Kill a whole day playing a bar gig?

[Lex P.]

When I supply the PA I need 1.5 hours to not have to rush things. If it is provided 30 minutes is plenty of time.
Tearing down is as fast as possible and I am fast. Usually have most of the PA wrapped up and waiting for muscles before drummer and guitar player have wrapped up their stuff.
One time in along ago band the drummer and guitar player had a swear fest arguing about some stupid thing with live mics on. After the last note was played I was packed up and driving out of the parking lot in less than 10 minutes. A personal best. Thankfully the house provided the PA that night! I quit the next day.

 

[Kun2112]

It takes me 15 minutes tops for me to setup, but I usually get there 1.5 hours before to "mark my territory" so I actually have enought room for me and my gear. My last few gigs have usually been with me facing the rest of the band instead of the audence because of lack of space and my desire to not knock my headstock on the wall all night.

 

[ArtechnikA]

Wow, I hate the stuff n sort. All the cables seem to mate if they're not well wrapped.

I can deal with the tangles. This is why it's a morning-after activity. I don't have to be very awake nor think too hard. Cable wrapping at the venue is fiddly. Worse is when people 'help' and wrap them weird, then put them in the wrong bins so I have to un-do and re-do it all again anyway. Rather just do it right, once, in a therapeutic, meditative state.

 

[craigie]

I can deal with the tangles. This is why it's a morning-after activity. I don't have to be very awake nor think too hard. Cable wrapping at the venue is fiddly. Worse is when people 'help' and wrap them weird, then put them in the wrong bins so I have to un-do and re-do it all again anyway. Rather just do it right, once, in a therapeutic, meditative state.

This is why we do it ourselves, nobody helping with wrapping nor cartage.
It's very fast with the right technique.

 

[Stumbo]

This is why we do it ourselves, nobody helping with wrapping nor cartage.
It's very fast with the right technique.

 

[el murdoque]

If you're in it for the fun of it, with an amateur band that plays maybe two shows a season, it is totally ok to milk the maximum from the experience. Set up early, take your time doing so, try and get a feel for the vibe of the bar thing.

If you're in it for the money, time is essential. You get your share if you work a 14 hour day or a 3 hour day.
If the gig pays a hundred bucks and takes you three hours (because the backline is provided), that is 33 bucks per hour.
With a fourteen hour day, that's more like minimum wage or below.

But in my experience, bands get a lot faster over time.
When my current band started gigging, we took nearly an hour to load the van. After half a dozen of gigs, pretty much everyone knew what we need to take and what goes where, load time was reduced to 15mins.
Setup and breakdown got a lot faster, too.

 

[Hand slap]

A recent thread about renting vs. owning a PA got me to thinking.

How may of you guys kill most of the day playing a bar gig? I fill in with a few bands that do this. They show up mid afternoon OR EARLIER to set up. They take a reeeeeeeeally long time to set up. They do a reeeeeeeally long sound check. Then they grab something to eat. Then play the gig. Then they take a reeeeeeally long time to tear down and drive home. If the show is an hour drive from the house, they will spend literally FOURTEEN HOURS or so playing a bar gig. (If you're making a hundred bucks you're at around $7.00 an hour.)

Not this guy. I prefer to get to the gig an hour or so before we start. Set up my rig. Grab a burger and get to playing. Even if I am working with a band that brings a PA, I like to get there 7:00 p.m. at the earliest (for a 10:00 p.m. set). Do the dang thing then tear it down and roll out. With an hour drive on each end that's still NINE HOURS. Plenty, if you ask me.

How about you? Are you an all day gig kind of player? Do you just LOVE it so much that you would rather leave for the gig around lunch time? Does the staff have to kick you out at 3 a.m.? Would you rather just hang out all day doing a gig? Or are you more of a hit and run kind of guy (like me)?

I'm not berating you if you like the long day approach. It's more of a curiosity than anything. Reading back through I can see where it looks as though I'm putting you down if you like the all day thing. I couldn't think of a way to word it that eliminates that. But that's not my intent. Just offering up what works for me. You do you.

I prefer to plug & play, depends on the mindset of averyone else. I was recently with a group, where a band member wanted, "24 mics" "jK" but might as well, on the drums, huge pa, big light show, etc. That was alway an all day event, or the night before set up.

 

[obimark]

A recent thread about renting vs. owning a PA got me to thinking.

How may of you guys kill most of the day playing a bar gig? I fill in with a few bands that do this. They show up mid afternoon OR EARLIER to set up. They take a reeeeeeeeally long time to set up. They do a reeeeeeeally long sound check. Then they grab something to eat. Then play the gig. Then they take a reeeeeeally long time to tear down and drive home. If the show is an hour drive from the house, they will spend literally FOURTEEN HOURS or so playing a bar gig. (If you're making a hundred bucks you're at around $7.00 an hour.)

Not this guy. I prefer to get to the gig an hour or so before we start. Set up my rig. Grab a burger and get to playing. Even if I am working with a band that brings a PA, I like to get there 7:00 p.m. at the earliest (for a 10:00 p.m. set). Do the dang thing then tear it down and roll out. With an hour drive on each end that's still NINE HOURS. Plenty, if you ask me.

How about you? Are you an all day gig kind of player? Do you just LOVE it so much that you would rather leave for the gig around lunch time? Does the staff have to kick you out at 3 a.m.? Would you rather just hang out all day doing a gig? Or are you more of a hit and run kind of guy (like me)?

I'm not berating you if you like the long day approach. It's more of a curiosity than anything. Reading back through I can see where it looks as though I'm putting you down if you like the all day thing. I couldn't think of a way to word it that eliminates that. But that's not my intent. Just offering up what works for me. You do you.

I cant stand people who expect every member to show up 4 hours early so they can pound the bass drum and say check into the microphone 50 times. While it takes me 10 minutes to have my bass rig ready to play.

 

[Session1969]

When I was 16, these guys who had a band ( minus a bass player ) moved to our little town in Notthern Ca. from Seattle. They were in their late twenties / early thirties and guess who was only bass player they could find ? Ha ! They had a belief that you did your set up and soundcheck at around 3 and done by 4:30 so the happy hour patrons weren't annoyed. People coming in early would see everything already set up and get excited without the annoyance of a soundcheck. We would show back up a little while before the show. Classy, I feel.

 

[jaysbass2002]

A recent thread about renting vs. owning a PA got me to thinking.

How may of you guys kill most of the day playing a bar gig? I fill in with a few bands that do this. They show up mid afternoon OR EARLIER to set up. They take a reeeeeeeeally long time to set up. They do a reeeeeeeally long sound check. Then they grab something to eat. Then play the gig. Then they take a reeeeeeally long time to tear down and drive home. If the show is an hour drive from the house, they will spend literally FOURTEEN HOURS or so playing a bar gig. (If you're making a hundred bucks you're at around $7.00 an hour.)

Not this guy. I prefer to get to the gig an hour or so before we start. Set up my rig. Grab a burger and get to playing. Even if I am working with a band that brings a PA, I like to get there 7:00 p.m. at the earliest (for a 10:00 p.m. set). Do the dang thing then tear it down and roll out. With an hour drive on each end that's still NINE HOURS. Plenty, if you ask me.

How about you? Are you an all day gig kind of player? Do you just LOVE it so much that you would rather leave for the gig around lunch time? Does the staff have to kick you out at 3 a.m.? Would you rather just hang out all day doing a gig? Or are you more of a hit and run kind of guy (like me)?

I'm not berating you if you like the long day approach. It's more of a curiosity than anything. Reading back through I can see where it looks as though I'm putting you down if you like the all day thing. I couldn't think of a way to word it that eliminates that. But that's not my intent. Just offering up what works for me. You do you.

I am with you brother! The last band I was in was this way and i suffered many gigs. Great guys, ''but'' The drummer was like a snail setting up. I would set up the entire PA including monitors and all power cables for the entire band. Then help the keyboard player set up the rest of the lights. I ran the lights via USB controller and laptop ''Qlighting controller. Guitar player had a bad hip and I always tried to help him do his part. He tried but was tough on him and has since had a hip replacement. Soooooo by the time everything else was set up ''couple hours'' I had about 15-20 minutes to set up my bass rig and prepare for the while the drummer and keys guy had a beer and snacks. All for $400 bucks split 4 ways. NEVER AGAIN!! I would book us parties and weddings. We would get food, drinks, ect for over twice the bar gigs who gave us no extras. I could not get them onto the mindset of ''MAKE MORE'' ''PLAY LESS''. I did not need the money. I can make 4x the bar gig with one shift overtime at my day job of 28yrs. Long story short, its been two years since I have played out and liking it.

 

[two fingers]

He's right, but he could have made that video about 3 minutes long.

All of my cables are "trained" that way. Flip of the thumb and index finger and the loop falls in place.

 

[esoxhntr]

All Day? NO WAY!!!

We are up and operational in 20 minutes, down in 15. The only sound check we do is to see if the microphones and PA are working. Our "sound check" is usually somewhere between 3 and 5 syllables.

 

[AltGrendel]

Does it bother you that your misandrist wife sees you as an income object?

JUST KIDDING!

Yes, it did. That's the main reason I divorced her.

 

[delta7fred]

Our guitarist and I like to get in, play, and get out in the minimum time. When we get professional rates (rather than what bar owners screw us down to) then we might consider getting there earlier. For the better paying private functions we are a little more flexible.

Our drummer is always pushing us to get there earlier because he "doesn't like to be rushed setting up and likes to chill for a while before we start playing". Last year it got so bad that at one gig we were there 45 minutes before the venue was even unlocked. That was when we had words with him and he did admit that we were "maybe a little bit early".


We think the real reason is that he is afraid that his kit is suddenly going to stop working and needs a lot of extra time to keep checking that it still works. He checks at regular intervals as he sets it up that it is still fully functional by randomly whacking things.

As soon as he opens the first drum case I put my earplugs in because he has this uncanny knack of whacking his snare just as I bend down to plug up my bass rig. He often watches me put them in but never seems to connect him whacking things with my need to protect my (already severely damaged) hearing.

When he has it all set up he will play for a while, put his sticks down and declare "well that's me done".

Then he will arrange his setlist and crib sheets (for the songs he has sung 1000 times), pick up his sticks and play some more (just in case it has stopped working since last time he whacked everything).
Then get out his IEMs and check they still power up (but not always check the battery level) then check his kit still works.
Then find his bottle of water and can of Coke (that his wife has packed for him), check his kit still works... etc...

This goes on until the guitarist or I yell at him "Hey, will you please be quiet* so we can check the mics", "Uh, oh, sorry I hadn't realised you'd got the PA set up" is his usual response.

*This might not be the exact phrase we use!

The guitarist and I set our rigs up and play a few notes/chords then carry on with setting up the PA and lights to the accompaniment of sporadic drumming.

TL;DR - Drummers, don't you just love em!

 

[john_g]

Don't get me started.

All the bands I've been in have their own PA. I believe an hour before gig time is more than enough time. 90 minutes if you are paranoid about stuff happening. It's been a point of contention in a couple of bands. Some people think that if you don't show up three hours early you are not a team player. BS. When you have the necessary backup gear for failure and YOU KNOW WHAT THE HE** YOU ARE DOING, it takes very little time to set up and sound check, even for a six piece.

Now, if my cut for a gig was at least $300 I'd feel differently. But I've got lawns to mow and cars to wash on Saturdays. Not to mention some really pithy posts to Talkbass.

This. I basically posted the same thing in the recent post of the same topic. It was a bone of contention in my last band. They all wanted to get there 3-4 hours before downbeat. Then all the gigs were at least an hour from my house, so for a 10pm start I would have to leave around 5 or 6 pm. Then make $50-$80 on average. I wasnt doing it just for money (if i did I would have a used SX bass and cheap DI and play in wedding bands), but when you break it down to what you actually make an hour, it is hard not to feel like we are nuts sometimes.

 

[john_g]

Our guitarist and I like to get in, play, and get out in the minimum time. When we get professional rates (rather than what bar owners screw us down to) then we might consider getting there earlier. For the better paying private functions we are a little more flexible.

Our drummer is always pushing us to get there earlier because he "doesn't like to be rushed setting up and likes to chill for a while before we start playing". Last year it got so bad that at one gig we were there 45 minutes before the venue was even unlocked. That was when we had words with him and he did admit that we were "maybe a little bit early".


We think the real reason is that he is afraid that his kit is suddenly going to stop working and needs a lot of extra time to keep checking that it still works. He checks at regular intervals as he sets it up that it is still fully functional by randomly whacking things.

As soon as he opens the first drum case I put my earplugs in because he has this uncanny knack of whacking his snare just as I bend down to plug up my bass rig. He often watches me put them in but never seems to connect him whacking things with my need to protect my (already severely damaged) hearing.

When he has it all set up he will play for a while, put his sticks down and declare "well that's me done".

Then he will arrange his setlist and crib sheets (for the songs he has sung 1000 times), pick up his sticks and play some more (just in case it has stopped working since last time he whacked everything).
Then get out his IEMs and check they still power up (but not always check the battery level) then check his kit still works.
Then find his bottle of water and can of Coke (that his wife has packed for him), check his kit still works... etc...

This goes on until the guitarist or I yell at him "Hey, will you please be quiet* so we can check the mics", "Uh, oh, sorry I hadn't realised you'd got the PA set up" is his usual response.

*This might not be the exact phrase we use!

The guitarist and I set our rigs up and play a few notes/chords then carry on with setting up the PA and lights to the accompaniment of sporadic drumming.

TL;DR - Drummers, don't you just love em!

Ha! For me it was the guitarist in my last band! He owned the light setup (which was a good set, not just some light strips, so it did take a little bit to set up), and he would spend well over an hour setting them up. One gig, he couldnt make it so the other guitarist and I got everything up and running in less than 20 minutes. Then after he is done avoiding setting up anything BUT his lights, he plugs in his guitar, at full gig volume, then proceeds to play the same riffs/licks/snippets of songs for at least 25 minutes, all the while soaking in the admiration of the bar patrons for his amazing playing*

*Yeah, not really. Most people would hold their hands over their ears and/or leave. Some venues would jack up the house music so loud to attempt to drown him out. It was so embarrassing, I would go outside until he was done.

 

[delta7fred]

Ha! For me it was the guitarist in my last band! He owned the light setup (which was a good set, not just some light strips, so it did take a little bit to set up), and he would spend well over an hour setting them up. One gig, he couldnt make it so the other guitarist and I got everything up and running in less than 20 minutes. Then after he is done avoiding setting up anything BUT his lights, he plugs in his guitar, at full gig volume, then proceeds to play the same riffs/licks/snippets of songs for at least 25 minutes, all the while soaking in the admiration of the bar patrons for his amazing playing*

*Yeah, not really. Most people would hold their hands over their ears and/or leave. Some venues would jack up the house music so loud to attempt to drown him out. It was so embarrassing, I would go outside until he was done.

I think I have played in a band with that guitarist.

Joking aside I believe that with our drummer it is nerves. When we rehearse he can sit behind his kit for extended periods without making a sound, at gigs if he has nothing else to do he picks up his sticks.

He has only been playing since 1964 (seven years of that professionally) so I would have thought he might have got over the nervousness by now but apparently not.

He never eats much before a gig and if there is food provided he rarely has any, then after load out he is always starving and is looking for somewhere to eat. Good job we all travel to gigs in our own cars.

 

[Bassist30]

Its worth having a sound company set up. You then walk in set up your equipment and do a sound check. After the gig you break down your own stuff. If you want to hang then do it if not you can leave. problem is many clubs don't pay well so have a meeting when to get their and break down as quickly as possible. Whoever wants to hang can and those who don't leave. Those who are slow have to learn to be considerate and have everything out an hour after its over.

 

[Atshen]

If I didn't have kids and a house and a wife etc., I wouldn't mind spending half the day at the venue to slowly get ready. But with life in the way, I prefer getting there about one hour before the first downbeat. And I bring the PA. One hour is plenty of time to get set up and all.

 

[bass71]

I call those gigs "all-day suckers".

I can't count the amount of times a club calls a 6pm load-in with promise of a soundcheck for a 9 or 10pm hit and there's no one there to even open the door. So, then you wait around like a schmuck. WAAYY too old for that anymore.

Nowadays unless it's necessary to be there early to set up a P.A., etc., I show up 1/2hr. before the hit. Enough time to set up, hit the head, grab a beverage, tune up, and play.

This. Ive even been known to get it down to 15 mins which can start to tick other band members off a bit. Thing is Im only interested in the playing and not the rest of it.