One thing everyone should keep in mind. Im sure where Santos lives there are not many places that you can crank up. I know in Memphis some of the storage facilitys cracked down on people using them. I remember a lot of bands and I remember auditioning for a lot of bands that practiced in storage facilitys, some of those cats actually lived there at times.
I know $700 sounds like a lot of money, but if everyone in a band is chipping in for rent then they are committed to whatever project you are working on. Ive been fortunate enough to have friends with extra space for us to practice. We had a friend for about 3 yrs that let us leave our equipment set up in this extra building. We paid his light bill, which was ussually around $150 a month. In return he got all the hanger on types coming over to party while we practiced. This was really the only serious woodshedding I ever did, but it made abig difference in my development or maybe my lack of development as a musician, thats debatable at times. I seem to regress sometimes more than I progress.
back to the rent thing, If everyone is paying rent then it probably makes people show up for practices cause they have a vested interest in the band. They have a couple of these facilitys in Memphis, that have practice rooms, studio, and performance halls for showcaseing the acts. I think this is a great idea in areas where you cant just crank it up.
"A winks as good as nod to a blind man"
