Got a busy week ...

Weekend warriors or full-timers, if you perform live we want to hear about it!
Post your pics or videos, tell us about your gear and how you set it up! (or how that red head jumped up on stage just as your wife walked in) Every gig has a story please share them here.
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Lt. Bob
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Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

I have 6 gigs this week .... Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri and 2 on Saturday
I think I'll do a pre and post gig report on each as the week goes on just to show ya'll the life of a journeyman musician.
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Armistice
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Armistice »

Lt. Bob wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 7:14 pm I have 6 gigs this week .... Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri and 2 on Saturday
I think I'll do a pre and post gig report on each as the week goes on just to show ya'll the life of a journeyman musician.
Please do - not being a journeyman musician myself, I'm always really interested in the mechanics of actually making a living doing it.

Tried it once, hated it.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by vomitHatSteve »

Yeah! That'd be cool.
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rayc
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by rayc »

Diary of a Guitarslinger.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

TUESDAY
OK .... technically right now it's Monday but tomorrow is the first of the week's gigs and I may as well do Tuesdays' prep report tonight which will give me more free time tomorrow for the actual gig stuff.

I'm playing a party at the Halifax Yacht Club.
I looked at the 'contract' and I play 5-9 ...... I'll still pick up the phone tomorrow and confirm that because people are stupid as shit and will change the time without it occurring to them that they should tell me.

BTW, I put 'contract' in parenthesis because I just laugh at these places that want a contract. It's stupid ..... we're talking 200 bucks here .... no one's taking anyone to court over $200 ..... cost more than you'd win.
For local yokel musicians a contract means absolutely nothing.

Anyway, it's 5-9. Now ..... what kind of gig will it be?
One of my things is the huge repertoire of tunes I play and the variety.
I can play twangy country all night long .... or jazz all night long ..... or soul all night long .... or classic rock or reggae ..... a lotta places like me to go from Merle Haggard to Miles Davis to ZZ Top ..... my list is around 650 songs currently ..... at some point in this thread I'll put up the most current version .... so some like a wide variety.
Sometimes though, they want a particular style and I have to figure that out without counting on coherent requests by the audience.
The most important thing for me is to figure out what music do they really like.

When they called me they said, "Now this is Halloween but we don't necessarily want a Halloween party per se."
What does that mean? I'll have to be on the watch ..... it might mean they're a buncha bible thumpers and I'd best play real laid back stuff and avoid any evil Halloween references ..... OTOH .... they could be full of crap and everyone BUT them wants spooky stuff.
I'll just have to figure it out in real time ..... "OK, they hated that one ...... let's try ..... "
I'm pretty good at it but the first 30 minutes are intense as you try to find the stuff that'll get you rehired.

Also, I'm not totally sure where I'll be.
I have played for them a few times and sometimes they have an outside covered area they use, while othertimes it's upstairs indoors.
Usually if it's inside the room's so live you have to play at inaudible levels ...... I don't like that very much.
That's the kind of gig I'll find myself going, "This Sucks" ...... playing so soft you can't even sing because your normal voice is too loud ....... but I don't want to get ahead of myself ..... I have absolutely no idea what kind of gig it's going to be so I'll just have to wait and see..

I basically use the same gear for all gigs ... Mackie 808M powered mixer ... 2 Peavey PR15s ( total crap speakers but lightweight ) .... Roland XP-60 keyboard ... sax, git, Digitech 360 modeler .....
So I'll get up tomorrow around 9am .... change the strings on my Stinnett ... (one broke Sat so it's time ) and call up there to make sure of the time.

If it is 5-9, I'll leave the house about 3pm ...... rather, I'll intend to but it'll actually be more like 3:20 ..... it's a 45 minute drive so I'll get there about 4 ...... I'll jump out of the truck and in a blur, like stop motion photography of a band setting up, I'll get set up and ready to play JUST BARELY IN TIME!

I'll play 2 hours ...... take one ten minute break ..... and then play another two hours ...... teardown will take 45 minutes .....driving home another 45 ..... I'll get home anywhere from 10:30-11 ....... and I'll let you know how it went tomorrow night.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Greg_L »

Lol. Those "contracts" are friggin stupid. I can see why U2 might need a performance contract, but for us nobodies, they're dumb. We sometimes have them too. The main thing for us is the club will want us to not play anywhere else for like 2-3 weeks before and after. It's a non-competition clause or some stupid shit like that. Fuck that. Houston is a big city and no one cares. People will go to shows close to them.

For example - We have a big show on Nov 30th and the club doesn't want us playing anywhere else in November. This club is also almost in fucking Galveston. We have a potentially bigger show on the 18th way up on the north side of Houston - at least an hour drive from the other club. Guess what, we're doing both. Eat a dick. There's no competition. Those Galveston people are not going to drive to the north side to see us and vice-versa anyway.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

Greg_L wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:39 am Guess what, we're doing both. Eat a dick.
Bwahahahahahaha!

That's my basic position!
:like:

:lollers:
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by vomitHatSteve »

Lt. Bob wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 1:53 am no one's taking anyone to court over $200 ..... cost more than you'd win.
IANaLb... in small claims court (without a lawyer), you'd probably come out ahead, but it would take a few hours of filing paperwork and showing up to a court date. (Got a cellist friend who apparently has to do this a lot)
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

I suppose but I've actually never not been paid for a gig except when I was 18 and the business was handled by someone else.

I hear of it happening but it never happens to me ..... I guess I'm scary looking or sumthin'
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by rayc »

Arguing restriction of trade would be the musician's best defence.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

Tuesday .... post gig

Well, the first glitch was when at noon I started to change the strings on the Stinnett ........ I went to the string cupboard and the cupboard was bare!
How can this be?
I always have a dozen sets around .... but noooooo.
This is a problem as I HAVE to change strings ..... first, I broke a D Saturday and I know from experience with the NYXL that four more will break in the next couple of gigs. They all go at once somehow.
Plus the D that broke was a .26 which I didn't have so I had to use a .36. I finished the night and immediately loosened it.
So I have to have some strings but I don't really have time to run to the store ...... I could just use a different guitar but I don't wanna.
So I start looking thru my other gits and in the 4th one I had a set of strings in the compartment ..... YAY!!
A couple more and I find a second set so I have spares ..... I'm in business.

The planned 3pm leave the house time ended up being 3:37 but I made good time .... got there at 4:20 and manage to be ready to play at 5pm right on time .................... whew!! .... then they had a staff meeting and didn't want me to play 'till 5:30 because that was when the earliest reservations were.


It was inside so it was gonna be the quiet one I hate so much .... but at least someone made the great decision to have some space between me and the closest tables so I didn't have anyone sitting right in front of the speaker. That makes it impossible to have anyone further back hear anything because you have to have it so soft for the people whose heads are in the horn.
So I can at least hear myself but it's still gonna have to be very quiet.

Since I knew it was going to be quiet I could get EVERYTHING on one single dolly load because I only need one speaker.
So on my rock and roll dolly I had a Mackie 808, a Peavey PR 15 ..... two large toolboxes full of cables ... a keyboard in a hard shell case, a guitar, a modeler in a case .... lights .. tip jar ... fan for the amp ... mic stand, sax stand, guitar stand, speaker stand, stool and saxophone all wobbling around corners like a Cat in the Hat creation.

I do a quick set-up .... from the moment of getting out of the truck ... loading dolly .... running across the parking lot ... up an elevator ..... down the hall to the room and setting it all up .... 40 minutes!

It was a dinner party and I ended up playing almost all instrumentals ...... a lot of jazz .... most songs'll start off with sax .... jazz out for a bit with that.... switch to guitar and guitar on out , sometimes switching back to sax for a final melody. I switch sax and guitar out as the whim takes me so it can be either instrument at any time on any song.

I tried a little towards the end to get more rocking but they clearly weren't interested ..... they wanted to talk to each other while some nice sax and guitar were in the background ....
a fairly boring gig ..... just mostly stretching out on some jazz changes ...... I'd swap it out .... something easy for them to go with like Breezin' and then maybe Green Dolphin Street ..... really, I played so soft it didn't much matter what I played.
Quit at 9 ..... was in the truck at 9:45 ..... got home at 10:30 ..... they paid me ..... success!









.
Last edited by Lt. Bob on Wed Nov 01, 2017 3:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

And the view from tonight's gig.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Minerman »

You're fuckin' awesome Bob!!!

It's been many a moon since I've had a gig, but I remember those where nobody really gives a fuck what you play, they basically want a radio playing in the background...I always hated those gigs myself...

You're still doin' it man, living the dream!!! I know you work your ass off & you deserve way more than you get man...
My hat's off to ya, you're da man... :minernuggs:
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by JD01 »

Lt. Bob wrote: Wed Nov 01, 2017 3:54 am And the view from tonight's gig.
Doesn't look like a Bubba or Greg gig, that one.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

WEDNESDAY pre-gig

Today will be easy and great.
I'm at Downwind Cafe' in Spruce Creek Fly-In ...... there be money here ...... John Travolta used to live here until he got his Boeing 707 which is too large for their runway.
It's one of those places where people have hangers at their houses and taxi their planes right to the house.
I see Lambos and restored 67 Camaros and even a Bugatti parked out front.

This was one one of the first places I connected with when I moved to Florida in 2006.
I've been playing here over 10 years now and I play there every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays and the 2nd Friday of every month.

It's about my favorite place to play ..... sometimes busy, sometimes not ... but a cast of 15-30 regulars that are always there when I play.
And they're fun, intelligent and open to all kinds of music.
Yes, like all gigs in Florida there are tourists passing thru and they'll usually want the standard Jimmy Buffett and beach type music people expect to hear in Florida ..... but the regulars like more eclectic stuff.

This is one of the places I regularly learn stuff specifically for.
Since I see these folks all the time, if there's a song one of them wants and I don't know it I'll tell them "I'll learn it for next week ..... and then I HAVE TO!
When I started playing here 10 years ago my songlist was about 120 songs ..... now it's 650 or so and prolly 100 of them were learned for requests Downwind customers made.
They don't get bored with me because I play different stuff all the time even though they've seen me forever.

So it's ALWAYS fun and I don't really have to go thru any worries about deciding what they want ...... I can basically play whatever the hell I feel like.
Today I'm feeling a bit twangy so I might country out a lot but who knows?

They also like for me to drink so they give me straight Captain Morgan or scotch in 24 oz cups and keep them coming.
I will be somewhat hung-over tomorrow.
These are hard partying people!

Also now they have the music outside on an awesome patio they've built.
When I started it was a small place but they've expanded three times thru the years and most recently this patio.
Unlike most gigs I can set up both speakers and crank it a bit.

I sound my best there and I look my best because I can set up two lights. Might not seem like much but it's HUGE!
I use LED pars and most gigs I'll just have one mounted on a speaker .... but this gig is big enough to use two and that makes all the difference in the world because now I can use side lighting.
You want to look awesome?
Have a red light off to one side and a blue light on the other.
The shadows on one side get filled with the opposite color and vice versa. It looks freakin' wonderful!
Seriously, I get compliments all the time on how I look better than all the other solos and side lighting is why ..... just two lights man but off to each side.
I got hooked on it from the Woodstock movie where there were awesome psychedelic colors on the performers by using this exact method.
And my lights are remote controlled with a little hand held remote so i can go for single color washes but I tend to stay with two different colors .... red and blue .... blue and green ..... red and green.
Try it ..... don't put your lights out in front of you .... put them to each side (if you have more than one that is )


Sometimes when I'm setting up there are planes practicing formation flying ..... I've seen as many as 14 at once!
One time while I was playing, the last Ford Tri-Motor still flying taxied past ...... once a guy who had built a 747 engine nacelle into a huge golf cart with a flying bridge to drive it from drove up and parked ..... it's just a very cool place and I always look forward to it.

One of the few gigs that's ALWAYS fun! Hell, even set-up is easier because I can pull the truck right up to where the gear goes.
If it's rainy or cold I have to go inside but I always try to go outside ...... WAY more fun!

And they tip well.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

WEDNESDAY POST-GIG
A great night as usual.
Kinda slow actually .... Wednesdays are a bit slow this time of year but a few regulars were out and there was a group of people that got there about the 3rd song and stayed there for the entire 4 hours.
They weren't even guys that knew me .... they were new to the area and just happened to be there tonight .... so they're brand new converts to LouisianaSteve-ism.

It was an absolutely beautiful night with lots of plane activity and never ending rum.
Here's a few shots from my job ... the towel shot is just to show the color effect I get with just two lights.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Greg_L »

I love the idea of a neighborhood where people just fly in and out.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by rayc »

The lights are just as described.
You lived an interesting life Lt Bob.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

Greg_L wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:21 am I love the idea of a neighborhood where people just fly in and out.
Yeah ..... it's really cool .............. and the hangers make great places for late night after the gig parties!
rayc wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:57 am The lights are just as described.
You lived an interesting life Lt Bob.
Yes, yes I do.
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Re: Got a busy week ...

Post by Lt. Bob »

THURSDAY .... PRE-GIG

Tonight's gig is at Billy's Tap Room.
Another place I've been playing for years ..... about 6 years I think.

And they're another place that I've learned a LOT of songs for the regulars ..... even more than the Downwind because they see me so much.
I'm there EVERY Thursday and every Friday too except for that 2nd Friday of each month when I'm at the Downwind.

The name sounds like it's a beer bar but it's actually high-end dining...... gotta be the very best crabcakes in the entire world!
And all of their food is 'Oh My God' level eating ....... the best of the best.
They set me up in a very small space in the bar area but you apparently can hear the music throughout the place.

Like Downwind there's nothing to think about ..... I know what to play and how the gear sets-up.
And since I have 2 nights there I only do equipment coming in on Thursday and then tear down on Friday.
Means when I get thru tonight I throw the sax and git in the car and I'm gone!
Well ...... I put up the small stuff like mics that might get stolen but it's very quick.
And tomorrow I can go in an hour later because there's no set-up involved.
Love it!!

I'm getting ready right now to go get my 96 year old mom-in-law to take her for her heart-echo test.
Since wifey works during the day I'm her caretaker and I take her to all appointments of which there are many. Plus sometimes she wants to go to lunch or "My internet isn't working right, can you come fix it?"
:)
She's freakin' awesome ..... lives independently ..... no one needs to dress her or cook for her ...... her mind works well and every Monday we watch 'Lucifer' together .....she's way cool.

So I don't really know for sure how long that'll take ...... when we're done I'll have to run home and get ready to leave for the Tap Room.
Sometimes I'll have to leave for a gig straight from Jackie's home but that shouldn't be the case tonight.
I should have time to go home and take a shower and change ..... but I'll have all my gear in the truck just in case.
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