Semi OT: Playing Short-Handed

[J. Dan]

Rough Weekend. Our singer became sick and could not sing. She had a fever so rather than have her do nothing but dance around and get the rest of us sick, we had her stay home, and we played as a 4-pc.

 

We played all our "guy" songs, and covered her backups best we could (you forget about parts until they're missing, and then scramble to try to cover them on the fly while playing - quite a challenge at times). A lot more singing than I and our guitar player are accusomed to, but we did fine.

 

Of course the issue of compensation comes up in these instances. We took a 20% hit on Friday night and a 10% hit on Saturday night. There were other issues with the place we played on Friday that I won't get into - but they were looking for any excuse they could to cut pay. The Saturday negotiation was a little more realistic:

 

Their Points:

 

• I'm not getting the full band that I hired
  
• Are you going to be able to do it without her?
  
• Will you be able to keep the crowd the same way?
  
• People came out expecting to see her
  

 

Our Points:

 

• It doesn't matter if we're a 3-pc or a 10-pc, you pay for the crowd we bring
  
• We have plenty of songs and will put on a great show
  
• We have to work harder to rearrange the sets and cover her parts
  
• Lesser bands would have to cancel, part of the price you pay with us is the professionalism and reliability of knowing we will be there no matter what
  

 

Initially, he wanted to give us a 20% cut, and if we get over 350 people, we get full price. Sounded fine to me, except that he wasn't going to count the 150 people who were already there for parties. Well, one of the parties was friends with our bass player, and the other had emailed us months ago asking about playing their party. We were already booked at this place and I suggested they reserve the upper level - which they did. So our agent suggested we just offer a 10% cut and no counting. Seemed like a reasonable compromise. It was a good night and we probably would have gotten the full amount if they had counted the door. But he was happy he got a little discount, we still each got paid more than a normal night, and the crowd was dancing their butts off til the very end, so all was good..... well, except for our poor singer sitting at home with a fever and no money.

[Phred]

I see both sides of the argument, and assume that the 20% came from you guys being a 5 piece?

 

I think giving them a pay cut is a nice gesture, doesn't give you less in your pocket, and keeps the club happy.

 

It doesn't matter if we're a 3-pc or a 10-pc, you pay for the crowd we bring

 

Be careful with that point. While I know what you are trying to say, it doesn't leave room for you guys having a lower turnout once in a blue moon.

 

[Phred]

Did you still open the same number of beers before the show? Or 20% less? :D

 

 

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

I don't see both sides of the argument, because the people come out to see your band. They don't know that the girl isn't there. Once the people have paid the cover and are in the room, they are staying and drinking unless you suck, and I assume that not to be the case.

 

There is NO POINT IN TIME wherein I take a pay cut from a club owner based on how many people are on stage, unless that also means that when I bring up some guests, I get a bonus. Unless you have a contract which states the number and names of all the players, he's got no leverage. Pictures? So what, bands change members all the time. When you originally booked the gig, he didn't say, "Well, there's five of you, I'd better give you a little more money..."

 

But this might be a lesson for you.... don't announce such things, just get up and do your show like you always do, as if there was nothing different.

[Mogut]

if we get over 350 people, we get full price. Sounded fine to me, except that he wasn't going to count the 150 people who were already there for parties.

 

Classic... Been there, done that.

 

To be fair, I hate playing at places that hate paying. Especially if its an on going issue with the same venue or manager. I'd move on if possible, unless the venue is just too important to the band. Its the only way to show any clout with venues. If they dont miss you, thats life...

[Threadslayer]

"We have to work harder to rearrange the sets and cover her parts"

 

No way that one's gonna fly.

[Mike Davis]

...all was good..... well, except for our poor singer sitting at home with a fever and no money.

 

I think it would be a nice gesture to throw a few bucks her way. She helped you build your name.

[RedKey]

I think it would be a nice gesture to throw a few bucks her way. She helped you build your name.

 

+1

[Dave Horne]

That reminds me of the old high school joke.

 

What's a four piece combo? A quartet.

 

What's a five piece combo? A quintet.

 

What's a five piece combo with a female singer? A sextet.

[Tonysounds]

...all was good..... well, except for our poor singer sitting at home with a fever and no money.

 

I think it would be a nice gesture to throw a few bucks her way. She helped you build your name.

 

One of the bands I play with had a similar issue a couple weeks back. Their bassist wrecked his motorcycle (while driving of course) and banged himself up pretty good and needed the weekend off. Lots of stitches in his right arm, and his face and head was cut up and bruised, and his appearance would have freaked out the casino and its patrons. I have mentioned to that band I played bass, and they called me and asked me to leave my keyboard at home and play bass for the evening. Yeah, no problem! We split the bassists cut, so we all made 25% more than usual. I couldnt cover the Saturday gig, but I found them a last minute replacement. The singer/rhythm guitarist had been watching me and my hands all nite:

Me: Dude, everything okay?

Him: Yeah, just watching to see what youre doing, but I cant make sense of it, it looks all wrong.

Me: Uh, does it sound okay?

Him: Yeah, actually it sounds great, Im just trying to figure out what Im going to have to do tomorrow, but I cant make sense of what your hands are doing.

Me: But it sounds okay?

Him: Yeah, really, it sounds great.

Me: Good, those are called mistakes, and there will be a lot more before the night is over!

On break, I asked him how he was going to cover Saturday nite, and he was sweating it: Its not gonna be real good. I got on the phone and by the 4th call, I booked a very qualified bassist. Next weekend they presented me with another bonus for getting the replacement. I tried to return it, but they werent having it.

 

Ive played gigs with fevers, with broken fingers, with a bad back and very sore feet (like this weekend, from crawling around my crawlspace for 2 days getting xmas decorations and from climbing on a ladder and hanging them), with bronchitis, with walking pneumonia, and every other possible malady you can think of. I never stayed home, no one asked me to, and no one would have thrown me a bone (or more) if I had. You guys worked harder, you earned the extra cake.

 

[Bill H.]

I was in several 80s bands with female fronts - back in the real 1980s - so this is in retrospect.

 

Like it or not, they were the center of attention. Like it or not, practically no one noticed if we replaced a sideman. But like it or not, if the female front was missing we would be deluged with questions.

 

And yeah - they would get sick or hoarse way more than the guys. A pay cut was always in order. So all in all I think you guys did the right thing.

 

In many cases, their presence onstage - and in the center of an 8x10 glossy - got us the gigs in the first place. So we'd be extra apologetic if they couldn't make it to a gig.

 

You guys did good in keeping the party going. But I hope that you announced many times during the evening that the singer was only missing because of illness, and that she'd be back next time.

[Bill H.]

Tonysound's story above mine reminds me of the time that I covered for the bass player in the band by playing keyboard bass. It was an emergency situation. He was jailed on drug charges and I played key bass until he was released a few weeks later.

 

We kept full pay even though the band was cut from 5 to 4 members. We didn't bring it up to the owners and I honestly don't think they even noticed.

[cnegrad]

That reminds me of the old high school joke.

 

What's a four piece combo? A quartet.

 

What's a five piece combo? A quintet.

 

What's a five piece combo with a female singer? A sextet.

We were once speaking to a client about how many musicians she wanted for her wedding ceremony, and we gave her a price for a trio of piano, violin and flute. She thought about it and said, "Hmmmm... I'd like it to be more elaborate. How much for a five piece trio?"

[J. Dan]

Yep, every time we said the name of the band, we'd add something like "just the guys tonight, Valerie girl's out with the Avian Swine Flu (flying pigs?) or something". And we even did the Ferris Bueller bit - "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller..." Except it was "Valerie, Valerie, Vailerie.." and "Well, my brother's-cousins-uncle's-girlfriend's-Niece saw her at the 31 flavors last night".

 

But yes, we've substituted other members with no pay cut. And if we had a sub for her, I might have been a bit more hardlined about holding our price, but we just did it without her. It's not like these guys are trying to beat us up on price normally, it was a special circumstance. I think being up front with them ahead of time is the right thing to do.

 

EDIT: I'm speaking of one of the clubs... the other one we are not playing any more, but that's a whole other story. In fact, we were almost double booked, and part of the 20% pay cut was to keep the gig and not have the OTHER band they booked play.

[ProfD]

It is great that the band was able to go on wih the show and have a positive outcome.

 

Hope your singer recovers soon and that your band continues moving forward.

[Eric VB]

"The show must go on." And it did. Well, apparently. Kudos!

 

Glad to hear nobody left, angrily demanding their money back. Nobody quit your mailing list, either.

 

Surprised to hear there are no other female singers in your area that can sing '80s songs. Not even just your signature tunes.

 

Not surprised to hear you don't know any other bands in town that draw like you do that could have taken the gig on short notice.

 

What do you plan on doing the next time this happens?

[J. Dan]

What do you plan on doing the next time this happens?

 

Considering she's only missed 2 shows in almost 6 years, I'm not too worried about it.

 

It's not worth the potential trainwreck to bring somebody unknown up on stage for a few songs when we can cover it, IMO.

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

by the way, from the title, I thought that you might have injured yourself again....

[David Loving]

I started playing left-hand bass when our bassist was absent. We're playing a party a week from Saturday without our lead singer. You just have to work around that stuff. Those kinds of gigs are usually fun.

[J. Dan]

by the way, from the title, I thought that you might have injured yourself again....

 

With all that singing, I almost did! BTW - hand's still sore, but I can now do everything I was ever able to do... I just feel it in the morning!

 

You just have to work around that stuff. Those kinds of gigs are usually fun.

 

Yeah, it actually was kind of fun. Actually, the first night it was not fun - I had a lot of trouble really getting into it and putting on a good show because I was concentrating on nailing the parts I don't normally do, and was worrying about what might be coming up that we didn't think about. The second night I had a blast. We had run through everything the night before, so I felt prepared and just concentrated on putting on a good show. A few of the songs were "guy" songs that she normally sings. I liked actually doing them as "guy" songs, especially ones I used to sing in previous bands. It was also rewarding/reassuring to have folks who hadn't seen us before have no clue that we were even short-handed. They enjoyed it and complimented us just as we were. There was a gal talking to me on break who was trying hard to convince me that we needed to head up to Champaign, IL (where she was from) and play around there. Another guy had recently purchased a bar in the area and asked for a business card for booking us.

[Bosendorphen]

Yeah, I like the challenge of filling in for missing members. Last year our bassist had the flu (right after I was recovering from it with my voice gradually returning after major laryngitis).

 

I had a day to go over our entire songlist and work up the left-hand bass before the gig. It went just fine even though I couldn't sing in my usual full range yet.

 

Another gig where we had no drummer I hurriedly programmed some patterns and songs on my trusty Zoom RT-123 ("Artie"). Even played it manually a bit at the gig. But we went over great, regardless. THAT was a bit more stressful as I'd been playing left hand bass for years and years (like many folks on this forum).

[David Loving]

One thing I like about the gigs is there is always something you have to work around; always some surprise - at least on mine. Somebody is sick, in jail [happened once with our storied bass player, supra - although our johnny-taylor-voiced drummer is finishing off a 'minor' prison sentence - I need to send him some Xmas money], a piece of gear won't work, car breaks down, etc etc. I like solving the problem and pushing on. Gotta be flexible.