What is your job?

[electracoyote]

We hand the bar owner or head bar tender a questionair. It asks what the drink specials are, what the food specials are, who the bartenders, waitresses and cooks are (names). Any other specials? We also ask whats happening that week end and the week to come. We then announce these things at opportune times during the night. We thank people for dancing pointing out any special dance talents, we hand out beads, we do sing alongs, talk to the patrons (involve them in the fun). We used to hand out band tee shirts and lapel pins. We hand out noise makers and blow up guitars and more. That my friends is a full service band that gets call backs. Any thought we just forced people to drink...HA!

That's really smart. We do a lot of that stuff too. It's called "value added service"

Bar owner has an agenda, and literally everyone he hires is expected to help him succeed. That includes the band. Alcohol isn't the whole picture, but it is a big part of the picture and arguably one of the owner's main products and offerings. It's the nature of the beast, and any bar vendor or employee who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.

 

[honeyiscool]

Ultimately my purpose on stage is to be the best musician and entertainer I can be, but the bar owner is paying the band to sell alcohol, so the thing is this. Am I getting paid? Then my job is to sell alcohol. I don't have to like it, but that's the gig.

 

[Hundred proof]

To provide an experience that they will remember ... most are tourists and it may be their only trip to Memphis they're there for blues, BBQ and Beale st. We get people from all over the world and you want to give them a story to tell back home.

 

[bearfoot]

My job is to rock.

 

[Old P Bass Guy]

This is starting to sound like a company working on their "motto" or "mission statement " Lol! Your in good hands with...., at GE we bring good things. ...Have it your way...☺

 

[Korladis]

I'm talking as a band. Make people dance? Sell beer? Entertain? I've watch many posts about making people dance. But I remember the old days when you had to sell beer. There were so many crappy sounding bands out there but the ones that got the gigs sold beer.

Right now our drummer turns down free drinks from drunk patrons. Our guitar player turns down tequila shots. Unheard of in the old days. You don't have to drink it, but you should damn well accept it! In fact we used to encourage it by constantly holding up empty bottles or telling people that we would like to dispel the rumors that the band doesn't drink. Or holding up a bottle and yelling cheers every other song, etc.

There's the story about the bar owner who doesn't understand why sales are down. "I've got the best dance band in town, the dance floor is full all night long but my beer sales haven't gone up". Well if they are on the dance floor all night they aren't drinking. Plus their beer is getting warm so when they do get a chance to drink they blame the bar for warm beer. I could go on and on about this, but back to the original question...

Crush people's souls.

 

[Old P Bass Guy]

Make people want to be here!!

 

[zachoff]

Rock tf out.

 

[Stumbo]

Play music that people will like to listen or dance to.

 

[WI Short Scaler]

Play music that people will like to listen or dance to.

This is my purpose too.

 

[Plutonium244]

Scout for valuables, locate the safe, determine the way to gain entry to the business after hours without being detected or videotaped, break into the bar a few weeks later and loot the place.

 

[Old P Bass Guy]

Scout for valuables, locate the safe, determine the way to gain entry to the business after hours without being detected or videotaped, break into the bar a few weeks later and loot the place.

Need a driver?

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Thank you for supporting someone who cares and tries to make a difference.

Hope your cynicism will get you far, I know it's a much sought after quality these days.

If you want to be a serious artists, that is fine, but it wont sell. Sorry, but that is true. It never has. My dad, who studied to be a symphony conductor and was a high school band director was a also performing musician from the 1930s through the 1950s, gave me insight into this early in my playing days. He said there are two kinds of musicians. Those who play really good music and those who play what the general population likes. If you are a musician's band, you will never make any money. The general population doesn't understand music. They like simple catchy tunes that don't take really listening. So you will play for other musicians mostly for free because musicians never have any money and will nurse one beer all night long.

If you play for the general population, you can make money playing pop tunes they want to hear. If you don't play what they want, you wont get hired back.

There is no wrong in striving for excellent music, but be realistic in your expectations.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

My job is to get dollars in the cash register. Club owners don't care about your music. They want two things from you:

1. Get money in the cash register. Lotsa money = you're a great band. Notsomuchamoney = you suck.
2. Behave yourself like a professional. That means:

1. You show up on time
2. Don't take extended breaks
3. You don't have fights on stage
4. You don't get drunk and cause problems
5. You leave the stage area at least as clean as when you arrived.

As to accepting drinks offered by patrons, the answer is always an unqualified Yes. First, it is your job (Put money in the cash register), and second, you would be surprised at how upset some people can become if you refuse a drink they offered.
This doesn't mean you have to drink it, usually. I've let a lot of drinks sit on the table all night. The only time you pretty much have to drink it or at least have a sip is if they are toasting.

​

 

[micguy]

No alcohol sales at my gigs. We occasionally have very small glasses of grape or cranberry juice and tiny pieces of bread - which we give away. My job is to be part of an experience for those in the seats.

 

[EdO.]

If you want to be a serious artists, that is fine, but it wont sell. Sorry, but that is true. It never has. My dad, who studied to be a symphony conductor and was a high school band director was a also performing musician from the 1930s through the 1950s, gave me insight into this early in my playing days. He said there are two kinds of musicians. Those who play really good music and those who play what the general population likes. If you are a musician's band, you will never make any money. The general population doesn't understand music. They like simple catchy tunes that don't take really listening. So you will play for other musicians mostly for free because musicians never have any money and will nurse one beer all night long.

If you play for the general population, you can make money playing pop tunes they want to hear. If you don't play what they want, you wont get hired back.

There is no wrong in striving for excellent music, but be realistic in your expectations.

Spot on, couldn't have been stated any better. To all the "Art For Art's Sake" players reading this thread - believe what you want about how fantastic musicianship sells itself despite all the other factors Gravedigger Dave stated above. Musicianship is certainly the hub it all circulates around and is of absolute importance/necessity of course. Without at least some fairly high level of musicianship/ability all else doesn't get you anywhere either. But if you believe that musicianship alone is going to keep you working at all but the upper levels of the music business (and mostly not even there - examples abound) you're deluding yourself. It's not about you and your musical ability alone, it's about ENTERTAINING an otherwise musically ignorant public. You wanna work a lot? Check your ego at the door and learn to entertain as well as you've learned to play. Or sit at home playing with yourself...

 

[rtslinger]

As a band we are hired to keep the warm bodies inside the place as long as possible, so they can eat drink and have a good time. On the other side of the coin it is the clubs job to make sure everyone who is drinking doesn't push it too far. It's a catch 22 I am happy when those people came out to support us and I hate to see drunk people getting into a car coming from our show and endangering his or her life as well as others on the road including me and my friends and family.