You and your sets

[MarchingPig]

What´s with almost everyone here plays several sets per gig. When my band eventually get gigs (in not too long a time), we´ll play 1 set, and that´s it. Although it seems like a lot of the people here play in coverbands and the like. Is this something that only occurs in North America?

[IanStephenson]

We're a UK cover band, and play two sets.

It's basically a question of how long the venue want you to play for and how long you can keep going for without a break.

We have to do about 2.5 hours start to end, so do 2x1hour sets with a break. A lot of our US friends are play for from 9 till 2AM - 4x1 hours sets. If you think you can play a 5 hour show without a break, then good luck!

It is a coverband thing though - we get hired to provide a nights entertainment. Originals bands usually play with a number of other bands - there are still several sets, but each band only plays one. If we do that then we would have to split the pay too...

Ian

[Dave Martin]

The bands who play 3-4 hours a night also get paid to do so - sometimes quite well. Will your band be guaranteed money whenever you're ready to play your one set?

It used to be common for almost all bars and nightclubs to use real musicians for their nightly entertainment, and there were very few venues for unknown acts to play one set (especially, songs that no one knows). These days, there are ever fewer venues that will pay musicians to work, and not that many who will let you play for free...

[trasser]

Originally Posted by IanStephenson

We're a UK cover band, and play two sets.

It's basically a question of how long the venue want you to play for and how long you can keep going for without a break.

We have to do about 2.5 hours start to end, so do 2x1hour sets with a break.

It is a coverband thing though - we get hired to provide a nights entertainment. Originals bands usually play with a number of other bands - there are still several sets, but each band only plays one. If we do that then we would have to split the pay too...

Ian

I play in a Danish cover band and an originals as well, I find this is what usually is the name of the game

Back in the late 60's and early 70's in So.Calif. club bands normally played five-45 min. sets a night and worked 6 nights a week with Monday usually being the off night. Also, very often bands played for weeks or even months at a time at the same club. I seem to remember that we averaged about $45 per player per night. By todays standards the pay wasn't that great but back then the average rent was about $135 to $195 a month and a brand new car was about $5000 out the door and gas was less than 50 cents a gallon. My how times have changed.


George

[Man with an Axe]

Originally Posted by X Wolf

Back in the late 60's and early 70's in So.Calif. club bands normally played five-45 min. sets a night and worked 6 nights a week with Monday usually being the off night. Also, very often bands played for weeks or even months at a time at the same club. I seem to remember that we averaged about $45 per player per night. By todays standards the pay wasn't that great but back then the average rent was about $135 to $195 a month and a brand new car was about $5000 out the door and gas was less than 50 cents a gallon. My how times have changed.


George

You sure about that? Things aren't all THAT much more expensive... if you're calculating dollars from 1965 to 2006, gas still used to cost $3.14 per gallon in today's money. Just thought I'd burst your bubble

[billjr]

I remember when I was in high school in '78, I wanted to buy a new Ford Grand Torino for $5,000 (Starsky and Hutch influence). I could put a dollars worth of gas in my car and drive all day, and I swore that if cigarettes hit a dollar a pack I would quite.

[BigLoopDuke]

We played a gig where we had to cover for an opener not showing, so we ended up doing a 3.25 hour set, without break. I could barely move the next day. At least we had enough material prepared.

Originally Posted by Man with an Axe

You sure about that? Things aren't all THAT much more expensive... if you're calculating dollars from 1965 to 2006, gas still used to cost $3.14 per gallon in today's money. Just thought I'd burst your bubble

My bubble is intact, lol. I'm only sure about what I lived through in that era. What I meant by my statement was that $45 doesn't sound like a lot today but in those days it was fine due to how much one had to spend to live. Of course I'm just a bass player and not an economist so I may not have expressed myself clearly. The main point of my post had to do with how much playing one did in those days as a working bass player

George

[Jeb]

Originally Posted by Dave Martin

The bands who play 3-4 hours a night also get paid to do so - sometimes quite well...

This is true and there are those of us who do it week in and week out with various projects just because we like to play bass and have fun too. My calendar shows the next open weekend in September. Sure to change though. I have a cell phone.

[Texas Ed]

Typically we have to do either 2-90's or 3-60's during club season. During festival season we do 1.5 hr. to 2.0 hours but it can vary.

The irony is, the less we play, the more we usually make. Festival season pays really good bucks. Club season usually just gives us the oppertunity to work on new material for the summer, get some new names on the mailing list, and walk away, at the end of the night, with a C-note in our pocket and a free beer buzz and maybe a booby shot or two. We tell ourselves that club dates are just paid rehearsals. It keep's us for going bonkers.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by Dave Martin

The bands who play 3-4 hours a night also get paid to do so - sometimes quite well. Will your band be guaranteed money whenever you're ready to play your one set?

It used to be common for almost all bars and nightclubs to use real musicians for their nightly entertainment, and there were very few venues for unknown acts to play one set (especially, songs that no one knows). These days, there are ever fewer venues that will pay musicians to work, and not that many who will let you play for free...

If you play in clubs around here, it's four sets per night ... 9:00 pm to 1:30 am. And the pay royally sucks.

[MarchingPig]

Originally Posted by Dave Martin

Will your band be guaranteed money whenever you're ready to play your one set?

Maybe not a lot the first few gigs, but we´ll get something...

[Bayou_Brawler]

depends on many things.....like what the venues want....crowd energy....how late you partied last night :-)

some venues are very strict on how many sets and how long you play.

some are not and it can depend on how you feel. sometimes we have raging crowd that fuel the room and stage with energy and we've played for 3 hours straight.....we've also had dead rooms and you feel like taking a break every 30 mins

in general i like a break every 1.5 hours or so.....let's you recharg and gives the room's ears a break...

[troy mcclure]

4 sets 8 -12 , 9 - 1 or 10 -2
4 45's with 15 breaks

[datsgora]

Yep, what Troy said.....4 sets, 45 minutes with 15 minute breaks.......pay anywhere from $60-$100 per musician. That ain't bad for doing someting I love....heck, I would do it for no pay.......but gas money is good enough for me. John

[QORC]

I think we have typically been contracted for 4 or 4.5 hours.

We do 3 sets, usually 50-60 minutes each, and appropriate 15-20 minute breaks in between. We frequently make our second set the longest (prime time in most bars) and our third the shortest (with fewer people around).

We usually get $125-$150 per man.

Typical
10:00 - 10:55 Set 1
11:30 - 12:45 Set 2
1:10 - 2:00 Set 3

[MarchingPig]

That´s not how it works in Norway. Doesn´t matter what style of music you play, or if you play covers.

[Bayou_Brawler]

Originally Posted by MarchingPig

That´s not how it works in Norway. Doesn´t matter what style of music you play, or if you play covers.

that sounds crappy

[j-bass-kreep]

Cover bands here usually play 1 hour sets or 45 minute sets . I have two gigs per week. At Applebees we play 3 - 45 minute sets, and in a Sports bar called "Baja shots" we play 3-1 hour sets.