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WHY LA CLUBOWNERS ARETOTALLY LOST AND SOME ADVICEFORTHEM FROM A PROFESSIONALMUSICIAN
by Dave Goldberg on Friday, January 6, 2012 at 9:53am
AS I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR GIGS LATELY, I’venever seen so many free and low paying gigs. Wellthe economy is bad, so I can understand that a littlebit. However, it is no longer good enough for themusicianto be willing to perform for littlecompensation. Now we are expected to also be thevenue’s promoter. The expectations are that the bandwill not only provide great music, but also bring lots ofpeople to their venue. It is now the band’sresponsibility to make this happen, not the clubowner.Just the other day I was told by someone whoowned a wine bar that they really liked our music andwould love for us to play at their place. She then toldme the gig paid $75 for a trio. Now $75 used to bebad money per person, let alone $75 for the wholeband. It had to be a joke, right? No she was serious.But it didn’t end there. She then informed us we hadto bring 25 people minimum. Didn’t even offer usextra money if we brought 25 people. I would havelaughed other than it’s not the first time I’ve gottenthis proposal from club owners. But are theremusiciansreally doing this? Yes. They are sodesperate to play, they will do anything. But lets thinkabout this for a second and turn this around a littlebit.What if I told the wine bar owner that I have a greatband and we are going to play at my house. I needsomeone to provide and pour wine while we play. Ican’t pay much, just $75 and you must bring at least25 people who are willing to pay a $10 cover chargeat the door. Now wouldn’t they look at you like youare crazy?
"Why would I do that"
they would ask?Well because it’s great exposure for you and yourwine bar. The people there would see how well youpour wine and see how good your wine is. Then theywould come out to your wine bar sometime.
"But I brought all the people myself, I already know them?"
they would say. Well maybe you could make up someprofessional looking flyers, pass them out, and getpeople you don’t know to come on out.
"But you areonly paying me $75, How can I afford to make upflyers?"
You see how absurd this sounds, butmusiciansdothis all the time. If they didn’t, then the club ownerswouldn’t even think of asking us to do it. So thissounds like a great deal for the club owners doesn’t it.They get a band and customers for that night, andhave to pay very little if anything. But what they don’trealize is that this is NOT in their best interest.Running a restaurant, a club, a bar, is really hard.There is a lot at stake for the owner. You are trying toget loyal customers that will return because you areoffering them something special. If you want greatfood, you hire a great chef. If you want great décor,you hire a great interior decorator. You expect theseprofessionals to do their best at what you are hiringthem to do. It needs to be the same with the band.You hire a great band and should expect great music.That should be the end of your expectations for themusicians. The music is another product for thevenue to offer, no different from food or beverages.When a venue opens it’s doors, it has to marketitself. The club owner can’t expect people to justwalk in the door. This has to be handled in aprofessional way. Do you really want to leavesomething so important up to amusician? This iswhere the club owner needs to take over. It is theirsuccess or their failure on the line, not themusician.Themusiciancan just move on to another venue. I’veplayed places where for whatever reason only a fewpeople have walked in the door on a Saturday night.The club owner got mad at me, asking where are thepeople? I turned it around on him asking the samething? Where are all the people? It’s Saturday nightand your venue is empty. Doesn’t that concern you?What are you going to do about it? Usually theiranswer is to find another band with a larger following.This means the professional bands get run out of the joint in favor of whoever can bring in the most people.Eddie Mechanic who has slaved all week fixing carsat the local dealership also plays guitar. Not very well,but he’s been practicing once a week with DoctorDrummer, Banker Bass Player, and Salesman Singer.Usually they just drink beer between rehearsing a fewtunes in Eddie’s garage, but this week they answer a
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