What is your job?

[fingerbun]

$507,500 (because bar bands are beer salesmen with instruments where the money is more important than anything)

In November, it was announced that the minimum salary for a MLB player will remain $507,500, the same as last year's figure. Without question, over half a million dollars is a significant amount of money.

Let me know when your bar band gets a guaranteed contract (performance incentives too)for that that kind of coin... even if you suck and don't sell beer.

Baseball players don't worry about beer sales.

Comparing MLB to bar bands is probably not a fair comparison. Maybe major league musicians are more aligned? Compare Alex Rodriguez to Paul McCartney?

Beyond that, it doesn’t all have to be so simplistic. I have never played in a band that actively promoted excess with alcohol, but obviously some patrons chose to drink more than I would advise. That’s up to them. And obviously the money I got paid ultimately came from the bar selling its product.

You get to know the regulars. One of the positive things you can do is look out for them when they do over consume. Make sure they get home ok, don’t get taken advantage of, and so on.

Perhaps you believe alcohol is evil, in which case of course you should not play bars. I drink, responsibly and in moderation. I don’t have a problem with others doing so.

The difference between making love and masturbation is that making love is done in such a way that other people can be involved. Obviously a bar is not the only option for sharing your music, but sitting in your bedroom playing to yourself is a solitary act.

 

[Bassbeater]

One of the positive things you can do is look out for them when they do over consume. Make sure they get home ok, don’t get taken advantage of, and so on.

 

[fingerbun]

Exactly.

I've been performing in public drinking establishments restaurant bars for four decades, the goal hasn't changed a bit: Get people in the room, get them to stick around awhile, and get them to open their wallets as often as you can while they are there.

In the age of Uber/Lyft, it's not such a stigma any longer go out and cut loose in public, and people have a lot of options besides driving impaired.

I know there are other environments that may not put such emphasis on these principles, but for most weekend warriors in bars and clubs, that's it in a nutshell.

They don’t need to get wasted. A bigger crowd sells more drinks and meals. It’s a viable business plan to draw more people rather than pushing excess.

 

[4001]

Please impress us.

 

[electracoyote]

They don’t need to get wasted. A bigger crowd sells more drinks and meals. It’s a viable business plan to draw more people rather than pushing excess.

I leave the subject of excess to the individual. I have enough on my plate trying to tend to my own moral compass, I'm not going to try to tend to anyone else's.

Either way, it doesn't stop me from doing the job I was hired for at a public drinking establishment. I'm not there to monitor the alcohol intake of other adults. I'll let them (and the venue) decide what constitutes "excess," where their limits are, and how to deal with it.

BTW, "getting wasted" in and of itself is not a crime or even a sin. If finger-waggling and judging people who are intoxicated is in your nature, my advice would be don't perform in drinking establishments.

 

[Bassbeater]

@4001
Promoting drinking, ordering food and partying in the audience and drinking to excess while performing are entirely different things. There is a hard line between entertainer and attendee.
There is no need to imply that any professional level entertainer would sabotage their career like that by posting fail videos.
You are clearly not ready to be a professional entertainer if this is what you think is happening at bar gigs.
I don't think you understand the basic dynamic involved, forgive me if I am wrong.

 

[Bassbeater]

BTW, "getting wasted" in and of itself is not a crime or even a sin.

Not that I'm religious, or care either way morally, but for those who do...
"Eat, drink and be merry" -Some numbered bible quotation

 

[4001]

@4001
You are clearly not ready to be a professional entertainer if this is what you think is happening at bar gigs.
I don't think you understand the basic dynamic involved, forgive me if I am wrong.

I CLEARLY understand the basic dynamic and I have performed "professionally".
The basic dynamic:
Play only music drunk people know and hope the club has you back depending on if you sold enough beer.

If you want to play bars all of your life.. go for it. Have fun.
I hate drunks and bar band setlists.

Hey.. better hope this doesn't happen to your bar band...
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Bassbeater]

I mostly play originals actually. I hope I can play in some venue as long as my fingers and ears work.
-Thanks!

 

[fingerbun]

I leave the subject of excess to the individual. I have enough on my plate trying to tend to my own moral compass, I'm not going to try to tend to anyone else's.

Either way, it doesn't stop me from doing the job I was hired for at a public drinking establishment. I'm not there to monitor the alcohol intake of other adults. I'll let them (and the venue) decide what constitutes "excess," where their limits are, and how to deal with it.

BTW, "getting wasted" in and of itself is not a crime or even a sin. If finger-waggling and judging people who are intoxicated is in your nature, my advice would be don't perform in drinking establishments.

No waggling fingers here. Like you, I believe others can make their own choices, and I leave it up to them. All I was saying was you can make a viable living in a bar band without pushing people to drink as much as possible. I’ve done it.

 

[4001]

 

[bucephylus]

Is that supposed to be clever or acerbic?

It is neither. It is immature, banal, and stupid; and adds nothing to the thread other than communicating a basic disdain for your fellow bass playing brothers and sisters.

Further trolling will be correctly ignored.

 

[4001]

You mentioned “Real” music. “Real” musicians work hard at their craft and are not banal with their attitude.

"Real" musicians get a guaranteed contract for the show they will play and don't worry about how the club intends to sell their beer. They are asked back to the club because they sold enough tickets to the show regardless of the final till at the cash register. They DO work hard at their craft, which is music. The bar works hard at their craft. Selling beer.

 

[Bassbeater]

ignored

Feature!

 

[4001]

It is immature, banal, and stupid..

I agree. Idiots at bars cheering on someone puking onstage is stupid.

 

[Plutonium244]

I see it more like this: If the venue does a lousy job with promotion, it won't help me very much if we do a lousy job too. It just gets worse. So, I'm used to help with that part. (And as I stated earlier: I don't promote drinking etc from the stage. My job on the stage is to make people satisfied and stay).

I agree. I don't believe any of us think doing a lousy job is ever an option, though, so I agree unconditionally with your antipathy toward poor or indifferent performance, naturally. And I don't think it's the band's job to continually push drinking, explicitly-- although it's not uncommon to say "we're taking a short break and will be right back with more music, so take a minute to get a drink, talk to your friends, and we'll see you in a few" or something to that effect; full full-on alcohol pushing I don't do. A passing mention doesn't bother me to do occasionally.

Since a bar needs to sell drinks to stay in business, it IS the job to encourage that which pays both the bar and the musicians that play there. Playing well and being enjoyable and fun does that. While it's NICE to bring your crowd, almost by definition it's not possible to do that everywhere you go-- people who've heard you many times are not going to come to every gig, and if you're playing often like good musicians often are, you're not going to transfer your crowd from place to place on a nightly basis. Ergo, bands must play for people that haven't heard them at all or much-- i.e., people that the bar brings in or saw some bar promotion of the band and was intrigued-- and entertain them. That's the job.

 

[tycobb73]

"Real" musicians get a guaranteed contract for the show they will play and don't worry about how the club intends to sell their beer. They are asked back to the club because they sold enough tickets to the show regardless of the final till at the cash register. They DO work hard at their craft, which is music. The bar works hard at their craft. Selling beer.

And what happens if you don't sell enough tickets?

No matter how you look at it you are a salesperson for the venue.

 

[Robroy]

I got ya. Went to school in Louisville and I still cover the whole state for work....so I’m up and down the Bluegrass Parkway often.

Heck just last week I was in Ashland and Hazard.

I do a little traveling around the state, mainly for company meetings.

 

[Old P Bass Guy]

I have just one observation about the entertainment business (and like it or not, musicians are a part of the industry)..alchol and drugs have been a part of it since the beginning of time. Many great musicians have become the slaves of excesses and it won't change. Entertainers should not have the responsibility for selling alchol or policing the customers behavior. That's why Managers hire attractive servers and capable bouncers.

 

[electracoyote]

No waggling fingers here. Like you, I believe others can make their own choices, and I leave it up to them. All I was saying was you can make a viable living in a bar band without pushing people to drink as much as possible. I’ve done it.

Hooray for you. Newsflash: The venue owner/management/employees were trying to sell beverages to pay the bills, and they were using your music to do it.

Where did "pushing people to drink as much as possible" come into the picture? Kind of an exaggeration IMO. I don't hear anyone suggesting that.

You hold no high ground here, not moral, intellectual, or otherwise. By supplying live music entertainment at a drinking establishment, you are helping to sell alcohol whether you want to admit it or not.