Conference napalm::commusic_v1

< Note 1947.0 by TYFYS::MOLLER "Halloween the 13th on Elm Street #7" >
                 -< Places to Play - Audiences - Expectations >-

Jens,

Nothing like a paid "vacation"! You mountain men certainly know how to
live. 8^)) I liked your Christmas card by the way. Sort of a Jim Bridger
a commin' over the pass look.

>    I just finished a 3 days playing for spring break at a Ski resort 
>    (Cucharas  Valley - here in Colorado). The schedule looked like this:

sheesh! tough gig?
    
>    Band starts at 3:00 - ends at 7:00 (playing in the lounge near the
>    lifts)

banker's hours, no "wee hours" yawn sessions

>From 3:00 till 5:00, half of the P.A. system sits out on the deck,
>aimed at the lifts.

I believe the more accurate term is "acoustically directed towards".
You don't want them to think you guys are trying to cause an avalanche! *^))

The pictures and balloons plus audience participation sounds like one big
fun party. The fun tunes get people involved and loosened up. After that,
almost anything you play will be a hit.

>    Our Fee: Free Accomodations, Free Food (I ate Crab Legs & Lobster &
>    steak for dinner those 3 days), Free Lift Tickets, Free use of all
>    resort amenities (like hot tubs, sauna's, etc.) and 100.00 per night
>    for the 2 of us (normally we get $150.00 to $200.00 per night).

Regular bathing, excellent cuisine, free sports, plus money?!...hmmmmm
you guys need a roady?

dave

ps. nice topic    

    And people wonder why I don't really like to play in lounges or hole in
    the wall bars. The snow was very poor this past friday & saturday, so
    in the early part of the day, we went 4 wheeling thru some 3 foot snow
    banks.

    So, Come on, what other interesting experiances have others had??? What
    do other people specialize in?? How about some Wedding itineraries,
    Swimming Pool Parties, Proms, Frat House parties??

							    Jens

    Great topic Jens!
    
          I played in a Wedding/GB band for about 6 years and the strangest
    thing that I ever saw was going into the mens' room during a break
    and hearing male/female whispering...Upon looking under a stall
    I found a two sets of shoes facing each other..one pair of men's
    and one pair ladies... I figured I HAD TO SEE who these people were.
    I waited outside in anticipation when........The Bride and 
    Best Man emerged...As they exited the well marked MENS ROOM, who
    do you think walked RIGHT by?  ...the Groom. He appeared not to notice
    where the two of them were coming from. (the door was still in motion
    when he bumped into both of them). I later learned divorce proceedings
    started less than a month after that day...really sad if you think
    about it...
    
    ----- on a different note------
    
         Jens mentioned ideas to encapsulate an audience's attention
    during a performance. I currently play in a top40/rock club band
    and do a few things to include the audience in the nights performance.
    We'll have a twist contest,,,etc. What are some of the little extras
    other bands are doing in order to make a more enjoyable night for
    the patrons??
    
    Frank

    
    
    	Have you ever noticed no matter what place you play, no matter
    what kind of pop/jazz/avant/fused blues you do, there's always some
    fool in the back of the crowd yelling "play Freebird, man!"?.
    
    				rich
    

I play in a Latin band here in Puerto Rico which consist of a 
Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, Latin percussion, Drums & percussion, 
Guitar & Midi Guitar, Bass, two singers and me on the keyboards. 
We play what you might refer to Top-40 but in our case it would 
be Spanish Top-40 even thou we do play some non-spanish music. We 
normally play at dances (we hate to play for people who are 
eating) and volume level above Soft Rock, below Hard Rock (maybe 
that's why we don't play for people who are eating). 

Its been 12 years with the same band playing an average of 40 
weekends a year which is not bad considering that we all have our 
regular hobbies , excuse me I meant Jobs.

Audiences vary but normally are between the ages 18 & 35 and very 
demanding especially in the amount of songs and the time between 
sets. Normal working hours are from 10:00 - 2:00a.m. divided in 4 sets
    of 45 minutes with 15 minutes breaks.

    re 'toilet' experiences at gigs....

        	On this gig, we were using dry ice. The roadie had the great
    idea of having some fun with a slice of this ice. He put a little
    bit in the gents, wedged against the urinal. Here it was dry and
    thus non-smoking, until someone came in for a leak - against the bit 
    of ice. You should have seen:
	    	1)	the toilet,
	    	2)	his face.
    
    Jim Burke
    
    PS	The bit in the (club) manager's Coke wasn't as good !

Here's a gig I'll never forget...


It happened about three years ago.  The band played original pop/rock and
consisted of guitars (me), drummer, bass, keys, and lead singer.  We ranged
in ages from 19 - 21.  

Well, during that summer, we were experiencing a lull (no gigs).  The
bass players sister was one of our most loyal/enthusiastic fans, and she
came to us with promises of a great playing/paying gig.  She worked part-time
with an auctioneer, who specialized in high-ticket items (upper-crusty).  It
was the wife of this auctioneer who asked if we wanted to play (after talking
with the bass players sister)

What we heard:  There'll be alot of kids...they love rock 'n roll, you'll
                play for 3 hrs, informal party for the son of this family.

Reality: The wife of this auctioneer just became a citizen, and thought it
         would be a great idea to have an American 'garage' band play at
         her party.  She had not told her husband/guests beforehand.  
 
         The average age at the party: 45, musical tastes: Classical, 
         dress: formal.  Wow, this was gonna be fun.  

         Actually, the 'reviews' were mixed...ranging from the violinist
         (engaged with the NY Phillharmonic) "That's all original music...
         I like it, good job"..to one disillusioned guest "You don't really
         have to play another set, if you don't want to".  
   
         All in all, it was actually fun, and no one threw tomatoes.  We
         had some great food, played vollyball with some of the guests,
         and got payed pretty well.  But after that, we always made sure we 
         knew who our audience was (and no more 'managers'). 

    
    - Kevin

    I can't stop laughing - Freebird always seems to get requested no
    matter what is supposed to be happening or where we're playing (we used
    to play it, but, I'm not the type of guitarist who does much soloing &
    between me & the keyboard player screwing it up, we decided to put it
    out of it's misery).

    Years back, at Disney Land (California), there was a band from Indiana
    that had thier Bass guitarist wearing some sort of white gorrilla type
    suit (It actually looked real neat), covering him compleatly. I was
    going to ask the fellow if this was a problem, but he passed out
    mid-way thru the 1st set, so, I suspect that this works better indoors,
    out of the sun, in an air conditioned room.

    I talked to the members after thier set, and they said that they had
    been hired for the summer & had one of the most restrictive contracts
    that they had ever seen & that the bass player was under contract to
    wear the costume. They were planning on putting some small electric
    muffin fans in his suit. They were hired based on thier publicity
    pictures (The Bass player in particular) and a demo tape.

    This was the summer of 1978, anyone going to Disneyland might have seen
    these people (8 or 9 of them). They were playing in that stage that
    comes out of the ground, over near the big rocket (ride) that sticks
    up in FutureLand.
    
							    Jens

    re: .8
    
    Sounds familiar.
    
    My Top-40 band played EXACTLY one GB gig.
    
    We were called in at the last moment to do an "anniversary party"
    when the GB band they had booked ended up being double-booked.
    
    We explained that we were a Top-40 band a not a wedding/affair type
    band and they said "that's what we want, Top-40".
    
    We showed up at the gig, armed to the hilt with ZZ Top tunes, Guns
    & Roses, Michael Jackson, Gloria Estafan, etc and to our dismay
    discovered that this was a *40th* anniversary and the average age
    was about what you'd expect given that.
    
    Turned out that their idea of "Top-40" was the Dorsey Brothers,
    Glen Miller, etc.
    
    Our guitar player really freaked out.  Fortunately, our drummer was
    ultra-experienced (he had been a "house" drummer for Motown) and
    I just decided to try and have a good time and not think about it.
    
    We played ALL our "slow" tunes in the first set.   This left us with
    almost nothing.  I even resorted to lying: "We've had a request to
    play this (slow tune) again."
    
    The rest of the nite was mostly:
    
    	o Me playing tunes either by ear or reading out of a fake book
    	  with the band following along when possible
    
    	o By request I improvised a polka
    
    	o By request I played a Minuet that I hadn't played in about
    	  15 years!
    
    And you wanna know something really bizarre!!!
    
    I LOVED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT!   It was a real challenge and I
    felt we sorta met it.   It wasn't the best gig of my life, but it
    may have been my proudest moment
    
    Afterwards, they paid us and said "you guys were great".
    
    	db
    
    p.s.  You know what tune was the absolute HIT of the evening?
    
          You'd never guess it:  The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael
     	  Jackson.
    
          We played about 4 extra verses (which btw, required me to
          instantaneously loop the last verse on the sequencer which
          is not an easy thing to do on the ESQ-1.)
    
          Everybody was up and dancing, clapping their hands.  I think
          older folks really like to show that their not totally out
    	  of it.  You play something that they've heard a couple of
    	  times, and their up dancing "like the kids".

Re:.9
    
    Yes, I have played some of Beach Festivals which are very common
    now days and getting to be very interesting, Bikini, Wet T-shirt,
    Sufing, Wind Sufing, Vollieball, and other competitions. Plus
    un-interrupted live music for 8 to 10 hours including Rock, Salsa,
    Merengue and Calipso bands. 
    
    I just remember that on one of those concerts around 1970 I had
    a Hammond M3 with two Leslies 147 and everything was going perfectly,
    a lot of people having fun and dancing in the beach. Suddently I
    notice the people waving at me (I thought I was doing great ) then
    people started running to stage, guess what one of my Leslies caught
    fire because one the motors shoorted out.  I didn't notice it because
    there was a lot of barbecues around and another burning smell didn't
    worry me. Anyway the Leslie was completely destroyed but made a
    good barbecue place. 

    	About 10 years ago the band that I was playing in got hired
    to play for the deaf...no joke.  They were part of an organization
    that meet every 6 months. Apparently the deaf can feel the
    vibrations given off by the bass and the drummer. This gives them
    a feel for the beat and away they go. Anyway, the place that we
    were playing in was an old VFW Post in Gardner Ma. We couldn't have
    been 2 minutes into the first song when all the instruments went
    dead. The band had tripped a circuit breaker. I looked at the dance
    foor and all the people were still dancing... because the drummer hadn't
    stopped.      True Story
    
    Rick L.
                         
    Rick L.

    About ten years ago the band I was in used to play the Laconia
    State School (A home for mentally retarded people) for dress rehersals
    and a megar $50 for a 2 set night.
    
    These were, to say the least, interesting gigs.
    
    dbii "doin' the state school bop"

    I once played for a hospital for extremely learning impaired clients.
    I supposed to play for an hour, but they were running about an hour
    late with their own show, so when I came on while the clients did
    some activities in the auditorium at some tables, they left for
    lunch after ten minutes.  I kept playing because I didn't often
    get a chance to record my music on a steinway grand on metal with
    dbx cassette.  But it was disappointing because I wanted to see
    how they liked my slow repetitive things.
    But you can't expect feedback from them when most people never give
    any feedback at all.
    Tom

    This is sort of sad, but I had a debut of a very wild, dynamic,
    modular moog piece at college (lots of panned ringmodulation etc...)
    and there were a row of people from the local State Hospital there
    (for a cultural experience i guess). Anyway, one of the women in
    the group started getting upset when musical events and processed
    voices came out, and started to wimper loudly. I was nervous enough
    and couldn't figure out what to do, so I continued. Suddenly, another
    woman joined in and then finally they started screaming in fear,
    got up and ran out, followed by their chaperone. 
    I didn't know whether the music accomplished what It set out to
    or did I ruin someones week bigtime.
    

    
    
    One of the things that 5 years as a pro-musician (relative term)
    gives you is a quiverfull of unbelievable stories/anecdotest which
    bore the wife stupid at dinner parties but usually keep the guests
    entertained. Like the time when one of our female lead singers
    lost the top left half of a halter-neck dress and I had to put down
    my guitar and walk over and whisper in her ear to point it out. 
    
    Ground Swallowing..
    ...
    
    Or one of the things you get to do a lot is play in places we in
    the U.K. call "working mens clubs".. These are difficult to describe
    without actually visiting one but tend to be the haunt of the Northern
    Working classes at weekends. This is nothing to do with class..     
                                 
    We played such a gig once in Glasgow I think it was the Highfield
    Miner's Welfare where they have a fairly healthy taste for  soul,
    which was fortunate as this is what we mostly played. Let me say
    that if you don't get the audience in Glasgow then the audience
    gets you. 
    
    The same lead singer, this time fully dressed, used to do a
    particularily heart rending version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"
    with quite an interchange of Babeeeee,,,,, Babeeeee between me and
    she, just to show we really meant it. Now all these working men's
    clubs have a "concert secretary" who usually isn't interested in
    the music but get's a backhander(deal) from  the local booking agent
    and usually does a good imitation of Hitler on his "concert nights".
    
    Well during this final chorus of the said song as the singer was
    just about to drop to her knees for the last line. The concert
    secretary walked on stage took the mike of her (which had quite
    a bit of slapback added) and said.
                
    			Engage Glasgow accent...
    
    
    " Those of you who are getting the Parkhead Bus it's outside now....
    now... now.. now.... ow... "
    
                 
    				Well I always thought it was funny...
    
    
    					Paul.
    
    

    I too got "broke in" in working mens clubs, but this time in Barnsley
    which is set in the back and beyond of Yorkshire. 
    We'd done about three or four in this area an got what we thought
    was a real good gig at a place called "The King's Arms" (or so we
    thought. So We loaded up our Transit Van, struggled over the Pennines
    (hills that separate Lancashire from Yorkshire) with our gear and
    repotoire of Black Sabbath, Status Quo and the odd bit of Deep Purple.
    
    At long last we came upon the King's Arms and set up the gear in
    this huge hall, thinking Wow! were in the big time now.
    
    We started to realise that something was wrong when people started
    to trickle in dressed in D.J.s and the ladies in flowing gowns.
    The average age was about 40 (which seemed ancient to us then, back
    in the early 70's) and they certainly didnt look like they would
    appreciate what we had to offer.
    
    It was about then that the infamous "concert secretary" showed up,
    came upto the stage and shouted "OY! You there, what the bl**dy
    'ell do you think you're doing".  "Soundcheck", I replied.
    
    "Shove off" he said, "the D.J. will be hear soon and we don't want
    any of that Rock and roll noise 'ere".
    
    With that, we figured something was definitely wrong, and a quick
    phone call confirmed it. We should be at the King's Head and not
    the King's Arms.  The King's Head turned out to be a pokey little
    Pub 2 miles down the road, with barely enough room to swing a mike
    stand. It filled to capacity (about 50!!) with long haired, beer
    swilling students and we had the best gig of our short career.
    
    Needless to say from then on we double checked the venue..and then
    checked again!
    
    Ken
    

Well, I had my first gig in a long time on Saturday.  The only electric
instrument in the band was a Steinberger bass.  Friday night the local high 
school band director called up and asked if I could fill in on trumpet the next
night for the last showing of MAME in the pit orchestra, as two of their
players were not going to be their.  He offered to pay (of course) but I
declined (one reason was because I haven't played in ages and couldn't
take money for a garbage job -- which it didn't turn out to be luckily, but
the guy is an old friend...) and I decided to do it.  That night I got
the music, looked at it for a few minutes and blew some notes, as it had been
months since I'd last played (and a few years since I'd last seriously played).

It didn't turn out so bad, I was able to read most of it and it was fun.  
Luckily it was only Trumpet III so a few missed runs weren't really missed.

Not that it really has anything to do with MIDI/computer music.

Chad

    Last night I dreamt I was playing in a pickup band backing Miles
    Davis, in a gig at a hotel.
    
    karl

>    Last night I dreamt I was playing in a pickup band backing Miles
>    Davis, in a gig at a hotel.
    
    I thought that was you.  ;-)
    
    	db - on guitar

    
    
    I once played bass in a pickup band for George Melly.
    
    George Melly is the U.K. equivelant of Miles Davis...
    
    	Can't love ya cos ya feets to big !  
    
    						Paul.

    We (Generation) had an "interesting" gig the other week.
    
    We were doing a banquet for a very mixed crowd (agewise). We tried
    to offer a good mix of fast to slow. We started at 8:15 just like
    the contract said. After three songs they asked us to stop so that
    they could make speeches and have an auction. This took up an hour
    or so. 
    	When we finally got the stage back we had a serious loss of
    momentum problem, still we gor them all dancing. At the end of the
    set they started leaving in droves!
    	Next we found out that the bar had closed early (about 10:30).
    We cut our break short to no avail. People continued to leave. The
    function room staff began turning up the lights and putting up the
    chairs! We were all looking at each other in amazement. We knew
    we weren't that bad. 
    	When the last few people left we packed it in. We were supposed
    to play until 12:30, but we ended up being packed and out of there
    by 11:30.
    
    	Later we were able to find out what really happened. It turned
    out that everyone really liked us, *but the drinks were too expensive!*
    Most of the people took off for a nearby club to drink more cheaply.
    I'm still not sure if we should feel insulted or relieved.
    
    
    
    	During another gig we were doing the ever popular "Shout". I
    looked over to see our lead singer Cheryl being pulled from the
    stage by a drunk. Seems that he wanted to sing "Shout" along with
    the band and grabbed Cheryl's mike. Cheryl decided that she didn't
    want her expensive microphone in the hands of a clumsy drunk so
    she didn't let go! Now, Cheryl can't weigh more than 90lbs soaking
    wet, compared with this guy's 200lbs. It wasn't really a fair tug-of-
    war. I was getting ready to drop the keyboard part and "explain"
    to this "gentleman" that he shouldn't touch the singer, when
    fortunately, he gave up. Kinda made me long for the chicken wire
    covered stage that they had in the "Blues Brothers" movie.