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The phone call you pray never comes.....

#41
Well, let me qualify "undamaged", the parts of the venue that did not actually burn have unknown status. There is still a high possibility the building will have to be razed, as a large capital investment will be needed to bring all up to code.

May be the end of an era, it was a dive for multiple generations, hard to bereave the loss, but at the same time, lots of talented (and not so talented) people pounded those walls with music and passion over the years.
 
#42
Wow, so sorry this has happened Jeff. Hopefully you are blessed and come out of this with minimal or no damage.
Couldnt have happened to a better guy either. We both live here in East TN. and though I have never met Jeff, he has a great testimony among fellow musicians that live here.
Thankful so much too that nobody was hurt. That is no doubt the biggest blessing of all. Merry Christmas and God Bless to everyone!!!
Barry
 
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#43
If someone hasn't already gotten the gear - go get it quick. That may be the hardest part - getting access to the gear after a fire. If you can get it, take pix of all the gear in place before you move it, just in case the venue or the building has fire insurance. You may be able to write it off as a tax deduction, too, especially if you have been claiming income or loss from your music endeavors.

Once you get the gear home, take more pix, then take pix of damaged components, then you can assess the damage and see what is salvageable. You might get lucky. Drums are the most vulnerable, because the shells can warp from the heat and water. Mikes will stink for a long time.....
 
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#45
electracoyote said:
Damn, that's rough. I hope it's just a little smoke damage.

I can not speak to OP's situation. I'm sure there are drinking establishments out there where you can leave gear and not worry about theft or damage. I can only speak for my neighborhood. I've been playing music in this area for over ten years in venues all up and down the Denver Front Range. Before that I played music in Columbus, Ohio for about a decade. I have yet to play a drinking establishment where I was comfortable leaving my gear. I have left gear set up for convenience only a couple of times, and I worried and prayed all day that it would be there the next night just as I left it. I have heard more than a few stories where that was not the case. Yes, loading out is a pain in the ass. But it's the only sure way to avoid OP's situation or something similar.

I don't mean to sound callous or uncaring about OP's situation, which I hope works out for the best. Insurance is great if you can swing it, but when I read the list of gear that was in harm's way, I got sick to my stomach. I have also put a lot of time and effort into my gear, some of which is literally irreplaceable.
Click to expand...

This. Music insurance is pretty inexpensive and is the only way, unless you have a special rider on your insurance policy, you'll be reimbursed if your equipment damaged/stolen from a place of business.
 
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#46
The "average" working musician in my world does well to replace strings, drum sticks, drum heads, blown speakers, bad patch cords, etc. Insurance is something frequently brought up in conversation, but it's always one of those niceties we will get around to....

Even after what I'm hoping is a "close call", I'm not ready to throw money at insurance premiums. Which is inconsistent, as I have tons of Aflac, life, auto, home, etc. Insurance policies.

If, however, live music was my daily bread, it would be professional suicide not to have replacement value on the tools needed to put on a live show.

Going to stress this thinking to the band leader whose livelihood depends on gigging.
 
#48
If I may suggest, those of you who aren't pros and/or don't have your stuff insured, inventory your gear and make sure your home insurance will cover it. Quite by accident (chatting with my agent at my son's baseball game a few years ago) I discovered that my $1500 of camera gear was not covered by my home policy. His reasoning was, in a claim, instead of the body and each lens being valued separately, it would be lumped together as camera equipment and therefore exceed the per item dollar limit. When I asked how this limit applied to my $1800 couch, he would only say "that's different". Translation: We're going to do what it takes to not pay out. A rider on my stuff was only $50 a year and also covered it if it was stolen/destroyed while I was traveling, be it from my vehicle, hotel room, whatever. Since I was doing a lot of traveling at the time, I decided it was worth the money. Just something to think about.
 
#49
Jeff Roller said:
The "average" working musician in my world does well to replace strings, drum sticks, drum heads, blown speakers, bad patch cords, etc. Insurance is something frequently brought up in conversation, but it's always one of those niceties we will get around to....

Even after what I'm hoping is a "close call", I'm not ready to throw money at insurance premiums. Which is inconsistent, as I have tons of Aflac, life, auto, home, etc. Insurance policies.

If, however, live music was my daily bread, it would be professional suicide not to have replacement value on the tools needed to put on a live show.

Going to stress this thinking to the band leader whose livelihood depends on gigging.
Click to expand...
Depending on your policy and how many times a week you gig, you may not need insurance because it could be covered by homeowner's. I have had stuff happen to me occasionally, even had a bar fire that took out my 73 V4B and SVT810 in 1989 or 90, and it was covered by homeowners' insurance, but there was a $500 deductible so I didn't get much out of it. Same thing happened when I had a couple small amps stolen out of a practice space I had gear stored in a few years later. I've got real mixed feelings about insurance. I see a need for it for some folks, but why pay for it if the total value of the gear I lose is only a little higher than the deductible? It's really legalized gambling, isn't it? I gamble I'm going to have a problem, and they gamble that I'm not. The vast majority of the time, they are right. The house always wins.
 
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#50
JimmyM said:
Depending on your policy and how many times a week you gig, you may not need insurance because it could be covered by homeowner's. I have had stuff happen to me occasionally, even had a bar fire that took out my 73 V4B and SVT810 in 1989 or 90, and it was covered by homeowners' insurance, but there was a $500 deductible so I didn't get much out of it. Same thing happened when I had a couple small amps stolen out of a practice space I had gear stored in a few years later. I've got real mixed feelings about insurance. I see a need for it for some folks, but why pay for it if the total value of the gear I lose is only a little higher than the deductible? It's really legalized gambling, isn't it? I gamble I'm going to have a problem, and they gamble that I'm not. The vast majority of the time, they are right. The house always wins.
Click to expand...
@JimmyM I completely agree. I diligently paid insurance premiums on everything down to the patch cords for several years, and never needed to file a claim.

I was adding an upright bass to my policy a few years ago, and the herculean jump through hoops needed to come up with a replacement value had me questioning if it was worth the trouble. After accurately taking an inventory vs risk assessment, I decided the premiums paid would buy a nice new bass every year, so I cancelled my policies.

As redundancy, my homeowners policy covered everything not used on the weekend, so it was really not a big decision to drop coverage.

That being said, if the majority of my gear was somewhere else but home on weekends, I would insure without hesitation.
 
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#52
Insurance companies can only stay in business if they take in at least as much as they pay out. On average, you will lose money paying for insurance. So you should only have insurance for items that you can't afford to replace. For most of us, that's house and car. Some here might have gear that falls into that category, but I don't.
 
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#54
Working in Albuquerque in the late 70's and they torched the club. Red Dog Dan's I think was the name. We were off on Sunday so Saturday night I went to Ship Rock to meet an old family friend and they burned the club Sunday night.

I pulled up to the motel on Monday and the guys were there waiting for me. They had heard the fire trucks and realized that the smoke was coming from the club. Had a strip joint on the 2nd floor if I recall.

I remember the melted cymbals, the grill cloth burned off my SVT 8x10, black holes where speakers were. The musicians Union helped us with a little traveling money and represented us in court when the fire insurance was divided up a year later. The band was dead, the life burned out of it.

As I recall we limped back to LA and put together some equipment but the PA was gone, and the Hammond was replaced with something less tone producing, etc. It sucked and we blew apart in a month.

Band life, our life times is tenuous at best. Bad things happen and so do good things. Best of luck putting it back together.
 
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#55
Kind of late to pipe in here and all that could be said has been said but just the same, I send my sincere best wishes from the great white (not so white this year) north. Hug your loved ones (and even your bandmates!) this holiday season. You can all get to see another day.
 
#57
Hope it was a close call for all the equipment involved. Sounds like no one was in the building at the time (or they weren't hurt at least), which is another blessing. Best of luck to you guys in the new year!
 

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