Last night we played a 'night club', basically a big room with a bar at the back of a pub. We were to do 3 sets and somehow stretch thus from 8:30 to 'as near to one as you can get'. Thus was first time for me using my brother's old PA.
Plenty of room to set up. I got quite stressed by issues like a non-functional speakon on a PA cab and a monitor that had its power lead unplugged. Managed to set up four vocal mics with kick, snare and two overheads on the kit. Sound was rough we thought but was ok at front.
We negotiated a start at 9:10 and final set to start at 12:00. Place was weird with only 3 stools and a few tables. Had a modest number of people in by the time we started, say 35-40, and unashamedly went straight into Dakota which filled the dancefloor. Followed by White Room which still kept people going! That said as we went on some people left and others came in. What is and what should never be killed the atmosphere a bit... but we recovered. We ended up doing 50 minutes and audience seemed happy.
By the time we took a 35 minute break, we left with a fair number of people danving to a playlist through the pa, but came back in and the room was empty. Totally! Apparently the pub half had emptied too. We played a half a dozen songs to six people who came back in from outside, but no-one was coming in at all. Barman said this was only second time they had opened the back bar and the same thing had happened before. Also, their other pub, expected to empty about 11 and people move across - was virtually empty too. Basically it seems like there was hardly anyone about, although I think that not having any seating is a challenge if you want people to hang round for 4 ½ hours... I think they really need a dj if they are going to spread band sets out so much. And let the band go on much later.
We cut the second set, got paid and packed up just over two hours early.
Only three punters wandered in while we were packing up and the streets were virtually empty.
On the plus side we got a paid rehearsaland learned an awful lot about our kit, some songs to lose and some things to work on, and I got home by just after 1 instead of nearly 3. But still not a great experience.