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02-04-2006, 09:57 PM
| | Artfully lost | | Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North Carolina | | | Bar gigs
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Hey... I've done some gigging before, but that was at a "Battle of the bands" or a "Teen Band Night". I want to play a bar, but we are all too wussed out to just ask. How might we go about getting a gig at this bar?
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02-04-2006, 10:28 PM
| | | BAR GIGS! 
My favorite! I could post stories here on TB from now 'til this time next year, but I'd probably get banned from the website after relating some of them...  Bar gigs are all we do now out here in Paradise. I've done some concerts, and other really big venues... but give me a smoke-filled, stale beer stenching, nasty girl-filled bar gig... I'm 53, and these gigs still keep me feeling young! 
The best advice I have for you is not only very simple, but pretty obvious... at least to me: if you got any kind of recording of your band, and your song list... that's usually enough. Pictures always help. Some bars are known to get a free gig out of you... a.k.a. 'audition'... however, if you nail it, and kill 'em... you're in there!
Speaking of bar gigs... it's a little after 6 p.m.... I have to fix dinner for my lovely wife, then get myself ready for my bar gig tonight... lot's of smoke... bikers... drunk girls... neon beer signs all over the walls... and they have one hellava house PA!
Good luck!  |
02-04-2006, 11:59 PM
| | I call shotgun! | | Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Columbia MD USA | | | +1
You need some kind of a press kit and it also helps to be of age. You can also get to know some of the bands that are playing at the bars you wish to play and have them get you face to face with the manager.
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I found my shovel.
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02-05-2006, 12:24 AM
|  | Total Hyper-Elite Member | | Join Date: May 2000 Location: Groom Lake, NV | | | I wouldn't mind bar gigs if I could go home at eleven o'clock. Since California is a no-smoking state, we're lucky not to have that gawd-awful stench in the bars.
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02-05-2006, 12:38 AM
| | I call shotgun! | | Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Columbia MD USA | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Munjibunga I wouldn't mind bar gigs if I could go home at eleven o'clock. Since California is a no-smoking state, we're lucky not to have that gawd-awful stench in the bars. | Are you kidding me? How can you play in a bar with no smoke?
I can't sing in a smoke free bar.
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I found my shovel.
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02-05-2006, 07:32 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Western PA | | Wah. Smoke in bars. Bars need to be healthy places, you know!
It should be up to the bar owner. And I don't smoke, either!
The new smoke eaters are a lot more effective now too... 10-15 years ago, the bars were filled with smoke. Nowadays, we play a bar, we're in there 6+ hours, and we come home and you can barely smell the smoke in our clothes.
Bar gigs are great. College bar gigs are even better.
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I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. - Benjamin Franklin My Band My Band's Myspace |
02-05-2006, 10:13 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: USA | | | Its been mentioned, but you need a "promo-pack." Something that communicates in a tangible way what it is that you do. Promo demo CD (spend the money for studio time - its worth it), a brief bio (and I mean brief, none of this life history stuff- just the necessary practicals) and a setlist is helpful too.
I followed my own advice and went to five clubs that I thought suitable. We were booked at three of those within a month.
For me, one thing led to another after that and I met some folks, joined an additional working band and now I have 10 or 12 rooms booked every weekend through June. |
02-12-2006, 12:27 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Tulsa, OK USA | | I'm doin a bar gig tomorrow night, which is wierd because my band isn't really a bar gig kind of show.... but I digress.
The smoke sucks. Especially if you have long hair, it takes about ten seconds for your hair to reek of smoke in most bars. Yuck...
We'll just have to rock the stink off. |
02-12-2006, 10:47 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Leander, Texas | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Keeaumoku BAR GIGS!
My favorite! I could post stories here on TB from now 'til this time next year, but I'd probably get banned from the website after relating some of them... Bar gigs are all we do now out here in Paradise. I've done some concerts, and other really big venues... but give me a smoke-filled, stale beer stenching, nasty girl-filled bar gig... I'm 53, and these gigs still keep me feeling young!
The best advice I have for you is not only very simple, but pretty obvious... at least to me: if you got any kind of recording of your band, and your song list... that's usually enough. Pictures always help. Some bars are known to get a free gig out of you... a.k.a. 'audition'... however, if you nail it, and kill 'em... you're in there!
Speaking of bar gigs... it's a little after 6 p.m.... I have to fix dinner for my lovely wife, then get myself ready for my bar gig tonight... lot's of smoke... bikers... drunk girls... neon beer signs all over the walls... and they have one hellava house PA!
Good luck! | You would absolutely LOVE The Lone Star Bar, in Jonestown, TX. Smokiest, funkiest got-danged bar in Texas. I have to clean my leather jacket if I go in there twice. The owner is a good ol' boy who used to be a headbanger, and welcomes any kind of music that can keep the people coming in. The place has pool tables, it has a jukebox with nothing but country and the rock and blues bands that play there, it has big cedar timbers and a stained, smoked ceiling, a floor that is a combination of concrete, stone and wood, a flagstone "backyard", a hoppin' beer-and-setups bar, and you can order pizza delivered from next door for $5, which establishment is owned by a one-legged bass player.
The mayor comes in every weekend. He gave a friend of mine some most-excellent incense from Malaysia or somewhere. It was incense, I swear!
I Love This Bar!
Cherie :-)
Last edited by txbasschik : 02-12-2006 at 10:50 AM.
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02-12-2006, 10:54 AM
|  | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Ohio | | | After doing nothing but bar gigs the last couple of years, I'm damn glad to be doing a corporate/reception/festival type band now.
Better pay, less smoke, and I'm usually home by midnight! |
02-12-2006, 11:41 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: SoNJ | | | Zackly!
Quote: |
Originally Posted by Keeaumoku BAR GIGS!Some bars are known to get a free gig out of you... a.k.a. 'audition'... however, if you nail it, and kill 'em... you're in there! | That's exactly how it went down for us. First gig free, packed the house, now we're in the paid rotation. SoNJ.
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"You don't get to sit on a higher cloud than Jaco if your bass has no lines." –Bryan R. Tyler
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02-12-2006, 12:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Bay Area, California | | Bar gigs can be pretty easy to get, depending on the bar. Often times, you can just drop off a CD with the bartender and tell them you want to play. Bars with web sites will usually have an address or phone number for booking.
Bar gigs are fun. 
- Dave |
02-12-2006, 01:32 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Tulsa, OK USA | | | It also depends on the bar. Lots of bars are just social gathering places where any band is little more than a live jukebox in the background, playing too loud for easy conversation or for hook-up lines.
The fun ones are the ones where people come there to SEE bands. I've seen some fantastic bands finish up great songs to the sound of 50 or 60 conversations and two or three people clapping. And I've seen very average bands just get roaring ovations, depending on the bar. |
02-12-2006, 02:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: SoNJ | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Dave Grossman Bar gigs can be pretty easy to get, depending on the bar. Often times, you can just drop off a CD with the bartender and tell them you want to play. | That may be the case with cover bands, but original music bands are kinda limited to venues that cater to shows rather than jukebox/dancing bands. At least that's how it is around here. SoNJ.
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"You don't get to sit on a higher cloud than Jaco if your bass has no lines." –Bryan R. Tyler
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02-12-2006, 03:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Bay Area, California | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Bass2x That may be the case with cover bands, but original music bands are kinda limited to venues that cater to shows rather than jukebox/dancing bands. At least that's how it is around here. SoNJ. | Yeah, I forgot about the cover band thing. It's not that much of an issue in the Bay Area (San Francisco/Oakland). There are plenty of places for original music. Most cover bands that have any kind of name for themselves seem to be tribute bands and just just party cover bands.
I can't remember the last time I've even seen a cover band advertised at any of the clubs I go to.
- Dave |
02-13-2006, 02:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Leander, Texas | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by B-NoteCowboy It also depends on the bar. Lots of bars are just social gathering places where any band is little more than a live jukebox in the background, playing too loud for easy conversation or for hook-up lines.
The fun ones are the ones where people come there to SEE bands. I've seen some fantastic bands finish up great songs to the sound of 50 or 60 conversations and two or three people clapping. And I've seen very average bands just get roaring ovations, depending on the bar. | Which is why I prefer to book at bars where the emphasis is on music. If I *had* to, I'd book a sports bar, pub, or pickup joint, but I'd rather not. I don't like to play for people who would rather watch the playoffs or hit on the aging blonde at the end of the bar. If I'm gonna, I want to be paid well for doing all the work for people who are not going to be listening.
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