Attendance Concerns

[Woodinblack]

16 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Me, alarm bells ringing, "A wedding? We can't do weddings, we're not a wedding band!!" 

 

We are not a wedding band either, but we have done a load of weddings and none of them have been bad, the last one was a bit faffy, but most of them have been really good. I guess we have just been lucky, the people who have hired us had seen us before and were happy with what they got.

[Muzz]

23 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

I felt sorry for one couple whose wedding reception we played. We were a pretty authentic Chicago blues band and they said we've got a gig, a wedding!!! Me, alarm bells ringing, "A wedding? We can't do weddings, we're not a wedding band!!" They said, Yeah it'll be great. The bride's father is a big fan of the band. We set up in a big barn in mid Surrey and played  the whole night to an empty room. As far as I could see, the reception took place in the car park!!

I've been on the other end of that - a friend's wedding, her Dad was paying, so it was a big country house hotel, verrrr posh, but he'd also booked a Jazz band, because he liked jazz. We all buggered off outside (some of us even crashed the wedding in the other wing, because it looked great) and stayed there, while her Dad, her Mum and a couple of their friends stayed in the room and tapped their feet.

[Dad3353]

We (The Daub'z...) are quite definitely not a wedding band; we play nothing to dance to (RATM, Muse, Space Oddity, Wish you were here, Radiohead and more...). We have a buddy with an events company; he often supplied the PA and did the sound for our concerts, with heavy use of subs, from his Disco days. He badly wanted us to play at his own wedding, despite our protesting its unsuitability. The day came, we were set up on the gravel track beside the main reception building/hall (so outside, using our own more modest PA...) When the time came, mid-afternoon, we were signalled to start up; after about ten minutes, the groom (our buddy...) came out to ask us to turn it down..! No, we were not loud (that's not our style, and we were playing outdoors...). We played a couple more songs and decided, together, that it would be kinder to everyone to knock it on the head, packed up and left, leaving the happy couple and guests to their revelries inside. We remained buddies, but got no more offers of 'function' gigs, to our relief. :-|

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

Weddings, on the other hand, is where you are the hired help and are often treated as such.

 

I can stand that for an evening. The extra money weddings pay helps ease the pain...

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

I've been on the other end of that - a friend's wedding, her Dad was paying, so it was a big country house hotel, verrrr posh, but he'd also booked a Jazz band, because he liked jazz. We all buggered off outside (some of us even crashed the wedding in the other wing, because it looked great) and stayed there, while her Dad, her Mum and a couple of their friends stayed in the room and tapped their feet.

 

Oh there are definately times in the set of a wedding that the audience have all buggered off outside, but then they are not there to see you. They come in later and there is cake!

[chris_b]

23 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Oh there are definately times in the set of a wedding that the audience have all buggered off outside, but then they are not there to see you.

 

We were on a wedding and the singer was playing his usual, blues/soul set and not going down well at all. He kept complaining about the disinterested audience. In the interval I took him aside and pointed out they were not an audience, but wedding guests and his second set should reflect that! Talk about the bleedin obvious!! He dug out some proper songs and the second set got a much better response from the guests.

[The fasting showman]

I'll light the blue touch paper....we've all done them...grim NYE gigs at social clubs to families! 

Tired kids up too late, families sick of the sight of each other having spent a fortnight together. The band has agreed to 3 sets, involving dredging up seldom played songs.

The attendance issue being; who will last until Auld Lang Syne, despite the cheap beer?

[tauzero]

34 minutes ago, The fasting showman said:

I'll light the blue touch paper....we've all done them...grim NYE gigs at social clubs to families! 

Tired kids up too late, families sick of the sight of each other having spent a fortnight together. The band has agreed to 3 sets, involving dredging up seldom played songs.

The attendance issue being; who will last until Auld Lang Syne, despite the cheap beer?

 

My old club band played at one social club NYE gig. We were in an upstairs room, children were only allowed downstairs. The room was half-empty. The consolation was that of the three raffle prizes, we won two (I got whisky, the guitarist got vodka).

 

I've played at weddings - only a couple with rock bands, rather more were with the ceilidh band. For the ceilidh band, we used to use sashes[1] for same-sex dancing pairs to determine which was "man" and which was "woman", but when we did one for a wedding between a gay vicar and his partner, we decided that we could finish up overthinking things.

 

[1] Against my advice, orange. And our dulcimer player wore a bowler hat. Fortunately we never played any Irish gigs.

[Gank Bass]

If nobody turns up, you're getting paid to practice 👍

[Supernaut]

Try playing in an originals band!

[chris_b]

42 minutes ago, Gank Bass said:

If nobody turns up, you're getting paid to practice 👍

 

No. . . . if the audience doesn't turn up you are playing to the promoter and trying to prove to him that you are worth booking again. . . . on a better night or in a better venue.

[Steve Browning]

I have no great insight. It appears to be in the lap of the gods, more often than not. 

 

In any event, you always play your best and treat every gig the same. A guy I know played Woodstock and treated every gig with the same mentality.