Gig Pictures

14 people !? *** would you need that many for ? What do each take home about 14 cents for each gig ?

 

I can see it on the wedding and corporate deals, but for bars, I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't be happy with only $70 a night. I take it that none of the instrumentalists sing ? God bless you if you can get that kind of money, but it wouldn't fly in Jersey unless you guys were huge (following wise). And even then, only in a few select clubs.

 

Looks like fun! In a small club it would be hard to figure out where the band ends and the crowd starts!

 

My band is now nine and will be ten again when we find another female back up singer. But 14! How do you get everyone to rehearsals? That's our biggest problem. When you do rehears all together, where do you find the room to do it? We rehears at a local Middle School Music room. It helps when your baritone sax is the Middle School music teacher. But what a job it is to get every one to rehearsal.

 

That dedication thing can be difficult when the band starts out with a bunch of friends. That's how mine is. But now we have had a shift of power in the band to our guitarist who is more musically orientated. It's much better now, we sound better now and the two guys who were dragging everyone down have now improved greatly because of it. It's fun getting those corporate gigs.

We don't have the space problem in clubs because we don't do clubs. We have 5 doctors in the band, so no one wants to be out until 2AM in a smokey bar. We don't play as much as I would like, but that's the trade off.

 

BTW: Cool pictures. I think it's great that you guys get that into it that you dress up too! Have fun!

 

Cool pics man, do you guys gig there regularly? You got any dates comming up in the area, I'd love to hear you guys.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to make it up there. Seems like a fun band.

I live about 5 minutes away from courier.

 

DAM. That bass looks awesome, but I can't really see it that good. I want a closer look at it!!
Anyway, looks like it was fun. I'd love to be in a huge funk band like that. Regardless of how much/how little money you make, it must be so much fun to play in a big REAL funk band like that.

 

As stated earlier, my band isn't as big as zac's (9- 10), but it's a lot of fun when you've got a horn section playing some cool charts, back up singers doing their thing. On the other hand, it takes about twice as long to learn a new song... at least it does in my big band.

Also, when you're in a big band like that, you (and everyone else) has to concentrate on not playing too much. If everyone is filling in licks here and their, it sounds too messy. It really is a different animal, but fun.

 

I played in a 15 piece band for about three years (bass, guitar, 2 keyboards, drummer, percussionist, 2 trumpets, 2 saxes, trombone, 2 male singers, 2 female singers). The easiest way to get songs learned quickly and efficiently is to have someone in the band chart them - at least the horn parts.

The downside of charts is that a) it takes longer initially (but less time in rehearsal), and b) you either have to memorize the charts or have music in front of you. Of course, having that music is useful if you want to play long gigs on short notice (not having to rely purely on memory is a GOOD thing).

 

Very true. My band improved greatly by adding another horn player who rewrote all the horn parts and then wrote parts for songs with no charts. He's written some charts for everyone in the band too. It improved us instantly.