Live Performance in the Age of Covid

[pinkfloydcramer]

22 hours ago, Anderton said:

Fingers crossed for your outdoor gig with temperatures in the (gulp!) 20s. Just make sure your lips don't get frozen to the metal parts of the harmonica.

Thinking maybe I should use bourbon for antifreeze, because really, is there anything it can't do? 🙂.

 

Bandleader will have to make it up to us by booking the next gig in FL. 

[Notes_Norton]

Our Saturday Morning gig got cancelled. It will be in the 50s with a 20mph wind blowing.

 

I'm both disappointed that I don't get to play, and delighted that I won't have to play in that kind of weather.

 

That's unusual for Florida, but not unheard of. I've lived in Florida since 1957 and if we get frost overnight it will be probably the 4th or 5th time. When the Northeast has one of those 'super-blizzards', we sometimes get the tail end, and it does get cold for a couple of days.

 

According to NOAA, it'll be back in the 70s by Tuesday.

 

But when I think about it, cancelled due to weather is better than COVID.

 

Notes ♫

[pinkfloydcramer]

My gig in the frozen wastelands of MS not only went on as scheduled, it was fine and seemed to meet CDC/MP safety protocols. We played in a rectangular shaped tent (open at the far end) in the middle of nowhere and a very good heater on stage kept the band fairly comfy (no frozen lips). Most of the evening the youngish crowd gathered around a huge firepit outside, as if they had something better to do than watch old- fart musicians sitting on stools playing their instruments. Towards the end they gathered around the open end of the tent, requesting songs and showing some interest. I'm still not a fan of sucking on a tin sandwich for 2-3 hours (like the last time, I got "harper-ventilated"), but when the BL put several bennies in my hand I couldn't wait to go home and practice more harmonica🙂. 

 

We do it again in a month, in another rustic setting. It will not be a "several bennies" gig but should be fun, I hope to talk the BL into singing Shotgun Willie.  

[Anderton]

What mic do you use for your harmonica?

[KuruPrionz]

On 1/28/2022 at 5:13 AM, Notes_Norton said:

Our Saturday Morning gig got cancelled. It will be in the 50s with a 20mph wind blowing.

 

I'm both disappointed that I don't get to play, and delighted that I won't have to play in that kind of weather.

 

That's unusual for Florida, but not unheard of. I've lived in Florida since 1957 and if we get frost overnight it will be probably the 4th or 5th time. When the Northeast has one of those 'super-blizzards', we sometimes get the tail end, and it does get cold for a couple of days.

 

According to NOAA, it'll be back in the 70s by Tuesday.

 

But when I think about it, cancelled due to weather is better than COVID.

 

Notes ♫

 

48 minutes ago, pinkfloydcramer said:

My gig in the frozen wastelands of MS not only went on as scheduled, it was fine and seemed to meet CDC/MP safety protocols. We played in a rectangular shaped tent (open at the far end) in the middle of nowhere and a very good heater on stage kept the band fairly comfy (no frozen lips). Most of the evening the youngish crowd gathered around a huge firepit outside, as if they had something better to do than watch old- fart musicians sitting on stools playing their instruments. Towards the end they gathered around the open end of the tent, requesting songs and showing some interest. I'm still not a fan of sucking on a tin sandwich for 2-3 hours (like the last time, I got "harper-ventilated"), but when the BL put several bennies in my hand I couldn't wait to go home and practice more harmonica🙂. 

 

We do it again in a month, in another rustic setting. It will not be a "several bennies" gig but should be fun, I hope to talk the BL into singing Shotgun Willie.  

Love the contrast between these two posts. 

Up here, it's too WET to play outside most of the year. This year especially, we've seen flooding in Bellingham, one friend took a boat ride down Iowa Street and another looked out her window and saw somebody on a inflatable raft cruising down Squalicum Way. 

[pinkfloydcramer]

50 minutes ago, Anderton said:

What mic do you use for your harmonica?

Audix Fireball, designed for harmonica and beatboxing, works great for a clean sound. I dirty it up with a Boogieman pedal by Lone Wolf Blues Company. I'm also waiting on a Blows Me Away Bulletini mic that seems to be considered an improvement over the Green Bullet, by notable players. 

[Notes_Norton]

Yesterday's gig was wonderful.

 

The temperatures got back to normal, high 70s, with a southeast breeze 10-15mph. The outdoor dining room was full, the picnic tables on the beach to the east were full, and people sat on the sidewalk and still got served.

 

At one point, a dozen elderly ladies were dancing in a circle, a group of bikers in Harley clothes walked by, and a few of them bounced in to dance with the ladies. Giant smiles all around.

 

That 100 year cold weather event is over, and it seems people are just celebrating the warmth.

 

We did some Ground Hog Day shtick, invited Bill Nurray to show up (he didn't show) and had people go out to see their shadows. Sic more weeks of weather like this is delightful.

 

Here is where we played.

Notes ♫

 

 

[pinkfloydcramer]

Where I played. 

[Notes_Norton]

Last night's gig got moved indoors. A condition for buying a ticket was you had to be vaccinated and boosted. It's a private club, so they can make rules like that without our governor interfering.

 

Still, I was just a little apprehensive about playing, but 'the show must go on' so we didn't let on that we would have rather kept it outdoors.

 

We'll give it a few days and get tested again.

 

Wish us luck!

 

Notes ♫

[Notes_Norton]

Played the RV Resort last night. It has 900 pads, and usually 600 of them are rented by French Canadians, escaping the winter cold.

 

The place was packed, but the number of Canadians were down. I don't blame them as their health insurance and ours has no reciprocal arrangement. In addition to that, temporary health insurance for guests here has gotten very expensive.

 

But it seems the US citizens are taking to the road as it's inconvenient for us to travel across the border, and the park was full to capacity anyway.

 

It seems outdoor gigs are the new normal for us.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Notes_Norton]

Hope for the future - spring is coming to y'all living 'up north'. Get those outdoor gigs scheduled.

 

This week, on our weekly outdoor afternoon gig at the beachside hotel, we played 1 to 4 PM. By 12:30 every table and booth was filled, the picnic tables out on the sand were also filled, and they called in an additional waitress to handle the crowd. Everybody was happy, the band, the guests, and the management. By 4:30 it was almost empty.

 

I sold this gig to the management, telling them I can generate some business in the slow hours between lunch and dinner. It's doing better than they imagined. It seems people, especially those who are of retirement age, love going out in the afternoon, with COVID, they feel a lot safer partying outdoors.

 

Our evening outdoor gigs are also being well attended. People are tired of holing up due to the plague, but many of them are not ready to risk indoors.

 

For those of you who get the jump on your competition for outdoor gigs, you might be the go-to established act. If this works for you, it might be time to start calling and visiting venues. Outdoors is the new indoors.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

 

BTW, we started this outdoor gig and played 12.5 years (once a week) at a different restaurant/bar. COVID came, along with that new owners, and they decided to do something different. They didn't really know what we generate, because the last owners did this on a cash basis.

 

So we looked for a new place to move the party and their competitor bit.

 

Years ago, when we started, we went in at a low price, a minimum and percentage of what they sold. But it was a Tuesday afternoon, and we weren't being booked much on Tuesday anyway. It took 2 years for word of mouth to generate an audience, the old owners honored the percentage, and we ended up making more than we would have if we played our basic Tuesday rate. (The old owners did zero advertising).

 

It's a largely untapped income stream for bands around here. You might consider something like that if it fits your locale.

[Anderton]

14 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I sold this gig to the management, telling them I can generate some business in the slow hours between lunch and dinner. It's doing better than they imagined. It seems people, especially those who are of retirement age, love going out in the afternoon, with COVID, they feel a lot safer partying outdoors.

 

Of course the outdoors venue helps, but the afternoon time slot seems pretty smart to me. You said "weekly " gig - I assume that means weekend afternoons? Not sure how many would go listen to music on a Wednesday afternoon, for example.

[Notes_Norton]

9 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

Of course the outdoors venue helps, but the afternoon time slot seems pretty smart to me. You said "weekly " gig - I assume that means weekend afternoons? Not sure how many would go listen to music on a Wednesday afternoon, for example.

In this state full of retired people, we usually play in their condominium or retirement development clubhouse in the evenings, But many of the +55-year-old people don't like to drive at night (cataracts) and have absolutely nothing to do in the daytime. One person can only golf, fish and play pickleball so much per week.

 

So a weekly afternoon gig either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday will bring them out in droves.

 

And since our venue is on the way to the public beach, we get a lot of younger as well as the +55 people who are on vacation and would love to have something to do in the afternoon.

 

A couple of weeks ago we had a number of seniors group-dancing in a circle. A group of vacationing younger bikers parked their Harley's in front, saw the fun, a couple of guys came in and joined the group dance, and they all stayed for a drink or two.

 

For 12.5 years we've done this mid-week party and after the first couple of years of building it, we've filled the house. We've done Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Of the 3, Thursdays are the weakest. We haven't tried Mondays, but that might be a good calling card, "Blue Monday".

 

Whether it will work during the week is probably location dependent. Fortunately, I live in a tourist state.

 

Notes ♫

 

We can hear the surf crash from where we gig. The salt is in the air, and we get a mixed audience, from singles to families with children to retirees.  Just to the east (right) is the public beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Towards the top of the map is Jim Island. We did 12.5 years mid-week there until COVID and the new owners.

 

[Notes_Norton]

Last night's outdoor gig at the RV Resort went into overtime. The French Canadians just didn't want to go home. We also gave out about a dozen biz cards to the USA folks.

 

People seem to be champing at the bit for entertainment, and feel safer outdoors. The weather has been about 80 midday and low to mid 60s before dawn, just perfect for outdoor parties.

 

Our once-per-week midday party has been packed to the gills with people on the sidewalk being served (sitting on that little wall that separates the patio from the sidewalk in the above photo). They are talking about adding a second day.

 

So for all of you who perform live and live 'up north', you might want to start looking for outdoor gigs for after the thaw, and get a jump on your competition.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Greg Mein]

We returned just yesterday from a trip to Jamaica where we stayed for a week at the RIU Palace Jamaica all inclusive resort. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time. While there we saw a performance by the Silver Birds Steel Orchestra. Such an amazing and energetic group of performers I haven't seen in a very long time! We really enjoyed their show and Brenda bought their video disc.

 

 

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Greg Mein said:

We returned just yesterday from a trip to Jamaica where we stayed for a week at the RIU Palace Jamaica all inclusive resort. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time. While there we saw a performance by the Silver Birds Steel Orchestra. Such an amazing and energetic group of performers I haven't seen in a very long time! We really enjoyed their show and Brenda bought their video disc.

 

 

Hey Greg - if you need someone to carry your bags next time, let me know.

[Greg Mein]

2 hours ago, Anderton said:

Hey Greg - if you need someone to carry your bags next time, let me know.

 

I'm told our next journey may be a Mediterranean Sea cruise but there's no date or plan on that yet. 😀

 

The Jamaica trip was originally intended to be a group of around 30. In February of 2020 we went with the same group to Cancun, C19 was still minor news at the time. They decided a while back that this time the trip would be to Jamaica but folks started to cancel over the C19 tests, not the test to go but the one to return. Many of them are still working and didn't want to risk a quarantine. Being retired, I don't care. In the end it was just my wife and I along with her brother and his wife and it was a great time!

 

The resort had quite a few guests but wasn't anywhere near capacity which was nice for us but certainly less so for them. The employees, staff and others were appreciative and glad to see us. Tourism is important in the Montego Bay area and I'm sure it's beginning to improve.

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

17 hours ago, Greg Mein said:

We returned just yesterday from a trip to Jamaica where we stayed for a week at the RIU Palace Jamaica all inclusive resort. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time. While there we saw a performance by the Silver Birds Steel Orchestra. Such an amazing and energetic group of performers I haven't seen in a very long time! We really enjoyed their show and Brenda bought their video disc.

<...snip...>

I checked the hotel out on-line, and it looks great.

 

I like that it's adults only. I like children, but I like to get away from them at times.

 

I've never been to Motego Bay, but we play that song

 

I gigged on a cruise ship that went to Ocho Rios once a week in the late 1980s and found the Jamaican people to be nice, fun-loving folks.

 

Notes 14

[KenElevenShadows]

We (The Mercury Seven) had our first live gig. Not densely populated, so we felt a little safer.

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

It's good to see gigs coming back for us.

 

We have 14 one-nighters in March, with a possibility of 4 more.

[KenElevenShadows]

It is good to see gigs coming back. Hopefully we can all do it reasonably safely. Two years and counting of this pandemic...long time.

[NewImprov]

17 hours ago, KenElevenShadows said:

We (The Mercury Seven) had our first live gig. Not densely populated, so we felt a little safer.

 

 

This is so cool! I love this kind of minimal drone dub kind of stuff, and find it's hard to find other musicians with the patience to explore these type of spaces without overplaying. Found your page on BandCamp, will have to grab some tracks soon.

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, NewImprov said:

Found your page on BandCamp, will have to grab some tracks soon.

 

You won't regret getting the books, either. Ken's photography is downright otherworldly. Top-shelf stuff.

[KenElevenShadows]

5 hours ago, NewImprov said:

This is so cool! I love this kind of minimal drone dub kind of stuff, and find it's hard to find other musicians with the patience to explore these type of spaces without overplaying. Found your page on BandCamp, will have to grab some tracks soon.

Thank you. You're so right, it's so challenging to find other musicians to play sparingly, openly. Everyone feels like they need to continually "do something". So glad you like it. We hope to do some more live performances.

[KenElevenShadows]

On 2/28/2022 at 7:13 PM, Anderton said:

 

You won't regret getting the books, either. Ken's photography is downright otherworldly. Top-shelf stuff.

Thanks, Craig!! Greatly appreciated. I feel like when I'm photographing, I'm making the visual equivalent of the music I love. And vice versa. I see them as two parts of a whole.

 

Here are some photos and books and general weirdness: www.kenleephotography.com

 

 

 

 

 

[pinkfloydcramer]

Ken is a great "everyday people" photographer, too. Years ago, on SSS, he put up pics of a West Virginia wedding that I thought were outstanding.

 

[Anderton]

...and his picture of Mike Rivers captured Mike's essence. Yeah, Ken's kinda talented around the edges.

[KenElevenShadows]

On 3/5/2022 at 9:21 AM, pinkfloydcramer said:

Ken is a great "everyday people" photographer, too. Years ago, on SSS, he put up pics of a West Virginia wedding that I thought were outstanding.

 

Thank you very much. I am so not a wedding photographer. Not my thing by a long shot. But I'm glad they came out alright.

 

On 3/5/2022 at 1:30 PM, Anderton said:

...and his picture of Mike Rivers captured Mike's essence. Yeah, Ken's kinda talented around the edges.

 

Thanks. I do love photographing people. Some of that was because Mike and I had a good long conversation about various things, including him considering moving to California and such. That was the last time I saw him, unfortunately.

[Notes_Norton]

We covered for another band that called in sick last weekend. I have no idea if it was COVID related or not  (I hope not). It was in a new venue, the crowd was enthusiastic, and there is a chance we'll have a new place to gig.

 

Notes ♫

[Notes_Norton]

Our once per week gig, has turned into twice per week. We've been jamming the restaurant porch/patio/beach between 1 and 4 PM, the time when most restaurants are dead, so the management wants to see if we could build up a second day to do the same.

 

They went from one waitress our first week there, to three  waitresses and one waiter now. Management is making money, the wait staff is making money, we are having a lot of fun performing and making money as well.

 

It's nice to be able to do what we love to do, get paid for it, and get positive appreciation and feedback.

 

That's a niche others might think about. We did 12.5 years of this at another restaurant. It got sold during COVID, the new owners are doing something different, so we moved to our new location for season 14.

 

We pitched it as, "Your restaurant is dead between 1 and 4 PM, it's in a beautiful location, we'd like to play there and see if we can generate some revenue in the hours the restaurant is usually dead".

 

The first couple of years at the old restaurant were lean. We worked for less than usual, but we chose a weekday when nobody would typically hire a band anyway. We took $100 and 10% of the till, with a monetary cap that was more than we charge on a weekday. We built up the business and made that cap by the third year. All on word-of mouth, they never advertised us.

 

In modern times, the old 9PM to 2PM at a bar doesn't work anymore. There is too much competition, Cable TV, Internet at home or phone, Karaoke, DJs, Open Mic, etc. So to stay working, we got creative, and this plus one-nighters at resorts, condominiums, yacht clubs, and country clubs made it so that we are working fewer days per week, but making just as much money. Of course we have to haul gear every gig, but 'they' tell us weight-bearing exercise is good for people our age

 

Notes ♫