How many gigs did you play in 2016?

[mellowinman]

One. One gig. My band played one gig, and we weren't paid. Then the other two members of my three piece headed off for summer vacation, and when they got back, they told me about a show we were supposed to do in one week. I suggested we might need to rehearse, and they said they were too busy, and canceled the gig. So I fired them.

I did play another gig, earlier in the year as a guest. I only played three songs, but it was perhaps the best gig of my life, because the players were top pros.

I am hoping 2017 will be better. For the record, in 2015 I played NO gigs.

 

[mellowinman]

It was a slow-ish year, 77 paid gigs with 14 different groups. Financially did pretty well, but I definitely would've liked to be playing more

With only the most due respect, I say, "bite me."

 

[Pacman]

With only the most due respect, I say, "bite me."

I don't understand? I'm used to playing north of 100 gigs/year, so not even 80 is slow to me.

 

[mellowinman]

I don't understand? I'm used to playing north of 100 gigs/year, so not even 80 is slow to me.

Dude, I played ONE. I'm just being funny.

 

[Richland123]

41 gigs this year with my band and did 1 fill in gig with another band. It was a slow year because we changed guitarists early in the year and did not book as much while we were getting him up to speed. Hopefully, 2017 will be busier since we expanded our song repertoire with new guitarist.

 

[elgecko]

So about 300 different songs (+ musical charts) then? Impressive.
How do you remember them all?
Charts on iPad? Old classics? Many songs repeated across bands?

Im not sure I have the time (or patience) to learn that many songs from memory.

Musicals, big bands, and salsa bands are pure reading.

For jazz combo gigs, I probably have half the standards that are typically played around here memorized and fake books on a tablet for the rest.

For top 40/rock/variety/dance/country/Latin/etc, I have my main band's tunes and a bunch of other stuff memorized. For songs that haven't made it into the hard drive of my mind, I have homemade cheat sheets on a tablet. I have cheat sheets for probably 90% of the songs in this category in case I ever suffer amnesia!

 

[Mike N]

Dude, I played ONE. I'm just being funny.

Which is one more gig than what I played in 2016.

On the bright side, we did release a few videos and I did a fair amount of studio work with two bands in 2016.

 

[Skokiaan]

41 plus two this weekend. It's been a slow year, but two new projects are starting next year.

 

[Genomatic]

Joined a group n March,got 16-17 in as of last Friday. Hopefully the quality will go up in '17,lot of "whiskey tango foxtrot's"

 

[ben_lenna]

It's been a busy year for me! I've had exactly 52 gigs

The summer was amazing, playing festivals all over the country with my band H^^S and then in the fall we also joined this travelling festival and did 14 gigs and setted a record for being the first hiphop band to play over 10 shows on that. We've also attended national TV and radio, so that was a huge experience too

We've got one more to go, so then it will be 53. It's gonna be a good one, in our own city playing the biggest stage there what a year

[edit] forgot to mention that I went to play a gig abroad this year for the first time too! We went to play in Belgium with my band Tied Laces and the guitarists girlfriend and my girlfriend came over as a surprise and we had an absolute blast. We're a close group of friends outside of the band as well, so that made it extra special [edit out]

 

[Bunk McNulty]

A discussion tangentially related to this one came up among the members of a band I'm with: How often is often enough to gig before you over-saturate a particular place?

The rule of thumb someone threw out there was no more frequently than every 4 - 6 weeks at any given venue. I generally agree and might even go more like every 6 - 8 weeks personally. This isn't total number of gigs for a band mind you, but frequency at a given venue. What do y'all think?

We're pretty careful about not burning out audiences, especially since some of the places we play are in the same towns. We tried to negotiate an exclusive in one town, but neither owner would bite. In any event, our book is big enough now that we can play two nights in a row and not repeat. Although we always end up playing the Zep stuff anyway...

 

[GK Growl]

62 gigs this year and I joined the band in March of this year.

 

[guy n. cognito]

24 for the year, and anticipating the same for next year.

 

[Pacman]

Dude, I played ONE. I'm just being funny.

Ah, now I see - I'm slow

 

[RobBottom69]

No where near enough for my liking, only about 6 this year, which is about what I did with my Elvis clone cover band that I left. Found a new female singer and just finished auditions looking for guitarists, so I'm hoping with my 2 bands that will fill in more. The Elvis band is still looking for a full time bass player, I'm thinking about seeing if they'll reaccept my services-the musicianship isn't the greatest, but at least it's (some) paid gigs and relatively fun.

 

[slamsinger]

Did around 90 gigs this year
Usually 8 a month with the occasional one night off here or there

 

[Johnny Crab]

Final number ends up at 82.

 

[Mike N]

...... - I'm slow

Admitting it is the first step.

 

[Gaolee]

I think it was about a dozen. It seemed like less until thinking back and counting them up. There may be more in 2017, but I don't want a whole lot more than that. More than two per month gets a little old for a day job type/weekend warrior like me.

 

[mikeyjm2]

More than two per month gets a little old for a day job type/weekend warrior like me.

Yeah, as a fellow working stiff I'm feeling it. Went back through the calendar and for the last half of 2016 counted up 23 gigs total (including this evening, which is my last for the year). I don't regret it, but I really want to focus a lot more on quality in 2017 over quantity. Not necessarily better money, just the types of gigs we play. I'm hoping for less bar gigs and more event / festival / weddings sort of stuff in the cover band. Fortunately the rest of the band is thinking in the same direction. In the originals band, hopefully more focus on studio / recording than we've done in the past.