Being More Selective with Gigs

[Bluewine]

My band has been lucky this summer with high profile big stage 1 hour gigs. They are more lucrative and much easier to manage and overall more fun and exciting.

I'm a bar band guy to the core but after 14 years of 4 hour bar band gigs even I see that it's time to be more selective about the gigs we accept and play. Plus I'm 66 , I'm getting old.

I don't expect much discussion from this topic but share your thoughts. I'm sure we're not the first band faced with this.

 

Blue

[Steve Browning]

I play in a blues/funk band and we took the decision to avoid bars altogether. There are a couple we do but we play blues clubs in the UK. 

In mainland Europe we do play bars but that is such a different experience. 

I would be with you on this. A case of 'with age comes wisdom'.

[Len_derby]

I understand and generally agree Blue, but I think sometimes you have to do the bad gigs to get the good gigs. In other words, the band needs to be out there and seen regularly. It also keeps the band sharp. 

[skidder652003]

Dropped a few venues over the years, usually if they're really poorly attended (and I mean really quiet), horrible landlord, a bit rough, rubbish money, and especially if they have a bad load in/out. We now have about a dozen established venues we play regular gigs with, the excitement comes with finding a new venue to play in a new town or village.

[Bluewine]

There were bars we had to drop. The type of establishments that books bands and has a clientle that has absolutely no interest in any type of live music.

And remember we're faced with 4 hours here in the States not 2 hour pub gigs.

Blue

Edited July 16, 2019 by Bluewine

[peteb]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

There were bars we had to drop. The type of establishments that books bands and has a clientle that has absolutely no interest in any type of live music.

And remember we're faced with 4 hours here in the States not 2 hour pub gigs.

Blue

I've always tried to avoid gigs like that with bands where I've been a principal. The only time I've really done them is where I've been a dep or a sideman in someone else's band. 

[Lozz196]

We’re being a bit more selective now and not accepting everything we’re offered. For one we are all getting older and our gigs are countrywide, secondly now that we’re a bit more established we should leave some space for the up & coming bands to have a chance. We get the opportunity for the bigger gigs, it would be selfish to take all the smaller ones as well. 

[Maude]

4 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

We’re being a bit more selective now and not accepting everything we’re offered. For one we are all getting older and our gigs are countrywide, secondly now that we’re a bit more established we should leave some space for the up & coming bands to have a chance. We get the opportunity for the bigger gigs, it would be selfish to take all the smaller ones as well. 

That's very commendable Lozz but judging by another thread no one wants to gig anyway 😉

[odysseus]

Yeah, there aren't THAT many venues open to original music down here, but as none of us are relying on it for the money (good job, as their ain't much!) we can avoid any crappy ones. Gimme a little festival over a pub gig!

[Bluewine]

11 hours ago, Len_derby said:

I understand and generally agree Blue, but I think sometimes you have to do the bad gigs to get the good gigs. In other words, the band needs to be out there and seen regularly. It also keeps the band sharp. 

I am not sure having your band seen playing to 3 people in a bar has much value at all other than a paid rehearsal.

Blue

[Monkey Steve]

a mate of mine is in a semi-pro band.  their gig selection is almost purely financial - their minimum price for a gig is £X, which in most cases will pay for the van hire, hotels and any extras, but doesn't leave them with a lot of money left over for themselves.  Semi-pro is far more about their attitude than their income

£X tends to determine the type of venues that they will play, and they have a name so they'll typically get a big enough crowd in to justify the gig, although they do still get promoters who assume that the band will do all the promotion required by mentioning it on Facebook.  They will deviate from £X if they can see a longer term benefit to the band - expanding their audience by playing at a festival that isn't exactly their genre, or playing a prestige venue/festival

But not for them the four hour sets to three people in the Dog & Duck, so they are quite fortunate.

[Bluewine]

I'm actually really to pass the 4 hour bar gig torch to the new young bands.

Blue

Not the best sound or performance but it's what we're doing now.

 

[uk_lefty]

My band plays rock and soul covers. We are supposed to avoid cliches but quite a few have crept in! We recently did our first wedding. Our last two gigs have been a Thurs night in a pub with less than thirty people and a wedding paying multiples of that. We approach the gigs far differently. Thursday is our practice night so why pay for rehearsal space when we can get paid to rehearse and get live feedback? No pressure, playing the new songs that are at least eighty percent ready, but no faffing about with things like how many times a riff is played to transition from mid eight to verse, etc. just feeling our way through. It went ok, we gave a reasonable account of who we are but not great, I wish we'd done a bit better. The wedding was great fun. We were nervous, very strict on rules such as no drinking at all before and during, no "trying something" during the solos etc. And we went down a storm and have had incredible feedback. Those are two great examples of the breadth of what we will do and we do a lot in between including paid festivals, some very speedy charity festivals and free gigs, pub gigs but only in busy places that do a good job of live music. 

What will we not do? Play at tiny venues where the five of us would barely fit in the stage area never mind our kit. Play for less than X amount. Give a discount on the agreed fee for "exposure". Play in places renowned for trouble. Play in restaurants. Play in places where we have to chase and chase for our payment. Play in venues with bad acoustics such as a great big metal shed of a building. Take payment on the door. Long travel on a weeknight (most of us have day jobs). Won't play for people who are really sketchy on details, such as even the date(!!!!), how long we play for, etc.