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

#41
One guy suggested doing the 28th and the 5th only, the former as a soundcheck. That doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Here's what I read though. You guys are just starting back up. Your bandmates want to gig now. You have better connections than them and could find better gigs. But you're not because you want to rehearse more. So they're finding non-paying empty dive bars to play at.

Maybe it's time to get better paying gigs lined up today a month out. Make these guys and you happy. That might nip the whole 'let's play for free every week to nobody' attitude.
 
#45
I don't see the big deal. Explain to your buddies that Sundays are tough, especially for free, and that inside a month you'll have them playing paid gigs. I would imagine they would understand that. They waited 8 years, they can wait one more month.
 
#46
HypersoulRocks said:
I don't leave the house for less than $100 for a 3 hour gig....
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Absolutely. I have a 100 dollar minimum for any gig I play. More if I travel out of town. Exclusions include benefits or special circumstances to promote the project if applicapable, but those are minimal standards based on my experience. Would you go to your day job for free? I doubt it. Sounds like the band has done well in the past. You don't need to play for free..
 
#47
Its been 8 years dude. Im guessing alot of your fans have moved on. Surf movies from a decade ago are just that, a decade old. Hell, surfing has moved on. If you guys cant pull it together in a few weeks to play better venues than maybe then the dive bar is where you should be playing. That all sounds rude, but you already know you dont want to do it and sounds like time is a valuable thing for you. You wont be in to it which means youll probably be a drag and a bit disgruntled and no one will really have a good time. Just go get the better gigs. If the guys cant pull it together then perhaps it would be a waste of your time.
 
#48
SnowCal said:
Here's what I read though. You guys are just starting back up. Your bandmates want to gig now. You have better connections than them and could find better gigs. But you're not because you want to rehearse more. So they're finding non-paying empty dive bars to play at.

Maybe it's time to get better paying gigs lined up today a month out. Make these guys and you happy. That might nip the whole 'let's play for free every week to nobody' attitude.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how i feel about this. The minute i feel we are ready i will not hesitate to book us better shows. It's only been 2 months of jamming and we're still working a lot of kinks out. It's going great, but ... the kinks are there.

I understand the urgency... it's been a LONG time since these guys have played out.
 
#49
gustobassman said:
This is exactly how i feel about this. The minute i feel we are ready i will not hesitate to book us better shows. It's only been 2 months of jamming and we're still working a lot of kinks out. It's going great, but ... the kinks are there.

I understand the urgency... it's been a LONG time since these guys have played out.
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Couldnt you use these Sunday daytime bar gigs as practice to get ready for the better gigs? Kind of like a dress rehearsal.
Id not agree to every Sunday, but a free place to practice with free provided beer isnt the worst thing.
 
#52
Let's be realistic here...The OP did not want our opinions, he wanted support for his own opinion. he has not had one single positive thing to say about the sunday gigs, but he has taken quite a few opportunities to try to make it abundantly clear that he does not like the idea

what I got from reading through this was that the OP really needs to take a while and really contemplate why he is even in this band. it sounds like the primary reason is money, not love of the music or the fun of playing.
What little I know about music is that you cannot iron out everything in a garage. You have to play and get feedback. You have to be on the stage before you can be tight. I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, the dynamics of a good band do not come together, without putting the time in... that means being on stage
 
#53
One angle that I haven't really seen anybody mention, unless I missed it, is the burnout factor. What I mean is, it's great to have your buddies all jazzed to play, that's the preferred state in general. They remember their former glory and the fun they used to have back in the day and are eager to taste this again. (This is my read on the situation.) My own personal experience with doing a weekly gig in a craphole bar with nearly no audience is that the first few weeks are fun for the sake of the music, and after that all the New has worn off and it becomes a chore. Tack on not getting paid, and I can almost guarantee that by the fourth week someone will call in sick. Bandmembers will gripe and begin to drift because of the lameness of it all, and drama ensues. As a highly drama-averse individual, I recommend against this. Why spend their excitement and the freshness of it all on a ****** gig for no pay or audience? Better to have them do infrequent and fun gigs and keep their appetites going.

I would take the 5/5 gig because it's a juicy holiday, and go ahead and do the week before if you think the stage time would be beneficial. Get your free beer. Get your parking paid by the bar, if you ask me. But don't commit to every single Sunday going forward, with no end date. Every seven days is just too often. Every two weeks? Maybe. Commit to one month of Sundays for the sake of getting the band in fighting shape? Maybe. Tops. Then go get those better gigs now that you're in fighting shape.

Beyond that, if he wants to have live music, he can compensate accordingly. Not enough business to pay a band? Not enough business to HAVE a band.
 
#54
Whump said:
One angle that I haven't really seen anybody mention, unless I missed it, is the burnout factor. What I mean is, it's great to have your buddies all jazzed to play, that's the preferred state in general. They remember their former glory and the fun they used to have back in the day and are eager to taste this again. (This is my read on the situation.) My own personal experience with doing a weekly gig in a craphole bar with nearly no audience is that the first few weeks are fun for the sake of the music, and after that all the New has worn off and it becomes a chore. Tack on not getting paid, and I can almost guarantee that by the fourth week someone will call in sick. Bandmembers will gripe and begin to drift because of the lameness of it all, and drama ensues. As a highly drama-averse individual, I recommend against this. Why spend their excitement and the freshness of it all on a ****** gig for no pay or audience? Better to have them do infrequent and fun gigs and keep their appetites going.

I would take the 5/5 gig because it's a juicy holiday, and go ahead and do the week before if you think the stage time would be beneficial. Get your free beer. Get your parking paid by the bar, if you ask me. But don't commit to every single Sunday going forward, with no end date. Every seven days is just too often. Every two weeks? Maybe. Commit to one month of Sundays for the sake of getting the band in fighting shape? Maybe. Tops. Then go get those better gigs now that you're in fighting shape.

Beyond that, if he wants to have live music, he can compensate accordingly. Not enough business to pay a band? Not enough business to HAVE a band.
Click to expand...

best answer yet
 
#55
gustobassman said:
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:
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I don't think you are being harsh at all. What I don't get is why the others would want to do it!

A one off for fun because you want to? Maybe... although the no parking situation makes me wonder how you'd carry your equipment there. It sounds like too much hassle and little fun.

Nah. Give it a miss.
 
#56
I wouldn't do it for only an hour. That's ridiculous. Why only an hour when the bar is dead? I would only consider it if it was for two or three hours and as a once a month "performance" rehearsal until the paid gigs started up.

If you could get a longer set, how about doing one gig there asap and video it to see where everything stands with your set list. Review the tape and get back to rehearsing only.

Then rehearse for a month or however long you need to until you think things have improved enough that most of the kinks have been worked out.

Then do another gig and repeat the process.

Another thing to consider it to put a deadline as to when your band will be gig ready. Books some gigs after that date and light some fires under these guys.

Also, are you sure they want to get back into the gig grind? How often do they really want to gig once the honeymoon period is over?

IMO, time for a band meeting.

Good luck.
 
#57
Lee H said:
Let's be realistic here...The OP did not want our opinions, he wanted support for his own opinion. he has not had one single positive thing to say about the sunday gigs, but he has taken quite a few opportunities to try to make it abundantly clear that he does not like the idea

what I got from reading through this was that the OP really needs to take a while and really contemplate why he is even in this band. it sounds like the primary reason is money, not love of the music or the fun of playing.
What little I know about music is that you cannot iron out everything in a garage. You have to play and get feedback. You have to be on the stage before you can be tight. I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, the dynamics of a good band do not come together, without putting the time in... that means being on stage
Click to expand...

The band is fun, i said that early on. We have been on stage MANY times in years past. I have nothing against playing a sunday gig if its worth it. Yes, being on stage helps considerably. We played for about 7 years total together and a good 5 years of that solidly gigging.

I'm sorry if you don't see why i think playing a crap bar with nothing really to gain every sunday is a bad idea. You may not agree. I offered compromises to them. They said no the first time around, i am waiting for a response on my second round of compromise..
 
#58
Whump said:
One angle that I haven't really seen anybody mention, unless I missed it, is the burnout factor. What I mean is, it's great to have your buddies all jazzed to play, that's the preferred state in general. They remember their former glory and the fun they used to have back in the day and are eager to taste this again. (This is my read on the situation.) My own personal experience with doing a weekly gig in a craphole bar with nearly no audience is that the first few weeks are fun for the sake of the music, and after that all the New has worn off and it becomes a chore. Tack on not getting paid, and I can almost guarantee that by the fourth week someone will call in sick. Bandmembers will gripe and begin to drift because of the lameness of it all, and drama ensues. As a highly drama-averse individual, I recommend against this. Why spend their excitement and the freshness of it all on a ****** gig for no pay or audience? Better to have them do infrequent and fun gigs and keep their appetites going.

I would take the 5/5 gig because it's a juicy holiday, and go ahead and do the week before if you think the stage time would be beneficial. Get your free beer. Get your parking paid by the bar, if you ask me. But don't commit to every single Sunday going forward, with no end date. Every seven days is just too often. Every two weeks? Maybe. Commit to one month of Sundays for the sake of getting the band in fighting shape? Maybe. Tops. Then go get those better gigs now that you're in fighting shape.

Beyond that, if he wants to have live music, he can compensate accordingly. Not enough business to pay a band? Not enough business to HAVE a band.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this. That is one of the angles i'm trying to approach this with. About 15 years ago i did an original weekly gig for about 5 months. Things got kinda testy about a month or so in. Smaller crowds.. the same show each week.. the "fun" wore off pretty quick.

I'm being very patient with them and listening to their reasoning. Will i accept a weekly crap gig? No. Am i willing to try it every other or every 3rd week for a month or so? Yes, i am. That is as far as i will go. Will they accept that? I'm waiting for a response.
 

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