General Music Chat

I hate when that happens!

Glad to see you had a food time, & were enjoyed, though.

Yep, dancing is a good indicator that ppl like it!

You gotta play a lot of free shows when you're just getting established. Typically the soundman gets $75-100 off the top of the door, with the bands splitting the remainder based on draw. For example at our show Friday there were six (!) bands; we drew the most so we made the most. But a couple of the bands didn't make much because they only drew 10-15 people. Only play venues where your crowd would want to go and eventually you will get paid.

Jimmy,

The "rules" are a little different for the average cover band.

Bars have the mistaken idea that a crowd will follow the band around from bar to bar, so they expect our "draw" to fill the place. Maybe that's how it works with original acts, but - at least in my experience - it isn't how it works with bands like mine.

Mostly, the bar has a draw based on a tendency to book good bands. The regulars at the bar learn which are their favorite bands that play at that bar and will tend to show up on the nights when one of those bands are playing. But if that same band is playing at the bar five miles down the road, those people will just not go out rather than following us to the other bar.

The upshot is that you really need to play a bar two or three times before your draw starts to be a factor. Even then, it doesn't work if the bar itself doesn't develop a draw of its own.

So, we'll keep trying until we find the spots that work for us. And we haven't, actually, given up on this place. I'm going to work with the owner to see if we can get a little of the right sort of promotion work local to the bar next time we play.

Just gotta say this

We have a cover band here that plays for $2,350.00 for the weekend. They spend $600.00 on a bus and bring in 75 to 200 collage girls to the gig and bus them back. They bus them back in the morning and no cop worries. Do the math; 200 girls, 5 to 10 drinks each + they get the guys to drink more. They have a bar list of about 300 bars they play at all the time!.

So, RG, I have a friend who's in a cover band that doesn't play a note for less than $5k. It can be done. This was our *third* gig as a band. I was in a band some years ago that was dropping anyone who paid us less the $500 and we were considering raising that to $700.

So, was your point to just denigrate our efforts with your usual snarky nonsense? Or were you (for a change) making a positive comment on the possibilities that hard work can bring to a good cover band?

I just wanted to mention that the band that brought the second number of people Friday was a cover band. They had never played there before and were from some distance away, yet 34 of their fans made the trip. They were pretty cool too, they played "Ghostbusters" and "My Name Is" (Eminem) and some other offbeat songs. The crowd loved them, even though they were out of place.

That sounds like an interesting business-related idea, to me, RG!

Now, if only you could get 'the girls to lug the equipment!

34 of their fans made the trip

I have to admit, I have been in cover bands where fans did follow us from bar to bar and it's cool. But it's the exception, not the rule. Still, we're striving to be one of those bands.

This band you describe is either very good, or has been together for a while, or (probably) both. There are one or two bands around here that have a following like that. I'd love to be one of them.

But I stand by my statements about the bar being as important to the draw as the band. In point of fact, one of the bands I was in where fans followed us got us to stop playing a certain bar by refusing to go there anymore. Apparently, the bartender was consistently rude to our fans, in particular.

Synergy matters and we're still looking for it.

Yes the venue is as important as the band when it come to your fans showing up. There are some places we stopped playing because people just didn't like going there.

BTW, the other band was called Mr. Gould and had been together five years, nice guys too.

So, was your point to just denigrate our efforts with your usual snarky nonsense? Or were you (for a change) making a positive comment on the possibilities that hard work can bring to a good cover band?

There was no point, just that this band had a idea and it worked and has worked for may years.