Travelling to a far away gig

[Vanceman]

This is kind of a odd one for me. Our singer's sister wants us to play her birthday party in Minnesota. We live in Calif. All five of us. They are offering to cover the flight, and a place to stay for two nights. One of her neighbors will provide the PA, and possibly a bass rig. I haven't heard about anything else like drums, keys or guitar amps. Not even sure if it's a paying gig. Leave on a Friday, return on Sunday.

It seems like a lot of effort, cause air travel sucks anyway, but it could be fun. I could pretend I'm some kind of rockstar.

Does anybody think this is a good idea? I have a hard case for my bass, but have never travelled by air with it. We wouldn't bring our amps, right? What do I need to know about travelling with an instrument these days?

[Tampabass]

probably depends mostly on how much you like your singer, how much you like his sister (and her friends), how much you like Minnesota, and the opportunity costs - what gigs or other stuff you'll miss out on by splitting town for the weekend. If it were me, and it was mainly for grins (not real $$) I wouldn't do it unless they'd guarantee all the backline was in place there, available to me to use at no charge, and maybe the instruments, too.

[jaywa]

Well at least the weather up in Minnesota is starting to get tolerable now. It's really not the place you want to be from about mid-October through February and especially if you're acclimated to California .

I probably wouldn't do it unless there was some damn good pay for the gig itself on top of all the expenses being covered. Like Tampa said, you need to net at least as much $$ out of this trip as you would if you had stayed home and played gigs there that weekend. Especially if the client is expecting a "friends and family" discount (i.e. she's going to pay the band little or nothing above and beyond expenses), this could basically wind up being a comp gig and a really exhausting one at that.

If I were you, I'd pass but if you don't want to reject the gig outright then ask the singer to spell out all the details of the gig, also get a contract and a deposit. I don't care if it's family, still do it.

[Vanceman]

This would be in July, and we have nothing on the calendar so far. It just seems so weird... We usually just play local bars and parties. Jetlag sucks too.

[carl h.]

Jetlag from CA to MN??

[jaywa]

Pay notwithstanding, I would really be sweating the apparent looseness of the logistics. I mean, to travel halfway across the country on faith that there will be a decent P.A. (and someone to run it?), bass rig, drums, etc. What about lights? Where will you actually be playing, and do they have adequate power? Etc. etc.

In other words, is this gonna be a legit production or some half-assed thing cobbled together from whatever can be borrowed or rented dirt cheap? I mean, if one piece of that equation falls through your whole gig is hosed. You are gonna be seriously worn out from your flight and the last thing you're gonna want to do when you get up there is put out a bunch of fires cause people on the other end didn't get everything pulled together. The singer can write it off cause he was gonna be up there for the event anyway... but the rest of your band is giving up a lot to do this.

But then I'm kind of inherently an anxious control freak where stuff like that is concerned.

[Steve]

For a whole pile of reasons, I'd be shying away from that.

Actually, I really don't see one single reason why getting involved with something that that, and the inevitable downside of working for family is a good thing...what's the upside? Fly dates suck.

[Vanceman]

Thanks. I'm predicting suckage. Neighbors donating frequent flyer miles, place to stay will probably be somebody's couch, half-ass cobbled together, so I'll probably bail.