Is interest in live music declining?

[Slough Feg Bass]

maybe don't play at bars ? try the car show circuit, farmers market, street fairs, train station, etc.
Look for alternative venues for your stuff.

If that doesn't work, write some really far out experimental music and meticulously record it and distribute it online and see if anything happens!

 

[dtsamples]

Dress the part. Set up lights. Move around. Engage your audience. You'll get more gigs than you want.

Wear a tucked in Fender T-shirt and white New Balance sneakers on stage, set up no lights, put in no show, play the same old crap everyone else has butchered in bars for forty years and continue to start threads like these.

^this. People need to be visually entertained

 

[hrodbert696]

i think hrodbert696 has nailed it --- again!

if it's the "same old, same old" menu being served up by your band = you're probably not competing. too many bands are doing "the same old, same old" stuff.

you may need to get creative! good luck!

These are both true.

Much like @hrodbert696 beats his drum in these threads, I'll beat mine.


The problem is us. We (by "we" I mean most local cover bands) show up with no lights, dressed like we just got done cutting our grass, and put on no SHOW whatsoever.

We are NOT ..... I repeat NOT..... in the "music business". We are in the ENTERTAINMENT business. They can get music from a computer. They don't need you for that.

Dress the part. Set up lights. Move around. Engage your audience. You'll get more gigs than you want.

Wear a tucked in Fender T-shirt and white New Balance sneakers on stage, set up no lights, put in no show, play the same old crap everyone else has butchered in bars for forty years and continue to start threads like these.

Short version. Yes, the number of people who want to go to a bar and see boring old guys play old guy music and act/look like old guys has dwindled.

Agree with these. Two things, just to pile on:

1) I cannot say how many times I've heard people describe their bar band as "not your usual cover band" or "a cover band - with a twist!" It's pretty much always BS, and always turns out to mean that they play some obscure deep cut that no one but the guitarist wants to hear. Don't. Just don't. Have a CONCEPT for the band, and EXECUTE THE CONCEPT.

2) Picking up on these, especially @two fingers ' point about entertainment - think of your show from the audience's standpoint, and think about whether, when they see an announcement that your band is playing, they would feel confident that going to see you would be MORE fun than going to a movie or staying at home with Netflix. That's the competition. It isn't just playing well, in a sense it isn't even JUST having a good show - it's inspiring people with CONFIDENCE that it will be a great show. If people perceive it as a risk - they stayed up late, went out late, put up with parking, whatever - and then it might be a crappy time, it isn't worth it.

 

[theinfamous]

You're all making good points.

Putting it all together, I think what is going to have to happen is some hard work and dedication on our part as a band.

1. We need to revamp our set list

Not necessarily to include country, but put in some poppy stuff that we can do that is high energy and danceable. We do a lot of mid-late 90's covers in my main band, and perhaps they are getting that "not-so-fresh" flavor. I'm not going to play Mustang Sally,
Jenny, talk dirty to me, or any of the crap that bar bands have been playing for the last 30 years, (no offense if your band does those tunes, they're just not for me) but it wouldn't hurt to play stuff the 21 year old kids actually listen to and like.

2. We are going to have to travel a bit if we want to gig more

Bars around town are not going to change their minds about how frequently they have music. The dive that I mentioned in my original post needs some serious $$$ renovations before it becomes a place people want to go again, even though it is the best place in town as far as setup goes for live music. The owner is so damn stubborn hes going to do things the same way he's done them for 30 years, even if people stop coming to his bar.

3. We need to focus more on putting on a real show.

A good, cohesive second set (which usually for us hits from around 11:30-12:30) when the bar crowd peaks, is super important to keep the people who are out at that bar and not moving down the street. We also probably need to be willing to play straight through from 11:30-1:30 in some cases, because as soon as we take a set break, people go to another bar. I guess that's a good sign since we dont seem to be chasing people away.

My guitar player is averse to writing out a set list, and that is affecting our stage show because there is a lot of dead time between tunes while he dicks around trying to decide what song to play next. Then he tunes his guitar for three years. Tune your guitar while you're deciding what song to play man!!!!!

I've often thought about doing special showcase sets of entire albums in order with a serious light show and no dead time. I think it would be really cool if done correctly. Who knows. I digress.

4. We need to make our shows an event

If we are only going to play in town once a season, we need to make it something people don't want to miss. Exactly what that entails is something we will need to hash out in the wild. Some of my favorite shows we have played have been for private parties. We played a Halloween show last Friday that was an absolute blast.

Anyhooozle...

I think the real crowd we need to attract is the college kids, since they are the ones that drove the scene 10 years ago. I'm going to have to do some research to figure out what they want. Like Joe Dirt says, "well that might be your problem. It's not what you like, it's the consumer."

 

[Greg Waldon]

Most of the venues in my area have started having "singer/songwriter" musicians. Their only pay is from tips. You may have 20 people at the most in the place, mostly made up of friends of whoever is playing. Tip jars are pretty empty by the end of the night.

 

[Fumble Fingers]

The only bands having some degree of success are the ones playing street dances either with country or top 40 rock radio stuff.

You've answered your own question. Play what people want to hear and you'll have plenty of gigs. Several years ago we noticed we were filling bars much faster once we dropped most of our 70's and 80's songs and replaced them with cover songs from the 90's. Yeah, I love the 80's.....but I also love to gig.

Farther south of us (I'm in northern Kentucky) if you don't play country music you pretty much don't gig. While I'm not a huge fan of country music you can bet that's what I'd be playing if that's what it took to pack bars and play out regularly.

 

[dtsamples]

My guitar player is averse to writing out a set list, and that is affecting our stage show because there is a lot of dead time between tunes while he dicks around trying to decide what song to play next. Then he tunes his guitar for three years. Tune your guitar while you're deciding what song to play man!!!!!

Dude, nothing is worse than dead air. Acoustic duo in the background, okay take a few seconds to decide what to play. Cover band where people want to dance? Have a set list and work to eliminate dead air. If someone needs to tune, someone else needs to be engaging the crowd.

 

[theinfamous]

You didn't mention it in your post but it seems obvious youre talking about cover bands. You're also talking about building a following. I have to wonder who follows cover bands. And that's also a tiny town for you to expect a following that would show up to see you twice a month.

A lot of bands, including mine, around here play a mix of covers and originals. This is due to the fact that the bars here don't often do showcase style one hour sets for bands. We are required to play from 9:30-1:30, and it's hard to do all originals for three straight sets.

And yes, even though we are a mostly cover band, we do have a following. Even though it is less than it used to be, people still come out to see us. I just want it to be more people.

 

[City]

we are not overly busy, but we are not dead either. We have the lights and pro sound system, for vocals only. We understand (except for maybe the guitarist) the volume issue. We are doing better in clubs, where they love us (and rebook us quickly), than in the bar scene. That said, it is going ok and in our area you have to be established for about 3-4 years before people recognize your name and what you bring. Persistence with LIGHTS, NICE SOUND, AND PRO ATTITUDE, does go a long way.

 

[diegom]

No.

 

[PaulJSmith]

In our area, there are still a lot of small venues (bars) paying bands. Some are weekend only, some have bands or open mic five or six nights a week. The real problem that's been plaguing us is the lack of new younger bands. Us old guys have had to carry the load for far too long. Back in the day, we couldn't wait to knock the old timers out of a few slots to get in somewhere. No one is doing that to us now.

Acoustic duos are big in my neck of the woods.

This is huge around here, too. The last band I played with was an acoustic trio; two guitars, I played bass and cello, and all three vocalists. There is such a ridiculous amount of work available for acoustic music now that we could have all quit our day jobs and just played full time. We turned down more gig offers than we booked. Most other acoustic groups or individuals I've talked to tell the same story.

Maybe you just need to rethink your satrategy.

 

[yodedude2]

This kind of thread comes up quite a bit. I'll repeat what I said in the last one - when it usually comes up, people ask about "live music," but what they really mean is "rock bands in bars." As far as I can tell, touring bands still sell concert tickets, Broadway musicals are popular both in New York and touring, summer concert series from your local Parks and Rec or library performances are still pretty well attended.

So I don't think live music itself is declining - but the cover band scene certainly is. There are a bunch of reasons.

Part of it is a change in the music market. The internet has fragmented it, and genres have shifted. The Top40 of today is not the same as the Top 40 of yesterday; it has less market share. Which means any given new tune is going to have less familiarity and enthusiasm than an old one, even if it's top ten. Meanwhile the top 40 of yesteryear is the "heart music" of a generation that's getting older and older. Young people do know and often love older music, the same as lots of 80s kids like me loved the Beatles, but it's not the same thing - that doesn't mean they're eager to go hear a bar band cover the Beatles.

One thing I was just reflecting on today was the issue of volume. Part of it is that overeager, or presumptuous, bar bands have driven lots of customers away by being too loud. I think there's another dimension of it, too, which is that for those people who DO enjoy getting blasted by an overwhelming wall of sound, there are now alternatives to live bands to get it. It's not the band that creates that, it's the PA system, and a DJ at a rave can generate the same effect and do the "Drop the bass" thing. That phenomenon puzzled me - why would anyone want to listen to a synth just generating a static, low-frequency tone, rather than a bassist actually playing a greasy low-end groove? - until I realized that for some people, all they really want is that rumble-their-bones feeling and it was never about musicality.

I think there's been a big cultural shift in terms of attitudes to nightlife in general. You don't need a singles bar when you have Tinder. Staying home is a lot less boring than it used to be, with all the manifold forms of digital entertainment. As a marketing theme, "Netflix and Chill" has been an extraordinary success. I see people on social media all the time - not just older people, either - who will post stuff asserting that some unnamed other people might be out swinging from the ceilings at clubs, but they're just going to curl up with a movie and a glass of wine at home Saturday night. You never seem to find out who those "other people" actually are or how you can get them to see your band. There's a kind of cost/benefit, risk/reward calculation over what to do on a Saturday night - is it worth the effort to get dressed, to go out in the cold and travel twenty minutes, to get to a bar where the band might really suck and be too loud and the drunks be really annoying, and you've got to work out a designated driver who's willing to go party with you without drinking themselves, or risk getting pulled over for DUI on your way home? Or would it be better not to bother and stay in and watch a movie?

And then, there's the life cycle of popular music genres. Blues and jazz are still a thing, and people still go to see them. But there aren't nearly as many jazz clubs around most areas as there would have been fifty or sixty years ago. The same thing is true of rock. There will always be rock bands, or at least for a long time to come, and people going to see them. But not as many people, and not as many venues. We're in a post-rock world.

might as well make this a sticky.

 

[Altitude]

These are both true.

Much like @hrodbert696 beats his drum in these threads, I'll beat mine.


The problem is us. We (by "we" I mean most local cover bands) show up with no lights, dressed like we just got done cutting our grass, and put on no SHOW whatsoever.

We are NOT ..... I repeat NOT..... in the "music business". We are in the ENTERTAINMENT business. They can get music from a computer. They don't need you for that.

Dress the part. Set up lights. Move around. Engage your audience. You'll get more gigs than you want.

Wear a tucked in Fender T-shirt and white New Balance sneakers on stage, set up no lights, put in no show, play the same old crap everyone else has butchered in bars for forty years and continue to start threads like these.

Short version. Yes, the number of people who want to go to a bar and see boring old guys play old guy music and act/look like old guys has dwindled.

Pretty much this. I'll just add to try to control your volume a little. Some of these bar shows are punishing.

 

[WorlFastestBass]

slow old bands, and sloppy! nobody wants it. we have video game and porn lol

 

[Altitude]

I cannot say how many times I've heard people describe their bar band as "not your usual cover band" or "a cover band - with a twist!" It's pretty much always BS, and always turns out to mean that they play some obscure deep cut that no one but the guitarist wants to hear.

Ha. How true. I've been in that band myself.

One group I was in played a tripped-out 15 minute cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Check Out Your Mind." It cleared the bar every damned time but I could never seem to get it off the setlist. The guitarist loved it. I bet we got fired from more than one gig because of that song.

 

[bass12]

I played a wedding the other day. The only reason we were there is that the parents of the bride wanted a band. The pair getting married (a couple in their twenties) wanted just a DJ.

 

[Seanmo]

So basically you want to: gig regularly, get paid, and not play music the audience actually wants to hear?
I want Yvonne Strahovski. Guess which one of us has a better chance of getting what we want?

 

[bearfoot]

Yeah , I think it all has to do with knowing your audience and venue.

My band specializes in 7 minute + , obscure covers and ancient melodies no one has ever heard of. Tourdion, anyone? We pack the dance floor with this stuff, because it's what our people dig. They've been coming to see us for over 20 years. Our record long piece was a 23 minute funk/rap, and it usually clocks in around 15 minutes. Our audience is so hip, they can dance to 5/4. Sort of. (we do a version of "Living in the Past")

But don't get me wrong, this is a small, specialized, regional act that plays out 2-4 times/year.

Maybe this is a better time period in which to be more specialized?

 

[Frndmoretti]

I play on a David Bowie tribute band and I don't evenreally invite my friends because the bars where covers play are above what they can or will pay.

my originals band used to pack the places we played with our friends and people who were interested on listening to originals.

Originals bands have followings here. Covers, not at all.

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

I don’t think there’s anything to “do” to make people more interested. It’s just a change in the environment. When I was a kid (60s) it was a really big deal to have a live band. The fact that a given school or church or house party had a live band was a big draw. That was then. Half a century ago.

Live music is no longer as big a big draw (of course I’ll provide the usual caveats- imo, afaik etc.) but it’s a different world from when I grew up.

Adapt, play where you’re appreciated or just say “I’m done”. Music is such a wonderful thing. Don’t let the audience or lack of one keep you from expressing yourself - just adjust your expectations .