• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Does anyone utilize TV's at bars you play?

HomeBrewTJ

HomeBrewTJ

May 16, 2004
486
121
Lafayette, IN
#1
There are a few bars that we play in that have tv's behind where the bands play. We always shut them off and/or put this backdrop up.

There is this new place we're playing that has this huge big screen hidef TV right on the very edge of the stage. I've been taking a dvd player that show image files and putting our logo on there. It's pretty cool without being tacky.
 
#2
HomeBrewTJ said:
There are a few bars that we play in that have tv's behind where the bands play. We always shut them off and/or put this backdrop up.

There is this new place we're playing that has this huge big screen hidef TV right on the very edge of the stage. I've been taking a dvd player that show image files and putting our logo on there. It's pretty cool without being tacky.
Click to expand...

The places we play that have tv's usually have sports on the screen. In those bars, the people want to watch sports while they listen. My least-favorite gigs to play, right after restaurants, but they pay, so...sports it is. Sigh.

Cherie
 
#3
We played a place that had a huge big screen right behind the drummer. We hooked up a laptop to it and played a digital image of a chick in a bikini dancing to the beat of our music. I don't remember what the application was
 
#4
The places we play frequently have TV's. Again, usually with sports. If we covered them or ran a different signal, we'd make a whole lotta people unhappy, including the owners.

As long as the people are there, I don't care what they're doing. :cool:
 
#6
SBassman said:
The places we play frequently have TV's. Again, usually with sports. If we covered them or ran a different signal, we'd make a whole lotta people unhappy, including the owners.

As long as the people are there, I don't care what they're doing. :cool:
Click to expand...

I can well imagine that violence that would ensue if we were to pre-empt, say, a UT or a Dallas Cowboys game because we wanted to play cool stuff on the tv during our gig.

We'd get our necks stretched!

My husband and his lead singer have taken to watching the History Channel's "Dog Fights" while they play in a certain bar. The bartender turned it off, and they both exclaimed, "Hey! We're watching that!" LOL!

Cherie
 
#8
I'll never forget the gig where we were finishing the last set with "Born To Be Wild", and I glanced at the screen behind us to see Mudvayne, all painted up and going crazy. I was laughing so hard I could barely finish the song!
 
#9
txbasschik said:
I can well imagine that violence that would ensue if we were to pre-empt, say, a UT or a Dallas Cowboys game because we wanted to play cool stuff on the tv during our gig.

We'd get our necks stretched!

My husband and his lead singer have taken to watching the History Channel's "Dog Fights" while they play in a certain bar. The bartender turned it off, and they both exclaimed, "Hey! We're watching that!" LOL!

Cherie
Click to expand...

And to think I've been staying up late after gigs to watch those shows-- I could have been watching it at the gigs! :D

Most places we play have TVs, but the ones near the stage usually get shut off- don't know how it will go tonight with the March Madness stuff going on. There is one bar that has a projection big screen TV that was easy to hook up as a computer monitor, so we put various "visualizations" up while we play, which look great along with our little light show.
 
#11
One place we played recently had the questions for some inter-bar quiz thing going on. I got pretty well drawn in.

We did try putting up a DVD with slide shows, and the band logo on, at another of our gigs which has a couple of big TV's at the back of the stage which are normally turned off. The barman was quite happy to let us try it out, but it turned out their DVD player wouldn't work with recordable DVD's :-(

Ian
 
#12
I play in a cover band.
A club we play every Thursday night in San Diego (The Whiskey Girl) has a DJ that will play the corresponding video to the cover song we are playing. He has them all too. Everything from Roxy Musics "Love is the Drug" to Three Doors Down "Kryptonite"
He even will splice up the videos to our arrangements. i.e. we do Jungle Boogie in the middle of Funky Music and he matches up both videos to what we are doing.
It is a very cool thing. The videos play all over the club.
We have even been accused of lip syncing to the videos :smug:
It's pretty scary when you are totally sync'd up to the video.

I'm thinking of doing it every where we play. A big screen and a laptop loaded with the videos.
 
#14
txbasschik said:
The places we play that have tv's usually have sports on the screen. In those bars, the people want to watch sports while they listen. My least-favorite gigs to play, right after restaurants, but they pay, so...sports it is. Sigh.

Cherie
Click to expand...
+1

We've played opposite a couple "big games" at a sports bar. Heck, even we were watching. The game was over before the second set and everything was back to normal.

I went to watch a friends band during one of the Red Sox's world series games. Yeah, they waited until the game was over. :D
 
#15
had a gig where they made us WAIT until they finished showing Ultimate Fighting on their TVs...which ended very late...12:30 am. I was not happy. I hope to never play that place again. Who wants to sit around 3 hours and then go up as 12:30 in the morning cold and expect to get people into it? we sucked that night. Not surprising.
 
#16
txbasschik said:
The places we play that have tv's usually have sports on the screen. In those bars, the people want to watch sports while they listen. My least-favorite gigs to play, right after restaurants, but they pay, so...sports it is. Sigh.

Cherie
Click to expand...

+1 to the scene and the feeling. It always hurts just a little to realize the band, music and all your hard work is just a part of the whole evenings experience for the patrons.

rock on
 
#19
When I was in a cover-playing band back in Maine, we were playing a sports bar in the middle of October 2004, when the Sox eventually won the World Series. Being a huge Sox fan, my eyes were glued to the big screen on the wall directly in front of me most of the time. It was no detriment to my playing, I swear! :ninja: I do think there was at least one or two moments where I exclaimed "yea!" or something to that affect (effect?) in the middle of a song, which may or may not have been picked up by the mic :D
 
#20
I don't care if they're on or off. I usually try to get some cartoons on as a backdrop. Sometimes, its whatever happens to be on. I remember looking back one time and Neil Young was playing on SNL. One of the most memorable "TV on when yer playin" gigs was the imfamous slow OJ chase rolling on behind us.

gg
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back