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Playing Sundays at a dive bar... (small rant)

gustobassman

gustobassman

I'm only here for the after party..
Supporting Member
Mar 31, 2011
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15,634
Sandy Eggo
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Mesa Boogie beta product tester and player support
#1
Recently a band i was in years ago got back together after an 8 year hiatus. It's fun.. i'm having a great time and we hit the ground running - new material within days. A couple of the guys haven't really played since we broke up years ago and they are REALLY into it. However something has come up that i'm not agreeing with and i want some opinions from you guys.

A small club asked us if we wanted to do Sunday afternoons.. free beer.. open set time... blah blah. The other guys are all over it, and i'm not into it one bit. We agreed to do Cinco De Mayo as the hotspot taco shop next door is having a CDM party that day.

Here's my reasoning for not wanting to continue after that.

1. The owner already told us Sundays are dead for him. This is an obvious attempt to drum up business by having a live band. Did i mention he's only offering free beer? I've had one DUI, not looking for another.

2. The club is only set up for DJ's. No monitors, only set up is for vocal mics. We would not have a soundman, and the room sounds like crap too.

3. No Parking. As in ZERO. Walk-by traffic is minimal. There are hipster joints about 2 blocks away and this bar barely gets noticed.

4. I work during the week, play in another band, and have other commitments.. Giving up a day off to play a crap club with no pay (every weekend) is not something i plan on doing at this point in my career. Our set is only 60 minutes anyway and i'm not looking to learn a bunch of covers just for the sake of "free beer".

5. The bar isn't by any means a "daytime" attraction. It's nothing more than a dive bar on a good day anyway.

So by this reasoning am i being to harsh with the guys by telling them i don't want to do it? Or, that I'm not going to do it? The guys that haven't been gigging for the last 8 years want this more than anything, and i can see their point. For me its not worth it.

:help:
 
#2
I would look at it as a glorified rehearsal. A chance to Jam out and have fun.

At the same time I would try to maximise it and gain a following. There is a good opportunity to make something great out of the situation. Plus you can use Facebook & Twitter to grow the crowd. This could be an opportunity to develop the Facebook/Twitter Skills.

This is probably not right for you. But it could be great for somebody.
 
#3
Goes with the territory, you have good gigs and venues and some bad.

If your getting your fee, I would suck it up.

Me, Sundays are tough but for me, that means if we have played Friday and Sat, it's a $300.00 weekend. Which is good for me.

blue
 
#5
bluewine said:
Goes with the territory, you have good gigs and venues and some bad.

If your getting your fee, I would suck it up.

Me, Sundays are tough but for me, that means if we have played Friday and Sat, it's a $300.00 weekend. Which is good for me.

blue
Click to expand...

No pay. See item #1.
 
#6
4 years ago started playing with a Grateful Dead type jam band , at a dive bar, on a Sunday afternoon.
We now have a large enough regular crowd we get paid about $150 per guy. Not bad for a 6 man band and we take cover charge of $5 only. Ya never know how things will work out.
 
#8
tbplayer59 said:
I'd say do it for a little while, maybe a couple of months. It's like practice and it's a way to get out there. It'll lead to something else.
Click to expand...

Well, the thing is we will have no problem getting other gigs, we've only been back together for about 2 months. We were pretty well established before we broke up. We've had songs in surf movies, did some pretty big shows, etc..

I havent started booking us out yet because i wanted to make sure we were on point. I has been 8 years since we've played live...
 
#9
I did this kind of thing when I was starting out with a band. Great way to learn things the hard way, and spend time ironing out the sound. You can accomplish most of it in the basement, and leave all the stress behind! We thought we were helping the bar, and making a name for ourselves. We just built the business up in order to get moved to another night, and then got replaced by the DJ. I vote pass.
 
#17
Stewie26 said:
Since all the other band members want to do it I would support the team. Just think of it as a Sunday rehearsal. Don't be a spoiler for the other band members. Who knows, you might even have a little fun.
Click to expand...

People do not go to this bar on sunday afternoons. The bartender told us that. Heck, he typically doesn't OPEN on sunday afternoons for this reason. Having us play is for him to get business.

I understand supporting the team. I offered a compromise of once every 2 weeks for a month. or 2 gigs. They didn't like that. I know the other guys are real eager to get back out and play.

It's hard to describe what a real DIVE this bar is. It's not in a convenient location, literally has no foot traffic in the area and usually gets the thumbs down in general.
 
#18
gustobassman said:
I understand supporting the team. I offered a compromise of once every 2 weeks for a month. or 2 gigs. They didn't like that. I know the other guys are real eager to get back out and play.
Click to expand...

They're eager to play and you said you'd have no problem getting other gigs.

So the solution is to get these other better gigs and then they'll have no reason to want to play here.

As for the complaint that no one goes there, you also said you have a following, so promote the shows and you'll bring your own crowd.
 
#20
tbplayer59 said:
They're eager to play and you said you'd have no problem getting other gigs.

So the solution is to get these other better gigs and then they'll have no reason to want to play here.

As for the complaint that no one goes there, you also said you have a following, so promote the shows and you'll bring your own crowd.
Click to expand...

I see your point.

However, in this town... it's real hard to play original rock at the same place every week and expect a huge crowd EVERY TIME. People get bored. This is a beach town, and getting people to go to a dank, dirty hole every sunday afternoon (not near the beach) is a stretch. Like i said we do not do covers either.

As i stated before, we've only been back together 2 months and i personally don't feel we're ready for fri-sat night headliners yet. That's why i haven't booked "the better gigs" yet.
 

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