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Each band has only one venue?

#3
Lazylion said:
I'm with four bands right now. Seems each band has one place they book regularly... and not much else. Is that how it is now?

I'd much rather have one band that books several places. Four bands' worth of songs to learn is a bit much! I don't have enough study time for that.
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Hey, you have a great situation and you're complaining about it. I would love to be in four bands that are all doing well enough that each band has a place that wants them on a regular basis. Be thankful for your situation.
 
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#4
Ask them what the deal is. Or you could try and book each and every band into the other three gigs.
That could fill your diary but yep, same gig gets a bit boring and no one I know does this.
I do know one band we rib because they never play out of town...and its not a large metropolis by any stretch.
 
#6
It's easy to fall into this rut when one venue in particular keeps asking you to come back so the booking becomes easy. I had 1 or 2 that did that for my old punk band and we basically always said yes cause hey 2 tickets for a drink each or a drink and a slice of pizza was fine for a fun basement gig for us at the time, at least to me and I was the only one booking. I booked other stuff including as a second band on shows my other band booked, but looking back it was kinda thankless. The occasional "good job" was nice, but otherwise it was frequently whinging about booking at the time I did, or with whatever lead time we had before the show to prep, or that it was at the place with the drink tickets again (or Ft Worth in general).

The "go book it yourself" thing didn't really work either though because our BL was more than happy to just be a studio band if I wasn't bringing bookings in.
 
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#9
KenSmithFan said:
Then go out and book the gigs. It ain’t rocket science. Everyone wants to play out, no one wants to book the band.
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Everyone liked to complain about the money, drive, load in/out, venue, crowd etc
Then I calmly explained that I wasn't stopping anyone from getting us gigs. Surprisingly the drummer stepped right up and got us tons of bookings. Not all of them were great, yet I didn't complain.
 
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#10
Lazylion said:
I'm with four bands right now. Seems each band has one place they book regularly... and not much else. Is that how it is now?

I'd much rather have one band that books several places. Four bands' worth of songs to learn is a bit much! I don't have enough study time for that.
Click to expand...

Easy solution: have all the bands merge into a single "band", and continue as normal.

It's sort of like how Trans Siberian Orchestra has more than one touring company.
 
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#11
bobfarabaugh said:
Better than playing every where for “exposure” on premise of leading to next bigger gig. But playing the same place every time can get boring.
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I was in 'House' Band that played same Club every Friday and Saturday [open Jam on Wednesday me and BL] for 4/5 years[1 week off every other month]
It wasn't boring for Us we had Active and Involved Crowd always and on Wednesday Jam night I met and played with some Great Musicians

BUT It was Boring for Staff at Club they came to hate us:D
 
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#15
At the moment, I am in 3 active originals oriented bands and subbing regularly as well. I don't see what the OP is seeing ... one venue per band, but the "easy way out" is the likely explanation. I do book some gigs myself, and honestly, it's a pain. I'm guessing the OP is in a weekend warrior situation and no one is making a living at it, so I can easily see a BL with an easy, reliable gig/venue opportunity just going with the easy booking and not killing themselves chasing multiple venues.

In my case, the bands play about 4-6 different venues each and then some festival work. I do see venues limiting bands exposure to a certain extent ... so they will book any given band 4 times during the prime outdoor music season here (May-Oct), and won't book the same band in consecutive months. That's really a function of a ton of supply (bands) for the available venues.
 
#16
Lazylion said:
I'm with four bands right now. Seems each band has one place they book regularly... and not much else. Is that how it is now?

I'd much rather have one band that books several places. Four bands' worth of songs to learn is a bit much! I don't have enough study time for that.
Click to expand...
Have you asked the people at those clubs about it?
 
#17
Wondering how many of the other players in those bands are also playing in multiple bands. As the booker of gigs for my band, I ask that we are the only band you are booking with as trying to book around everyone’s competing schedule is not practical for a band that books a lot of gigs. Granted, I have us booked a year out. But, seems aligning with 1 serious band might get the type of shows schedule you are looking for. That, or be that 1 in 1000 musicians who goes out and scores the gigs.
 
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#18
tshapiro said:
Wondering how many of the other players in those bands are also playing in multiple bands. As the booker of gigs for my band, I ask that we are the only band you are booking with as trying to book around everyone’s competing schedule is not practical for a band that books a lot of gigs. Granted, I have us booked a year out. But, seems aligning with 1 serious band might get the type of shows schedule you are looking for. That, or be that 1 in 1000 musicians who goes out and scores the gigs.
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The only way I've ever had it working to be in multiple active bands is for the bands to actually use a band calendar which seems to be an absolutely herculean task to ask people to grey-out and black-out dates as they come up.
 
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#19
What do they think will happen when that one venue gets tired of them, decides not to have music, closes, whatever, and the gig is gone? Learning enough songs well enough to play out is the hard part. You really need to make use of the capital you've invested. Somebody needs to step up and hustle a few more gigs for each of those bands.
 

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