Ok. I feel like a rant. Maybe it's more like commenting on an observation but maybe I'll just call it a rant.
Have any of you bands out there noticed that business is down for a lot of restaurants and bars that we play at now days? I think it's very safe to say that the crappy economic times we're in is really putting a damper on most businesses involved in serving food and providing libations and live entertainment or even karaoke. Many bar owners I've talked to are somewhat concerned about the turnouts for bands and entertainers in their bars as well.
Let's face facts. $4.50 for a Bass Ale is a lot of money. $8-$10 for a glass of wine is akin to armed robbery. I will even go so far as to say that $3 for a Miller Light is next to gouging. It really is. I bought a 12-pack of Corona the other day for $13.00 and that's a little over $1 a beer. Restaurants and bars charge maybe $4. Gas is obviously very expensive. Eating out is expensive. Lately, I've had my friends all come over to my bar at home to drink, eat appetizers and have a great time to save money. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
People out there simply don't have the disposable income to pay cover charges and drink $8 glasses of wine, $4 pints of beer and $5 Jack and Cokes. Restaurant and bar owners are constantly evaluating the need for entertainment; be it live or karaoke. It's their bar or restaurant. Not ours. They can have entertainment or none at all. I know you've all seen the trend of virtually every bar now installing as many TV sets as the building framing can hold to provide distractions for their clientele.
Over the course of my babbling over the last year and a half, I have developed two pet peeves. I think both of these peeves affect how the establishment owners view us and the job we're doing for them.
Peeve One: Start on time. If you're supposed to start at 9pm, start at 9 pm. I can't even conceive of starting late unless it's the club owner who's causing the late start. Be punctual. It's good business. Even though most of us are just a bunch of schlubs, at least pretend that you have business acumen and start on time.
Peeve Two: Watch the length of your breaks. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a venue to see a band and I arrive during the break and the break is so long that I give up and leave. Breaks give customers a reason to leave ... an opportunity to transition to leaving and going home. Long breaks give people even that much more reason to leave. Bar owners pay for you by how much alcohol they sell. Keep the customers there, for crying out loud. I'm not saying take no breaks. Let face it, y'all. Although it takes a lot of skill that's developed over many years of performing to play for other people, it's not like we're hauling cinder blocks up there. 10-15 minutes is adequate. 20-30 minutes is simply giving your audience every excuse to leave. The audience leaves, the bar sells less alcohol. It becomes your fault. The bar owner starts re-evaluating his need for live entertainment. We all suffer. Remember: these venue owners don't HAVE to support live entertainment!
There you go. I said it. You may utterly disagree. You may believe starting late or taking long breaks is simply payback for those dates the bar owner cancelled you at the last minute for some odd reason and doesn't compensate you for a night you could have booked elsewhere. You may feel this is pay-back for the owners questioning you about why your fan base won't travel 30 miles to see you, get shit-faced drunk and drive 30 miles back home and risk DUIs. This isn't the 70s, although many bar owners never left the 70s.
Be professional. Dress professional. Act professional. Your band is a business. Run it like you care. Run it like you'd like to have repeat business. Give those bar owners every reason to have you back. It's their establishments. They don't have to let us play there. Especially during these troubling economic times.
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A lot of good advice and truthiness here, but I've noticed something else that should be said. You obviously keep tabs on who's playing where and an ear to the ground on how various clubs are doing. It seems to me that some of the clubs that have gone under or are doing badly or have abandoned live music have a lot of the same bands playing there before the inevitable end. Some bands have a knack for getting booked, whether it's because the members have been around the area forever and have connections, they're able to hand out slick and great sounding demos, etc, but can't fill a bar to save their lives. And many of these bands feel like they deserve X-amount of money because they've been at it for so long, or that's what clubs should be paying, etc. Face it, bands: if the owner isn't making money, neither should you. That said, I don't like playing for the door. There's too many variables involved: dingbat doormen, a club that has zero regulars and wants the band to fill it but won't put any effort themselves to promote their own shows, and even the weather. But in these tougher economic times, I can certainly see why more clubowners are turning to the door, and if your band is worth it's salt, you should try taking the show. If it works out well and they want you back, then maybe you can work out a guarantee since you've proven yourself.
Sorry about the rant. I just get tired of seeing the some of the same usual suspects dooming clubs and live music due to pigheadedness and greed. You don't deserve to be paid for your show; like any other job you should earn it. That's why it's called the music business. And if you're only doing it because you love music so much, then don't demand or expect to be paid a certain amount.
That said, yeah, there's plenty of promoters and clubowners that want the best bands for the cheapest price (music 'business', remember?), and if you're a decent act that's making money for the places you play, you deserve a percentage of that.
All I'm asking is that everybody- bands and owners- be honest about themselves and play fair, alright?
Now be cool.
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