Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Bookings are coming in!


Recommended Posts

Our band's next scheduled show was in mid-July at a good sized venue with indoor and outside places for people. Band plays indoors. We were told that the club would "honor our gig" though lots of stipulations that took the fun out of it. We opted to pass on the gig, which feels right at the moment.
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 270
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I'll let you know in November when I have my next gig that was rescheduled from May.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any updates on how people"s gigs are going these days?

 

We have a duo gig outside on next Friday. We've played there once already.

They do it very well, a large outdoor patio area, just a few tables. All staff wearing masks and gloves. We can easily stand 6+ feet apart and put the tip jar at a safe distance in front of us.

A wine bar with great food, not a cheap dive at all. So the clientele is respectful and safe.

 

2 sets from 7-9. Near the water, an ocean breeze is usually wafting through. $75 each plus tips and comps on food and drink. The meals are pretty awesome.

A fun, relaxed and easy gig.

 

Some other local bands cancelled and we offered to pick up all of their gigs. Since we don't really have anything else this summer it's good to have something!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still nothing live for me. Seen some friends playing outdoors, small backyard parties and such but I haven't gotten any calls like that. I would be wearing a mask for sure if I did any of that.

 

Studio-wise, done a few sessions. One project, I showed up earlier on in the pandemic as the only person with a mask on and got a few funny looks and jokes and what not. Yeah, yeah, then we do another session three weeks later and everyone is masked up except the rich boomer paying for the thing. I don't mean to say a-fuckin-atodaso but a-fuckin-atodaso.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Passed on July 4 freebie gig - outdoors, big stage. But with the surge here, band members were relieved to back out. And today's backyard jam was cancelled. Turns out the drummer has a concussion. She says it's very painful to play. So we would've probably cancelled on the July 4 gig anyway.
These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our state of Victoria is now an Australian social pariah or more so "unclean" to the rest of the country.

 

We have just gone big time into a covid reoccurrence and lockdowns far worse than the first time. Originally it looked like Victoria was coping the best. Now we are on our own.

 

Im lucky in my area which is on a holiday peninsula to be not in relockdown but the rest of Melbourne is pretty much stuffed.

 

I went back to practise a few weeks ago and although ok i was very apprehensive being my lungs are 33% capacity.

 

That next week melbourne went viral again so i declined practise then. This week the guitarist could not attend so gave me an excuse to decline again but i am feeling a push to be there which im not happy with. Im doing my best to avoid practise presently. They know how i feel but i feel they are over the lockdowns. Ironically they are older then me so also high risk. I hope that fact holds them off practise.

 

Melbourne is literally annexed from the rest of the country with snide remarks about us from interstate and no one allowed from Melbourne to go interstate.

 

That being said i see no foreseeable gigs here especially as we are in middle of winter and this holiday peninsular has very few gigs in winter anyway.

 

I feel the future is very bleak for me gigging wise. Especially as i also am not sure if after this big break my damaged health will not be able to tolerate carrying gear anymore. It was very very difficult then.

 

Ive always figured this will be my last band due to my health but never expected a virus to actually hasten my end to gigging.

 

Ive thought about buying a Compact 2x because its lighter than my privia but im scared to spend money on an item ill get no gigging out of.

 

I thought gigs nearer xmas but now i dont think even that. Melbourne surely will be stuffed for quite a while for gigs...surely?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looked like we were just about to start getting gigs again, then Florida took off with new Covid cases. They banned by the drink alcohol consumed on the premises.

 

The July 4 gig canceled immediately

 

The July 3 gig stayed open, because they made the majority of their money in food sales

 

But, I had to cancel all gigs for a while. My heart surgeon told me that since I was extreme high risk due to my heart condition, and the heart surgery I had to replace a diseased aortic heart valve, I needed to basically quarantine myself from all gigs until the herd immunity kicked in, and the virus was essentially defeated.

 

So, time to set things up again in my office and get some recording done.

 

I have an idea to do some Christian music with a Blues groove.

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mr nightime you definately have to be careful. Very careful

 

Ah the other Melbourne. Hee hee.

 

Its school holidays down here presently in my Melbourne and my wife just was told minutes ago that quarantine suburb people have descended upon our local supermarkets like locusts (today is saturday) and are buying us out of products as their local supermarkets have started limiting food purchases. Also their suburbs arent in total lockdown till after the holidays where i believe theyll be limited in leaving the suburb (dont get why government held off after giving stern warnings of imminent lockdowns.

 

But just now she saw they are locking down public housing towers in those infected areas as we speak as they have spread the "black lung" like wildfire. But this after allowing school holiday travel to creep like the blob around the state the whole last week.

 

So all these visitors here this week will have put at risk our community so that has made me resilute in not going to practise.

 

Fortunately we dont shop in supermarkets anymore and get it delivered but i do have to frequent the Post Office often each week which is part of a supermarket mall. I try to get there at opening after the place has been dormant all night and before too many people seep into the building.

 

Ahh finally living my favoured appococlypse movies in realtime..life is good. Hee hee.

 

We seek "the murphy"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have just gone big time into a covid reoccurrence and lockdowns far worse than the first time. Originally it looked like Victoria was coping the best. Now we are on our own.

 

Very tough times ahead for our Victorian friends but hopefully you"ll get on top of this second wave soon.

 

Stay safe and healthy brother.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gigs are pretty much the last thing on my mind here in FL. We may be looking at another NYC situation, though with some advances in treatment perhaps not with as much loss of life. 15% positive and 11,000 positive cases (out of 80,000) yesterday is not exactly confidence-boosting. Really worried about my brother who works in ICU. I don't see any possibility for a gig for many months, likely talking 2021 if not longer. By that time I'd guess many of our places would have closed at worst, gone to duos to save money or just said "can't afford music." But I don't worry about that far out, just trying to stay safe. No fricking clue what I do with my youngest kid about to start high school. I really don't want to keep him home any more(this hasn't been a good summer), but sending him to high school there's a good chance of "we'll all get this in our house" even if it's not that risky for him.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm assuming there will be a cultural shift following the pandemic. The majority of old musicians (like me) will decide to retire from gigging and old bar patrons (like me) will not revive their habit of going out on Saturday nights.

That will leave the gigs to DJs or something else I'm too old to know about.

Sure there will be pockets of regional hold outs, but I think this has decimated the already decimated industry.

What must it have been like when big band orchestras no longer could get gigs? The kids started rock n roll.

Were out, they are in. Unless you are going to be the hip cool old guy. We've all seen those.

I want to be wrong.

FunMachine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DJs, or partial bands (maybe just one person) running a ton of tracks and sounding like 20 people. That was already very accepted in my area--people don't care if the music is live or not-- I think this will accelerate it. Some bar owners would not hire our guitarist for his solo gigs since he doesn't run tracks, and many bands are basically lip-syncing and (at best) using their instruments as backups in case the tracks fail.

 

At least the rock 'n roll kids were actually playing the music though I'm sure the big band guys didn't really see it as "music" :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Mrs. works healthcare for the elderly, so after playing a couple of local empty arena, live FB gigs (for free), I"ve bowed out from the busy band. They had another freebie, outside last night...it probably would have been okay with the mandated closed dance floor and there was an actual, three foot high stage. However looking at the photos, only saw about four masks in the 'crowd' of thirty-some. It is best I didn"t go.

 

My personal 'stay at home' orders prevented a 4th gig...in the basement of a military-town VFW, in a hot-spot county. They are going ahead with the show with a previous key-guy filling in. He"s way better than me anyhoo and really needs the gig because his new popular, super talented band has had everything cancel on them.

 

They have another one next week...that is still on for now, but the county is supposed to make an announcement on Tuesday whether bars can stay open.

 

My other band has a booking on the 25th at a small local brewery. Ugh! I want to go sooooooo bad, but for the well being of my wife and her residents, I"ll probably decline. Perhaps the Tuesday announcement will make that call for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few random observations after doing a month of gigs that I think apply to all - whether you're in a band, a DJ, or just out for the night.

 

On top of the obvious things to look for - such as large club size, physical distancing of tables, and entertainment separation for you - does the club have proper security for floor monitoring? This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to people observing distancing and masking rules. It just has to be there, or things aren't even remotely safe.

 

Kind of a surprise - younger people seem to be "getting it" when it comes to masking up better than their older counterparts. Most wouldn't be caught dead in a plain old generic mask, and have stylish distinctive facial coverings for going out. Masks are now required indoors in Oregon, but last night was still a big night - a triple combination of 4th of July Eve (always one of the biggest nights of the summer season), a Friday, and this year a federal holiday... all rolled into one. There was a party going on, dancing was really strong, and the whole room kinda looked like a Halloween in July.

 

Another surprise - business has been very strong post-quarantine everywhere. Clubs that I thought would stick to singles and duos are moving straight into bands. Covid and it's restrictions don't seem to matter much to club goers - admittedly a group that you would not call risk averse anyway. They just want to go out.

 

Last night we were so busy that I'm not sure I want to do any more - completely different than my usual thinking. So you guys who get calls for gigs and think it won't be busy... think again. But (pure speculation here) I think we're going to get shut down again fairly soon anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jazz clubs here are reopening this week or next â mostly piano trios, a couple of singers, no horns. I want to support them to keep them afloat but they are way too small to effectively physically distance. Got an offer to do piano/guitar/vocal trio at one of these clubs in early August; I agreed with the caveat that if cases start to spike again in the next week or two then I'm out...

 

Got a call to restart my semi-regular restaurant piano/vocal gig in a couple of weeks. Thankfully the restaurant is very long so if they're limiting capacity then we'll be okay. I am not the singer so I can wear a mask while I play.

 

I thought I'd be chomping at the bit to play again, but I'm really in no hurry to rush into these situations. I am assuming my touring gigs are done for a long time... the last place I want to be is in a tin can with recycled air for hours on end.

My Site

Nord Electro 5D, Novation Launchkey 61, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3, lots of plugins, fingers, pencil, paper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played three gigs in the past two days â two solo, and one duo with a singer. Solo shows were outdoors, distanced and lovely. Duo show was an indoor party with a small crowd that, much to my dismay, were all unmasked. The crowd-to-room-size ratio, the fact that they were all distanced from me if not each other, and the fact that I was right under a ceiling fan made it less worrisome than it might have been. But it made me realize that my eagerness to do a gig for real people had caused me to let me guard down and not vet the circumstances the way I should have. That won't happen again.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This could be its own thread, but wanted to start here as the most recent and relevant C19 thread.

 

My band is playing a wedding in October. We are not a wedding band, but the couple are long time fans of ours and hired us a year ago for their special day.

 

It"s supposed to be outdoors, but we don"t know many details yet. We were contacted by a 'wedding planner' asking us for our 'C19 requirements' and wanted to see if anyone has some best practices here. We think outdoors with a clear safe indoor contingency plus big stage and lots of room for distancing from crowd etc.

 

It"s uncharted territory for us, though I bet some of you have some pro tips to share!?

 

Thanks,

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eric, you're thinking along the right lines. We usually play outdoors, and there's a tape barrier separating the stage from the audience -- 6 ft. The message is clear, don't approach the band please. Tip jar is on the far side of the barrier. If we want to go mingle with the crowd during a break, we put on masks for the duration. Indoors is a bit tougher though. We're OK with larger venues, plenty of separation from the audience and industrial-strength ventilation.

 

Everyone has to figure out what they're comfortable with, this sort of thing works for us.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fans behind you to keep fresh air blowing across the stage and keeping crowd air away.

 

Clipboards and paper scattered about to write down any correspondence to the band such as requests, etc. I've felt the most vulnerable when people approach me close in a loud voice - like when it's noisy in the room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Latest research is more and more leaning to "it's airborne for relatively long periods", so any indoor space would need to be very well ventilated for me to go in there. Even the WHO is starting to grudgingly admit it. Outdoor too for that matter though that would be natural. Dose matters so time and distance are important.

 

I would think fans that cause disruptive air patterns would be a good thing, all depends on how much virus is floating around I guess, nobody knows exactly how much tends to infect someone (other than, more virus at once means more serious cases.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not a doctor or scientist, but I don't think the 6 foot distance is adequate when singing is involved.

And singers need to do vigorous inhaling to support the air needed to do the singing, so they are going to pull in more from whatever is around them.

 

For some perspective:

Our covers band might not be the norm, but we have 7 members, 6 of whom sing at various times.

Our biggest challenge right now is I don't know when it will be safe to do an indoor rehearsal.

One band member works in a grocery store, and on top of that, is married to someone who is very germaphobic.

We don't REALLY know where all 7 of us have been lately.

Our most recent rehearsal location was in the basement of one of the band members, and that family is unwilling to continue that with the present conditions.

It's hard enough to get the 7 of us to agree on what new songs to cover, never mind what would make rehearsal conditions safe.

 

If we had a smaller band with fewer singers it might be easier to manage the rehearsal problem.

 

Re doing an outdoor gig:

I suggest you do more than mark a line with tape.

I mean, that tape line can't really be there for me, right?

In any group of people, there are a few who are clueless - some are going to find a way to walk right up to the stage - Maybe to yell about how great your band is, or to request a song.

If they are wearing a mask, 50% odds they will move it so they can request "Brown Eyed Girl".

I would move your FOH speakers right up to where you put that tape line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The UK ban on live music ends tomorrow. After then, outdoor gigs will be permitted. I have one on Saturday with my jazz trio. I am not feeling worried: outdoors, in the morning, in a venue with loads of space.......should be fine. I am looking forward to it hugely. :) What worries me more is whether I will be able to see my charts on my computer if it is sunny.....

 

I am not in any rush for indoor venues to open though. That is an entirely different can of worms.....

"Turn your fingers into a dust rag and keep them keys clean!" ;) Bluzeyone
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in Vero Beach, FL which isn't exactly a hot spot. Our governor and local officials have been relatively progressive about re-openings. Life here is like 95% of normal.

 

The good news? We're getting hammered with requests to play outdoor venues. Even traditional indoor venues have realized they have to figure out how to do outside gigs.

 

No joke, in the last week we've gotten five different booking requests from venue owners. We're actually debating what gigs to take, and which ones to pass on. Joy.

 

The band is happy, as am I. Ain't no band drama when you see a flood of gigs after a drought.

 

Social distancing? If you're fearful, please stay home. Otherwise we plan to rock it for the folks.

 

 

fearful ?

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-reports-over-15-000-151825722.html

 

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases a day

behind the United States, Brazil and India.

 

Its daily increases have already surpassed the highest daily tally reported by any

European country during the height of the pandemic there. Florida has also broken

New York State's record of 12,847 new cases on April 10 when it was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had my first gig of the year last night! The last time I went this long without a gig was in the 70's when I was teenager.

 

We played Rock and electric blues at an outdoor restaurant/bar in Freeport, which is in Nassau County on Long Island, NY. Lots of testing going on in these parts with the positivity rate staying around 1% for a while now. We entered Phase 4 on Wednesday.

 

It was a great setting as the management and staff were on top of the health rules mandated by the governor. I wore a mask when I was near people. The band had enough space to setup without being very close to each other. It was great to play with a group again. It rained hard for about 20 minutes but the stage was covered and the patrons were under tents so it was fine. All in all a very good experience!

1225.thumb.jpg.091354659e358734f56bf5f7214c6354.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently told the 2 bands I play in that I won"t be playing again until there is a vaccine and everyone is inoculated.

 

My wife is a physician and is in contact with Covid patients every week so it would be irresponsible for me to risk the lives of others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Friday, July 10th the duo played an outdoor gig. It was well distanced, tables were removed to change to limited seating.

 

The latest edict regarding allowed and mandated behavior in WA state has eliminated public live music events for now.

 

The Liquor Board dropped by and issued a warning since we were out of compliance. It's the resposibility of the venue, they did not speak to us.

 

We played the gig, a friend declared it to be "The last live music in Washington." For now. I understand it and agree with it, we had our numbers well down and were getting control over the situation. So regulations eased and the cases/deaths started ramping up again. Canada closed their border to non-essential traffic for good reason. Idaho spiked up over 200% higher on a 7 day basis, right next door. Oregon shot way up too.

Our borders are not secure and we have lots of beach resort properties that attract visitors.

 

They are having a rough time in California as well. Just a day of driving I-5 to get up here. When it's 100+ down there and mild up here, people will come.

 

So I am OK with it. Now is not a good time to be a gigging musician but the best of times were never spectacular. One of several income streams.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Florida in general is raring to go as some grand experiment on how to thumb a virus in the eye (or something).

 

Hardly anyone wears masks. Stores are crowded. Basketball courts I pass are full of pickup games. Bars apparently are crowded. Schools are re-opening no matter what, apparently. We just had 15,000 new cases in one day and our % positive is between 11 and 16 percent--but I've seen some articles on how they are fudging that number, it's higher if you toss out some of the bogus crap the state is including.

 

I know a number of teachers that are likely quitting rather than go back to work and I can't blame them. This is insane. I need out of this messed-up state but I've been saying that for a while. Growing heat and stronger hurricanes would be enough on their own. I'll miss my band and local fishing but at this rate the band won't be playing again for a long, long time.

 

I fear for my brother, who works in ICU. I wouldn't care if all these YOLO people only put themselves in danger, but I guess they don't realize or care that their behavior puts everyone at risk in a big chain of contact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...