New Years Eve gigs anyone?

[bensdrums]

Doing a sub gig with a country/classic rock cover band. Not ideal players or music but this kind of gig pays killer on New Years in the midwest. Kind of wish I'd just taken the night off to hang with my son and stay in... the weather here sucks and I already had 720 degree wipeout on the way to load in and soundcheck... gotta drive slower next trip. Happy New Year HoD!

[MRhet]

Not this year -- after last year . . .

I had the flu. Played the gig -- stuck it out through some long and fast tunes. Loaded out in the rain. Had to pull over on the side side of the road to throw up multiple times (in the rain). Spent the next three days in bed. So, I'm not complaining about sitting home tonight.

On the other hand, the money I made last year paid a good part of my Black Beauty.

[Gaddabout]

I could have gigged on more than one occasion. Lots of people putting together bands just for tonight -- lots of pros and lots of amateurs. Everyone who wants to work gets a gig on NY Eve, don't they?

[Rob Ferrell]

Whew! I had two New Year's gigs last night. The first was at a really cool restaurant we play twice a month. They do a "New York New Year's" every year that we play. We go from 6:00-9:00. Eleven minutes south of this venue, we had a country club gig. I set up my regular gigging kit at this venue early and had a student's dad drive his son's kit to the early gig. I got to play on an old CB 700. It was a blast playing that old, beat up kit!

The night was fun but really tiring. Going to chill with the family today. I want to wish all fellow HOD'ers a healthy and happy New Year. I hope 2011 is filled with lots of great music and gigs for us all!

[Mike Meyers]

Ugh, my gig sucked. Got called to fill in on drums with a friend of mine for some black light ball put on by a group that includes body painting. Well, I thought it would be a good night, since of course, body painting means nudity. We went to the venue, a gallery that used to be the county jail, the day before the gig to check it out. We were promised a PA (we'd be playing with 2 other bands), catered food was included, plus booze. The promoter thought that there would be from 400-600 people there. She ended up being way off! One thing that worried me, is that it was in the 60's outside, but it had to have been 40 degrees inside. Our theory was that this was really put on by a vampire coven, and we'd all be drained at the end of the night like in "From Dusk Till Dawn".

The day of the gig, the performer I was playing with got an email from the promoter that there would be no PA, since the owner of the gallery said the sound would reverb around the building too much. Plus, the budget would not allow for the bands to eat for free. WTF?! Well, my singer got on the horn with her real fast to speak to the other performers and get some kind of vocal amplification going. Next thing we hear, the last band bails. I think they were told that their wives would not be admitted for free. Next thing we know, another band has taken their place and a PA would be there. I wasn't holding my breath that this would be a good gig until I got there to see things for myself.

I arrive before the rest of the band I'm playing with, and the temperature in the room is colder than outside...and outside it's between 30-40 degrees. I could see my breath. The group is frantically trying to hook up space heaters around the venue to heat it up, but most of the heaters ended up upstairs with the DJ's. The last band brought their PA but only hooked up vocals...I would have liked some kick too. I kept my winter coat and gloves on up until the time we played. I looked around the place and never found the food or any type of catering. By the time we played, my hands were warm, but my feet were frozen. I couldn't feel my right foot through most of the hour long set.

We finished our set to a mostly empty lower level of the building and I loaded out. The last band sets up and starts in on the college rock. The only people dancing were their girlfriends. I think I counted about 40 people there that night, including staff and bands. Not good. Finally the promoter comes over and pays my band leader. She gives here a handwritten check for $40. Wow, thanks a fricken lot! I told her to cash it quick, it may bounce!

I made the best of it and had a great time hanging out with the person I performed with, but that had to have been the WORST organization of an event I have ever played. I even felt pity instead of arousal for the body painted models who had to walk around all night half naked. I hope they didn't get sick.

Mike

[robhaerr]

OK...our gig went as expected.

Now, it's time to figure out the video editing on this Zoom Q3 HD so I can share a couple of real gems...we earned every penny.

[Tombo 7/4]

No New Year's eve gig. My girlfriend now forbids it.
Since I'm not playing music for a living anymore, she doesn't see the point of me going to play during holidays: "You don't need that money". She says she spent too many New year's eve in the crowd while I was on stage.
Since she doesn't see the point of me playing for money, I found a solution: I now play jazz! Hey, we sometimes even pay to play. You need a day job to play jazz.

Finally the promoter comes over and pays my band leader. She gives here a handwritten check for $40. Wow, thanks a fricken lot! I told her to cash it quick, it may bounce!

That sucks. You forgot to pull out a contract?!?!

This sounds like a New year's eve gig I did with a 10-piece latin band in a high-class restaurant. The owner didn't even remember to have hired us. So no stage, no PA. We ended up being all dispersed throughout the restaurant with the singer signing through a guit amp and me on a table besides guests eating with bread in their ears.

[willyz]

Well... my gig was, well interesting, but fun!

We had some issues with the monitors and the PA, the band was using a snake that they apparently hadn't tested so we were missing a few things. We were also on the roof, so concrete floors, a brick wall to my right... the sound wasn't the greatest, but alas, the show must go on! There was a cold front that moved in around 10:00, and it got really cold... cold drums and cymbals do not feel good at all, and I couldn't hear my hands by the end of the gig, so between that and the PA issues I just had to hold it together and take control the best I could and just hope the rest of the band was listening...

And of course, some cliche issues with payment after the gig, because there was no contract (this group usually always has payment and details written down, I'm not sure why they didn't for new years eve of all things...), so we got a little screwed on the dough and I didn't make as much as I expected, but oh well, shit happens! Onward!

Here's a pic of the office from the gig (don't know why it turned out so small....):

[robhaerr]

Well...in figuring out this Zoom Q3 HD editing...I used "Trim" when I should have used "Divide", thus erasing the "drunk women at midnight" clip.

So...here is a shot back my way. A shout-out to the bartender at about 1:15 am as we are tired and most people have left...we don't play this tune much, you can tell as I figure out what fills to do...not real smooth and/or bitchen...I will probably only record in 720p from now on as the 1080p isn't smooth video. Still learning about this unit...

[funkydrummer]

I did the "double-duty" thing myself. Played the first gig at a theater in a nearby city, with several other bands on bill. Backlined kit (a Yamaha Stage Custom that was actually quite nice), and it was nice and simple. We did about an hour there, and then went to do the next gig, which was a solid two-hour set at a private party, which was about 5 minutes from where we played the first show. A long day/night, but we all had a blast bringing the Latin vibes to NYE.