How Would You Handle This Band Situation

[Baldwin Funster]

Pay was higher just around 2021 when people were reluctant to venture out and venues wanted to attract both band and patrons. Now everybody is out so the pay dropped back to the lowest common denominator ie whatever the newly formed local garage band is willing to take. Band who are more together and have some draw book a venue and sell $10 tickets. The good ones get it.

[ProfD]

The Nord Electro was made for these types of gigs. Highly portable.

 

Do sound check and take the Electro off the stand. Bring Electro back when it's time to hit.

 

I won't even address the gig pay in relation to the investment of time and gear value. Thread is already depressing enough.🤣😎

 

 

[Delaware Dave]

5 hours ago, Michael Wright said:

You lost me at $50.

When the Philly Eagles needed DL help last year when 1/2 their DL went down they called Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh.  Initial offer was $1M to finish off the 2nd half of the season. Suh said "I aint gettin off the couch for $1M".  Likewise, I never have played for $50 and surely never will.  The only exception would be a charity show for which I never take money even if it is given to me, I just donate it back. If $50/man is that interesting to the BL perhaps you should be looking for another band or another BL. It's the $50/man gig that put you in this situation, that's why there are so many bands doing the festival.  My two cents...

[Mighty Motif Max]

Respectfully, I’d say just move the gear off in-between. You have a light rig. Maybe bring it all on a cart instead so it’s just one trip.

 

I’ve done this type of load-in in the past for “Battle of the Bands” types of events and often the stages are small enough that there isn’t enough space to just move everything back to the rear of the stage. So I’ve ended up taking down and re-setting up a much bigger/heavier rig than your Electro. It’s totally doable! Don’t sweat it and good luck!

[Bill H.]

An 8 band street festival on a Sunday in December? There's no way to prepare for this. It will be total improvisation on the spot. Nothing will be on time. Everything will be delayed. There will be total chaos at times around the stage. If there is a headliner or two, they will claim the stage as their own and you will have to work around their equipment. If you still want to do it, you will just have to roll with it and make it up as you go along. 

 

Been there done that (except for the "doing it in winter" part.)

 

Edited for extra pain and suffering. 

[Konnector]

Like others have suggested, I'd do the soundcheck and pack up the Nord until you return to play if you're uncomfortable leaving it there. Moving one keyboard is not a big deal, but to have it trashed or stolen certainly is. 

 

 

[ESFlash]

 

If you dig playing with this band. and the BL is not a jerk, keep it light, be flexible & go for it assuming the serious lack of bread is not an issue for you.

 

A few thoughts and suggestions:

 

Bring  a tarp and some bungees in case you can stay setup on/off/back-of the stage.

 

And perhaps figure out how you can make it all in a single trip. From your description of the gear you'll have, which seems to be not much, you might be able to bungee everything to a handtruck. I've placed a wooden board on the bottom of a handtruck to elongate the shelf and have been able to haul 88key keyboard in a soft bag, x-stand, fold-up stool, small amp and kit bag all bungeed together in a single trip.

 

Be aware that most equipment accidents happen in these often unprofessional, poorly run, no experienced stage hand, multi-band get-em-on/off the stage as quick as possible, sorts of shows.

 

Setup and strike is when stuff can get damaged or lost.

 

And if you can pick a spot to set up in, that is not in a direct traffic path of folks getting on/off the stage that's a plus.

 

You also might consider taking what I call a pack up bag; a decent sized canvas or plastic shopping bag that you toss all your pedals, cords, and loose stuff into. When you get back home, you can take the time to sort through and repack your gear for the next show.

 

I also recommend you clearly mark all your gear, cables, pedals, keys, stand, stool, amp etc -- use colored tapes or whatever floats your boat. And make sure you do an idiot check of the bandstand once you have all your gear off the stage.

 

These shows can be a lot of fun and a place where it's possible to meet other players and find out if anyone is looking for a someone such as yourself. 

 

I've played many a low rent rodeo gig where the band is 100% setup and they drag our sorry butts out on a sled pulled by a tractor and it's all you can do to hold onto your gear as you bumpNbounce towards the middle of the arena. They power up the sled/stage and you go for it.

[analogman1]

For this type of gig, I would only take one keyboard, an easy folding X stand, and the most basic pedal set up you can get away with. What I do with these things is set up the stand, and have the cords and everything ready to go do a line check with my electro, then take the keyboard off the stand and carry it like it was a “pet” lol. 
but for 50 bucks? It’s not worth it. If someone spills a drink or even just bangs into it with the headstock of a bass guitar, you’re going to be a lot more pissed off then if you made two or 300 for the gig. Just my opinion…

[TommyBoy]

It's an age thing. I'm middle 50's now and have been a professional accordionist for literally 40 years. 

 

I've told the story here before: everybody in my housing development of 400 homes decided that THE guy to power wash your house was worth the $300 he charged. My wife decided we should do it as the houses did look nice when finished.

 

Guy shows up absolutely methed-out. Tweaking. Has a long plastic pole with a normal hose attachment on it. Maybe his equipment is worth $50. Uses our hose and our ladder. Walks around the house and hoses it off.  Took maybe an hour and a half.  $300. Licensed, bonded? Nah. Just a dude. He even managed to accidentally power-wash a nice Z into our stucco because he was too close at one point. It was very disappointing. Yet he probably did 50 houses in our development. 

 

I tell the story because the Board wanted me to play accordion for a function.  My FR-8X was $5200. My custom Excelsior 960 from Italy was $7500 (back in 2001). I took lessons for 10 years. The BK-7M arranger is $1000. The QSC-10 was $600. Tens of thousands of hours of practice and paying my dues.

 

My pay offered? NOTHING. Come on, it's something you enjoy right?

 

I always think about the Nordstrom pianists that used to wear a suit and play. I would just stare at the beautiful renditions with Bill Evans-like transitions that I could never dream of playing. And people walked by like he was playing Jingle Bells.

 

So, yeah. At this point I guess I'm just bitter.

 

On a side note, I'm purchasing a Montage M8x which will be my first synth since selling my S90ES around ten years ago. It's been absolutely thrilling learning about what it can do and getting back into the synth world will be wonderful.

 

 

[El Lobo]

I'm too old for this. YMMV, especially if you're much younger and really wanting the band to get gigs, etc. But for $50 and 6 or more hours of my time, no way.

 

If I just have to show up an hour before downbeat, then maybe. How close is the festival, how much travel time? I've turned down gigs for hundreds of dollars that were 100 miles away. Then again, I've been gigging for 60 years so I just don't do this anymore.

 

How badly do you want to play? How much do you like this band? Those things figure into the equation. You have to decide how much it's worth and how much you want it.

[Floyd Tatum]

It's worth owning a cheap keyboard for gigs like that.   Imagine if you owned, say, a really cheap Yamaha PSR arranger keyboard, one of the lower ones, 10 or 15 years old.   Those things weigh about 2 lbs.   You pick it up on Craigslist for $25, and save it for situations like this.    If you decide to be there earlier in the day, use your shitty keyboard for the sound check.    Once you're at the gig, assess the situation.   IF you think it's worth breaking out your good keyboard for the actual performance, you can do it.   If you decide it's too dicey, use the shitty one.    I never actually did this, by the way, but I wish I had of, for gigs like the one you described, where you get disrespected.

[niacin]

A few years back I played a huge festival here that happens every year, centre of town is closed off, we’re on at sunset on a Friday, just before the headliner (name band you would recognise). We get there for sound check as requested a couple of hours before start time. Stage crew are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Turns out they’ve sound-checked the main act and then been told by the drummer that the kit is not to be touched. Someone didn’t read the contract 🤣🤦🏻. So they’re trying to locate another kit and get it in in time, which they did almost, we went on 10 mins late. Nice sound crew. Shit happens, you deal with it.

 

Festivals, no matter the size, expect the worst and minimize your risk. They tell you you’ll get soundcheck at a particular time, assume it may be reduced to a line level check a minute before you start playing. Get your gear down to one trip. Buy a keyboard case with back straps, you may have a long walk in to the stage.  Buy the smallest lightest x-stand you can. And in your circumstances, unless you’re ok to chill and enjoy the festival and the other bands, tell the BL you can’t be there until an hour before play time (anyone who has ever played festivals with a horn section will know one or more of them will always run this line) and expect a quick line check and to have to ask the sound guy for more you in your monitor after the first song.  Expect the latter even if you do arrive early for soundcheck cause what you get at downbeat may not bear much resemblance to what you sorted at soundcheck. And don’t expect the money to cover more than petrol, food and a couple of drinks. Once you accept this is how things are you’ll be in a much better frame of mind to just chill out and enjoy the festival.

[Floyd Tatum]

Oh, by the way, that strategy of owning a cheap, shitty keyboard for situations like this?  Well, another thing you can do with a keyboard like that is keep it in the trunk of your car (if your car has a trunk), just as a spare in general, for emergencies.   I knew a very good jazz pianist, a working professional in Toronto, who did just that.   He's still working in Toronto.   I won't say who it is, just to protect his privacy.

 

EDIT:  I'm not suggesting you act unprofessionally, in any way, except using your shitty keyboard for the sound check.   In every other aspect, conduct yourself professionally, be pleasant with people, and try to make professional connections.    Believe me, those professionals (or future professionals) will understand your choice of using a shitty keyboard for the sound check in that circumstance, given the pay situation.

[RABid]

The sad truth is bands in my area were making more in the 1980's than they do now. And work was steady. Back then playing helped pay for your gear. Now it is gas money, a meal and to cover the bar tab, maybe.

[timwat]

12 hours ago, JamPro said:

I had planned to go light for this show: my Nord Electro in soft gig-bag, folding metal keyboard stand, keyboard bench, pedals and wiring, music stand, and book of band charts.  At least two trips each way. 

Like many others here, I've done this kind of gig before...sometimes as a pro bono charity thing (I rarely do that anymore).

 

As others have suggested, my advice:

 

1)  If at all possible, try to make it one trip each way (rather than two). Maybe that means a backpack of sorts or duffel for your miscellaneous, and carrying the Electro in backpack mode (if you have the Nord bag or similar with straps). I would never do a one-KB gig as a two-trip schlep.

 

2)  Am not surprised at all at the lack of sympathy from band mates. This is sadly the general rule or gig-life, unless you've consistently been the guy to help others schlep. Especially in a multi-act bill, it's often every man for himself. 

 

3)  I have no comment on the money. That's a personal decision every musician gets to make for themselves.

 

4)  From a professional perspective, I suggest you do the gig, no whining. Show up with enough time to handle your schlep, get out of others' way, play your a** off, and smile during tear-down. And then take the next week to assess if the entire experience is worth your continued effort, dedication, and commitment.

 

Your original post makes it sound like a relatively large band (multiple horns?); if that's true, many mouths to feed makes it hard to make decent money without a big tour schedule (just ask Tower of Power).

 

Maybe it's just good to get back into live gigging. If so, I've been there too. In my experience, if you're a good player with a decent vocabulary and the good sense to not overplay, there's a lot of outfits looking for good KB players. The big difference is how you handle less-than situations like this - handle it (and others) with the professionalism of a $500 gig and eventually people notice and word gets out. And then you can pick and choose the situations you want to invest time.

[Floyd Tatum]

One positive thing about this experience:  the next time you're asked to do a "street festival" gig for $50, you'll approach it with some seasoned skepticism.   That's life!    You pick up a few scars along the way.

 

[jazzpiano88]

14 hours ago, JamPro said:

  I'll share how I dealt with it later in the thread.

We’re waiting (and it better be good for all of the dust stirred up  ).

[Tom Williams]

In my last band (building a new one as I write this) we were offered pretty much the same setup-early deal, but with slightly more pay.  The band voted to respectfully turn down the gig, as it still came to less than $10/hour after travel time.

 

[BluesB3]

14 hours ago, Adan said:

I'll be blunt, I don't think you have a legitimate complaint. You've got an ultra light rig, so frankly I don't see the big deal with setting up and breaking down a couple times.  It's not a big deal, and it will save you the anxiety of wondering if your gear is safe on stage.

 

Keep in mind that everything you've been told about how things will go might be completely incorrect.  Your BL doesn't really know whether they'll let you remain set up.  That decision will be made by a (probably grouchy, underpaid, hungover) sound guy or stage manager in the spur of the moment.  You may get no sound check at all. Or you may get one and then it sounds completely different on stage when you perform.

 

Despite the advantages of traveling light, I would always want to bring my own amp or monitor to something like this, just to be 100% sure I can hear myself. My Vox VX50KB is 9 lbs and great for that sort of thing.  

 

For a gig like this I wouldn't measure success by the payout.  If it's a good hang and a fun crowd, then that's a day well spent. I suspect you see it the same way.

 

By the way, love the description of the band's repertoire . . . I'd kill to be back in a band like that.

 

Adan lays it out.

 

I did a gig like this on the hottest day in July in Pasadena. No soundcheck. I skated on stage with my Electro and DI boxes and plugged into the stage box. Apparently the FOH was good. An on camera video mic sounded all right. I had zero fold back at my stage position.  I had to look at my fingers to know what I was playing.

 

Never Again! I take my K10 now as insurance. 

[Paul Woodward]

I haven’t gigged in years and would love to get back into playing live, but 50 dollars is less than £40, aka a meal and a few beers. Not worth the hassle of going (gas, parking), setting up, waiting all that time  and the risk to gear. I can’t see how your soundcheck will have any relevance given they have other bands playing. I certainly don’t think you will have any sort of setting retained from your soundcheck.

I would tell them I’m out and, if that cause huge conflict, say I will rock up with one board, plug in and play at the designated time. Give the sound man a few licks to check volume then be off. Chances are this is all that will happen anyway and the many hours sat there waiting would be pointless.

To be fair, even in that scenario I would still struggle to get enthused for £40

[CyberGene]

Man, this thread makes me feel so sad 😞 

 

I’m so glad my parents dissuaded me from studying music 30 years ago and I became a software engineer instead. 

[rickzjamm]

19 hours ago, TommyBoy said:

$50. Nobody cares about musicians.

 

If you pulled up to a group of guys in front of Home Depot and asked "I need somebody from 2pm to 7pm to move some equipment a few times from a stage to a car and back" a couple would step forward.

 

Then when you say "Pay is flat-rate: $50 for the afternoon" they would all return to their place in line.

 

It's a labor of love. 

For what the keyboardist brings to the table 50 clams is... scraps. Pass.  

[Adan]

As usual, Timwat finds the right philosophical center of the debate.  You can advise someone on the practical or technical aspects of a gigging situation, but you can't decide for them whether the gig is worth their time and effort.  To even have an opinion, we would need to know what the OP would be doing with his time if he doesn't play the gig, and how satisfying that alternative would be to him.

 

To illustrate with a hypothetical, consider, for instance, that if the OP doesn't play the gig, he instead plays golf, pays $50 or whatever in green fees, and then another $50 in the club afterwards, plus gas to drive to the course, and maybe he needs new golf gloves so another $50 in the shop, so now he's out $150+ to spend a few hours walking and yakking with people he already knows, and at the end of the day was it more satisfying for him than playing a street festival?  Only he can answer that.

[Paul Woodward]

I think choosing to go somewhere and spend money as opposed to making a few ‘bucks’ is detracting from the point here. He could be doing DIY, going to the cinema, holidaying. That’s all irrelevant as they might be choosing to enjoy that time and spend their money as they wish, certainly not philosophical. Is it worth the hassle to get £40 and are they asking too much in inconvenience, for what I get in terms of money, is the hassle more than the enjoyment? Maybe I’m just pragmatic, but feels like a simple choice and, if the compromise to rock up and play isn’t acceptable, well that speaks volumes for how much they care about me as a musician or performer.

However, you are right that only the OP can make this decision for their needs, wants and values.

[Adan]

1 minute ago, Paul Woodward said:

I think choosing to go somewhere and spend money as opposed to making a few ‘bucks’ is detracting from the point here. He could be doing DIY, going to the cinema, holidaying. That’s all irrelevant as they might be choosing to enjoy that time and spend their money as they wish, certainly not philosophical. Is it worth the hassle to get £40 and are they asking too much in inconvenience, for what I get in terms of money, is the hassle more than the enjoyment? Maybe I’m just pragmatic, but feels like a simple choice and, if the compromise to rock up and play isn’t acceptable, well that speaks volumes for how much they care about me as a musician or performer.

 

Respectfully, I think the premise of your argument is that playing this street festival has no intrinsic value but rather is a task the OP would rather avoid, and so your putting it in the category of things like going to the motor vehicle department to renew your car registration. If that is indeed how he thinks of it, then yeah, the next question is whether he's being adequately compensated. But maybe that's now how he thinks about it. We just don't know.

 

i've played lots of gigs for little or no compensation where I thought it would just be a fun time.  I haven't always been right in predicting that, but for the times I was right, those experiences were priceless.

 

Also, on a completely different axis of consideration, let's not forget that the OP is not freelancing.  He says he's a band member.  If you're in a band then you have to go along with the agenda at least about 95% of the time or you'll be replaced.

[JamPro]

So this event happened in 2022, so I am able to tell how I handled it and how it all turned out.

 

My first thought was to do the gig with my melodica.  I have one, but I never practice it, and I never worked on any of the band material with it, so that seemed like a bad idea, even if it nicely solved the logistical problems.

 

I wasn't going to risk my keyboard by leaving it on stage.  Given that this would mean setting up the keyboard in the immediate minutes before the performance, I told the band I was willing to do the show, but I would not do the soundcheck.  I made it clear this was because I was not willing to move my equipment twice for one 40-min set paying $50.  I suggested an alternative: I will do both soundcheck and show if someone else is willing to wrangle their keyboard on that stage for my use.  They told me no they were not going to do that.  So I arrived at the venue at 5:30, found a parking spot roughly 500 yards from the stage, moved my gear next to the stage steps, and set up on stage as the previous performance was leaving the stage.

 

The place was chaos.  This was a typical small-town, hastily-organized, poorly-managed affair.  The stage "crew" was the sound guy and his one assistant.  The stage surface was packed with all kinds of band gear, with only a narrow strip cleared up front for performers to set up.  More band gear was clustered all around the stage, on the ground and under the stage.  There was no security, and anyone could have walked up on the stage and take any piece of gear and walk off to disappear down the street.  The performance before our band was the local "band-camp" group: 30 or so teenagers on and around the stage, switching on and off the stage with each song, some of them sitting on the music gear packed up on the stage.  I very glad I decided to skip the soundcheck.

 

Our performance was exactly what I expected: way too loud and way too fast.  Fortunately, it was over quickly, and I humped my gear safely back to my car.

 

Everyone in the band was furious with me (with the exception of the drummer, who seemed somewhat diffident - perhaps he remembered all the times I had helped hump his drums on and off a stage).  One band-member told me "You have to do what we tell you to do".  The guitarist told me to my face "I don't care if your gear gets damaged during one of our gigs".

 

For my part, I felt no obligation to apologize for having a limit or a boundary, and felt no obligation to apologize for saying "no" when my limit or boundary is being pushed.  I never thought of myself as their employee, but rather as a collaborator.  And I felt when you tell your collaborator "You have to do what we tell you to do", it's no longer a collaboration.

 

A couple of months later, they told me they wanted to hire a different keyboard player (they couldn't fire me right away because they had a couple of high-visibility corporate gigs coming up).    I didn't protest: I wasn't having fun, and I felt that productive collaboration was no longer possible. 

 

For me, the lesson in all this is "don't get yourself involved in a situation where you have to fight over a soundcheck for a stupid 40-min gig paying $50" - something I hear in the comments here of others.  I get asked often, but so far I have refrained from jumping back into regular gigging.  I've done a few one-off gigs.  This experience has changed how I look at gigging and what exactly I get out of it.

[stoken6]

8 hours ago, BluesB3 said:

I did a gig like this on the hottest day in July in Pasadena. No soundcheck. I skated on stage with my Electro and DI boxes and plugged into the stage box. Apparently the FOH was good. An on camera video mic sounded all right. I had zero fold back at my stage position.  I had to look at my fingers to know what I was playing.

I did something similar. Festival at a village green. Some bands, some singers+tracks, dance tutors, etc. I arrive on time, and we're running 30-40 minutes late. One board, one pedal, one x-stand. TS and IEC cables - plus my IEMs and a little cable with a passive inline volume control. Because I know there will be precisely zero of me in the monitors. 

You would expect that kind of event to have a "festival" PA. By which I mean: twin 15" or 18" subs + a 15" or 12" top, per side, at minimum. No. Two 12in Altos, and two 10in QSCs (I think), sat on either side of the stage. No poles even. 

 

Funnily enough, someone got a smartphone recording and it sounds rather good! Something about the absence of tremor-inducing bass that means the phone's mic wasn't overloading.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Theo Verelst]

It's been quite the while since I gigged out  but I am aware of the added value of making proper band music. Making a living out of music would let you make other business decisions than researching Jazz chords, while playing almost like a DJ isn't what I would call serving the good mudic, but in every case, either the product should be fun for me or the honor worth it.

 

T

[TommyBoy]

1 hour ago, JamPro said:

So this event happened in 2022, so I am able to tell how I handled it and how it all turned out.

 

Somehow this surprised me. Wasn't expecting that.

[Stokely]

20 hours ago, ProfD said:

The Nord Electro was made for these types of gigs. Highly portable.

 

Do sound check and take the Electro off the stand. Bring Electro back when it's time to hit.

 

I won't even address the gig pay in relation to the investment of time and gear value. Thread is already depressing enough.🤣😎

 

 

This is what I would do as well.  Even if your car is a ways off,  the Electro is light and if you have the Nord gig bag you have a backpack for it   

One kinda wonders at the value of a soundcheck at 2pm that will be followed by 7 others, are they saving settings or what?  

I can't stand multi-band things, it's one of the few times I bring a powered speaker as an "amp" because I pretty much expect I'll hear squat from monitors and won't get any support from the sound engineer(s) (who likely hate these things even more than I do, and who can blame them)