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What if you had a Gig, and Noboby Came?

steveo33

steveo33

Nov 11, 2009
75
16
Cleveland, OH
#1
Guys,

Just got back home from an NYE "gig". Supposed to be one of the biggest paydays of the year, right?

The band shouted from the rooftops on the social media sites, etc., even raffling off a Vegas trip to some lucky patron.

This venue was one the band has played before, pretty well attended. It's directly across from a NBA arena.
It apparently closed it's doors for invite only tickets. Two buddies of the drummer's wife showed. After a halfhearted, and disastorous soundcheck, we packed up, rang in 2011 at the empty bar. I couldn't look the owner in the face.

We're not Yes. The singer has some pipes, and the drummer knows what he's doing albiet on an eletronic kit that I can't get behind at all. The guitarists have mile wide pedalboards that just sound craptactular. Our keyboardist is cute as hell, tho. I took this on a lark during some downtime, and to be clear, I'm no Squire myself, and I found I've lost better opportunities because of this commitment.

Between the sonic misadventures, and technical glitches (in ear monitors for the drums, anyone?), I'm hoping this will be the event that gets the stars out of a couple of our band guys eyes and may put the final nail in this coffin.

Wouldn't you think that the person that booked this and the venue woud have communicated on the amount of tickets sold, and have cancelled the gig if attendance was single-freakin-digits? Although it was a balmy 60 degrees for January, no real walk up crowd was to be expected.

Gig went something like this:

6:00-8:00 Haul in, connect 6 miles of cables, rig light truss (thought Triumph was in town).

8:00-9:00 Tweak connections, reposition gear, endless guitar noodling, grab a bite to eat, notice the place is utterly empty.

9:00-10:00 Monitors won't work, wait, someone didn't run power to them. OK, power on, they sound like crap. We can't hear the electronic drums. A mic on the guitar amp is clipping the board. What tuning are we in for this? I need to know if I'm strapping on the std, the E flat, or the drop D...

10:00 Late again, soundcheck time. Hey, lets do a song only one guitarist and the drummer knows. The singer's got about half of it, and we're not playing it tonight anyway. The drum in-ear monitors sound like hell. The three people that are here aren't going to like this very much.

10:20 Guys, take a look. The only ones here are us, the singer's & drummer's wife's and two of their peeps. Let's not forget to mention a very pissed-off looking proprietor and his staff. I'm thinking my odds for that Vegas trip just went way up.

10:30-12:30 Shutdown. Loadout. I'm thinking the only thing more depressing than seeing Dick Clark do his thing now (although I applaud him for doing it) is seeing R. Seacrest next to him.

Happy New Year, my bottom end brethren.
 
#2
Ouch.

Happy New Year! :)

I felt your pain as I was reading that. Alas, I believe any musician here who gigs reguarly has had a similar experience. Mine was at a 4th of July gig a while back. At the Jersey Shore, one of the most happening bar areas on the east coast... but not at the bar we were at. Nobody. None. Zilch. 0. We were told that people were boycotting the place we were playing at, and a real well known band was playing around the corner. The gig was agency booked so I remember leaving there with some money, but it was still a painful experience.

A bad new years gig might mean an upcoming year of great gigs. You know, kinda like steppin in dog doo. :) Or it might mean it's time to move on. Best of luck.
 
#10
I was in a band a few months back that had "a sweet regular spot at a local coffee shop". The spot was a weekly open mic night, which ended up working because we were the hosts, but that's the extent of it's greatness. Our crowd usually consisted of our own families (we're teenagers, our parents liked to listen) and the elderly couple that followed us. Four shows and the band fell apart anyway, but I feel your pain bro.

At least your gigging experiences can't get worse right? Happy new year's everyone!
 
#11
I remember one , was a charitable gig for victims of a flood the ticket was 5 bucks or a kg of food , we were opening for a famous band the show was in a monday cause the house did it for free, we did our sound check , went to the bar beside the house to warm up with some beers , and nobody showed up only some friends, the producer told us that will be no show and we packed up our gear and left , a bummer but s happens
 
#13
We had the most low key New Year's Eve small crowd gig in years at a small private club. However, they did not advertise at all except inside the club. Some of our friends showed up who are not members and not many actual members. There were some other things that happened out of their control and our control to prevent some people from making it. With that said, we played well, the people had a great time and said how much they liked us, we got paid well, easy and small set up and access, 10 miles from my house, done at 12:30, and it was 50 degrees and no snow (which is unusual for us), and we are booked there again in March. :hyper:
 
#16
@steveo33 Don't feel bad, I heard nobody went anywhere last night even though it was almost 60 degrees out last night in Cleveland. Where was your show at?

I've played in front of 2 strangers at a club on tour. I still give it my all, jumped around and acted like an ass on stage. Those 2 people still paid to see a show.
 
#17
Richland123 said:
We had the most low key New Year's Eve small crowd gig in years at a small private club. However, they did not advertise at all except inside the club. Some of our friends showed up who are not members and not many actual members. There were some other things that happened out of their control and our control to prevent some people from making it. With that said, we played well, the people had a great time and said how much they liked us, we got paid well, easy and small set up and access, 10 miles from my house, done at 12:30, and it was 50 degrees and no snow (which is unusual for us), and we are booked there again in March. :hyper:
Click to expand...

my gig this year, freaking word-for-word.

the bandleader said, "call us jesse james, 'cause we just robbed the joint", but they happily paid us, so all is well.
 
#18
been there once played a gig in a massive nightclub and the promoter didnt do any promoting it was on a weeknight too and was generally badly put together we should of turned tail and ran after all the warning signs
anyway 2 hours after we were due to start playing there's still no one in apart from us, 6 bar staff, a sound engineer and the owner (the promoter had vanished with a guilt consience by now)
wanting to still look proffesional we launched into our set and gave it all the balls as if the place was packed and even tried out a few new songs we were unsure of
anyway a long story short the bar staff were amused and the owner felt bad for us being dragged all the way out to his nightclub for nothing courtosy of his idiotic promoter and respected us for "having a go at it" so bought us a few pizzas and kebbabs and gave us a free bar for the rest of the night :bassist:
anyway 4 hours later were all seriously tanked up and we've played our set again complete with a drunken 6 person mosh pit made of the bar staff it was a right giggle and one of my favourite gigs of all time :D
 
#19
everyone has gigs where no one came, its just happens. but any club or bar owner that closes their place for an invite only event on NEW YEARS EVE is just simply a bad business owner. it takes a professional dumbass to not be able to get some customers on the biggest party night of the year
 

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