General venue rant

mikyok said:
Speaking of crap venues and volume, the new thing here is silent stage gigs, I've had my first taste this year. If this is how gigging is going I'm pulling my shoot and watching the burning wreck go down.

To cut a long story short you have to DI the entire band (no amps on stage or acoustic drums) into their sound system which is a pile of crap on both times I've done it. They might let you have a couple of floor monitors which will sound better than what's coming out front.

Ever heard background conversation over your band? It's very strange! You can even have full conversations with each other on stage at talking volume.
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yeah...that is even happening at some metal shows around here!!! No stacks on stage. EVeryone brings in a backpack some modeling amp thing. All of the old fart metal guys love it because of not having to load as much stuff. I just can't get into it

Bo Eder said:
I’ve begun to flat-out ask people “why do you want a band if nobody wants to be bothered by the volume?” I may just stop playing and pack up if I get asked to turned down more than twice during a solo gig next time just to make a point 😉
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we had to ask that at a car show we played this summer. After the third song of the set, our leader just went straight up to the planner and asked if we could just pack up and go home since we were "in the way". He was told back:" oh no!!! Evereyone is loving the bands playing!!!" They ended up moving some of the tables to the back of the venue, but they still had to play on 1, and i used brushes (which I was using anyways) and sometimes nothng.

Granted, the average age of the audience was probably 95....
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
yeah...that is even happening at some metal shows around here!!! No stacks on stage. EVeryone brings in a backpack some modeling amp thing. All of the old fart metal guys love it because of not having to load as much stuff. I just can't get into it



we had to ask that at a car show we played this summer. After the third song of the set, our leader just went straight up to the planner and asked if we could just pack up and go home since we were "in the way". He was told back:" oh no!!! Evereyone is loving the bands playing!!!" They ended up moving some of the tables to the back of the venue, but they still had to play on 1, and i used brushes (which I was using anyways) and sometimes nothng.

Granted, the average age of the audience was probably 95....
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Well, otoh, it’s good you played for people who probably can’t get out anymore. When I have an older crowd I try to be cool. I remember as my parents got older they just stopped going out and I see so many older folks just get forgotten by their families - so I’m sympathetic. But the under 50 crowd does not get a pass 😉
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
yeah...that is even happening at some metal shows around here!!! No stacks on stage. EVeryone brings in a backpack some modeling amp thing. All of the old fart metal guys love it because of not having to load as much stuff. I just can't get into it
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Amp mods and electric drums at metal gigs, wow! That's gonna sound terrible

You can't beat a great sounding backline, whatever genre on line of work you're in!
 
Bo Eder said:
Well, otoh, it’s good you played for people who probably can’t get out anymore. When I have an older crowd I try to be cool. I remember as my parents got older they just stopped going out and I see so many older folks just get forgotten by their families - so I’m sympathetic. But the under 50 crowd does not get a pass 😉
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yep...it was actually not too bad once we got that initial thing figured out.
 
Bo Eder said:
I have a few heart-wrenching gigs under my belt. Like playing for patients in the terminal hospital ward, retirees in a home, or at an orphanage. It changes you 😢
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so, the trumpet player in my jazz band died suddenly last summer....we played his celebration of life ceremony on request of his wife....that was heavy...it was too soon to the loss for me

pre COVID, that same jazz band had a standing gig at a retirement center here in town as well. It was honestly a blast b/c the people loved it so much. There were many times where I would let an ex-drummer resident play drums on a song or two. Was so cool to see their eyes light up!!!
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
so, the trumpet player in my jazz band died suddenly last summer....we played his celebration of life ceremony on request of his wife....that was heavy...it was too soon to the loss for me

pre COVID, that same jazz band had a standing gig at a retirement center here in town as well. It was honestly a blast b/c the people loved it so much. There were many times where I would let an ex-drummer resident play drums on a song or two. Was so cool to see their eyes light up!!!
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One of the reasons I love playing places like that. Otherwise a lot of these people wouldn’t see anything or anybody. I was so changed after I did my first terminally ill hospital ward. I had to ask a nurse how they did it every day and many of them just know that if they didn’t do it, these patients would have even less human contact than they already do. I definitely do not take my life for granted.
 
Bo Eder said:
One of the reasons I love playing places like that. Otherwise a lot of these people wouldn’t see anything or anybody. I was so changed after I did my first terminally ill hospital ward. I had to ask a nurse how they did it every day and many of them just know that if they didn’t do it, these patients would have even less human contact than they already do. I definitely do not take my life for granted.
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yep...makes me not take my life, and my health for granted either.

and my wife works in our big childrens hospital here in town, and she sees a lot of negativity among humans on the other end of the life spectrum as well...don't know how she does that either
 
I find it astounding that some places are open as long as they are, because the people who run many of these clubs share the same brain. They just think they'll buy some random place and watch the money roll in--they really believe that--and they are generally astounded when they find out that it's not the case. It helps everyone when the load-in/out is easy. Having to wait for customers to leave so that a stage can be set up, things like that are just idiotic. And some of those places are NOT safe in case of fire or emergency--it's amusing to wonder which building codes have NOT been violated.

Even the old Cutting Room in NYC had NO backstage area. You'd think an actor like Chris Noth, who owned the place, would have not let something like that happen.


Dan
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
well, I played CBGB's once...and very few places were as much of a logistical cf as that place

we used to play a place in Pittsburgh that only had one, 2 story flight of stairs to load in and out of, AND that is how people got into the club

and then there was every punk house I ever played in
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NYC punk clubs = breaking your kit down on the sidewalk outside the club...
 
there is a venue here that has had the Rolling Stones and national acts over the decades. They made an upstairs venue as well and its about 3 stories up ( above the existing one with high ceilings) with narrow stairs that are a straight shot up, no landings. Try humping your gear up that, it sucks when you are half way up and someone starts to come down, its narrow. then you come out as far away as possible to the stage!
 
The stories I could tell... I feel like in the past 20 years of playing gigs I've come across every kind of venue.
- The bar with only one entrance and no place for bands to stage gear, but only 10 minute changeovers
- The basement bar with a narrow set of stairs
- The outside stage with no cover (bonus points if it's a flatbed trailer)
- The three story walkup with no elevator and public parking three blocks away
- The high crime neighborhood where two people stand by your car as you're loading and unloading for 'security'
- The bar where there's fifty Harleys parked outside, but then everyone helps you load in and out
- The bar where there's twenty Mercedes parked outside and no one raises a finger to help, or even holds the door open
- The place where they want you to play five hours in the broiling sun but has no food or drink
- The festival where the stage is plywood laid on uneven ground with one extension cord for the whole band
- The fundraiser where the stage is big enough for maybe two of your guitar players to stand if they really like each other
- The bar where the whole stage is maybe ten feet square (people in my area use this stage as a unit of measurement)
- The bar where in order to get to the restrooms you have to walk through where the band is set up
- The backyard party where there's a strict noise ordinance
- The corporate function held in a cavernous open room with zero acoustic treatment
- The RV convention where the average age of the audience is nearing triple digits and they only want to hear Hank Williams Sr
- The bar where the band is stuck in a corner surrounded by head-high paneling with a six-foot-wide entrance
- The bar where "you have to use their PA" which is one of those Bose things with the stick looking speaker coming off the base - with four inputs

I could go on and on...
 
alparrott said:
The stories I could tell... I feel like in the past 20 years of playing gigs I've come across every kind of venue.
- The bar with only one entrance and no place for bands to stage gear, but only 10 minute changeovers
- The basement bar with a narrow set of stairs
- The outside stage with no cover (bonus points if it's a flatbed trailer)
- The three story walkup with no elevator and public parking three blocks away
- The high crime neighborhood where two people stand by your car as you're loading and unloading for 'security'
- The bar where there's fifty Harleys parked outside, but then everyone helps you load in and out
- The bar where there's twenty Mercedes parked outside and no one raises a finger to help, or even holds the door open
- The place where they want you to play five hours in the broiling sun but has no food or drink
- The festival where the stage is plywood laid on uneven ground with one extension cord for the whole band
- The fundraiser where the stage is big enough for maybe two of your guitar players to stand if they really like each other
- The bar where the whole stage is maybe ten feet square (people in my area use this stage as a unit of measurement)
- The bar where in order to get to the restrooms you have to walk through where the band is set up
- The backyard party where there's a strict noise ordinance
- The corporate function held in a cavernous open room with zero acoustic treatment
- The RV convention where the average age of the audience is nearing triple digits and they only want to hear Hank Williams Sr
- The bar where the band is stuck in a corner surrounded by head-high paneling with a six-foot-wide entrance
- The bar where "you have to use their PA" which is one of those Bose things with the stick looking speaker coming off the base - with four inputs

I could go on and on...
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You hit a lot of classics there. How about the gigs where the bar owner says nothing but "TURN IT DOWN!" all night, even when you've turned everything down almost to zero--and you show them it's one notch above OFF. Lesson: once you're "TOO LOUD", you will always be so, no matter what you do. I really and truly believe that there are some bar personnel who only know those two words--and are still chanting them incessantly to this day, even if no one is there.


Dan
 
DrumEatDrum said:
Neither do most of the major clubs in Hollywood.

I've never quite understood how the Whiskey Ago-go became the legendary club it is given when a band is done, they open a side door and throw all the equipment out into the street. And make artists pay for their own parking!
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I'll add one to that Hollywood list. The Rainbow Room. The restaurant area is fine (we didn't play there). UPSTAIRS was where the band plays. You have to load from an area to the side (parking car later) and go up not-so-wide stairs that turn at one point. Band sets up and plays on a different level than those who are watching. A total drag if Sunset is busy.Really don't know how this place became a place to play. Heard the pizza is good. :p
 
Shedboyxx said:
I'll add one to that Hollywood list. The Rainbow Room. The restaurant area is fine (we didn't play there). UPSTAIRS was where the band plays. You have to load from an area to the side (parking car later) and go up not-so-wide stairs that turn at one point. Band sets up and plays on a different level than those who are watching. A total drag if Sunset is busy.Really don't know how this place became a place to play. Heard the pizza is good. :p
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Dang, this reminds me of the first time my band played CBGB's. We were booked on a Sunday night to prove that we could draw, then our second gig would be on a Friday or Saturday. We did OK, so were booked on a Saturday. We get there and begin bringing in stuff, then the guy says "Noooo...you're next door!" Next door was a place for people to read their poetry, it was all glass and painted concrete; the PA was definitely not for a rock band, and it was a terrible gig. That was 32 years ago, seems like yesterday, or more like it was seared into my brain.


Dan
 
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Most of the smaller venues I’ve played have troublesome load-in / out situations, bigger venues generally have large service corridor and rear entry / exit ramps etc. Others comments are spot on stairs to basements and or lofts with steep stairs are a pain. I’ve also played and then packed up taken half my kit on a trolley only to find my remaining cases used as a make shift drinks table. Fortunately, hardcases really are spill proof.
 
equipmentdork said:
You hit a lot of classics there. How about the gigs where the bar owner says nothing but "TURN IT DOWN!" all night, even when you've turned everything down almost to zero--and you show them it's one notch above OFF. Lesson: once you're "TOO LOUD", you will always be so, no matter what you do. I really and truly believe that there are some bar personnel who only know those two words--and are still chanting them incessantly to this day, even if no one is there.


Dan
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I've been in situations like this where we finally asked the owner why he booked a rock band in the first place if volume was that much of an issue. We cut a deal and left.
 
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