Spderyak
167 posts
Oct 09, 2017
4:11 AM
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Mostly I'm curious if you have ever refused to play at a location or for a group or a cause ?
It comes to mind since a while ago my wife and I were asked by a mutual friend to do a benefit for a mutual thing we all thought was good ..but not the location.
My wife said yes..I said no.
but before we got into it to much, I said wait a minute would those people even want someone like us to play there?
Turns out the answer was NO..they did not want outsiders or non members.
So we helped do the fund raiser at a different location.
Wondering if that has happened to you
or how much do you check on a place before you play there ?
ever have a song you refuse to play...?
folks don't need to be specific..can keep things general..just curious.
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Littoral
1529 posts
Oct 09, 2017
7:05 AM
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I said hell no Saturday. It's a regular happy hour thing we had to wrestle with the college football game at the other end of the club. Someone else was pissed off about what happened so I said my piece:
It was offensive. First, I love football and you might be able to find a bigger FSU fan than me but it'll be difficult. The issue was the insistence on having to hear the game. That was unnecessary. If I'm wrong about that I'd really like someone to explain why. You don't have to hear the game to watch and enjoy it. What's more is the fact that the crowd wasn't actually listening to it because THEY were so loud they couldn't hear it anyway. The audio was just background noise. We were told to wait until halftime and were fine with that. Hey, I get to drink and watch football. Then it became apparent that there were a lot of people who were there for the music. We did start at halftime and with the crowd having fun with the music we continued. Then the people watching the game turned it up so loud it was competing with the music so we quit playing. Again, they couldn't hear the game over each other AND they didn't need to. Could have had both (for everyone that was there) game on, band playing. We got paid anyway but the tips, which we really count on, were near zero. Not cool at all. Rant over.
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florida-trader
1204 posts
Oct 09, 2017
7:48 AM
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Littoral - And on top of all that - the Seminoles lost! Bummer. My wife is a Seminole. I'm a Gator. We lost too. A bad football weekend at the Halchak house!
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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LittleBubba
353 posts
Oct 09, 2017
9:20 AM
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The times I've been really tempted are when the House's favorite drunk insists on dominating the dance floor and falling all over the place and the bar manager won't put a leash on him (it's never a woman ). How many times does a guy have to fall over your speaker stands or monitors before the bouncers say something to him....?
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Steve Harvell
232 posts
Oct 09, 2017
12:18 PM
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Back when I was playing in Southern Edge we would do a lot of biker bars etc.....one nite a VERY drunk man knocked over both of my "Top Hat" amps...he had to lean on my shoulder to tell me he would pay for any damages, he could not even pay for his own beer...after that I would ask the bouncer to keep an eye on him or I would leave! No more problems..
Had to leave 2 blues jams over the recent years when guitar players would get up and play so loud that patrons would start to leave holding their ears...I stopped playing on both counts and left .
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jbone
2364 posts
Oct 09, 2017
1:24 PM
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I have played some dives, for some really pissy managers AND patrons. I didn't book it, and to this day I don't know why a joint will have a band come in if it's cross purpose to what they really want. In this case they had a trash disco dj coming in at 11 p.m. so we in effect opened for a dj. Could have been worse but it was a comedy of errors. Nobody brought the brain for the p.a. Lead singer had laryngitis but tried anyway and she sounded terrible. We started without the p.a. so I and the singer were singing through my Princeton and bullet combo. Manager harassed us regularly. Patrons kept coming over and yelling for disco tunes. We did get the p.a. going after 1 set but the gal singer was done. After the gig we were loading out and trying to get paid. Got paid but when we headed for our cars every one had one flat tire.
The next time the band leader told us we were booking in there again we pretty much refused. That joint was razed to make way for a new freeway, which was an improvement!
Another place we played there was a kid who just turned 21 there. He weighed about 400 lbs and it was not much fat. An ox to be blunt. Everybody in the place bought him shots. First set was great, then we went outside on break. When we came back in it was pandemonium. Table and chairs knocked over, our tip jar broke, pitchers and glasses and beer all over the floor. The whole crowd was trying to surround the birthday boy and get him outside. As soon as I saw what was up I got my wife behind me and stood guard at the front of the stage with a mic stand ready to do damage. Thankfully things quieted down. After the second set wife and I were sitting at a table and a guy leaned over and started bad mouthing the drummer and guitarist- both very talented black musicians who had paid many dues locally. I turned the tables on this bozo though. He offered to buy us a drink, so I yelled to the drummer and guitarist, "Hey what do you want to drink? This guy's buying!" Which he did. But I later found out this whole town was like a KKK bastion or something. Never went back.
We had a sweet duo gig at a place for a year, every month or so we went in and played roots and blues. A lot of folks liked us there and told us so, bought cd's hit the tip jar, etc. The place was a pub with a good menu and they fed us as well as paid well. Of course things change. Like Littoral's adventure it was about college ball. I had called twice prior to heading the 1 1/2 hour to the joint to make sure they wanted us and was assured they did. So we headed over that evening and I even checked again before we loaded in and set up. There were TV's all over the walls and they were all up loud on pregames and games. Wife hit one guitar lick to check volume and one of the managers came over and asked us to leave. Since the sports fans wanted the tv volume up. I gave him the LOOK and told him we needed paid for all the work they had had us do needlessly. He did give us half but that was the last gig at that place.
About volume. I won't even stay in the bar if it gets stupid loud. I won't sit in even for money if it's too loud. I like my hearing and my 12w amp won't keep up anyway.
We're totally decided as well, no more "exposure" or "tip" gigs at established restaurants or bars. Of course we will do street stuff here and there for tips but if a venue is making money we want our share too. The last one we tried looked good, owner was nice and all, but when we went in on a Sunday morning- a brunch gig- the head waitress, who was running things, gave us just plain grief over stuff we had no control over. So if we're getting paid we "might" take a little crap, but on a tip gig? No. She won, We packed up and left. I did message the owner later. She had been out that morning so didn't see any of the shenanigans. Defended her waitress.
We go in places with an open mind. We're even willing to do live 3 song auditions if needed. More often that not in recent months we've been hired on our confidence and have not had to audition but once. Most people you give a biz card to promptly forget it and never check your web links anyway, so to us either hire us or don't, and you can even hear us right now, but that's where our line is.
If Jolene does not like the looks of a place we don't even try to get a gig there.
There has to be a line drawn.
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Last Edited by jbone on Oct 09, 2017 1:31 PM
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BronzeWailer
2016 posts
Oct 09, 2017
2:29 PM
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We played a gig at a pub outside where they allow smoking. Spent 2-3 hours with 2-3 guys sitting near us puffing away. I've already decided I won't play such a place again.
One and a half hours one-way is my limit for driving to a gig. Unless we get multiple gigs in one location or a huge pay packet or a spot on a festival it isn't worth my while.
BronzeWailer's YouTube
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Goldbrick
1865 posts
Oct 09, 2017
5:45 PM
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We were asked to play at an Art opening on a weekday night in a very congested part of Miami with 3 days notice
The gallery was in a wing of a 5 million dollar private house==they said they couldnt afford $200 for 3 hours of music-- we passed
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Barley Nectar
1317 posts
Oct 10, 2017
6:54 PM
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We did a couple of gigs at an Italian club. We discovered that this was a Mofia hang out! The club members liked our show and tiped well. Then we were told where we could and could not play. We never went back.
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Oct 10, 2017 6:56 PM
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dougharps
1591 posts
Oct 10, 2017
7:46 PM
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I will play for charitable causes on occasion for little or no money, sometimes just a soft drink and food.
I sometimes play for too little or nothing at a supposedly paying gig, just for the joy of playing music with good musicians who I make sure get paid. I prefer to make reasonable money when possible.
I have played in nice places and in not so nice places, with good crowds, no crowds, and sometimes with drunk audience members making asses of themselves falling over themselves and sometimes into gear. These days I would probably decline the not so nice places, though you can encounter someone who is intoxicated on something and acting stupid about anywhere.
If I am aware of a big game scheduled to conflict with a gig I would decline the gig. I have had a couple of bad gigs due to big games preempting the band.
I decline playing for political events of any sort. I don't want to mix my music with politics.
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Oct 10, 2017 7:56 PM
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The Iceman
3374 posts
Oct 11, 2017
7:03 AM
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Only situation in which I've refused to play was on stage during out of control jam sessions....have stood there, given "nod" to solo, experienced WALL OF SOUND from jammers, shook my head "no" and left the stage.
I'm funny like that.
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The Iceman
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BnT
112 posts
Oct 13, 2017
11:36 AM
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I hadn't thought about this subject because the declinations have been scattered so far apart.
There's one loud,tedious,local,guitarist I refuse to play with at jams. Several other harp players have now followed my lead. He can transform any 3-minute blues into ten minutes of misery.
Have not "offered" to play at a couple of events only because the rest of the band wasn't interested in the particular charities (or playing anywhere for free).
There was a club/restaurant near Sacramento, CA that would arbitrarily cancel jams same day, not have jams for a month or two, then start up, but refused to post the jam on their website (so players weren't sure about going there). They were upset if it was poorly attended, unappreciative if you packed the place every week, and pay was marginal. I declined to take over the jam, thinking both about their management style and of Steve Freund's song, "...I got to get paid to drive, I need a dollar a mile..."
And there have been a couple of clubs (in two unnamed cities famous for their homicide rates) that I didn't think were safe. So I refused.
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BnT
Last Edited by BnT on Oct 13, 2017 11:51 AM
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