That's the cool thing about a great set of IEMs. You can feel like you are on a big festival stage and can be quiet out front.
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Why Play Bad Venues?
- Thread starter GK Growl
- Start date
- Mar 19, 2013
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- If only I were that good....
Regardless of my view of a gig, there are people that would love nothing more in their life to get up and do what we do.
I try to never lose sight of this fact.
I try to never lose sight of this fact.
I just don’t get getting all wound up over cigarette smoke. Doesn’t everyone say the bars were packed in the good old days? Yeah well take out cigarettes, throw in a few sobriety checkpoints and...poof! No more bar business. I don’t smoke but I’ll put up with it if it means gigging and getting the kind of pay live bands could demand in the 80’s.
Are there still bars that allow smoking? I thought I lived in the most old school part of the country, and both Indiana and Kentucky outlaw smoking in bars, and I've not found a bar that messes with that law .
I guess it depends on locale. In my area some clubs allow it depending on whether they're in city limits or not.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
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Just out of curiosity where in the USA do they still allow smoking indoors? That just seems absolutely ludicrous to me. I haven't been in a smokey bar in decades.
I wouldnt bring my best gear to a gig like that. My fender american p and super bassman will never be put in a position like that. Just my two cents.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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I hate gigs like that …
I hate breathing smoke and I hate being around drunks, and it sucks when you can't turn up enough to get a feel for the music, then on top of that most bars are very filthy and scuzzy … and then some stupid drunk wants to talk to you between sets or some over the hill floosy wants to go home with somebody in the band and nobody in the band is taking her up on it … and the final insult is the money sucks ...
I thought most states had laws where people had to smoke outside
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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Man, that's too bad. I don't play bad gigs any more. If I know ahead of time that I'll dread playing the gig, I just turn it down. I don't need the money that bad...
Mr.Ace
Bass players rule!
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Hopefully y’all don’t book there after this one. Our singer has asthma, and we don’t book at the smoke filled places at all. Also, the gear just smells ruined after those gigs.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
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- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
That bad part about gigging in the 70s was all of the cigarette smoke in the venues. The bad part about gigging now is the pay is the same as in the 70s.
If you don't need the money, you should talk to the band about passing on this place in the future. No need to turn an enjoyable hobby into a burden.
- Oct 18, 2012
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I won't play smoking venues, my health is more important. I quit a band that I founded because everyone else insisted on playing a casino that allows smoking. I went there to see a band once, and only stayed for one set. The smell of smoke was disgusting. I could smell the smoke on my clothes as soon as I walked outside. When I got home, I immediately put my clothes in the washing machine and took a shower. The next morning, my wife decided to take my car to the store. She came back in the house within 30 seconds and asked who was smoking in my car. I can't stand smoking at all. I have never even tried it. I realize that some people might feel that I'm overreacting but smoking is also what killed my mother at only 70 years old.
I don't think you're overreacting at all. Smoking led to the early deaths of my grandpa (61) and my dad (50), and contributed to my grandmother's death at 71, although she had such a wide host of health issues from decades of alcoholism I couldn't really argue smoking was a significant contributing factor.
My band, as I have said in other posts, is basically writing our own rules for the most part. We don't play smoking venues and will not unless it offers significant financial compensation or perhaps some benefit to the band that could not be had otherwise.
regarding the OP, back in my cover band days, we had a bar that basically met your exact description. Played there probably four or five times. Between the overall crap performing conditions and the general bad attitude of the owner about paying us, we did stop playing there. By then we were regulars at another local venue and no longer needed to play there to get traction in the local scene
Although smoking in bars/pubs is banned here in UK i play a small pub where they still smoke, they are a good crowd but everything stinks of smoke afterwards, horrible, but it's a gig, we would drop it if we get an alternative regular booking.
This is how bored I am at work, right now... I took your pic, placing it at the bottom of the window on my monitor... I then scrolled the mouse, up and down, making her do her best Kilroy impersonation, on my screen... now you see her, now you don't...
... totally bored.
It went exactly as my OP said it would. Smoky, lots of really drunk (falling down, knocking stuff over, fighting, being sexually inappropriate), and a constant struggle all night with volume. That got on my nerves more than anything. Drummer behind a plexi shield all night, barely hitting and us playing to match his volume with no instruments through the PA, just amps carrying the room and vocals and we were told to turn down 3 times. this place is such a contradiction. with people behaving like that you would think that they would have wanted a little more volume. Let's put it this way, while we were playing I could actually hear the acoustic sound of the strings on my bass like playing a bass in the room by yourself which is way to quiet for a rock band IMHO. For those that keep asking I said that I was in South Carolina (yes, not proud to live here at all for other reasons, not just smoking in bars).
