#1645493 - 04/18/05 08:28 AM
Venue Appropriate Bands
|
cherri
Gold Member
Registered: 09/10/03
Posts: 731
Loc: N. MI USA
|
Offline
|
|
We went out to see a local band on Saturday. We've done shows with these guys, they're an accomplished local classic & modern rock cover band.
A new restaurant has opened in town, with a bar upstairs. They put out ads looking for one-and two-piece jazz or blues piano or guitar acts. Dinner music, martini music. We've played our acoustic show there, and are booked for several return engagements. We love the place, and pop into their open mic now and then as well.
I was interested to see how this rock band would fare in the low-key room.
The band wasn't happy. We arrived toward the end of their first set, and when they took their break and came over to talk to us, they started in complaining. The bar had asked them to turn down the night before, and keep it down. The venue doesn't want to hear the upstairs band in their downstairs restaurant. The band works better in a higher decibel level than they were allowed at this place.
We stayed for their second set. Good song selections, but they were restrained, uptight, no smiles, very little audience engagement. The bar manager was sitting at a table near us with her friends, with her HANDS OVER HER EARS. Not a good sign for the band.
So we left. They were grumbling on their break how they won't be back, they'll play down the street and put a "no *venue*" sign on the door.
I don't have a point, really, except that these guys had nothing legitimate to complain about. I wanted to ask them ... you knew the venue was looking for mellow dinner music. Why did you even book your band at this venue?
I think they just assumed that because they are a popular local rock band, that they could do their regular show and win the place over. They took a chance and it didn't work out. Publicly whining about it, in earshot of the manager, was probably not the smartest thing to do.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645494 - 04/18/05 09:14 AM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
PBBPaul
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 07/31/02
Posts: 2946
Loc: Wonderful World of Cheese - Wi...
|
|
Offline
|
|
We've been in that spot before. We're a loud, fast Blues/Jazz/Rock/Soul band and have been mistakenly booked into quiet venues. We just turn down to an almost acoustic level, restrict the drummer to brushes and variy our set list to appropriate music. Not a big deal, we're able to get our point across and have fun.
This band doesn't sound very professional.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645495 - 04/18/05 09:26 AM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
Botch.
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 08/17/00
Posts: 8149
Loc: Ogden, Utard
|
|
Offline
|
|
We were setting up at the Officer's Club at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque when we found out our booking agent got us in there, telling the club management we were a Jazz big band (we were stone-straight country). Fortunately our hottie lead singer could win over just about anyone, and the crowd liked us anyway.
We never used that booking agent again, though.
_________________________
Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will http://www.puddlestone.net
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645496 - 04/18/05 02:19 PM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
Curious_G
Senior Member
Registered: 11/09/01
Posts: 247
Loc: Gulph Mills,PA,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
We've had to play a few quiet open sets at dinner clubs. It only takes a minute to change the set list around, turn down the volume, switch the rhythm player to acoustic and get the drummer to pull the Thunder Stix out.
_________________________
Got Twang? http://www.DeSotoRust.com "Interesting fact: the more gear a band brings in, the less people show up. This rule is almost universally true." JJ the Blue Moon
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645497 - 04/18/05 02:50 PM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
Fendercaster
Gold Member
Registered: 06/03/03
Posts: 605
Loc: Milledgeville, Georgia USA
|
|
Offline
|
|
I remember one occasion at the Reisterstown (Md.) Moose, people were telling us to turn down while we were still setting up! On another job at the Frederick (Md.) Moose, they kept telling us to turn down, so we turned our mains to face us, and pointed the monitors at the audience.
This is why I prefer playing the redneck bars! 
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645498 - 04/18/05 07:50 PM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
Botch.
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 08/17/00
Posts: 8149
Loc: Ogden, Utard
|
|
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by Fendercaster:
I remember one occasion at the Reisterstown (Md.) Moose, people were telling us to turn down while we were still setting up!
_________________________
Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will http://www.puddlestone.net
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645499 - 04/19/05 01:45 PM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
CMDN
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 11/13/01
Posts: 6054
Loc: Philadelphia,PA,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
Haha... yeah, we've been booked into inappropriate rooms in the past as well...
Like the time we played at a "Save The Environment" event in Maine. Hell, we were getting a nice paycheck, free food, free drinks and a decent crashpad...
Unfortunately, we were the only "rock" band there... every other act was a hippy-dippy jam band. That was really weird. We were WAYY too loud for the PA, but a lot of the kids liked us anyway. We didn't change our set at all.. we just played the way we always play. We figure the only thing worse than censoring ourselves is diluting ourselves... so.. we did our thing—we were loud, and we played hard. I think people respected us more for not holding back. We sold some CDs and t-shirts, and we got paid... so I chalked the night up as a win for our side... even though I don't think we belonged on the bill at all.
_________________________
\m/
Erik
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645500 - 04/19/05 06:06 PM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
GTRBass
Gold Member
Registered: 12/03/03
Posts: 598
Loc: Los Angeles, Ca
|
|
Offline
|
|
I just mentioned in another thread that many times we simply play too loud for the venue.
I was on a multi band bill a couple years ago at a 30 seat room with a rather small PA for the vocals only. (It's a little warm up room in Van Nuys called McRed's.) The band before us came in with a Mesa Triple Rec full stack and two SVT's. By the end of the first song the entire bar was outside in the back parking lot. It was ridiculous. You couldn't even hear the cookie monster vocals.
Bottom line is that if the clubowner wants to book rock bands he should be prepared for the sound pressure levels that come with the territory. If the room is tiny then you have to compensate for the size, or you'll make it a drag for the crowd.
I'd like to see the CMDN & Phish lineup. That would be too funny. "Heeeeyyy duuude. Play truuuckin!!!"
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645501 - 04/20/05 12:47 AM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
Strangerbytheminute
Senior Member
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 190
Loc: Seattle
|
|
Offline
|
|
We get so much of our business from venues that have been abused by loud bands. We can play it both ways. Some of our gigs have stages the size of postage stamps and those stages my drummer just plays a snare. And it just so happens those are the shows that seem to pay the best. On others he brings a full kit and we play louder. But we always play to the room and we pride ourselves in the fact that we can play any room appropiately....And we play every weekend. I for one hate going onto a club and being blasted by a band that doesn't understand sound levels or acoustics. It doesn't have to be loud to be good.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#1645502 - 04/20/05 02:33 AM
Re: Venue Appropriate Bands
|
GZsound
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/17/01
Posts: 6074
Loc: Somewhere in Oregon
|
|
Offline
|
|
We finally quit playing at a little local bar because it became impossible to play quiet enough to make the club owner happy.
We played there for several months until it got to the point he was telling me to turn my sax down..and I wasn't even in the PA.
We did our best, shut off the mains, sang through the monitors, finished the gig, thanked all the help and the owner for a wonderful evening, got paid and never went back.
The funny part is the club owner called me later for more dates and he was surprised when I explained we couldn't play there anymore..
_________________________
Mark G.
"A man may fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame others" -- John Burroughs
"I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man." -- Thomas Jefferson
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
