Last Nights Gig was paid practice

Pine Apple Slim

Pine Apple Slim

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Honestly I don't know why this place (in a town 30 mi away) keeps hiring us. Set up at 7. Huge dinner crowd, but mostly old fogeys like us. By our start at 9 crowd had thinned significantly, but the remainder seemed to be enjoying it. But we were told 2x to turn down. We complied, but really, we aren't that loud. By the middle of the 2nd set around 11, nobody left in the place but the band, our wives, and the bartenders. We soldier on thru set 3 playing to 2-3 stragglers who wandered in. I guess they are desperate to keep a crowd past dinner hr but a rock n roll band ain't cutting it. I guess we overdrove the customers hearing aids and they all went home to nap until their 3am pee. This place is a great restaraunt but they are dying as a club. Our hometown clubs don't fill up till 10:30 -11, and with all ages that drink and dance the night away. Oh well it's a paycheck.
They want us back in July, WTH.
Rant over.
 
Take the gig/paycheck while it lasts.
You may consider doing an acoustic thing with less players and start while dinner is still going on...you may retain more of the crowd. Then maybe try transitioning to an electric rock band after....just a thought.
 
You gotta turn down as the crowd thins out--less meat in the room means you need less sound to fill it.
 
Some places keep doing things the way they've always done them 'cause that's all they know how to do.

I've played to mostly empty rooms - not a lot of fun.
 
FWIW keep doing until the honeymoon is over. They must like you guys as they keep asking you back and that is a good thing.
 
When The Obscure80's first got rolling, we played a show at a very long-time institution of a local club, that back in the day was THE place to play, and extremely hard to break into for a gig. In recent years, the Gaslamp district downtown has become entertainment central and the clubs further out are struggling.

So our first gig went great, decent crowd, decent pay out. They liked us so much that they gave us a residency gig one Thursday per month. Pay out was based on paid attendance with no minimum guarantee. Well, trying to get people out to this place on a Thursday night was a tall order. Even well known national acts struggled to get decent crowds.

Our last show there (which prompted us to give up the residency) was to a crowd of 7 (not counting staff), 3 of whom were spouses. 3 hours of playing to essentially 4 people and a total pay out of $8.

$8.


For that $8, the five of us had to drag all of that gear from the studio, drive from all over the county, set it up, play for 3 hours, drag all that gear back to the studio, and then each drive back to our respective homes all over the county. Out til nearly 2AM on school night for $8.

The best part... we KILLED IT that night! Great fucking show that nobody saw.

:)

Sent from Crab Nebulae via reverse engineered alien technology
 
Thanks for the sympathy folks. It's all part of the gigging business. Jus needed to rant a bit.
Next show is a private function, guaranteed crowd. Then back to our fav watering hole where they love us:)
 
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