Who's got a gig this New Years EVE?

Yep ... just getting ready to load up the car. We set up before five ... hang around ... have a great dinner ... hang around ... play until 1:00 am or the house is empty. I have a wicked cold, my throat is sore, and I'll have to do a lot of singing tonight. Wish me luck ... grin!

 

I do! I'm subbing.

 

Hi,

I've already started a thread about mine.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year celebration! Break a leg!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Fort Pub. Sold out. Gonna rock the house. Buffet dinner, champagne at midnight...

 

Hi,

I hope that none of you are playing *this* gig!



Here's a NYE party I played a few years ago.





Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

I have a gig at a Moose Lodge about an hour drive away. We play 9 - 1 and I should get home between 3:00 - 3:30 a.m. Should be a good crowd. Only $10 includes all you can eat buffet before the band and midnight buffet too. Buffets for the band too. It is supposed to be very cold tonight; but, at least, it is not snowing this year.

 

Gotta wear my fancy pants

 

Hi,

That looks fancy-schmancy. Must you don the jobbing toga (tux)?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Frozen theme party, wearing all white.

 

Not a gig exactly, but I'll be playing. A friend holds an informal jam/poetry slam/who knows what it is party at a local restaurant every New Year's eve, and I'll be slapping around the upright a bit there tonight. It's always fun, even though there are always some really bad players and some really bad poets in attendance.

 

Who is not playing NYE this year? This guy!!!!

 

I'm off tonight. Gigs Friday and Saturday. We're getting old, I guess. One BL is in Lauderdale with his family, another is up in Helen, GA with his family, and the third is holed-up with the grand-kids tonight. I spent the day cleaning closets. Happy New Year, everyone!

 

We did. It was the best worst gig we've had.

We're supposed to play this restaurant that has a band every NYE. 9pm-12:30am. Better than usual pay. Easy!

We show up at 8 to load in.
Tables are in the way with diners eating so we talk to management just to say we're here and they say just hang out until the diners are done eating. Then they'll move the tables for us.

9:30 rolls around and were finally able to load in. We're ready to go in 15 minutes and start playing at 9:45.

By then most of the dinner crowd was gone and they have no bar. A few we're hanging out listening and digging it but by 11pm everybody was gone.
A server comes and hands us out pay between songs and says just of a few more and call it a night! So we play 2 more and finish up at 11:10pm.
We load out and check to pay...it's what we agreed on!

So we play for 1 hour on NYE, get full pay, and I'm home before the ball even dropped! Win win!!!

 

I had, it was a theathrical play I wrote the music for. One actress on stage, and three musicians: clarinet, accordeon, and myself on db (and acoustic guitar on intro and ending, due to the fact that we had to move in the audience...). Not far from home, good pay, some royalties, so I can tell I'm satisfied.
One funny thing: in a rehearsal three or four days before, the actress/director decided that one of the musicians had to dance a sort of popular dance with her. The clarinet player was a girl, no way; the accordeon player would have had troubles in removing quickly the straps that keep his instruments; so she decided that I had to be the one. I NEVER danced that kind of things before, i told her I couldn't do anything that moving on time. Anyway, after the play, some old folks in the audience told me they liked it. I'll never do such things on stage anymore.

Happy New Year everybody, full of joy, peace, love and music!

 

Had my first NYE gig in about 6 years last night. Venues here in Houston have cut back how much they are willing to pay on NYE and I have responded with a big NO to dealing with NYE crowds for chump change.


Did a gig at a very nice resturant for nice money and was WELL FED!



Here's the menu: http://holleyshouston.com/dinner-menu



I had the Blackened Grouper with Carolina Gold Rice, Lady Creamer Peas, Kimchi Greens, and Ham Hock Pot Liquor. Planning on going back soon!

 

(hum to jingle bells!)
Well, the weather in Texas was frightful, most stayed by the fire after nightfall LOL.

North Central Texas to be exact.. Dallas/Ft.Worth area, tho' we were up near to the Oklahoma border in Denison TX at Cutter's Dance Hall.
There was a freeze warning, so bridges/overpasses were being pre-treated for the expected 1-2 am freezing rain!!
Seeing as how it was 85.3 miles door-to-door... ha!
And that was on the way TO the gig for a 4pm load in !!! Sound check had to be completed (and food consumed) by 8pm.
No house PA so we took our own, explaining the long setup/lead time.. we were at dinner by 6:30pm

Our NYE gig attendance was not up to the level expected, but it turns out most folks in the area who actually went out were WITH us.. about 400 showed.. which was about HALF the expected numbers.. still.. a good time was had by all and the party was fun!

Giving the not-so-great crowd, the owner called around other venues (the venue owners talk to each other around here.. I assume the rest of country does the same) and turns out that attendance was poor all round. Some venues even closed before midnight!!
And.. we were told that Casey Donahew's show at Southern Junction (we play there Fri/Sat night) had lower-than-expected attendance.. so... all in all... it was GOODNESS for us!!

We got done playing about 1:45am, loaded out and got to heading home in light drizzle (no freeze thankfully). Got home around 4:10am.

FWIW - I think door was $18, and pay was double the regular rate + 20% !

ALl pics taken with my phone camera (S3).. so not great..
but #1 Setup time with 3 of the guys on stage..


#2.. venue take from back of room toward stage...


#3 - folks up and dancing !!

 

Our New Year's gig went well at the Moose Lodge. About 150 + people showed up, which was a full house. Good food. People danced from the first song to the last song. We played 8:45 - 12:45. Club officers want to book us again. Lots of compliments about the band. Guitar player fell off his seat into the Christmas tree in the middle of a set. No, he was not drinking; he has balance problems and has to sit to play. He is okay. We got paid in cash before we started. Overall, a good gig.

 

We had a fantastic night. Sold out with a waiting list. The buffet was AMAZING!

Once they finished eating, the dance floor was packed all night. We played til about 1, plus the encore. The owner said he'd never seen that many people on the dance floor.

 

Here's a shot from the crowd of the OUTDOOR gig we played... Temps hovered in the low 20's. There were some brave people who stuck it out, and we probably had 100 people out there between 11:30 and midnight, but by 12:02 there were our four WAG's standing around a heater and everyone else was gone...

Thankfully, the organizers had redi-heaters set up on the stage to keep us thawed. I cut two fingers out of an old pair of knit gloves and tried to keep my sweat from freezing to the strings. That was a cold, cold show. Three hours of cold. And they did a shoe drop at midnight...