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Anyone play straight through, no breaks?

#21
Keithwah said:
I've been playing for over forty years live. In that time I've done some brilliant things, and I've done some stupid things. I've been paid mega bucks and I've been paid sh*t. I've been paid as much as $3,500 a night income very good years and made a comfortable living at it while on the road for months at a crack.

My rule of thumb is this, if you are being paid for a 1 to 2 hour show, play through, which is probably what the contract is asking for. If you are to perform from say 8 to 12 or similar, take a break religiously every 45-50 minutes, gauge the length of the break according to the length of the contracted time. 20-30 minutes including getting your drunk azz back on stage and tuned.

What are you guys playing these marathon gigs getting paid? $50? $100? $150? $200? $250? $300 for the night? I still haven't seen a number that would give me any reason or incentive to play straight through. My Dumbazz drummer last Saturday night wanted to run the last two sets together in order to "just finish it off". So now I'm being taken for more money than I was willing to be taken for. I was only pulling down $50 per set. I now have to play an additional 7-10 songs ( damn country music...needs some Rock Bottom length solos) for no additional money. We're a great band, the crowd would hang all night, the (and listen up good here) THE BAR ISN'T SELLING ANY F'N BEER BECAUSE YOU'VE GOT THEM ON THE DANCE FLOOR!!!!!! Why are you there? To help the damn festival/bar bring in and hold people who will buy tons of beer! Plain and simple, You are a complete failure to the success of the talent buyer.

Thoughts?
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I get what you're saying... But I actually enjoy playing and singing, so it doesn't really feel like work to me if I do an extra 20 minutes. But sure, it gets old when you're not making much. The principle of the thing, etc.

Anyway, this is one benefit to having our band built around two singers. Even when you factor in the harmony parts we're each only singing about 75% of the night. Makes it a lot easier to go the extra mile when you can rest your voice for a few minutes her and there throughout the night.
 
#22
IMHO, this is just plain stupid. There is an old saying "If you don't value your own time then noone else will."

Hell I have had to bow out to take a leak even when we take two 15-30 minute breaks.

If your band is good, then you should charge a fair price and take your breaks,

Saw one of these lame-ass adds on CL here in Atl, "Band plays 40 songs straight thru with NO break,"

Great for them, enjoy being idiots playing wild wing cafe. Your $100 a night isn't even covering playing 3 full hours, much less 4 with no breaks and loading all your stuff.

Also, your audience needs the break to actually talk to people, and guess what YOU can then actually talk to some of your audience and get feedback during the break, and hang with them a bit. What a concept!! Maybe they will actually like you and come to your next gigs.
 
#23
Up here in the great northwest, bar owners expect us to take breaks, and the contract usually calls for them, usually ten to fifteen minutes per hour. There are times when things are going great where we have played straight through , but usually, we have found that wedding gigs, and parties, where you are dealing with amatures, is where they expect you to play straight through.
 
#24
lowfreq33 said:
Downtown Nashville no breaks is the rule, for exactly the reason you describe. Band takes a break everybody leaves and goes next door (there are about 40 bands playing on broadway every night). Typically you do 4 hour shifts.

Anyway, you just have to find stuff you can do one person short. Maybe the singer does a couple of songs just acoustic and vocals, then when the band gets back he/she takes a break and someone else sings a few. Sometimes you get lucky and you have a friend (that doesn't suck) who wants to sit in.

Anytime I go downtown strictly to socialize I ALWAYS get asked to sit in, because usually somebody wants to take a break.
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Yep. It's a unique setting. Dozens of clubs, one right next to another. Options are endless, and the crowd is largely tourists. Those clubs think this "no break" rule works, but I've noticed that customers have no qualms about getting up and moving on during the music if they are so inclined. As usual, these clubs blame the musicians for any loss in crowd. There's a reason I won't play down there anymore for most clubs........
 
#25
I've "iTunes DJed" breaks for a 4 hour night for years.

Easy solution. Build in a couple of ten minute breaks, and pick a few of songs that won't let people leave..

IME - anything super trendy works (Psy right now), any shuffle/line dance (Cupid shuffle, cha cha slide, etc) works even better..

The dance floor won't go far, and it gives you a few minutes to regroup.
 
#26
We have taken exactly 1 break in 10 years. We also play straight through 3-1/2 hour sets! This last summer we actually played a 5-1/2 hour set. No breaks. What we sometimes do is one of our guitarists will do a couple of solo tunes. When they are done with 2 or 3 songs, the drummers come back up and roll into a sort of solo kind of thing. I hop up on bass and start rolling into the next tune and the rest of the band joins in. That is a total of about 15 minutes or so. Gives a little break from the whole band, but keeps the music going non-stop
 
#28
The variety band I'm in takes 15 minute breaks every hour or so for a 4 hour show. The iPad takes care of the break music. However, sometimes the shots get the best of me and I gotta go! I've found a couple tunes (ex: Behind Blue Eyes, The Who) has just enough guitar/vocal only in the beginning for me and the drummer to make it to the men's room & back. Usually. LoL
 
#29
I have sat in with other bands over the last 13 years I have been with my current band. Breaks and set lists are like a foriegn culture to me now. I just don't know what to do with them. I actually find I don't like them. There is something about playing 3-1/2 hour set of rock and roll that I just love. Since we play breathable music, people can take breaks and get a drink, go outside and smoke, whatever they need to do. Sometimes during jams, people just have to back away and then they come back in. It's cool to watch our audiences react to the show. Playing the way we do, the audience becomes part of the show. It lives and breates with them. They party, we party, they slow down, so do we. Give them what they want. That is what keeps 200 people standing in front of you for that length of time
 
#30
I like to look at it this way..

When I go to large concerts they never play for 4 hours. And I don't think anyone should be expected to play that long straight through.. Granted we are not a big concert name and I am not trying to compare our band to anyone..

However, I know that when we take a break, we like to let our crowd know that there is something to stick around for.. We let them know we have some new tunes ready that they may not have heard yet... etc...

There's another aspect to it as well. Many times, our friends and family come to our shows, and it's nice to take a quick break and acknowledge their presence and personally thank them for coming with a quick chat. This can be a slippery slope when you have to get a restroom stop in too..

I think it's ok to take breaks but, keep them very short so that you don't "lose them.."
 
#32
Thanks for the input everyone, interesting to see how things vary across the country!

ckdhaven said:
I like to look at it this way..

When I go to large concerts they never play for 4 hours. And I don't think anyone should be expected to play that long straight through..
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No one is expecting us to play 4 hours straight through, this was our idea and its definitely not the norm for bar bands in this area. Which is another reason we wanted to try it, set us apart a bit from the others. But yea, a quick 10 minutes to say hi to friends is nice to do.
 
#33
I am pretty used to playing long gigs. The most common solutions would be an acoustic break or somebody playing a couple songs solo. This works especially well if you have a keyboard guy in the band. However in my case most gigs were not particularly high-energy stage show-wise. The band I am playing in right now does a one hour set that is very energetic, but if we would more than two hours on that pace I would start working out again.

So far the toughest one was a nightclub were the band played until everybody left, which usually meant 7-9 hours (Welcome to the Balkans). Did this 3 times a week for 3 months and after that I went to a spa for a weekend. My teacher stopped doing this last year.

Another really hard gig was playing for a theater production. I was a sub for a production of a Rocky horror show-style play in a small theatre. Man that thing was nerve-wracking; one eye on your sheets, one eye on your conductor and always anticipating everything that was going on on-stage. The show lasted a little less than 2 hours but on Saturdays they did two shows per day. I have to say though, this was one of my most rewarding musical experiences so far.
 
#37
It all depends on the gig for me. If it's a 2-hour gig, we'll play straight through. If it's 3 or more, we'll do a 90 minute first set and divide the rest of the evening up accordingly. There is a band who does 3 hour gigs straight through around here, but they're the only ones that I know of. I have done it on occasion but they're very rare. I have a 2 hour bladder, and pushing it results in nothing good for anyone ;)
 
#38
We just played a 3 hour 15 minute set last night. The owner of the club was happy with the turn out, great with how long we played. So we ended the night. As I put my bass away, someone walked up to me and asked if that was all we were playing. I retorted "We just played for 3 hour and 15 minutes, I am pretty sure we're done" they then replied "Well why are you still playing"... HA!! Kills me. No matter how long you play, someone will complain when you're not playing..
 
#39
IF this is what's needed, we'll pace the set so that people can get down and just float back in.

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I'll differ... IF your band is an average one... breaks are a waste of time.. if you use these as an opportunity to meet/greet patrons etc... it's a great PR opportunity... IF you're too loud it gives patrons a chance to speak
 
#40
We take breaks during the 4 hour gigs. I could play non-stop but the vocalist(s) needs a break. Canned tracks with line-dance fodder fills the void. We play more than a handful of fraternal organizations who use the time for public announcements, awards / recognitions, 50/50 drawings, etc.

Riis
 

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