Andy
Honorary Member
Mini rant:
Ok, straight into the meat of it: We played at a new venue (for us) last night. I do all the band bookings, & I was contacted by this venue last year. The manager/owner said he'd heard good reports from other venue owners & wanted to book us. I gave him the same script that I give all new booking enquiries, "we're a rock band, not a function band. We produce a big full sound. Not loud, powerful. We don't do requests, we offer a show based on 70's & 80's rock songs." So, pretty clear you would think. He says, "that's not a problem, we've had rock bands here before", so, cool, or at least you would think so.
Anyhow, we get there & the first complaint from the manager is he's worried about how much gear we're bringing in (red flag already). We set up. & start the foldback & monitors sound check. No FOH sound. He runs over & complains that it's too loud, so I stop the guys, & take this manager politely to one side. I reminded him of the conversation we had at booking. After some questioning, it turns out that the nearest thing he's ever booked to a rock band was a duo playing Elton John covers with backing tracks. I offer to pull the gig, pay off, pack up, & go home. He panics & says it's ok, & really wants us to play. We carry on with the sound check, & I've got everything on whisper tickover setting, literally as low as you can get without switching everything off.
We open the first set with a brief keyboard intro. He rushes up to me as I'm about to hit the first cymbal & tells me it's too loud & distorted! WTF, distorted, yeah, right, & what the hell do you expect me to do about it from the drum kit?
We finish the first set, it goes down very well, the venue is almost full & his bar is crowded. I'm expecting him to rush over & complain again, but no show. So we take a 15 minute break & start the second set. Well FM, he does it again! He's bending my cymbals out of the way so he can stick his head through the kit to speak to me. He now tells me that it's much louder than the first set & very distorted (the only thing playing at this stage is a bloody sax!!!!). No settings changed from the first set BTW. We finish the night, second set goes down well with the audience, & we received some nice complements from a few audience members.
Now here's the icing on the cake, he comes over to me after a few minutes, says how much his customers enjoyed the act, but wants to introduce me to a friend of his who's a "live music expert" apparently. This so called "expert" dick then proceeds to pull every aspect of the sound apart, & even starts suggesting alternative material. Then he really pulled my string, he told me that "if you want to play loud, you should have brought a bigger PA, at least 1000 watts, maybe more, because your sound was distorted". "I have a friend who runs a professional sound company who has a superb 2,000 Watt system that's much more suited". Sensing this guy is totally full of it, I asked him what make his friend's professional system was, his answer "Berringer"!!!!!!!! By this time, my anger has turned to a combination of amusement & bemusement, I informed him that his friend's PA system is "hobby gear", that our monitor system is 2,000 Watts, and our FOH 7,000 Watts of top touring pro grade setup that wasn't even on tickover, & I suggested that "if you want to impress people, you should go find a band who haven't got a clue what they're doing", & promptly walked off.
The best of it is, when it came to pay time, the owner had obviously canvassed opinion from his customers, & was super keen to book us again. I thanked him for the money, & politely suggested he may wish to book a function band or duo in future.
I know there's some here who'll say, "you should be more flexible", or, "it's your job to do what the venue & audience ask of you", but I repeat, that's the job of a function band. Given it was a mixed audience who didn't know what to expect, I'd say job done. The venue was full, the bar takings excellent, & the floor filled with people having a good time. Not the best audience reaction we've ever had, but good enough to let us know we got it right for a good portion of them. We're not going back.
Ok, straight into the meat of it: We played at a new venue (for us) last night. I do all the band bookings, & I was contacted by this venue last year. The manager/owner said he'd heard good reports from other venue owners & wanted to book us. I gave him the same script that I give all new booking enquiries, "we're a rock band, not a function band. We produce a big full sound. Not loud, powerful. We don't do requests, we offer a show based on 70's & 80's rock songs." So, pretty clear you would think. He says, "that's not a problem, we've had rock bands here before", so, cool, or at least you would think so.
Anyhow, we get there & the first complaint from the manager is he's worried about how much gear we're bringing in (red flag already). We set up. & start the foldback & monitors sound check. No FOH sound. He runs over & complains that it's too loud, so I stop the guys, & take this manager politely to one side. I reminded him of the conversation we had at booking. After some questioning, it turns out that the nearest thing he's ever booked to a rock band was a duo playing Elton John covers with backing tracks. I offer to pull the gig, pay off, pack up, & go home. He panics & says it's ok, & really wants us to play. We carry on with the sound check, & I've got everything on whisper tickover setting, literally as low as you can get without switching everything off.
We open the first set with a brief keyboard intro. He rushes up to me as I'm about to hit the first cymbal & tells me it's too loud & distorted! WTF, distorted, yeah, right, & what the hell do you expect me to do about it from the drum kit?
We finish the first set, it goes down very well, the venue is almost full & his bar is crowded. I'm expecting him to rush over & complain again, but no show. So we take a 15 minute break & start the second set. Well FM, he does it again! He's bending my cymbals out of the way so he can stick his head through the kit to speak to me. He now tells me that it's much louder than the first set & very distorted (the only thing playing at this stage is a bloody sax!!!!). No settings changed from the first set BTW. We finish the night, second set goes down well with the audience, & we received some nice complements from a few audience members.
Now here's the icing on the cake, he comes over to me after a few minutes, says how much his customers enjoyed the act, but wants to introduce me to a friend of his who's a "live music expert" apparently. This so called "expert" dick then proceeds to pull every aspect of the sound apart, & even starts suggesting alternative material. Then he really pulled my string, he told me that "if you want to play loud, you should have brought a bigger PA, at least 1000 watts, maybe more, because your sound was distorted". "I have a friend who runs a professional sound company who has a superb 2,000 Watt system that's much more suited". Sensing this guy is totally full of it, I asked him what make his friend's professional system was, his answer "Berringer"!!!!!!!! By this time, my anger has turned to a combination of amusement & bemusement, I informed him that his friend's PA system is "hobby gear", that our monitor system is 2,000 Watts, and our FOH 7,000 Watts of top touring pro grade setup that wasn't even on tickover, & I suggested that "if you want to impress people, you should go find a band who haven't got a clue what they're doing", & promptly walked off.
The best of it is, when it came to pay time, the owner had obviously canvassed opinion from his customers, & was super keen to book us again. I thanked him for the money, & politely suggested he may wish to book a function band or duo in future.
I know there's some here who'll say, "you should be more flexible", or, "it's your job to do what the venue & audience ask of you", but I repeat, that's the job of a function band. Given it was a mixed audience who didn't know what to expect, I'd say job done. The venue was full, the bar takings excellent, & the floor filled with people having a good time. Not the best audience reaction we've ever had, but good enough to let us know we got it right for a good portion of them. We're not going back.
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Lost count of the number of times I was shut down. My first band - a garage band - was playing a private party in a space in one of our cultural institutions. After one song the director stormed into the place and I ended up playing our Deep Purple, ACDC and Black Sabbath covers with brushes lol
