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Why Some Musicians Don't Gig
- Thread starter bluewine
- Start date
The Owl said:
I think the comment about the market in some areas for originals bands is so small it's really not worth it. Especially for young guys who want a lot of gigging experience.
The blues band I have joined has more bookings in 1 weekend than the last originals band had in 6 months.
And the originals band was a much better band, overall.
blue
4001 said:
Yeah,I am also a member of the "Gig as Much as Possible " club.
Within reason, I am totally against pay to play or playing free of charge when someone else (bar/club owner or benefit organizer) is generating revenue.
My last band broke up because the BL was hell bent on playing a benefit which was a festival.
It was going to be a 2 hour comute one way and a 11:00AM time slot. The organizers were not providing food or drink and made everything an inconvenience for the band.
We sent the BL an email 2 weeks prior to the show saying we were not going to do it. He had booked the show without asking any of the band members if they wanted to do it.
Poor communication can break up a band quick. If I were single with no strings attached, I would gig every chance I could get if they were decent players and had their act together.
I think this is great and worthwhile thread, nice topic! 
I'm 32 now. I gigged my butt off from the age of 19 until the age of 27, mostly with the same band. Once that group finally ran it's course, I tried to get back into another band and get back out there. I realized quickly that I had just lost the drive to start all over. The lugging of gear, the hustling and promotion, and the letdown of an empty room just got less and less fun. This was exasperated by the fact that I didn't believe in the music in the same way that I did with the band I was in for most of my 20's.
As it was said before, I miss the IDEA of gigging. My fondest memories are of the tours and shows we played. At this point though, I feel like I would just be trying to relive the glory shows of yesterday. Luckily, there are amazing options for musicians to create killer sounding music in the comfort of our own homes. That's what keeps me going, and I find that I have more day to day excitement about playing my bass now than I did when I was in my early 20's.
I'm 32 now. I gigged my butt off from the age of 19 until the age of 27, mostly with the same band. Once that group finally ran it's course, I tried to get back into another band and get back out there. I realized quickly that I had just lost the drive to start all over. The lugging of gear, the hustling and promotion, and the letdown of an empty room just got less and less fun. This was exasperated by the fact that I didn't believe in the music in the same way that I did with the band I was in for most of my 20's.
As it was said before, I miss the IDEA of gigging. My fondest memories are of the tours and shows we played. At this point though, I feel like I would just be trying to relive the glory shows of yesterday. Luckily, there are amazing options for musicians to create killer sounding music in the comfort of our own homes. That's what keeps me going, and I find that I have more day to day excitement about playing my bass now than I did when I was in my early 20's.
I think this is great and worthwhile thread, nice topic!
I'm 32 now. I gigged my butt off from the age of 19 until the age of 27, mostly with the same band. Once that group finally ran it's course, I tried to get back into another band and get back out there. I realized quickly that I had just lost the drive to start all over. The lugging of gear, the hustling and promotion, and the letdown of an empty room just got less and less fun. This was exasperated by the fact that I didn't believe in the music in the same way that I did with the band I was in for most of my 20's.
As it was said before, I miss the IDEA of gigging. My fondest memories are of the tours and shows we played. At this point though, I feel like I would just be trying to relive the glory shows of yesterday. Luckily, there are amazing options for musicians to create killer sounding music in the comfort of our own homes. That's what keeps me going, and I find that I have more day to day excitement about playing my bass now than I did when I was in my early 20's.
With today's home studios and downloading music gigging for many is a thing of the past. For someone who enjoys this and writes thier own music I can understand it.
Some people enjoy composition and recording, but not live performance. Some are the opposite. Not that big a deal.
true! but its cool to hear different points of view and comparing.
im actually into both.. my favourite thing to do is improv jam. i played in a gigging originals band from late 2006 to 2008. was awwesome times, but unfortunately musical differences cudnt be ignored, and broke up. havent found another one yet tho, that has gigged or toured. i do miss it. but the leader of that band is off doing well with his new band, and im so stoked for him.
so in my "off time" i have just been collecting more gear, jamming with different people. and recording a little. did a soundtrack for a short film for a box of beers haha
edit: im 23, so i do have time to find something.
I'm actually way more into live performance, myself, but I know others are more into the recording and composing side of it.
Sartori said:
Yeah, I have a few buddies that prefer home recording to live shows.
Some Guys don't want any part of the bar/ club scene. The things that concern them don't bother me at all.
Being in a live performing band is not easy.
It's not for everyone.
Very true. At least my last band experience was a good one in creative terms (it was an improv band). The only reason I stopped it was pure economics, it cost more to gig than we made. Hardly worth it for all that work. At least I can look back at that final band experience with no regrets, on the creative side, i really did enjoy it.
I used to enjoy jamming from the time I could hold my own in early '70's; always wishing to find the right players and form the right band and become rock stars. I even went jazz for a while, although I do not consider myself to be a jazz musician. We played covers and originals;had gigs lined up..all fell through, so I quit. We were a decade ahead of our time, here. Whover heard of a jazzer playing a Rick with a pick?? LOL.. I had no concept of Jaco..yet.
Around '76, I joined exactly what I wanted; an all originals Prog Rock band, which turned into a nearly all covers band. When that failed, I went into jamming again.
In late '79, on a dare, I jammed onstage with a country band that played for money @ 2-3 times a week. Since I wasn't serious at all with the gig , I summoned my inner Sklar-Entwistle that night. They fired their bass player on the spot, as they had never heard anyone play bass like that...LOL.. I used my Rick-with-a pick through AC 370 and Sunn folded horn cab...Made good money next weekend and every weekend, holiday partys and special ocassions thereafter until mid 1980's. I quickly leared that I really wanted to be a paid musician, not necessarily a rock star.
Even that band started getting stars in it's eyes; recording and backing up a few "Stars". When that band finally fizzled; I got married and got out of the bizz.
I can't buy a gig now. I refuse to do freebies and due to fuel prices, my truck is now a yard debris hauler. I am now not interested [spelled too old] to attend jams and return home in the wee hours and wake up @ 6AM and go to work next day. Plenty of tip jar bands in Atlanta.. I won't do that either . I don't pay my plumber or mechanic in tips and with the $$$$ I have invested in basses and amps , tools of my trade, I don't expect to be paid from tips .
Perhaps when we move to north side of Atlanta in a few years,although I will be even older, there will be more venues to play.
I love music and I love playing bass. If I want to play for fun, I plug either a radio or CD player into my Line 6 pod or Pandora and I can play with Bach, Beatles, Kansas, Wishbone Ash, Allmans or whomever all in the silent privacy of my music room.
To each their own, but this is my stance.
Around '76, I joined exactly what I wanted; an all originals Prog Rock band, which turned into a nearly all covers band. When that failed, I went into jamming again.
In late '79, on a dare, I jammed onstage with a country band that played for money @ 2-3 times a week. Since I wasn't serious at all with the gig , I summoned my inner Sklar-Entwistle that night. They fired their bass player on the spot, as they had never heard anyone play bass like that...LOL.. I used my Rick-with-a pick through AC 370 and Sunn folded horn cab...Made good money next weekend and every weekend, holiday partys and special ocassions thereafter until mid 1980's. I quickly leared that I really wanted to be a paid musician, not necessarily a rock star.
Even that band started getting stars in it's eyes; recording and backing up a few "Stars". When that band finally fizzled; I got married and got out of the bizz.
I can't buy a gig now. I refuse to do freebies and due to fuel prices, my truck is now a yard debris hauler. I am now not interested [spelled too old] to attend jams and return home in the wee hours and wake up @ 6AM and go to work next day. Plenty of tip jar bands in Atlanta.. I won't do that either . I don't pay my plumber or mechanic in tips and with the $$$$ I have invested in basses and amps , tools of my trade, I don't expect to be paid from tips .
Perhaps when we move to north side of Atlanta in a few years,although I will be even older, there will be more venues to play.
I love music and I love playing bass. If I want to play for fun, I plug either a radio or CD player into my Line 6 pod or Pandora and I can play with Bach, Beatles, Kansas, Wishbone Ash, Allmans or whomever all in the silent privacy of my music room.
To each their own, but this is my stance.
Yeah... I'm in a couple originals metal bands. Pay to play is pretty much how it is. It sucks.
Indeed not. I guess for some people, the exhilaration of playing on a stage is not enough to justify the schlepping stuff around, the hustling to get the band gigs, all the pain in the ass stuff, etc.
For me it usually justifies it. Even one recent bar gig where I somehow strained my back before even leaving the house. It was still worthwhile to play the gig.
Sartori said:
I am with you.
I remember playing a real dive bar last year and some biker dude was going to kick my behind for no reason. It was scary, but I was to excited about playing the gig for it to bother me.
I'm 58, so a time will come when the whole rock bar/club scene will not be agreeable .
That hasn't happened yet, so I will be out there on the front lines schelping gear and driving home at 2:00AM until that little voice in my head tells me:
"blue, it's time to give it up."
BTW, I started giving when I was in the 6th grade ( YMCA, school and church sponsored dances)
You know, I really do think I have a duty as a musician to share my craft. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do that. At my core i'm a very introverted person, so it's taken me a lot of work to try and come out of my shell, which is still a work in progress. Now, however, I really do like gigging and playing out, but it is a mixed bag; sometimes it is really fulfilling, other times it's draining. I don't want to perform unless i'm into what i'm doing. Just playing out for the sake of it is not enough for me, I have to have my heart in it, whether it's my music or someone else's.
I get a lot out of practicing and playing at home, writing songs, gaining skills and also just jamming. Being in between bands now is fairly depressing, but I do have some fill-in gigs coming up in the next few weeks. Playing out and having to learn material for sub gigs is very good motivation for me.
Meanwhile my winter will probably be spent doing more recording and composition, unless something unlikely happens. I hope to produce some material that I will be proud to share with people. This is a strange process for me, because my mind knows that not all that long ago the only music was live music. At times I feel that some of that real magic is lost in our technological era. Thankfully, I think that live music will never really die.
I get a lot out of practicing and playing at home, writing songs, gaining skills and also just jamming. Being in between bands now is fairly depressing, but I do have some fill-in gigs coming up in the next few weeks. Playing out and having to learn material for sub gigs is very good motivation for me.
Meanwhile my winter will probably be spent doing more recording and composition, unless something unlikely happens. I hope to produce some material that I will be proud to share with people. This is a strange process for me, because my mind knows that not all that long ago the only music was live music. At times I feel that some of that real magic is lost in our technological era. Thankfully, I think that live music will never really die.
I work nights. There's not too much of a demand for a bass player who can only practice or play in the morning! At least in my area anyways.
I mainly just play by myself. Plus the occasional garage band with some friends. But since I'm not really in a band, I don't have to worry about paying a lot for a good amp, just something for a small room.
