We've all been there...

[One_Dude]

We played a job today that I suspect all of us have experienced at one time or another. We were booked to play for a local tractor club banquet at the recommendation of someone who saw has at a previous gig. We were supposed to begin at 6PM; a time that came and went. There seemed to be no one in charge at the venue to make decisions. At 6:30PM the attendees were sitting there looking at us while we looked at them as we awaited a decision from whom ever was in charge. Lacking any forthcoming decision, we decided to begin with the understanding that we would take a break when the organizers finally got their act together.

We played a couple of songs, and the organizer was ready to begin. We took a 10 or 15 minute break while they did their thing ending by giving directions to the audience with regards as to how they would be served their food. We were told to play during the dinner. Things went downhill from there; almost no one was listening. When they asked us to lower the volume (which was not high at all) it should have alerted us that very few folks were interested in hearing us. A couple people came up afterwards and complimented us, but I think they are the ones who recommended us to begin with.

I have played gigs like this before and for some reason always expect it to be different, but it seldom is. It seems like someone on these organizing committees thinks having a band at these affairs is a good idea, when the rest of their group has absolutely no interest in hearing any music. We could barely hear each other which is never a recipe for a fun time. We did our best, ate the food provided, collected our fee, and headed home hoping the next gig will be better.

Thump on,

One_Dude

 

[kevindahl]

Yuck so sorry about your gig. You are correct most of us have been there.

 

[Wasnex]

We played a job today that I suspect all of us have experienced at one time or another. We were booked to play for a local tractor club banquet at the recommendation of someone who saw has at a previous gig. We were supposed to begin at 6PM; a time that came and went. There seemed to be no one in charge at the venue to make decisions. At 6:30PM the attendees were sitting there looking at us while we looked at them as we awaited a decision from whom ever was in charge. Lacking any forthcoming decision, we decided to begin with the understanding that we would take a break when the organizers finally got their act together.

We played a couple of songs, and the organizer was ready to begin. We took a 10 or 15 minute break while they did their thing ending by giving directions to the audience with regards as to how they would be served their food. We were told to play during the dinner. Things went downhill from there; almost no one was listening. When they asked us to lower the volume (which was not high at all) it should have alerted us that very few folks were interested in hearing us. A couple people came up afterwards and complimented us, but I think they are the ones who recommended us to begin with.

I have played gigs like this before and for some reason always expect it to be different, but it seldom is. It seems like someone on these organizing committees thinks having a band at these affairs is a good idea, when the rest of their group has absolutely no interest in hearing any music. We could barely hear each other which is never a recipe for a fun time. We did our best, ate the food provided, collected our fee, and headed home hoping the next gig will be better.

Thump on,

One_Dude

IMHO whoever setup the gig dropped the ball because it was not clear what sort of service the patron wanted or needed.

I used to do jobs like this all the time and they were easy no fuss events. Basically the first part of the event you describe is what we would have called cocktail/social hour. The band should have started right at the agreed upon time and it should have been coordinated in advance so there was no confusion.

The second part of the event we would have called dinner music. It's normal for this type of service to be low volume because because it is intended to be background music that adds a touch of class to the event. The volume should be low enough for people to have conversation as it is the social part of the evening.

Often with this sort of an event it may also be appropriate to play something like a 20-minute feature show at some time later in the evening, or perhaps a few dance sets after the formal part of the event has ended. It was pretty rare for us to do both a 20-minute show and a dance, because that makes for a really long event. Organizers would frequently ask for it and we generally would try to convince them that it was not going make the evening more enjoyable.

Of course the longer the event coordinator wants the band to hang around, the more the service will cost. I used to make about $65 for cocktail and dinner music and double that if a dance was required. Keep in mind background music only requires an instrument and amp, and any sort of show or dance requires full PA.

The tricky part is event organizers usually don't have any idea of what they want or what a band is capable of providing, so whoever books the band needs to help them figure out what is best for the event. Keep in mind, helping them is not the same as telling them what to do and shoving a bunch of inappropriately loud music down their throat.

The bands I have worked with typically played jazz trio for cocktails and dinner, and then the full 5-piece band came out for the 20-minute show or dance. You don't necessarily have to play jazz for background music though. I know a keyboardist who would throw in Led Zeppelin tunes. You can play pretty much anything as long as you avoid being loud and obnoxious.

Back in 1995 I outfitted a band with IEMs and Electronic drums and we ran ampless. This allowed us to setup quickly and play our cover band material at very low volume. We actually got a lot of requests to play Top 40 as background dinner music. I wouldn't say it was the best use of our time, but it worked really well and we received a lot of positive feedback.

 

[jmon]

I’ve had this happen a few times. But the check still cleared so I was perfectly fine with a paid practice.

 

[KohanMike]

What I learned when I was the head of my high school class reunion committee doing 5 reunions in 25 years, was that the people just want to talk and reminisce with each other and not have music be an interference. We stopped having music after the second one.

 

[JRA]

- sometimes we're paid to be "the star."
- sometimes we're paid to be the warm-up.
- sometimes we're paid to be the background.
- sometimes we're paid to be quiet!
- sometimes we're paid to leave!

it's a job, so as long as we're paid.....

 

[Sbassman Scratch]

I've been in the audience at gigs like this. The band is background. It can make things better, done right.

Don't underestimate the crowd. I was at one where a country trio played, with URB. I'm talking to a guy in mid-west sales and he's talking prices, contracts, potential sales, and smack in the middle he interrupts himself and says "That bass player is really driving the band." And he was.

 

[ezstep]

This is the rule, not the exception, at political events and casinos.

 

[JohnnyBottom]

Sometimes its not all about you. Thats the deal, band is background music sometimes.
No pressure at all isnt a bad thing. Do the job, eat , drink, have fun as a band, get paid, go home.

 

[Ostie]

- sometimes we're paid to be "the star."
- sometimes we're paid to be the warm-up.
- sometimes we're paid to be the background.
- sometimes we're paid to be quiet!
- sometimes we're paid to leave!

it's a job, so as long as we're paid.....

And sometimes we’re just wallpaper.

 

[hbarcat]

Been there. Done that.

In one band, I did most of the bookings but our guitarist had connections to a local fine dining restaurant and got us a gig playing in the bar section of the restaurant from 7 - 10 pm, in two sets with a 15 minute break in between.

I did my usual homework and met the manager at the venue two weeks prior to the show to go over the details. They would have a clear section between the bar and the dining area where we could set up and provide some room for dancing. I was concerned that the diners would be annoyed with live rock music while eating but she assured me it would be all right. She said if we had any problems during the show she would take care of it.

When we got there at 5pm to set up for the gig, the manager was off for the evening. The assistant manager knew that a band was supposed to play but was provided with no instructions whatsoever. There was no clear area where we could set up and the AM said they would move tables in a few hours after most of the diners had finished eating and we should leave our stuff in the van until then.

I tried to explain to her how we needed at least an hour to set up before we could begin playing but she literally didn't understand the concept. She insisted we should be able to disappear until after some indeterminate time between 7 and 8 pm when she would just shove some tables aside and we'd be playing music 2 minutes later.

I had a strong feeling this would be a disaster, so we offered to skip the gig and keep the $60 deposit we had already received. I explained that if we loaded our gear into the venue, then they'd be obligated to pay the balance of our $360 fee, no matter what happened with our playing. She chose to go ahead with the show.

We were eventually called to set up about 8:15. So we busted our butts and took a few shortcuts by setting up a bare minimum PA and were ready to play by 9pm. The assistant manager reminded us that they needed to have us completely out of the building by 11. I explained that meant we needed to finish playing music by 10:15 at the very latest to have enough time to break down and load out our gear.

We did them a favor by playing one solid 75 minute set with no break. Some diners complained about the volume so we turned down our volume to a whisper and the drummer was barely tapping on his kit with brushes. The drinking crowd lost interest and spent most of the time talking over us.

After the show, I asked the AM for our check but she said she had no instructions about paying us and had no authority to do so. We had no choice but to leave without our pay and come back for it at a later date.

The next day I went back to tk to the manager and she said they weren't going to pay us because we didn't start on time and didn't play our full two sets and we had volume complaints from the diners and also the var crowd.

Without going into detail, I made her understand that the problems were entirely the fault of the venue and our performance agreement stipulated that we were entitled to full pay and if I didn't get our money immediately, they could expect to be dragged into court.

She paid us in full but I learned a lesson from that night. These days if I have any reason to believe a potential gig won't go well, then I refuse to do it.

 

[hrodbert696]

I'm on the board of the Friends of the Library organization for the library my wife is director of (like a PTA, but for a library rather than a school). Our big fundraiser is a massive raffle event before Thanksgiving called the "Turkey Shoot." When I came on, the idea of having music at the event was floated. We didn't have much money but I was able, maybe three years running, to get bands I was playing in to do it as a benefit.

The thing is, though, that I mainly play in rock bands. For the kind of event it is, it just wasn't a good fit; no matter how carefully we controlled volume, the nature of the music was such that at least some people would complain it was too loud. But since we didn't have a budget, my bands were what we could get.

After a few years the event became a town tradition and got big enough that it started raising several thousand dollars each year. That enabled me to sell the board on the idea of budgeting a few hundred to pay musicians, and we didn't have to rely on whoever I happened to be playing with to provide music. For a couple of years we had a very good acoustic act of local high schoolers; this past year it was a classical guitar trio. Instead of playing music, I MC the event now. It's become a big success and we always get lots of compliments on the music.

I guess the point being, that I totally get how easily you can be disorganized with events like this, and how often the band idea that seems great around a conference table can turn out to be a mismatch in reality. But if they're recurring events, they can evolve into something much better run and where the music is a much better fit. It takes time.

 

[awakefie]

Yep. Been there annually. Boy Scouts car show and chili cook-off. They hired us every year. Paid us well. Put us on a big stage. Crowd would basically ignore us for 4 hours. Every year we got paid and got a plaque. Some sets were 3 songs long, some were 20 songs long.

We accepted every year. We knew the job going in an did our best. It was actually fun after we got over our egos. First year was "how dare they", second year was "pay is good", third year was "let's just relax and have fun". Great cars and good chili.

 

[mrcbass]

We played a job today that I suspect all of us have experienced at one time or another. We were booked to play for a local tractor club banquet at the recommendation of someone who saw has at a previous gig. We were supposed to begin at 6PM; a time that came and went. There seemed to be no one in charge at the venue to make decisions. At 6:30PM the attendees were sitting there looking at us while we looked at them as we awaited a decision from whom ever was in charge. Lacking any forthcoming decision, we decided to begin with the understanding that we would take a break when the organizers finally got their act together.

We played a couple of songs, and the organizer was ready to begin. We took a 10 or 15 minute break while they did their thing ending by giving directions to the audience with regards as to how they would be served their food. We were told to play during the dinner. Things went downhill from there; almost no one was listening. When they asked us to lower the volume (which was not high at all) it should have alerted us that very few folks were interested in hearing us. A couple people came up afterwards and complimented us, but I think they are the ones who recommended us to begin with.

I have played gigs like this before and for some reason always expect it to be different, but it seldom is. It seems like someone on these organizing committees thinks having a band at these affairs is a good idea, when the rest of their group has absolutely no interest in hearing any music. We could barely hear each other which is never a recipe for a fun time. We did our best, ate the food provided, collected our fee, and headed home hoping the next gig will be better.

Thump on,

One_Dude

Yeah, sometimes you just have to remember you're paid to support an event which sometimes means not doing much of anything. Hopefully the pay was worth the weird gig.

 

[arbiterusa]

- sometimes we're paid to be "the star."
- sometimes we're paid to be the warm-up.
- sometimes we're paid to be the background.
- sometimes we're paid to be quiet!
- sometimes we're paid to leave!

Realize it's not about you or your music, but about the people who hired you. There should have been a lot of communication with those folks as far as what they wanted and when. The number one thing that people want, and rarely get because they fail to ask for it strongly enough, is a quiet band. Quiet bands get lots of gigs, it turns out.

And yeah, this list made me laugh as I've been paid to leave. More than once! Still got paid, so...win for me.