bigfatbass
Inactive
- Jun 30, 2003
- 2,420
- 404
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Karl Hoyt Basses
Sorry this is a long read, but I know I'm unusual amongst the regulars here, and I wanted to lay my whole deal out there as an example. Currently in 2 bands, and I am a full time player.
Syracuse/Central NY for most shows, but main gig tours all over the country when opportunity arises.
Main gig Los Blancos (www.casablancos.com)
180 + nights a year so it take up most of my time. Standard 4 piece, bass drums guitar keys, 3 of us sing lead, with guitard covering about half and the rest split between me and keys.
Mostly original roots/blues/Americana, 100s of songs in our repertoire, dozens of our own, and covers ranging from The Dead to Gershwin. Our scene is pretty much sans cover charges for 95% of the bar gigs, so it's a flat guarantee everywhere. An average fri/sat nets $120 a man, drinks, and food (where available), with the odd $20 off a $500 take going to the general band fund. Tip jar also always goes in the band kitty. Almost always our own PA and lights, and most shows run from 10pm to 2am with us playing 2 sets, first one of at least 90 minutes, a half hour off, then we play until they throw us out.
Weddings/privates we start at $1800, extra for travelling of course, and the more fussy crap they expect us to do, the more we cost. Mustang Sally adds a zero to the price.
Festival, and big time "sole opener" fees (Little Feat, Los Lobos, Derek Trucks) for us average about $1000.
My other band is a 4 piece, all original Alt Country gig in the Wilco/Son Volt vein. Everybody sings/writes, and we endlessly trade instruments from song to song. We call the band The Siders, because we all have full time gigs so, we can only do this one on the side (www.thesiders.com). We play almost exclusively off nights, and we make $300 for a 4 hour gig on a Wednesday, and $200 for a 3 hour show on the Sundays. We are starting to develop more than a little bit of a draw, and I'm looking to start squeezing a raise or two out of a few of the venues. We'll see. None of us are all that worried about the money with this band, but we do know that if we're drawign we should get paid for it.
Both bands get away with MURDER when it comes to what we play when/where, and almost never cave to the drunken request parade. Play what you play, and don't suck, and they will forget what they were even asking for. And there is NOTHING worse for a band/crowd/venue's vibe than some bunch of chumps who endlessly apologize for playing original material. "hey, we're gonna play one of our own tunes, hope you dig it..." SCREW THAT!!! Harvest your nuts, and just freakin' PLAY. Again, remembering the all important not sucking part. Night after night, if we are on the road, people yell the standard "Stevie Ray!!!!!" nonsense at us, and we ignore them, or flat out spank them down over the PA. The response is either something like "we have a deal, he doesn't cover us, and we don't cover him", or even snarkier, the response to the SRV holler is: "Dead, probably not going to be playing tonight, sorry".
Another favorite of mine is "This jukebox will cost you $100 a tune honey". Usually we just say, "sure, this is a tune Stevie was working on right before he died", and then we play one of our own tunes.
Playing original music in the roots and blues scene is usually a death wish, but we get away with it.
Syracuse/Central NY for most shows, but main gig tours all over the country when opportunity arises.
Main gig Los Blancos (www.casablancos.com)
180 + nights a year so it take up most of my time. Standard 4 piece, bass drums guitar keys, 3 of us sing lead, with guitard covering about half and the rest split between me and keys.
Mostly original roots/blues/Americana, 100s of songs in our repertoire, dozens of our own, and covers ranging from The Dead to Gershwin. Our scene is pretty much sans cover charges for 95% of the bar gigs, so it's a flat guarantee everywhere. An average fri/sat nets $120 a man, drinks, and food (where available), with the odd $20 off a $500 take going to the general band fund. Tip jar also always goes in the band kitty. Almost always our own PA and lights, and most shows run from 10pm to 2am with us playing 2 sets, first one of at least 90 minutes, a half hour off, then we play until they throw us out.
Weddings/privates we start at $1800, extra for travelling of course, and the more fussy crap they expect us to do, the more we cost. Mustang Sally adds a zero to the price.
Festival, and big time "sole opener" fees (Little Feat, Los Lobos, Derek Trucks) for us average about $1000.
My other band is a 4 piece, all original Alt Country gig in the Wilco/Son Volt vein. Everybody sings/writes, and we endlessly trade instruments from song to song. We call the band The Siders, because we all have full time gigs so, we can only do this one on the side (www.thesiders.com). We play almost exclusively off nights, and we make $300 for a 4 hour gig on a Wednesday, and $200 for a 3 hour show on the Sundays. We are starting to develop more than a little bit of a draw, and I'm looking to start squeezing a raise or two out of a few of the venues. We'll see. None of us are all that worried about the money with this band, but we do know that if we're drawign we should get paid for it.
Both bands get away with MURDER when it comes to what we play when/where, and almost never cave to the drunken request parade. Play what you play, and don't suck, and they will forget what they were even asking for. And there is NOTHING worse for a band/crowd/venue's vibe than some bunch of chumps who endlessly apologize for playing original material. "hey, we're gonna play one of our own tunes, hope you dig it..." SCREW THAT!!! Harvest your nuts, and just freakin' PLAY. Again, remembering the all important not sucking part. Night after night, if we are on the road, people yell the standard "Stevie Ray!!!!!" nonsense at us, and we ignore them, or flat out spank them down over the PA. The response is either something like "we have a deal, he doesn't cover us, and we don't cover him", or even snarkier, the response to the SRV holler is: "Dead, probably not going to be playing tonight, sorry".
Another favorite of mine is "This jukebox will cost you $100 a tune honey". Usually we just say, "sure, this is a tune Stevie was working on right before he died", and then we play one of our own tunes.
Playing original music in the roots and blues scene is usually a death wish, but we get away with it.
