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"Check In" here before and after your gigs, Set #2, the sequel!
- Thread starter mimaz
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Got a couple of Halloween gigs, the first one this friday 28th and the second the 6th of november.
I'll be playing guitar since I haven't made the transfer yet to bass, but I'll let you guys know how they go
I'll be playing guitar since I haven't made the transfer yet to bass, but I'll let you guys know how they go
Had a blast playing with my cover band, LIPS, at mile-3 of the Los Angeles Rock and Roll Half Marathon this morning - nothing like a huge moving audience! 
- Jan 27, 2010
- 4,141
- 471
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- Endorsing Artist: Genz Benz Amplification
Had an interesting one last night. Cold call sub gig, mostly country standards. Lead player (also a sub) was quite good, great harmony vocals. Drummer was good, but didn't really know the material too well.
Keys player was very good, but had NO idea how to play in a group setting. Played walking bass lines all night long, way down into the lowest octave at times. I spent the whole night watching his left hand and copping all his lines so we didn't clash.
Also, the singer (aka the guy whose name was on the gig) had asked if I could sing a few rock songs throughout the night because the club had requested some variety. Well, he spent half the gig at the bar drinking beer while the guitarist and I sang. He'd do 2 or 3 songs, then we'd each take a song or 2. Not that I minded, but I couldn't help but think if we were pretty much carrying the gig he could've stayed home and cut the split from 5 ways to 4.
Anybody else run into this?
Keys player was very good, but had NO idea how to play in a group setting. Played walking bass lines all night long, way down into the lowest octave at times. I spent the whole night watching his left hand and copping all his lines so we didn't clash.
Also, the singer (aka the guy whose name was on the gig) had asked if I could sing a few rock songs throughout the night because the club had requested some variety. Well, he spent half the gig at the bar drinking beer while the guitarist and I sang. He'd do 2 or 3 songs, then we'd each take a song or 2. Not that I minded, but I couldn't help but think if we were pretty much carrying the gig he could've stayed home and cut the split from 5 ways to 4.
Anybody else run into this?
No gig Sat a tree fell on our singers car! Also later on that night the club owner called to cancel they had no power. For those not from this area NJ got hit with a freak snow storm. My area got 5.0 inch of snow big heavy wet flakes for ten hours straight. We have currently just started our fall season and all of the leaves on the trees have turn color but not fallen off yet and this is what was the big problem all of the branches still have leaves and the weight became too much for the trees and branches and the branches just started snapping and the trees behind my house just started cracking and falling into the river so it was scary nuts all day. Power went out at about 2PM and came back on around 10PM so we were lucky there are still area in my town that people still have no power since Sat afternoon. The owner rescheduled the Halloween for Nov 12th the next time we are in there so that should be different. I have no shows until then so hit back then
Our first halloween gig went rather well.
Would have liked a few more people in the audience but we didn't let that get us down and rocked the place for an hour
There were 18 songs total, 9 original and 9 Misfits covers
Would have liked a few more people in the audience but we didn't let that get us down and rocked the place for an hour
There were 18 songs total, 9 original and 9 Misfits covers
Oh Heck yes!
A few years back I was on the road with a Western Swing band. The lead vocalist would do the first set and then maybe half of the second set and then hit the bar leaving us (me) to fill in. The trouble was that we had NEVER rehearsed anything except his songs.
And no one would ever know if he'd be sober enough to do anything the third or fourth sets.
And he wondered why he started losing long established gigs.
Second show with my new band tonight at another dive bar. Heard the room we're playing in is really nice. Going on second in a show with 3 bands. Just loaded my 810 and once again beginning to consider two cabs instead of just one huge one.
First show with new Brazilian/Latin/country acoustic duo was tonight. Seven Shakira songs, which makes me very happy. Even played "Ojos asi", a song I've been wanting to do for years! Arabic part of the refrain, sitar intro part played on DB, and all!
Good show last night. Turn out was weak, but everyone who was there really enjoyed it. Singer passed out again. I feel like we killed it, and it was only our second show.
Daylight savings time made the ride home strange. Headed out at one, drove about an hour and a half, got home at 1:24.
Here's a pic I stole
one more
Daylight savings time made the ride home strange. Headed out at one, drove about an hour and a half, got home at 1:24.
Here's a pic I stole
one more
Saturday night my band played a nice-paying and well-attended private party (a statewide annual convention). This was a gig that had been booked almost a year and a half ago when the client saw my band at a State Fair gig. When we got there we realized that the event was basically a “who’s who” of people across the state of which many are responsible for booking bands for the small-town festivals and street dances that comprise the majority of my band’s yearly income. Thankfully we responded with a great show and as a result we not only secured a repeat booking for next year, but got several strong leads on other opportunities as well.
So the “success chain” in this instance goes:
Fair gig -> Private gig -> Same gig for next year, + one more strong lead on another private gig, + several more potential clients with biz cards in their hands.
Takeaways?
#1, play tunes people like, play them well, and put on a good show. This seems like a “duh” but it should inspire us all to give our best, every show. You never know who might be out there.
#2, be scoping the crowd to see if there are potential future clients in the house. A lot of times these are folks that aren’t really participating in the “scene” but are intently watching the band nonetheless. A good front person /BL will often know by intuition who these people are and will make it a priority to connect with them on breaks.
#3, be aware that at any given gig, you’re under the microscope offstage as well as on. That means during load-in, on breaks, and loading out as well as the show itself. If your band is having an off night or there’s drama between members or whatever, save it till after the show or at minimum, take it outside and air things out in private. Don’t be the band that convinces a client to hire a different band (or a DJ) because you can’t stay sober, you’re late to set up (critical no-no for private gigs especially) or you’re airing issues out on the stage.
#4, seize the moment while you're at the gig and in the moment. On our first break Saturday night the first person to come up to our BL was a gal asking if we were available for a major event next summer. Thankfully we had just stocked up on business cards that day. One thing my BL did that was especially smart was with one guy who seemed especially interested, he not only gave him a business card but he got the other guy’s number as well and put it into his phone on the spot.
#5, support whoever in your band is doing the heavy lifting with bookings. One of my bandmates Saturday night was griping because the BL wasn’t helping with teardown and I pointed over to a table where the BL was in an intense conversation with some folks and reminded him that he was probably getting us a future gig at the moment. That shut him up pretty fast.
#6, aim for repeat clients, and treat those clients like gold. If you’re playing gigs that are annual events, you should be trying to lock-down next year’s event before you leave the venue that night. We have several gigs already booked for next summer that are “ask-backs” from this year and when you can get a few of those it gets a lot easier to fill out your schedule.
So the “success chain” in this instance goes:
Fair gig -> Private gig -> Same gig for next year, + one more strong lead on another private gig, + several more potential clients with biz cards in their hands.
Takeaways?
#1, play tunes people like, play them well, and put on a good show. This seems like a “duh” but it should inspire us all to give our best, every show. You never know who might be out there.
#2, be scoping the crowd to see if there are potential future clients in the house. A lot of times these are folks that aren’t really participating in the “scene” but are intently watching the band nonetheless. A good front person /BL will often know by intuition who these people are and will make it a priority to connect with them on breaks.
#3, be aware that at any given gig, you’re under the microscope offstage as well as on. That means during load-in, on breaks, and loading out as well as the show itself. If your band is having an off night or there’s drama between members or whatever, save it till after the show or at minimum, take it outside and air things out in private. Don’t be the band that convinces a client to hire a different band (or a DJ) because you can’t stay sober, you’re late to set up (critical no-no for private gigs especially) or you’re airing issues out on the stage.
#4, seize the moment while you're at the gig and in the moment. On our first break Saturday night the first person to come up to our BL was a gal asking if we were available for a major event next summer. Thankfully we had just stocked up on business cards that day. One thing my BL did that was especially smart was with one guy who seemed especially interested, he not only gave him a business card but he got the other guy’s number as well and put it into his phone on the spot.
#5, support whoever in your band is doing the heavy lifting with bookings. One of my bandmates Saturday night was griping because the BL wasn’t helping with teardown and I pointed over to a table where the BL was in an intense conversation with some folks and reminded him that he was probably getting us a future gig at the moment. That shut him up pretty fast.
#6, aim for repeat clients, and treat those clients like gold. If you’re playing gigs that are annual events, you should be trying to lock-down next year’s event before you leave the venue that night. We have several gigs already booked for next summer that are “ask-backs” from this year and when you can get a few of those it gets a lot easier to fill out your schedule.
Got a show Sat night looking forward to playing haven't played since the crazy storm two weeks ago that brought NJ to it's knees.
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,233
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- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
Got a gig tonight at a nice club in downtown Santa Cruz. It's our first of several regular monthly gigs there, so we'll see how it goes and if we can build it into something good.
Regardless of who shows up, we'll play strong, groove hard, and have fun.
Regardless of who shows up, we'll play strong, groove hard, and have fun.
Okay had a show last always a great place for us everything went well
please check out the vid Our version of Knocking on heavens door again nor stage amp direct to bose tower with a bass driver pedal out to 2 subs Bass is a Epi Embassy 4 string setting this song kind of Steve Harris it gets going at the end so please stay with it. RTS
please check out the vid Our version of Knocking on heavens door again nor stage amp direct to bose tower with a bass driver pedal out to 2 subs Bass is a Epi Embassy 4 string setting this song kind of Steve Harris it gets going at the end so please stay with it. RTS
I'm doing some fill in type thing for my singer's open mic night that he hosts. I guess the open mic is pretty dead these days, so he ends up playing for like 3 hours on his own...so he asked me to come down and play a bunch of songs with him.
It's basically his acoustic gig at a venue with a killer PA. I'll certainly be running direct, but I haven't decided if I want to bring an amp for a monitor, or just use the wedges. I should be able to hear myself plenty fine, but it's another excuse to gig my Walkabout. Common sense says don't bother, but part of me actually wants to.
It's basically his acoustic gig at a venue with a killer PA. I'll certainly be running direct, but I haven't decided if I want to bring an amp for a monitor, or just use the wedges. I should be able to hear myself plenty fine, but it's another excuse to gig my Walkabout. Common sense says don't bother, but part of me actually wants to.
The gig went well, but the bar was pretty much empty. For an open mic night it was pretty sad. We basically opened the whole thing with a few songs, then another guy jumped up and he was able to do like 8 songs since there was NOBODY else there. Once he finished up we went back and played for another 1 1/2 hours or so. It felt more like a live practice, but we had fun and got paid so whatever! During the second to last song I somehow managed to kick my cable out of the DI sitting on the floor behind me. Never happened before.
I was on the fence about bringing an amp or not, they've got a pretty stout PA and since it was only an acoustic and myself I figured the monitors would be up to the task. It was pouring last night, so I said screw it and let the amp home.
Signal Chain: Sadowsky NYC PJ5 > Pitchblack Tuner > REDDI
The tone was pretty awesome!
I was on the fence about bringing an amp or not, they've got a pretty stout PA and since it was only an acoustic and myself I figured the monitors would be up to the task. It was pouring last night, so I said screw it and let the amp home.
Signal Chain: Sadowsky NYC PJ5 > Pitchblack Tuner > REDDI
The tone was pretty awesome!
No gigs this weekend... but three next week (Wednesday night, Friday night and Saturday night). Hoping for good weather and big crowds for all of 'em.
Show last night, played in a skate shop. Concrete walls and floor. Talk about loud. About maybe 20 people there, including the three bands.
Pic
Do I look a bit under the influence?
Pic
Do I look a bit under the influence?
Ok show went great always fun rocking my home town. Many people who I know from town some I have not see in years showed up for the show. so it was a blast to see these people most of which had no idea RT Slinger is the guy they went to school with. Van Halen Jump http://youtu.be/afWEt1u3VFM
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