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Post by infant on Jul 22, 2021 23:34:12 GMT
Have actually turned down a couple offers this week. One was at a greatly-reduced rate and the other was for free. Geez - it's not like there's been a lot of money in gigging these past years but the idea that we've missed it so much we'll do it for nothing (or next-to) is just crazy. If anything, my time has become much more valuable to me. Stick to your guns and don't race to the bottom. I won't even field the band if they can't hit a minimum rate and I will never ever play for free without a DARN good reason. The only free gig we’ve ever done was a charity gig, many, many years ago. We also have a minimum price that we charge and “if they don’t wanna pay, we don’t wanna play”. I’m waiting to hear from the local legions as some are starting to open up for outdoor patio gigs
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Post by Die Bullen on Jul 23, 2021 0:04:43 GMT
I got to the point where if they only offer so much I simply drop musicians.
One place called me recently and they said they wanted a band of 4 and we were supposed to play Sousa marches, etc. I told the guy flat out, Sousa marches are written for 120 piece bands. We spent a very long time getting it to work with 5 musicians. You want me to play Sousa marches with 4 guys and we'd have to do it without a drummer- if you are happy with that we'll do it, but any song that has a drum solo (Like Semper Fidelis) would have to fall out of the program.
It is also very difficult for us to play our 60's program without drums. How can I play Hawaii 5-0 without the intro? That's like playing Sing Sing Sing without the Jitterbug intro.
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Post by laristotle on Jul 25, 2021 11:56:58 GMT
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Post by Die Bullen on Aug 22, 2021 12:04:18 GMT
Strange time for musical bookings for us right now. New gigs are still coming in for Oktoberfest season, but we got our first cancelation due to covid. I hope it isn't the beginning of a larger trend
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Post by highdeaf on Aug 22, 2021 15:54:19 GMT
Things were looking up in mid-June out here. People were finally getting vax'd in Canada and we thought that would be the light at the end of the tunnel. My 3-piece played a barn party (just a 1/2 hour) in early July and then I took a trip to the prairies. We played my backyard gig in late July and by then, the C19 numbers were back up again. Bars were already hurting from the previous year, just as they started to get back to a reasonable financial footing, Wave 4 came along and pushed everything back.
We carefully played an outdoor party last weekend - and noticed a few regulars not there. Turns out everyone (6 or 7 guys) in this drummer's jam space got C19 and have had to isolate. He invited me a few times this spring (I used to go quite regularly to his jams a couple years ago) but I declined because of Covid. He was a bit "what are you worrying about". Well, that's what I was worrying about. Delta is a bugger, by the looks of things.
No signs of gigs in the near future, as the virus continues to spread, regardless of vaccinations. Bars just don't have the business to justify it, all the regular places we used to play aren't paying bands right now. If anything, they are hosting jams, which seems to only bring money from the musicians who show up to jam. Funny, for years I paid for booze to watch bands play --- and now they want to me to pay for booze to play.
My previous 5 piece band gigged 30-40 times a year in 2015 - 2018. The band folded at the end of 2018 (NYE was our last gig) and I started a new 3 piece band in mid-2019. We played a few sets in the second half of 2019 and were just ready to start booking stuff when C19 started (in fact, I watched my bassplayer play his last gig with his previous band on NYE 2019). Three weeks later I was hearing about this virus in China. Two months later, the NBA cancelled their season and the rest is history. Maybe 2022 will be better.
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Post by Die Bullen on Aug 22, 2021 16:36:24 GMT
Things were looking up in mid-June out here. People were finally getting vax'd in Canada and we thought that would be the light at the end of the tunnel. My 3-piece played a barn party (just a 1/2 hour) in early July and then I took a trip to the prairies. We played my backyard gig in late July and by then, the C19 numbers were back up again. Bars were already hurting from the previous year, just as they started to get back to a reasonable financial footing, Wave 4 came along and pushed everything back. We carefully played an outdoor party last weekend - and noticed a few regulars not there. Turns out everyone (6 or 7 guys) in this drummer's jam space got C19 and have had to isolate. He invited me a few times this spring (I used to go quite regularly to his jams a couple years ago) but I declined because of Covid. He was a bit "what are you worrying about". Well, that's what I was worrying about. Delta is a bugger, by the looks of things. No signs of gigs in the near future, as the virus continues to spread, regardless of vaccinations. Bars just don't have the business to justify it, all the regular places we used to play aren't paying bands right now. If anything, they are hosting jams, which seems to only bring money from the musicians who show up to jam. Funny, for years I paid for booze to watch bands play --- and now they want to me to pay for booze to play. My previous 5 piece band gigged 30-40 times a year in 2015 - 2018. The band folded at the end of 2018 (NYE was our last gig) and I started a new 3 piece band in mid-2019. We played a few sets in the second half of 2019 and were just ready to start booking stuff when C19 started (in fact, I watched my bassplayer play his last gig with his previous band on NYE 2019). Three weeks later I was hearing about this virus in China. Two months later, the NBA cancelled their season and the rest is history. Maybe 2022 will be better. I'm really hoping that I can wrangle some outdoor brass caroling gigs in December. We usually play for several towns and last year pulled the carpet from under us during the holidays, one of our worst Decembers on record. Still trying to hang on to the bookings we have. You are right the numbers are bad despite vaccinations, luckily there isn't the panic in the air like last April
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Post by highdeaf on Aug 22, 2021 16:50:23 GMT
I'm really hoping that I can wrangle some outdoor brass caroling gigs in December.
Sorry. 'Brass' and 'December' triggered some long-idled neurons and an old saying about monkeys, brass balls and cold.
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Post by Die Bullen on Aug 28, 2021 16:54:48 GMT
Well here we go again... this week 2 of our concerts were canceled due to covid, I'm sure these are the first of many more cancelations, just in time for Oktoberfest season, which is our busiest time of the year.
Luckily our concert today is still a go, so at least that's something...
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Post by infant on Aug 28, 2021 23:09:19 GMT
I sent an email out to the guys in my band to see if they want to get together and jam now that some bars are opening up with entertainment and holy cow, these guys are still petrified and don’t think we should get together until 2022. They were shocked that I went to watch a band play at a pub last week. They’d like to get together for a coffee if we can do it outside. We are all vaxed so I don’t understand the fear. I know that we can still be infected but we are still pretty much keeping safe and masking. The bass player is fine although his wife is not 100% sure that we should be jamming. It’s the drummer, keyboard and sax player that are adamant.
Am I taking this pandemic too lightly now that I’m vaxed? I just feel that if we still maintain the 6 ft distance from each other while jamming, we should all be fine. We’ve got to come out at some point, this pandemic won’t go away anytime soon and probably won’t be eradicated for years. The guys in the trio that I saw at the nursing home yesterday want to get together with me to jam in the next couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to that but I’d really prefer to play with my regular guys.
I’m tired and I wanna play!!
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Post by laristotle on Aug 28, 2021 23:20:41 GMT
I sent an email out to the guys in my band to see if they want to get together and jam now that some bars are opening up with entertainment and holy cow, these guys are still petrified and don’t think we should get together until 2022. They were shocked that I went to watch a band play at a pub last week. They’d like to get together for a coffee if we can do it outside. We are all vaxed so I don’t understand the fear. I know that we can still be infected but we are still pretty much keeping safe and masking. The bass player is fine although his wife is not 100% sure that we should be jamming. It’s the drummer, keyboard and sax player that are adamant. Am I taking this pandemic too lightly now that I’m vaxed? I just feel that if we still maintain the 6 ft distance from each other while jamming, we should all be fine. We’ve got to come out at some point, this pandemic won’t go away anytime soon and probably won’t be eradicated for years. The guys in the trio that I saw at the nursing home yesterday want to get together with me to jam in the next couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to that but I’d really prefer to play with my regular guys. I’m tired and I wanna play!! Our band has been rehearsing since last year Sept. We're not paranoid about this at all. The only reason that we took a break is because the drummer, whose basement we use, needed to set an example to his daughters about why they couldn't see their boyfriends. lol
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Post by Die Bullen on Aug 28, 2021 23:57:17 GMT
I sent an email out to the guys in my band to see if they want to get together and jam now that some bars are opening up with entertainment and holy cow, these guys are still petrified and don’t think we should get together until 2022. They were shocked that I went to watch a band play at a pub last week. They’d like to get together for a coffee if we can do it outside. We are all vaxed so I don’t understand the fear. I know that we can still be infected but we are still pretty much keeping safe and masking. The bass player is fine although his wife is not 100% sure that we should be jamming. It’s the drummer, keyboard and sax player that are adamant. Am I taking this pandemic too lightly now that I’m vaxed? I just feel that if we still maintain the 6 ft distance from each other while jamming, we should all be fine. We’ve got to come out at some point, this pandemic won’t go away anytime soon and probably won’t be eradicated for years. The guys in the trio that I saw at the nursing home yesterday want to get together with me to jam in the next couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to that but I’d really prefer to play with my regular guys. I’m tired and I wanna play!! Our band has been rehearsing since last year Sept. We're not paranoid about this at all. The only reason that we took a break is because the drummer, whose basement we use, needed to set an example to his daughters about why they couldn't see their boyfriends. lol Our band only took 3 covid related breaks from rehearsal during the pandemic. First was in March 2020 because the trombone player's father died rather suddenly from covid. Then we needed another hiatus because the trombone player got covid late last September. The final one was when we all got covid after new years day.
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