Bluewine

Nice, I'm a chorus guy. You get a nice sustain and a fuller sound for the band. I never use phase. Daryl

It's easy to manage an hour show, easy to manage 2 hours too. Agreed 3 & 4 hour sets can be tough. The standard in my area use to be 4 hours for bar/ pub gigs. Now we're mainly booking 2 & 3 hour gigs. Daryl

Great gig tonight. You have to love 2 hour gigs. We had a good set list and the gig went really fast. We took one ten minute break. More or less background music but it was fun. Our stage monitors were great tonight. Not many great pics but it'll give you an idea of what the room looked like. Daryl

I'm pretty sure we have one of those "no atmosphere" gigs coming up in the not to distant future. Daryl

For a local blues/rock band, yes it is serious money for me. That kind of money normally only goes to the top agency cover bands. I'm assuming that scenario is the same everywhere. Daryl

Great Pic Great Story Great Bass section Daryl

Thanks Dave, I'm going to enjoy these premium gigs we have this month. They're also giving us exposure in Milwaukee WI. We spend a lot of the year gigging out in the sticks. I know a lot you guys know what that's like Things is, Dave as I look at our January bookings, we have a few bookings where I said to myself, " Why are we going back there, I thought we were done with that place". Daryl

I did asked about attire since this is pretty fancy. They said casual, no hobo clothes. Lol Daryl

Big corporate Christmas Party gig tomorrow night. We're not a Christmas Party band. However who can turn down 2k for a 6:00-8:00. I'm not trying to brag but I don't think I've ever played a 2 hour gig for that kind of money.And it'll be a long time before I see another one. Lol Daryl

Maple Road has been together and gigging since 2007. I've been with them since 2009. I'm the 2nd bass guitarist. For whatever reason, we don't rehearse. I wish we did. I understand this doesn't happen in the " real world" . However, it would be nice to walk away from one rehearsal with something. A new song done, nailed and ready to perform at your next gig. This requires that all band members know this new song before the rehearsal. Does that make any sense? Daryl

I like it. 👍 Daryl

Are you using a bass octave for Sledghammer ? Daryl

Nice pic Stub Mandrel. Daryl

I'm not sure what we'd get out of more of a social media presence. We have a web page and a Facebook page. I think they give us an indication of what to expect for attendance. I've seen some local bands that actually stream rehearsals and little live shows. It looks cool but would it bring more people to our shows ,will it bring us new business? Daryl

I had two close calls driving at night to gigs and I had to ask my bandmates for help. Agreed, even at 70 there's still some fun left for us. Let's get another 10 years out of this. Daryl

I never thought it would happen to me. I keep driving to daytime local runs. I'm 70 and my band is nice enough to pick me up and drive me to our night time gigs.

Sly & The Family Stone. A very energetic performance from August 9th, 1974. Ear buds if you want to hear the bass fills. Daryl

The tipping culture over here has gotten a bit aggressive post covid. Tipping jars at gigs are no longer for extra change anymore. Dave, as a matter of fact many tip jars are labeled with " Minimum Donation is $20.00." Now, so there is no misunderstanding, we don't post minimums or recommendations on our tip jar, that's strictly from the venue. Daryl

Dave, I completely understand the difference in the tipping cultures. You have to tip everybody for everything over here. I don't do bad for a weekend warrior. However it's not extra 'fun money" for me. All the gig money I stashed away over the summer will be used to pay my 2023 property taxes. After I pay the folks at City Hall that big " knot" in my wallet will be gone. Or maybe they'll be enough left over to take a pretty lady out for a meal. Lol Have a great weekend Dave. No gigs for me until 12/18. Daryl

Dave, That term " discussion " is coming up a lot . We don't have that I'm not sure why. To be fair I was ask which of our 2 dep drummers we should use for a gig. They went with my choice and I regret my choice. Back to management. I do think the decision to invest in sound and lighting was a good one. It gives us a competitive edge and it took us out of bars and pubs and moved us from a $100.00 a man band to $150.00. That's not including tips which are very lucrative in our circuit. I'm flexing a bit here. I'm not sure of the exact amount, however we collected over $700.00 in tips on Thanksgiving Eve. I hope the start up band is up and running soon. Daryl

Lol, Dave, we got paid , but I don't know how. They didn't make any money that night.

If were talking internal, I think the bands that don't have one member with any sense for business could be a problem. Daryl

No collective decisions with us. The BL and husband make the decisions. We really don't have professional management. The management we have is internal, the BLs husband. He does a lot of work. He does all the bookings, all the social media advertising, networking and pitching the band to new venues. He does all the logistics too, how to get to the venue, parking arrangements and shares all the dos and don'ts of the contract. We have our own sound and lights and he runs both.Also very particular about how things are set up. I bring my gear in but I won't bring it near the stage until I get the go ahead from him. We're paid by the BL before every show. I'm a lot older than these folks and to be honest my ideas and positions are probably very dated Daryl

I'm a big fan of extra on top of the fee. Lol I remember we played one night and there was a huge blizzard. As you can guess, attendance was weak. The owner blamed us and we never went back. The place closed, it's a daycare center now. Daryl

Many of us are weekend warriors, even so every band has some level of management. Do you have a manager, what does he/she do? If yes, is your management internal or external? Do you need management or do you think it's not necessary in your case. This is just a thread to talk about band management. What are your thoughts, anything to share? And I'm not talking about agents. Comments, positions? Daryl