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Great venue, "difficult'' soundman.

#81
RoadRanger said:
Got rained out on a benefit gig today - fortunately 45 minutes before we were to go on. "Pile of Oddities" PA, 4x10 over 1x15 bass rig - and no tarps or even trash bags available to cover things when the monsoon blew in. Three "pop-ups" that had to be held down as the rain turned sideways and soaked all their gear anyways. Oy vey :facepalm:.

No mics on the drums at all, gui**** with TWO 2x12 amps death-raying everyone - two 2x15 mains plus two older Bose L1's. Not particularly unhappy it was blown off/away LOL.

Unfortunately (or fortunately? ;) ) I rode with someone else and didn't have my van loaded with my PA etc.
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call yourself the lone ranger because you just dodged a bullet!
 
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#82
s0c9 said:
We do one city festival each year for free as it's where we're based and is kinda like a thank you for letting us work there :)
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see, "city festival" sounds like something with a budget and some organization and promotion, and is probably pretty fun with a decent crowd.

too many bar/club benefits i've seen have too many bands outnumbering the crowd and mostly just "benefit" the clubowner.
 
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#84
modulusman said:
The fail is big with this one. Dorks in shorts, music stands, bad musicians lame singers, To stupid to get the PA in front of them and up in the air. This is the type of crap you get when you don't pay the bands
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I love the guy that meanders right thru the first band - while they are playing - carrying a guitar case... LOL
 
#85
modulusman said:
The fail is big with this one. Dorks in shorts, music stands, bad musicians lame singers, To stupid to get the PA in front of them and up in the air. This is the type of crap you get when you don't pay the bands
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Just to be kind - it was hot as Hades for our area. The stage is actually raised a bit so if they had had monitors the 2x15's (I hate 2x15's LOL) would have been OK out front.

None of the "vendors' showed up and the "audience" was mostly the other bands waiting to go on. I guess we were the "headliner" LOL.

Oh, and kindof funny - that first band their drummer never showed up so that's our drummer sitting in LOL. The first band was the host for the benefit and it was their stuff. The bass player was actually OK, wasn't faking it like most at that level - and of course it was his PA LOL. First time I ever saw a (single) scoop cab being used as a "sub" - no crossover though, everything full range <eek>.
 
#86
s0c9 said:
I love the guy that meanders right thru the first band - while they are playing - carrying a guitar case... LOL
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That's typical of the "open mic" guys from what I remember. "That guy" is actually quite good in some of his projects, this was an informal jam band he does freebees with...

Kinda funny, I had to remind two of my "bands" today that I don't "do" open mics - long story with a bit of misunderstanding mixed in...
 
#87
modulusman said:
[QUOTE="Al Kraft, post: 18991581, member: 293360 I understood this to be a fund raising event for a cause the band supported If this had been a commercial gig, however, most of my comments would have still applied.

Sometimes you make compromises for causes you support, and for our band that includes reduced prices or even free performances (Cure Search Walk to benefit child cancer research in the Washington DC area is one example, and Give Me a Break From Cancer is another). However, when we have doubts about the sound support, we usually "insist on being generous" and bringing some or all of our own gear. We also always try to have at least one or two folks who know us well out in the audience "coordinating/touching base" with the sound person.

When it comes to commercial venues where we are paid talent, our expectations are a bit less negotiable as this is strictly business - professionalism, competence and respect are either a shared expectation for both parties or we're out.
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Well you understood wrong. Go read the OPs post on page three where he said it was a chance to play for a couple hundred people and have fun. By the time they were done playing most the people had left and the band wasn't having any fun at all.[/QUOTE]

As for my "understanding", this won't be the first time I interpreted something wrong, and I can almost guarantee you it won't be my last. My sincere apologies to anyone who may have been misled or offended. For what it's worth, I honestly feel like I did in fact demonstrate a clear understanding of the events as they degenerated throughout the set by my use of the phrase "train wreck" in Post 58.

As for the quality you get when not paying a band, let me assure you that when a band I'm in does a charity event, we play our hearts out to be sure folks open their wallets for kids with cancer, or whatever the cause we're they're to support. You may feel that a band should ALWAYS BE PAID TO PAY, even at a charity event, and then choose to donate back if/as they see fit. If that works well for you, I have no problem with that, it's just not my style.

And as for your post on the next page where you sort of dissed folks with music stands, let me suggest you look at some photos of Paul Schaeffer's CBS orchestra when they were playing for Letterman and tell me how many stands and gig books/charts you see. Just because someone can read music doesn't make them a loser in my book - of course I am able to read music and jazz charts so I could be a little biased here.

I'm going to bow out gracefully at this point with no hard feelings and hope you will accept that nothing I've said here was meant to be offensive or in any way disrespectful.
 
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#89
It was a fund raiser for a rural, all volunteer, privately funded fire department. We are friends with all the volunteers, as a matter of fact our drummer is one of them. Just happened to be a fun place to perform also. We could have chosen to get paid and donate the money back, but we're simple country folks and to be honest that seemed kinda silly. I can totally see where in somebody else case that would be the proper way to handle it though.

I started this thread to get some advice/ideas on how to deal with a soundguy who is known for being a little difficult to work with. Opinions on whether to play for free or not don't really interest me that much. I think we've covered that pretty well.:)
 
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#90
DWBass said:
Bring your PA just in case. I personally will not take any crap from any condescending, unhelpful sound-person! Let him know what you want. Not what he says you need. If he gives you crap, set up your PA and be done.
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We brought it, and politely offered to let him use anything he needed. All he said was "If you guys start setting up your PA we're going to have a big problem". I just found this out today (he said it to our singer). Really sucks, because just our monitors would have saved the day for us and the other band too.
 
#91
RHA III said:
It was a fund raiser for a rural, all volunteer, privately funded fire department. We are friends with all the volunteers, as a matter of fact our drummer is one of them. Just happened to be a fun place to perform also. We could have chosen to get paid and donate the money back, but we're simple country folks and to be honest that seemed kinda silly. I can totally see where in somebody else case that would be the proper way to handle it though.

I started this thread to get some advice/ideas on how to deal with a soundguy who is known for being a little difficult to work with. Opinions on whether to play for free or not don't really interest me that much. I think we've covered that pretty well.:)
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The advantages come at tax time.
 
#92
Al Kraft said:
Well you understood wrong. Go read the OPs post on page three where he said it was a chance to play for a couple hundred people and have fun. By the time they were done playing most the people had left and the band wasn't having any fun at all.
Click to expand...

As for my "understanding", this won't be the first time I interpreted something wrong, and I can almost guarantee you it won't be my last. My sincere apologies to anyone who may have been misled or offended. For what it's worth, I honestly feel like I did in fact demonstrate a clear understanding of the events as they degenerated throughout the set by my use of the phrase "train wreck" in Post 58.

As for the quality you get when not paying a band, let me assure you that when a band I'm in does a charity event, we play our hearts out to be sure folks open their wallets for kids with cancer, or whatever the cause we're they're to support. You may feel that a band should ALWAYS BE PAID TO PAY, even at a charity event, and then choose to donate back if/as they see fit. If that works well for you, I have no problem with that, it's just not my style.

And as for your post on the next page where you sort of dissed folks with music stands, let me suggest you look at some photos of Paul Schaeffer's CBS orchestra when they were playing for Letterman and tell me how many stands and gig books/charts you see. Just because someone can read music doesn't make them a loser in my book - of course I am able to read music and jazz charts so I could be a little biased here.

I'm going to bow out gracefully at this point with no hard feelings and hope you will accept that nothing I've said here was meant to be offensive or in any way disrespectful.[/QUOTE]
Big difference from an orchestra sight reading some music compared to some guy reading lyrics and chord charts because he is too lazy to memorize the song.
 
#93
RoadRanger said:
Just to be kind - it was hot as Hades for our area. The stage is actually raised a bit so if they had had monitors the 2x15's (I hate 2x15's LOL) would have been OK out front.

None of the "vendors' showed up and the "audience" was mostly the other bands waiting to go on. I guess we were the "headliner" LOL.

Oh, and kindof funny - that first band their drummer never showed up so that's our drummer sitting in LOL. The first band was the host for the benefit and it was their stuff. The bass player was actually OK, wasn't faking it like most at that level - and of course it was his PA LOL. First time I ever saw a (single) scoop cab being used as a "sub" - no crossover though, everything full range <eek>.
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Doesn't mean they couldn't change into some stage clothes and then go back to looking like slobs after there set is done.
 
#95
modulusman said:
Big difference from an orchestra sight reading some music compared to some guy reading lyrics and chord charts because he is too lazy to memorize the song.
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I played a charity gig during the last year where the organization wanted to us to do a large number of songs they specifically requested. The plan was to have some of their very talented members sing with the band. These were mostly complicated songs with a lot of signature licks and we only had a few hours of rehearsal time. The songs were paid dedications (like hundreds of dollars up to a grand a piece) and we wanted to do a great job on them. We read from charts. The other 3+ hours of music we did from memory, although we did have set lists in front of us so we could remember the 45- 60 songs we had selected for the night - it helps us seamlessly move directly from song to song with no breaks.
 
#97
RoadRanger said:
Ah - no...
You have to claim the income on your taxes, then take a deduction for the donation if you can. Most benefits I've played at DID NOT have the proper status to make donations tax deductible. I any case it's a wash at best and extra paperwork for you.
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Our band is listed as a sole proprietorship, and any time you can take advantage of a tax break, it's an advantage.

The government already gets enough of my money.
 

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