Music is an outlet for me. Getting paid is just an affirmation that what I'm producing has value to others. Praise is nice, too. But attaboys from people that can afford a few bucks to be entertained (and often spend way more than the cost of a band on a weekend of golf) doesn't make me want to haul equipment, set up, play for 4 hours, load out and get home at 1am.
I play in church every Sunday and practice for it Wednesdays if I'm in town. I do a few community theater things but they can take a lot of time, depending on the show. I play in two bands, one oldies and one pop/dance/whatever. I also put together small groups if a gig pops up.
We're not a big fish in a small pond. We're about the only fish. In this town there are two bar/restaurants I'll play. One only holds 80 people. It's nice, kind of pricey, but because it's small they can only pay so much. We can get $400/night but with 5 people that's down to $80 each. It's a mile from the house and a fun time so I'm OK with it. With the big oldies group the singers don't get paid. They don't really have a lot invested but do it for fun. We make enough at private parties for everybody to make at least $100.
The other place is bigger and has a nice stage/lights but it's a smoking place. On nights we play they make it no smoking.
The oldies group is getting old. None of us really like playing 4 hour gigs. We did a freebie at a church a couple of weeks ago for the senior group. 200 people and they loved us. It so happened we had booked both clubs for gigs on back to back Fridays. The church deal was the Tuesday in between. I thought two gigs the same week was a mistake but we ended up packing both nights. The church deal was only one set and we all enjoyed it the most even though we didn't get paid. So we're about to try something different.
I talked with the community theater manager. They have a side room they call the studio for smaller shows. It has tables and chairs for about 60 and a small stage. I've done some Fri/Sat deals where it's two hours of music with drinks and hors d'oeuvres between sets. So instead of doing 4 hour gigs at a bar we're going to try and do quarterly or bi-monthly weekend shows. The manager says they usually clear about $1600 and we'll split it. Payment will be about the same for us but the hours and work effort will go down. Our elderly listeners can come out from 7-9, enjoy the music, have a drink and a snack and be home by 10. We should be able to pack the room and play for an attentive audience with minimum hassle.
The pop group will probably do theme nights, like Beatles, Eagles, Disco... The crowds this group draws is more hit and miss. The target audience has jobs/kids/commitments/other interests. Having a pre-scheduled, two night, shorter gig will be more flexible for them.
Should work in theory. We'll have guaranteed gigs, scheduled far in advance, we'll still do private functions and we get the added benefit of the theater mega-marketing machine
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I'm not too worried about drawing in the younger crowd. Young people like young people. I'm cool with that. I do notice younger people enjoying our shows when they are there. We slip in some modern stuff. But most of them aren't used to seeing bands. One twenty-something came up telling us how great we were. He said, "You guys, like, play real instruments and stuff!?!"
Fun church gig:
And most of the time they were all just sitting either staring at us or socializing.
