What makes a gig successful?

[Nephilymbass]

This is a spin-off from my last thread, where I was venting about the LS getting drunk to the point of not being able to properly do his job. Some of the responses in that thread made me wonder what different people think constitutes a successful gig. Money? Cheering? Dancing? Drinking? Playing? Sound? ... anything else?

I don’t really play for money but it’s nice to at least cover expenses. I’m too old to deal with drunk band-members, I’m not saying I require my bandmates to be straight edge but drink at home or even after we’ve played not when it impacts the band. A good size crowd is always nice but I’m fine with the crowd being smaller if they are more into the band instead of passively listening because they are there for something else.

Here’s one that might be a bit odd. I do like to see people having at good time at the gigs I play. But there’s a line that can be crossed with drinking where I feel it negatively impacts the band. There are some venues I don’t like because they’ll allow people to get too drunk before cutting them off out of greed. I don’t want anyone killing someone or themselves driving drunk on the way home from one of our shows, I also don’t want to see people so drunk they are puking or sweaty guys that are drunk take their shirts off that run off all the attractive women. Venues should be responsible and cut people off as soon as they start showing physical signs of being wasted. I’ve seen people who couldn't hardly walk and people who puked get another drink from the bar. That’s screwed up to not care about your customers safety and it makes people not want to go to shows.

 

[cnltb]

Most importantly; The group played well together.
Other factors;
Happy Audience.
Happy soundguy,
Started on time,
Finished on time,
got paid the agreed amount and the group is booked for the next show already(happy client).

 

[Nashrakh]

Combination of

Got Paid
Crowd liked the Band
Full Dance Floor
Venue wants you back
Band played well together

(No ranking, just as they appeared on the poll)

Ideally, I want all of them. Or at least to some degree - I'm not sure I want a venue asking me back if they won't pay us and the audience isn't there. And I can live with the band not playing well together, but I feel that it directly translates to audience response. So it's a combination of all five, best case.

 

[Wisebass]

Hi lat

Money? Cheering? Dancing? Drinking? Playing? Sound? ... anything else?

I have fun to play music and I have even more fun playing good!

I don' t play for free or "pay to play" but I don' t call a gig a success just because it pays well.

Success doesn' t come with money! But money comes with success.

I voted:

Success is when the venue calls you back,

because you fill the house, the dancefloor is packed and the crowd loves you.

I hope they love us because we have fun and play good.

I see no reason why I should not be paid when that happens!


greetings

Wise(b)ass

 

[Rib 13]

This thread is making a lot of assumptions, and doesnt factor:

- successful night due to social status of band, even though band was sub-par
- venue does little to no advertisement
- venue has less than stellar service
- venue has bad reputation
- venue location
- venue historically has certain nights that work better than others
theres more....

then theres also 'the vibe'....you can tell youre gonna have a great night just by the general feeling/mood in the venue before you play note one....and that works both ways: the vibe is such a downer that you can play and perform spectacular, pull out every exciting dancefloor filler that just worked perfect the night before, and they just stare at you

 

[40Hz]

If the crowd, venue, and band were happy with the evening’s performance, then I’d call that a successful gig.

 

[40Hz]

hen theres also 'the vibe'....you can tell youre gonna have a great night just by the general feeling/mood in the venue before you play note one....and that works both ways: the vibe is such a downer that you can play and perform spectacular, pull out every exciting dancefloor filler that just worked perfect the night before, and they just stare at you

Very true and very real. But it’s all just part of the game when it comes to music performance. And it’s the only game in town. You either play - or you go home.

My feeling is I do whatever it takes to give my absolute best whenever I’m up on a stage. So if somebody ends up being disappointed come the end of the show…well…it won’t be the first time. And tomorrow is another day.

 

[4001]

If I could have chosen "most of the above".... I would have but since beer sales are the NO. 1 thing you bar band needs to be concerned with for a return gig and more $$, I voted for "the crowd got hammered".
Sure, all of the rest is important but if you sold out all of the alcohol just by farting into the mic all night, that would be a success with the bar owner, and that is the only one that you really need to make happy.
Play bass, sell beer.

 

[Rib 13]

My feeling is I do whatever it takes to give my absolute best whenever I’m up on a stage. So if somebody ends up being disappointed come the end of the show…well…it won’t be the first time. And tomorrow is another day.

+1....yup

 

[Samatza]

it's funny how things change over time. In the old days it was a successful night if you got out of the gig and home in one piece and the club owner didn't hold your pay for a month, try to shoot the guitar player or break his hands when he threatened to leave, they were some pretty rough times!

Now it's a good night when the audience in happy and we play well as a band, which has been the norm for many years now. I suppose we're very lucky to be doing what we're doing right now but we worked hard at it, it didn't just happen.

 

[bearhart74]

I only have three criteria. In order of importance:

1. Got paid.
2. Offered repeat appearance.
3. Crowd liked it.

#3 is optional, but also the reason I like doing this.

if you got #2 then #3 must have happened

 

[Richard Martin]

For me it really depends on which band I'm in. In my primary band the thing that is most important is that I not screw up and I have fun. If I make money, that's a bonus. In my secondary band, I'm really only in it for the money. I don't like rap and I don't like country. My secondary band plays country and soft classic rock (Eagles, Bob Seger, etc). Somehow, somewhere along the line, country and rap melded together. Those songs that we play that have this bizarre thing going on I doubly hate playing. But I'm being paid to perform, not like the music. Carrots. Lettuce. Tomatoes.

 

[lfmn16]

Success depends on your goals. If you goal is to make money then it's successful gig if you get paid and get asked back. If your goal is to make music then it's successful if the band sounds good. Not necessarily mutually exclusive.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

The top five are the top five. We always have fun (well, almost always). We always have good sound (well, almost always). And even when I think we're stinkin' out the joint, we are the only ones who seem to notice.

 

[ArtechnikA]

if you got #2 then #3 must have happened

Not quite...
We once played a show to a virtually empty house; no crowd there to like anything...
But the venue owner recognized that we'd been scheduled on a night with some sports national championship game on TV, and a big local festival happening across town.
He liked us, asked us back, and since it was a 'share of the door' deal he wasn't out much more than overhead.

 

[gln1955]

What keeps me playing and tolerating all of the BS that goes with bands is when the band is playing well together.

But, if the crowd doesn't love us and the venue doesn't want us back, we won't be doing this for long.

 

[bigshiny]

How about:
1) Everything turned on.
2) Nothing blew up.

 

[micguy]

I played a bar once where the big guy running the place was dressed in fatigues and a bandanna, and walked around with a 14 inch chef's knife - he mostly worked in the kitchen, cutting up pizzas. Whatever he said, we did. He told us we did a good job, and why - he could hear the rate at which beer bottles were being tossed into the trash barrels, that told him the business was going well. He also could hear that no fights broke out. That, to him, was a successful night.

Now I play church gigs. The definition of success - somewhat different. No fights is probably still in there as a success metric, though.

 

[nickpc]

Now I play church gigs. The definition of success - somewhat different. No fights is probably still in there as a success metric, though.

I was going to say the same thing. My measure of success for a church service is we kept the congregation engaged and the band was not the focus. Lots of little things go into both factors, but if we check both of those off we feel we served well.

 

[groooooove]

totally depends on the situation

i've been in bands where if nobody got too drunk it was a success. i've been in bands where the goal was to get more emails on the email list. i've been in bands where the goal was the schedule another gig with a pleased owner at the end of the night. i've been in bands where the goal was to get a high quality live recording to use that to build our social media platform. and so on...

for me now, it's about having the audience enjoy it and get their moneys worth - as well as be willing to come back next time.