I'm curious about the booking situation in many of the downtown clubs. Notice there are always 3-4 bands booked for the same club for what appears to be 1 hr sets. My friend says the clubs pay ~15% of the bar which usually amounts to peanuts. Not to say the ~$300-400 clubs pay for one band at other venues is decent pay either but it sure beats getting ~$50.

Why do the clubs do this and why do the bands put up with it. Seems either the bands don't have enough material for a whole night, or the clubs are really screwing the musicians, or a combo of both.

From what I hear ABQ has just about the lowest paying musician situation in America. The answer is to bus in drunks to ring the bar register and avoid DWI's. Hmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!

Why do we put up with it? Cause we love playing music dude. Fuck money, all it does is corrupt the authenticity of the songs you write, everything becomes forced instead of from your soul. (Damn that last line sounded like something a hippie would say but dammit it's true.)

We made ourselves a promise to never become a 3-hour set cover band. I think most bands on here have made the same vow. Plus, it's way more fun to play with other bands that are your buddies than to play at one place for 3 hours. Sure, the pay isn't as good, but you pack a lot more into your set. Any longer than an hour and you end up sounding like Phish, and we all know nobody wants that...

Right on Geoff, you pinko, flower-wearing, communist fucking hippie!! But he and Mr. mc are totally right. If it was about the money, then a cover band makes complete sense. For the Plague, our best nights are usually Burt's and Atomic. At Atomic, $60 is a good night, and at Tiki Lounge, a really good night for us is $100, but I think ol' Brian might have kicked down a few extra than what we were supposed to make. <sniff, sniff> God Bless the Tiki Lounge, God Bless Brian, and God Bless Black Maria!! Wait, I'm invoking the wrong deity...

I don't even know what other venues and other bands you are talking about. I'm pretty sure I don't go those places as a customer either. I would almost never watch a band longer than an hour, whoever they are. (The only ones that even come to mind are Sonic Youth in 95 and Kiss in 98) The longest my band has ever played is one and a half hours, and we were not too into it. But you are right, we have material for two hours, tops. Our songs are three minutes long, like the songs I like to listen to.

We almost always make over $100 a night. $100 for a half hour-45 minutes vs. $300 for three-four hours isn't unfair. You throw in free drinks from the bar and fans, smokes from the camel guy, maybe sell a few shirts, etc and I'm also avoiding the $50 I might have spent going out that night on top of it. I'm not going to be a millionaire or anything, but then I doubt any of us are.

Good answers all. If people are dancing and into a song, 3 minutes could be a bit short but its easy enough to improvise another 3 minutes if neccessary. I've played many 2 hr sets with all original songs and as long as you have musician stamina and heart its easy. Playing 3-4 hrs of cover songs definetly sucks wind, been there, done that. I was never in music for money, its not about that but it is nice to get compensation for hauling 1/4 ton of gear and playing your heart out. I still like the "bus in drunks" idea. Drunks dance and drink more and then the bars could bus em' home. hehe!

In general, you can make more money as a cover band. Playing casino gigs, or weddings, sexually alternative stuff like that.

Maybe we arent making out like kings, but at least there are a ton of shows going on all the time. It is so easy to get booked out here, and it's great to have the variety that we do.

quote:

It is so easy to get booked out here

Coming in as an outsider I must say it's really incredible, in the Boston/Providence area you are lucky to get booked once every 2-3 months. And there is only 2 or 3 Goodvenues to play at. I love being in a band here.

Well it really depends on the venue.

Most downtown bars pay 10% of the total bar take. Not 15%.

District has a "guarantee" system set up for anywhere from $50 - $250 plus 10% of the bar take. However, you must provide your own sound and they are very choosy about the types of bands they have play there. They will have bands play for the entire night as well (The Hammocks, Ryan McGarvey, Mucho Buddha) If District is charging a cover. You probably aren't getting all of that.

Now take Ralli's. We just pay 10% of the bar. However we have our own sound. If we do a cover, that means we trust the band that's playing that night. 100% of the door goes to the bands. But our security guys have specific instructions that if it seems someone is not going to enter because of the cover to let them in anyway or make them a deal if they're in a group. We'll be making some big changes to the way we run the live music/payment/promotions at the club too... so I'll keep you all posted on that as soon as we iron out the details.

As far as I remember, Burt's and Atomic are both 10%, and they never do cover charges anyway.

Launchpad is a percentage of the door? And Golden West is percentage of the door? I think. If anyone knows for sure by all means post it.

I'm not really sure as I haven't played those bars myself for quite some time.

Dude I say the shorter the set list the better! The shorter the songs the better. No one wants to watch a band for more than 30 minutes, and no one wants to hear a song for more than 3 1/2 minutes. Its just the way the world is these days we’ve all been brain washed with the MTV thought process, where you can’t pay attention for more than a short period of time. Everyones got ADD everyone needs antidepressants, blah, blah, blah…
Shorter the better!
We all love the old classic long drug songs from the 60’s and 70’s but truth is that will never cut it for a new band these days.

quote:

Originally posted by drumtiger:


Why do the clubs do this and why do the bands put up with it. Seems either the bands don't have enough material for a whole night, or the clubs are really screwing the musicians, or a combo of both.

A band that plays an entire night worth of material is either A.) A hippy jam band or B.) A cover band. Who the fuck would want to sit through that?

quote:

We all love the old classic long drug songs from the 60’s and 70’s but truth is that will never cut it for a new band these days.

i beg to differ

quote:

Originally posted by dr.thunda:

In general, you can make more money as a cover band. Playing casino gigs, or weddings, sexually alternative stuff like that.

Thunda...your wit is still unmatched by any other bass player I know on the scene (who goes by the name of a generic soft-drink).


I think this is a good thread. What I can say is that if you're hoping to make a living playing music (in a town other than ABQ) you should:

1. Play solo gigs (in a town other than ABQ) where the majority of your tunes are popular covers and the majority of your gigs are sexually alternative (to quote thunda)
1b. Give up spending any cash on drugs...including cigarettes and booze (unless it's free)
1c. Give up any and all hope of supporting a family
1d. Do not share (ever)
1e. Do not buy anything

2. Play in a cover band (in a town other than ABQ) where you screw the rest of your band mates out of money
2b. Give up spending any cash on drugs...including cigarettes and booze (unless it's free)
2c. Give up any and all hope of supporting a family
2d. Do not share (ever)
2e. Do not buy anything (ever)

3. Play in a cover band (in a town other than Albuquerque) that is booked 7 nights a week at a club owned by a philanthropist millionaire who happens to love your wicked rendition of "Radar Love".

4. Get famous already.

The way I see it, we could be making some partial supplemental income by playing regular four hour gigs where the majority of our material is not original. Personally, we would rather play for free so that we can create something original. If you plan on making serious money on this scene, or any other scene, by playing original music you may be in for a surprise.

I'd say that the best artists out there (past and present) are not concerend with money, but with expressing their own originality. Respect to all those out there who follow this path...which is pretty much every original band in burque.

Rock.

Five Minute Sin

quote:

A band that plays an entire night worth of material is either A.) A hippy jam band or B.) A cover band. Who the fuck would want to sit through that?

Drugged out hippies.

quote:

quote:
We all love the old classic long drug songs from the 60’s and 70’s but truth is that will never cut it for a new band these days.


i beg to differ

hahaha I was talking about the length of songs not style! my bad.

quote:

Originally posted by Five Minute Sin:
...I'd say that the best artists out there (past and present) are not concerend with money, but with expressing their own originality. Respect to all those out there who follow this path...which is pretty much every original band in burque...

An eloquent and very true statement.
Y'all know what's up, FMS. Respect to you .

Ween is a total hippy band

At least until we have enough original material to play for a few hours, I'm content to share the stage with other bands.

quote:

Originally posted by The Musk:
I would love to see three hours of music provided it's good, but I guess I'm part of the 50% of americans who actually reads a novel once a year,

Any song as long as a novel is too long.

why read novels when you have reality tv?