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Thread: Contemporary Pop and Wedding/Corporate Party Bands

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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Contemporary Pop and Wedding/Corporate Party Bands

    As some of you know by now, I'm a professional musician and through most of my career, the bulk of my income has been from playing in wedding/corporate party bands. I've done this for decades and though I always stayed involved in various jazz, prog, fusion and latin bands to stay sane and keep my passion for music alive and well, those bill paying gigs used to be kind of fun, especially when there was a cast of really good players involved. But that was then and this is now. I'm thinking about this today because last night I played with a "jobbing" band (that's what we call those kind of gigs in the Midwest USA) that I used to be in, but hadn't played with for over a dozen years. I was looking forward to it because there's some great players in that band, the leader/keyboard player is a nice guy with a cavalier attitude compared to most of those uptight leaders and I had fond memories of the (almost) decade when I was in that band. But I came home from the gig depressed and I'll tell you why.

    I guess I need to preface this story with a little bit of history on this kind of work. Throughout the '80s and '90s, there was a LOT of it. There were weekends where I had five gigs; one on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. That's well over a grand for a three day work week, and with the cost of living in those days, I was doing fine, with a lot of time to pursue more artistic and creative musical endeavors. But starting around the new millennium, times started getting tougher for that kind of work; a trend that has consistently continued ever since. Part of it was the economy changing for the worse, part of it was the DJs gradually cutting into that work that once belonged almost exclusively to bands, but another part was the change in pop/dance music trends.

    More and more today, the music going on behind the singing is largely made by sequenced synths and drum machines, with a lot of layering. The only way a band covering contemporary pop/dance music could come close to duplicating that sound is... you guessed it, to have sequenced synths and drum machines covering parts in addition to the old fashioned musicians playing old fashioned musical instruments. Usually, this is accomplished by isolating sequenced tracks off the original recording and sampling them. So now, everybody in the band is wearing in-ear monitors and playing along with a click track and all of these sequenced parts; it's kind of like band karaoke. The wedding/corporate band I play with fairly regularly started doing this a couple of years ago and it's really not much fun. So I thought it would be a welcome change of pace to play with this band I used to play with, because it was looser and way more fun.

    But guess what? They're now playing with pre-made tracks too; in fact there were pre-made guitar tracks in there, which irked the shit out of me (I'm a guitar player)! Hell, I could've just stood there and mimed for the whole gig! Not only that, but they used tracks on the classic rock material too; stuff where that kind of thing should be against the law, for Christ's sake! But silly me; I should've known better. Every wedding/corporate party is either playing with tracks now... or they're deceased, or close to it. Heck, trying to play all that sequenced techno pop with a '70s or '80s instrumentation probably sounds to young people like playing classic rock with a Dixieland band instrumentation would sound to us geezers. You want to work, you have to supply what's demanded (and particularly at a wedding, most of the guests are twenty-somethings). But it sucks! The outcome is that from being hemmed in by all of those tracks, there's no room for the band to have any sort of personality whatsoever. We all sound the same now. We sound like the record, only with slightly different singers.

    Thank god I've got my monthly jazz gig coming up in a couple of days! It's the equivalent of a prostitute having sex with somebody she's in love with.
    Last edited by No Pride; 04-19-2015 at 12:43 PM.

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    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Stay tuned, Ernie...Im going to be busy for the next few hours but will respond later this afternoon

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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by klothos View Post
    Stay tuned, Ernie...Im going to be busy for the next few hours but will respond later this afternoon
    I figured that if anybody did, it would be you!

  4. #4
    When all the elements of a system can be isolated and digitized, the automation of that system's processes can't be far behind. It's happened everywhere and I'm extraordinarily fortunate to still be employed. But it's nonetheless sad to read that it's happening in this way. Sad, but not surprising, because the "fruits" of this approach to music-making are all around us.
    Hired on to work for Mr. Bill Cox, a-fixin' lawn mowers and what-not, since 1964.

    "Arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut about like it's won anyway." Anonymous

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    "Before you sing the blues, you gotta pay your dues."

    Surely you could work that whole sorry saga into the lyrics of a song, record it and have a world-wide number one hit? Something in the vein of Sultans of Swing?

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    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    You mean being full-time musician isn't all glitz and glamour?

    The age of "sterilized" music is indeed upon us. Feeling, passion and creativity have given way to convenience. Music was never intended to be convenient, damnit!

    I (truly) feel your pain, my friend.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

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    What I don't understand is why a wedding party these days would even pay for a band to turn up, if all they want to hear is what they hear on the pop charts. Just make a playlist on iTunes or Spotify - that would be cheaper. All you would have to supply would be the speakers.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    This may be a dumb question, but do you and the other musicians in these bands belong to a union, and does the union require employers to use a certain number of musicians, or use live musicians for certain things? I know for Broadway shows the union requires things like this. Just wondering.

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    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    This may be a dumb question, but do you and the other musicians in these bands belong to a union, and does the union require employers to use a certain number of musicians, or use live musicians for certain things? I know for Broadway shows the union requires things like this. Just wondering.
    That varies from state to state....Most of my career has been in Florida, which is a "right to work" state so - for the most part - no, although some gigs (such as Disney) ARE Union. I have had annual Union memberships over the years as needed. The pros and cons of Unions are a long multi-page thread upon itself so I will spare the details

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    Member progholio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    What I don't understand is why a wedding party these days would even pay for a band to turn up, if all they want to hear is what they hear on the pop charts. Just make a playlist on iTunes or Spotify - that would be cheaper. All you would have to supply would be the speakers.
    Sadly this is exactly what so called professional DJ's are doing - showing up with a cheap sound system, a couple of flashing lights and an I-pad. There's enough music on those things to satisfy the average drunken partier that wants to hear Margaritaville or some clever mashup by Kid Rock. I recently went to a corporate event and brought a mixtape (on cd) of songs that were related to the to the company hosting the party, handed it off to the DJ who looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "I don't have anything to play this on".
    Needless to say those digitized files sound like crap but I suppose you pour down enough free booze and everything's fine.

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    I shudder to think what the playlists are like at some same-sex weddings.Lesbians, oddly, seem to have reasonable tastes in music; I even knew a lesbian who was into Yes (this was in the 70s) and had Roger Dean posters on her office wall. Gay men are a different matter.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    Surely you could work that whole sorry saga into the lyrics of a song, record it and have a world-wide number one hit? Something in the vein of Sultans of Swing?
    "Sultans of Swing" is definitely a related theme; only the current situation is more dire than the one described in that tune.

    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    What I don't understand is why a wedding party these days would even pay for a band to turn up, if all they want to hear is what they hear on the pop charts. Just make a playlist on iTunes or Spotify - that would be cheaper. All you would have to supply would be the speakers.
    As progholio said that IS happening... and it's actually knocking the DJs out of the running too, because a portable P.A. and an iPod loaded with appropriate playlists will do the trick. Families and corporations who hire bands for their event have money and they like to spend it. Fortunately for us, people who have money often think that it's "classy" to have a live band. Can't fault them for that! The problem is that less families and corporations have money these days.

    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    This may be a dumb question, but do you and the other musicians in these bands belong to a union, and does the union require employers to use a certain number of musicians, or use live musicians for certain things?
    I dropped out of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians) 15 years ago when I figured out that they're better at collecting dues than protecting us. It can be beneficial if you're a studio musician (which is becoming a rare breed), full time symphony orchestra musician or play Broadway shows full time. But the nature of the work the majority of musicians do doesn't qualify as "full time"... and the union could care less about them. So most musicians I know in the same line of work as myself aren't in the union anymore.

    Quote Originally Posted by klothos View Post
    The pros and cons of Unions are a long multi-page thread upon itself so I will spare the details
    Exactly. It's got to be one of the worst unions in the country. For starters, employers and employees all belong to the same union. Doesn't that defeat most of the purpose of a union right there?!
    Last edited by No Pride; 04-19-2015 at 03:09 PM.

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    Wow...what a depressing state of affairs. It does seem, sadly, that at some point it really makes more sense for these people to just use a DJ if they are of a certain age and want certain kinds of music. Music for people who don't really like music.

    I think I've told this story before, but this reminds me of a band I saw about 10 years ago. They were a once-mighty local band that played '80s music (they never made much headway with their original material). Fantastic musicians with a great attention to detail. In the '90s they did use some sequenced and pre-recorded parts. They had all the backing horn parts for stuff like Extreme's "Get The Funk Out", had rhythm guitar tracks playing while the guitarist did the solo on "Carry On My Wayward Son", etc. So a lot of the time they had to play to click tracks. But there was still enough of a human element to save it. But the last time I saw them (again, about 10 years ago) it was completely different. Gone was the keyboard player, but not the keyboard parts. They used electronic drums and there were no amps on stage. Everything was wireless and in-ear (okay, not that unusual today). And the volume level was really low. We sat at the bar and had normal conversations which was nice, but....as good as the players were, they had sucked all the life out of the music. There were no accidents or chances taken.

    In contrast, a couple of months later, I saw the band I play in now. Nothing was pre-recorded, sound was far from perfect and quite a bit louder, and there were little mistakes here and there. They were definitely musicians of a lower caliber. But they were FAR more fun to watch and listen to and brought a much better energy.

    Give me the latter type of band any day of the week...
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    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    Brother, all I can say is count your blessings. I made my living playing percussion in a latin band in the late 70s. It's always the the leader of the band who's the worst musician, and the a-hole of the band. Hang in there. Chin up......

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    I shudder to think what the playlists are like at some same-sex weddings.Lesbians, oddly, seem to have reasonable tastes in music; I even knew a lesbian who was into Yes (this was in the 70s) and had Roger Dean posters on her office wall. Gay men are a different matter.
    Hey, I resemble that remark! Although I know what you mean. It explains (in part) why I’m still single.
    Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...

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    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    I guess I need to preface this story with a little bit of history on this kind of work. Throughout the '80s and '90s, there was a LOT of it. There were weekends where I had five gigs; one on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. That's well over a grand for a three day work week, and with the cost of living in those days, I was doing fine, with a lot of time to pursue more artistic and creative musical endeavors. But starting around the new millennium, times started getting tougher for that kind of work; a trend that has consistently continued ever since. Part of it was the economy changing for the worse, part of it was the DJs gradually cutting into that work that once belonged almost exclusively to bands, but another part was the change in pop/dance music trends.
    While DJs, the self-entertaining karaoke, and stiffer drunk-driving laws were factors, the biggest two issues that affected our industry here in Florida (and around the same timeframe for yourself) were

    1) The internet -- many people would go clubbing on any night of the week to go socializing. Since the advent of user-friendly chatrooms in the mid-90s and as they evolved into the various types of net social media we have today, I noticed a slow but steady drop off of folks going out on weekday nights over the decades.

    2) No Smoking Laws - this was the big one for multi-night "jobber" (I like that term ) gigs. Back in the day, most of the free-standing clubs in Florida that could afford and had live music multi-nights per week were also restaurants. When the no-smoking laws were introduced in restaurants, all those clubs disappeared in what seemed like within a single year. It was devastating for us career working players to say the least

    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    More and more today, the music going on behind the singing is largely made by sequenced synths and drum machines, with a lot of layering. The only way a band covering contemporary pop/dance music could come close to duplicating that sound is... you guessed it, to have sequenced synths and drum machines covering parts in addition to the old fashioned musicians playing old fashioned musical instruments. Usually, this is accomplished by isolating sequenced tracks off the original recording and sampling them. So now, everybody in the band is wearing in-ear monitors and playing along with a click track and all of these sequenced parts; it's kind of like band karaoke. The wedding/corporate band I play with fairly regularly started doing this a couple of years ago and it's really not much fun.
    Fun is a relative term: I accept technology as a natural progression of musical instruments. Plus, I am the one who does all our sequence programming and I take a lot of pride in my work. Granted, we only sequence as needed. There are many many many new songs by current artists that can be easily covered without sequencing (moreso in the past year or so than since the 80s!). many Sam Smith, Sam Hunt, Ed Sheerhan, etc songs are all Earthy/non-sequencer capable. Still, there are also many dance songs that can be done without the sequencer aid but a lot of this has to do with the technological mindset of the band's keyboard player(s): A keyboard player stuck in piano-organ meat-and-potatoes mode that has little synthesizer architecture knowledge is not going to be able to cover the heavy synth demanded parts of a current top 40 dance hits and is the conundrum my band faces at the moment. Remember when I made a post a few months ago about me moving to keyboards? Im happy to say Im still on bass but that was the reason why the band wanted me to go to keyboards. Our previous keyboard player was a mediocre player but knew how to dial in the correct sounds, put the right inflections, and hold simple pads that were requirements of the song in the right places, sometimes even working in with the drummer about BPM to arpeggiator parts he would trigger manually. It was a great system. Our current keyboard player is a fantastic piano player that also doubles on sax and flute but has very limited synth knowledge. Our answer to the dilemma was simple: most of the songs that we were able to cover without a sequencer last year with our previous keyboard player are now sequenced.

    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    But guess what? They're now playing with pre-made tracks too; in fact there were pre-made guitar tracks in there, which irked the shit out of me (I'm a guitar player)! Hell, I could've just stood there and mimed for the whole gig! Not only that, but they used tracks on the classic rock material too; stuff where that kind of thing should be against the law, for Christ's sake! But silly me; I should've known better. Every wedding/corporate party is either playing with tracks now...
    Geez, Ernie, I thought Florida was behind the times: that has been going on here since the 90s. It used to be totally unacceptable to use tracks decades ago but now its just another accepted practice. Furthermore, its cut into my bass career: I got almost three times as many calls for fill-in gigs back then. Tracks have most certainly impacted my job.

    Continued Below.....................
    Last edited by klothos; 04-20-2015 at 12:58 AM.

  17. #17
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    The outcome is that from being hemmed in by all of those tracks, there's no room for the band to have any sort of personality whatsoever. We all sound the same now. We sound like the record, only with slightly different singers.
    Once again, I point the finger at us musicians too. As Ive mentioned in other threads, I play synth bass onstage as well with my trusty Yamaha SY-35, and we easily cover songs like "Moves Like Jagger" without the sequencer supplying the synth bass because I play it live, or "What Have You Done For Me lately" which we play live with no sequencer: Ive got the perfect DX Bass patch for it, our drummer runs a percussion loop and he has the reverse cymbal assigned to one pad. Besides having a sequencer available, our drummer also uses a drum machine for percussion tracks (usually a one- or two-bar loop) if needed, but the biggest issue is keyboard players. Keyboard players are already rare enough but when you find a good one, they all want to play: they find no joy in just holding a synth pad down that may be the correct action for a particular song but would rather use their 15-fingers of doom to play unnecessary piano parts in songs that have no piano - like its a chore for them to hold down a single chord in a pad without boogering it all up with flurrishes........ (Im happy to say our new keyboard player does not do this but you know the type)

    But its not just keyboard players: Professional working-stiff Musicians in my age bracket and older seem like they are scared of technological advancements on their preferred instruments. As a working bass player, I recognized the need to also be able to play synth bass. Our drummer uses D-drums and uses his ancient Roland R-8 for percussion for the same reason. Many guitar players I know are embracing both Loopers and MIDI interfaces on their guitars for this reason, and many guys arent even using amps anymore.

    and this is my point: Its all about choices that we professional musicians make --- I would personally love to leave the SY-35 and my computer in the closet and go play in a jazz or classic funk band, but classic funk bands dont exist here and "working jazz band" is an oxymoron in my area...

    Like I said, Its easy to blame the industry but I completely disagree with you about not having any personality: I easily blame the many players out there that want to play modern music with the mindset of the 60s, 70s and 80s instead of growing with the technology around them.

    Its about using the right tools for the job:

    You cant expect a drummer to play an acoustic kit to get all the variously different drum sounds that modern music employs....especially songs that use hand-claps, reverse cymbals, analog snares/toms, pop shots, and 808/909 style bass drum drops as signature elements to a song

    You cant expect a guitar player to show up with a Dr. Z and a few pedals and sound like whats happening on many modern club hits without the knowlege of using a processor. I love the warm sound of a tube amp and its speaker breakup but ask yourself: To re-create guitar sounds in modern dance and pop what is more important: the amp or the processor? (Ernie, you'll probably say the amp but you know as well as i do that there are guys in our industry that show up and go direct with PODs and get the exact sounds for many of these songs)

    To continue: Most importantly, you cant expect to sound like any modern synth-driven song with a piano/organ keyboard player that doesnt shape modern synth sounds with the architecture of his equipment.

    If a song is heavy on percussion, if the drummer isnt using a drum machine to run a perc loop that doesnt lock the band into a specific arrangement to take the song anywhere the vocalist desires then, yes, you are going to be stuck as a slave to the sequencer for just about everything I mentioned above.

    Sequencing in a band because the band members themselves are obstinate and do not want to change their ways and using a sequencer for a crutch is sad - but that is a reflection on musicians, not the industry.....The less tools available for the musicians to do the job right of covering modern dance and pop music, then the more you have to rely on the sequencer. With the right tools, sequencing can not only be kept to a minimum to fill holes, but there are many many cases where it can be eliminated...but finding a group of forward-thinking players is rare. I am very very fortunate in that regard

    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Thank god I've got my monthly jazz gig coming up in a couple of days! It's the equivalent of a prostitute having sex with somebody she's in love with.
    Dont get me wrong Ernie, Im a player: I want to play...and I still enjoy when my ego gets stroked, but Ive learned to deal with this as a professional. Theres an old saying: the right tools for the job, and our tools have evolved whether we like it or not

    If you are aware of current music trending with the newest generation of players, then you realize there is hope: Many new bands - kids, really, between teenagers to about 25 years old or so - ALL want to play and the music they write reflects that. There are many newer bands that sequence as Ive said above: just adding to what they do as opposed to relying on it as a crutch. Im not as dour as many here on PE: I see it and the future looks bright......it looks different, but bright
    Last edited by klothos; 04-20-2015 at 01:49 AM.

  18. #18
    Interestingly, the way out of this can be to put together a tribute band. Good ones make good money and if you're playing in, say, a Zeppelin tribute people expect you to play live like Zeppelin did. The downside of course is that you're locked into a look and sound, and even equipment choices to a large degree. But I'd rather play Zep songs all night than be a sequenced Yacht Rock band (which I've had some lucrative offers to do). I could be making $$$ in an Elton John tribute if I was willing to spend the time on the road.

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    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    I could be making $$$ in an Elton John tribute if I was willing to spend the time on the road.
    With any luck, you could find yourself hired to perform at Elton's mother's next birthday party.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    What I don't understand is why a wedding party these days would even pay for a band to turn up, if all they want to hear is what they hear on the pop charts.
    Where I live 99.9% is DJs.
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  21. #21
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    Interestingly, the way out of this can be to put together a tribute band. Good ones make good money and if you're playing in, say, a Zeppelin tribute people expect you to play live like Zeppelin did.
    agreed.... but that requires extensive road work

  22. #22
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    part of it was the DJs gradually cutting into that work that once belonged almost exclusively to bands
    I suppose I shall raise my hand as I am a corporate DJ.

    Quote Originally Posted by progholio View Post
    Sadly this is exactly what so called professional DJ's are doing - showing up with a cheap sound system, a couple of flashing lights and an I-pad. There's enough music on those things to satisfy the average drunken partier that wants to hear Margaritaville or some clever mashup by Kid Rock.
    I have never encountered this. Maybe it's a broad stroke you are purposely painting with, though. I think I have only been dissatisfied with 1 or 2 DJs at weddings or corporate functions. Most seem to satisfy the event. If you're talking about a club environment, then I wouldn't know as I don't frequent dance clubs.

    Quote Originally Posted by progholio View Post
    I recently went to a corporate event and brought a mixtape (on cd) of songs that were related to the to the company hosting the party, handed it off to the DJ who looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "I don't have anything to play this on".
    Was he allowed to take requests? I know for me, I don't want to load someone's disc into my machine and take their word that there are no glitches, skips or awkward sound variations. It's my neck on the line for the music, so I am cautious when accepting music that I am unfamiliar with. I suppose one could sit there and listen to the songs with headphones to verify, but that's taking too much time away from the work-at-hand, imo.

    Quote Originally Posted by progholio View Post
    Needless to say those digitized files sound like crap but I suppose you pour down enough free booze and everything's fine.
    Poorly digitized files are horrible. My files are all encoded at a high bitrate and through my system they sound great. I will not play music that is encoded poorly. I have not heard a DJ who has badly encoded music files. The ones I have come across at various events seem to take pride in their profession.

    I have been DJing for roughly 15 years. I only do private parties/corporate gigs. I am lucky that I can pick and choose which event I want to pass up since DJing is only a very small portion of my yearly income. I will not DJ weddings, but have done a handful for friends/family.

    I have a contact or party planner who I deal with and that's the only person I deal with at the event. I don't take requests and I very rarely offer master of ceremony availability. I meet with whomever is in charge of the event and get a feel for the genres of music they would like or the overall vibe they are going for. If they have requests, I ask that they be submitted prior to the event, but can load files on the spot if need be. I make a few playlists prior to the gig and add/delete songs on the fly. During the event, the organizer is within their right to request songs or make changes where they desire. Also, I have all of this (and more) in my contract that I provide to my clients.

    This business model works for me and it usually cuts out the cheapskates. I value my weekends and I charge a rather high fee. But, I have had zero complaints and 3 of my clients supply me with plenty of work for the year. At those events, I usually get a couple of leads for future gigs that I ultimately book.

    Saturday, I did a grand opening for some million dollar homes. There was a local radio station there for 2 hours and then I took over for the next 4 hours. I was to play music in this parking lot while people enjoyed free food off the food trucks and toured the model homes. The radio station charged them $5,500 -- which included 4 live hits from the event. When the day was over and I was packing up, the coordinator booked me for 3 more grand opening events and cancelled the radio station -- giving me the full 6 hour slot. They are not only meeting my price points, but they are also giving me a substantial bonus and more gigs throughout the year if I want them. It's all good.

    I have worked side-by-side with bands; they perform and I take over for their 15 & 30 minute breaks. That type of thing.

  23. #23
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    But guess what? They're now playing with pre-made tracks too; in fact there were pre-made guitar tracks in there, which irked the shit out of me (I'm a guitar player)! Hell, I could've just stood there and mimed for the whole gig! Not only that, but they used tracks on the classic rock material too; stuff where that kind of thing should be against the law, for Christ's sake!
    I think this could be one reason why I'v gotten so indifferent about going to live concerts over the last 10-12 years. I've heard that even some of our most beloved, big name, rock acts use backing tracks in concert. I won't mention any bands but I've read a few comments here on PE over the years where it's been brought up, [insert name of band here] were using pre-recorded backing tracks, or sampled guitar and keyboard triggers, or whatever. I understand why they do it, but it bothers the shit out of me too. You expect this in pop music, but not guitar driven rock music.

    Interestingly, the way out of this can be to put together a tribute band. Good ones make good money and if you're playing in, say, a Zeppelin tribute people expect you to play live like Zeppelin did. The downside of course is that you're locked into a look and sound, and even equipment choices to a large degree.
    Good point. I've seen a couple of tribute acts in small clubs (a Zep tribute, and a Boston tribute). Both shows were a lot of fun. Yeah, you're just watching a copy act, but the music is being delivered live, without any safety nets. The performance I saw the Zep band do of "No Quarter" really blew my mind. The bassist played the whole song on electric piano using bass pedals, and whatnot. Very impressive. The downside, as you mention is that it limits you (the musician) to playing and looking the part, like an actor. I mean, my dream at one time was to get good enough on bass to play in a power trio tribute act, doing Cream, Hendrix, type stuff, rather than being locked into just imitating one group.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    I think this could be one reason why I'v gotten so indifferent about going to live concerts over the last 10-12 years. I've heard that even some of our most beloved, big name, rock acts use backing tracks in concert. I won't mention any bands but I've read a few comments here on PE over the years where it's been brought up, [insert name of band here] were using pre-recorded backing tracks, or sampled guitar and keyboard triggers, or whatever. I understand why they do it, but it bothers the shit out of me too. You expect this in pop music, but not guitar driven rock music..
    I don't get why anyone would pay to go to a live concert if all they wanted was to hear the studio recordings faithfully reproduced - whether that means using pre-recorded stuff or whether it means the band recreating it in real time exactly as on record. Much of the music in my collection has a lot going on in the production, and I suspect that's true for most members of PE. If I go to a live concert I am prepared to accept hearing the songs sounding not exactly as they are on record - in fact that's the whole point, why pay for a concert unless you get something a bit extra?

    One or two bum notes or missed cues? No problem. One instrument substituted for another? Fine, if it's properly handled. A little bit of jamming or ad libbing, the odd unexpected different treatment of a familiar song - that's what makes a live performance worth going to. Think back on the best moments of the best concerts you attended, and I'm willing to bet they were not the moments when they performed a certain song precisely as it's heard on their album, note for note.

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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    They're now playing with pre-made tracks too; in fact there were pre-made guitar tracks in there, which irked the shit out of me (I'm a guitar player)! Hell, I could've just stood there and mimed for the whole gig!
    I am not a musician, but as a fan, I get irked by this stuff, too. I saw a "prog" band this past January that consisted of two players, a guitarist and a bassist. Yet, they had a full sound with drums and keyboards. They were playing along with a sound track. As much as the two players were having a good time, I was not. I didn't clap just out of principle.
    Lou

    Looking forward to my day in court.

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