowd and keep them from missing their karaoke. Any other ideas?

Good idea but....
Don't let it happen until the last set.

OK - Gig was this past Friday night. We actually did BOTH. We invited the crowd to recommend some of their favorite singers to come up and look over our set list to pick out one to sing. No takers. One guy that everyone wanted to sing was a musician I knew and had performed with in the past. I actually tried to coax him into it, but he declined. Who says there is no honor among musicians. He is a great musician and a very talented player, but didn't want to intrude no matter how much I tried to convince him to sing.

Tambourine on Proud Mary was played by a 65 year old lady there to celebrate her birthday (and yes, we did sing Happy Birthday to her). She was great on the tambourine and the crowd loved it.

Both of these ideas went over well at the venue, even though no one took us up on the offer to sing. We're looking forward to our next gig there the 28th of this month. Better yet, we won't even have to break down and load out because we are playing the NYE gig there too! Good times!:bassist: