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School me on riders

#44
Riders took quite a turn once bands realized they'd be seen by the general public. So they took it as an opportunity to have some fun. And screw David Lee Roth for claiming the M&M thing was a way for the band/tech crew to know 'if the venue pays attention to the M&M demands they won't screw up the important stuff.' He's full of crap and the band were just being rock star dlcks because they could be rock star dlcks. Don't buy for one second that anyone would go to the dressing room, see the right color candy and say "oh, now we don't have to check the important stuff, you know, the things that can ruin the show or even get people killed."
 
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#47
A promoter may ask you what you need or tell you what they have provided.
Depending on your pull, depends how much you can 'influence'.
Sometimes, it is more about food and accomodation, like 'lunch' and dinner.
Lunch can be a small offering like sandwiches and drinks if you get there early enough or in the dressing room if you've travelled all day. Dinner can be before or after the show. depending on performance times. Alcohol is not a big thing, certainly before the show...but that can also depend how disciplined you are.

You may or may not travel with your P.A crew, so you may only get to meet your rig at the venue.
Everyone asks for an SVT, because that sets the bar. You hope to end up with a comparable rig.
 
#48
We have a buyout fee, or equivalent if the venue serves food. Problem with riders is you can make them as extravagant as you like but ultimately it's gonna come out of your cut over guarantee...

I did tour with a band who had a fresh tin of instant coffee at every show. At most one or two spoons would get used and the rest left, so I started taking the old tins with me at the end and swapping out for the new ones at the next venue before anybody used them. After two weeks I had fourteen sealed jars of instant coffee in my hand luggage and didn't have to buy any at home for another year. It's the little things.
 
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#49
Space Pickle said:
I salute you guys who are playing gigs good enough to have riders.
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Same. All I do is send a list of what we need in terms of power and audio connections, and a map of the setup. And even if they confirm they'll have the right cables, I bring some adaptors anyway. Doesn't hurt.
 
#50
I've done a pretty wide variety of gigs including and festivals and bigger clubs. I've never seen a rider. However, over the years I've found that the really well run festivals and venues have already heard all of the important questions, and send out a list of instructions and expectations that might as well serve as a rider. If you can get hold of a few of those, they will probably tell you what you need to ask for. The point in my mind is not so much what my demands are, but agreeing on what to expect so it runs smoothly.

Think your way through the gig -- getting there, loading, parking, setting up, playing, and clearing out. Will your gear be dry and supervised? Will you be protected from the weather?

Since I work for a lot of bands, rather than giving a detailed list of needs, I've gone the other route and pared my needs down to the bare bones. The bigger the gig, the lighter I travel, due to the complexity of getting in and out of something like a crowded festival or congested downtown area. So my needs are really minimal. Not even food. The sandwich I bring is better anyway.

Of course more details are needed if lodging or plane travel are involved.
 
#51
micguy said:
One of these days, I'll play a gig where we have a rider. OK, maybe not. You've gotta be pretty high up in the pecking order to be talking about this sort of thing. If you're there, I'd think you'd have management do that for you.

Doing FOH, a couple of times I worked with bands that had technical riders. I sent emails saying what we did and didn't have on their rider. Both times, the band was clueless about any technical details. As I was FOH (they didn't have a sound person), it was a very odd chat - usually a technical rider precipitates a couple technical people talking about things - the venue's person, and the FOH person (who travels with the band). Anyway, I did what I thought was best, they were fine with that.

I have no idea why a band would forward a technical rider if they had noone you could discuss details with - I think maybe they thought it was a good idea to have one, and copied someone else's, but in the end, it was a useless exercise.

When you get to a certain level, then this kind of communication becomes absolutely necessary. Are you there yet? If you don't travel with technical people, I'd argue no. Food riders and the like are things that come into the picture long after you need a technical rider.
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I've seen this, when bands might no know themselves, but they will use someone else's tech rider to make sure they don't end up with crap.

I've seen uber specific ones and ones that were obviously written to make they weren't going to be playing with a PA on a stick. I've even seen things like "Must be able to produce 30hz at x DB at y feet. Sometimes it's just specifying input lists and mics, number of monitor mixes, stereo, etc.
 
#52
logdrum said:
Maybe best to just show you a rider document.

This is for Avishai Cohen jazz trio. Very specific on many details
Click to expand...

I read the whole thing, and I'm pleased that, like us, they insist on rugs to cover the stage. Ours aren't Persian, though. They're from Target.:D
rugs.jpeg
 
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#54
In my very limited experience playing in a band that provided a backline rider for medium-sized festival gigs, I never once got anything even close to what I asked for. Amps were always provided and stage plot was set up correctly, but apparently Ampeg SVTs are pretty hard to come by. :p
 

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