the clubscene in la. a great article.

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

LA CLUB OWNERSPAGE 2
craigslist ad and line up a big gig. Well they don’tsound that good, but they sure all work with a lot ofpeople everyday. All these people can be given aflyer on Monday and after being asked
"are youcoming to my gig?"
everyday all week, will most likelyshow up on Saturday night. So missionaccomplished, the club owner has packed his venuefor one night.But here’s where the club owner doesn’t get it. Thecrowd is following the band, not the venue. The nextnight you will have to start all over again. And thepeople that were starting to follow your venue, arenow turned off because you just made them listen toa bad band. The goal should be to build a fan base ofthe venue. To get people that will trust that you willhave good music in there every night. Instead you’vesoiled your reputation for a quick fix.I think we asmusiciansneed to fight back. Sureyou can get mad about it, but that won’t do anything.We could all agree not to play those for the door gigs,but you know that isn’t going to happen. But what wecan do, is explain to the club owner that it’s not intheir best interest to operate their business like this.There is too much at stake for them not to be trulyinvested in the music presented in their venue.Convince them that if they think that live music isimportant to the demographic that they are trying toreach, then they need to reach out to thatdemographic in a professional way.If you asked a club owner,
"who is your target demographic?"
I doubt they would answer
"the band’s friends and family."
But yet clubs operate likeit is. Another example, I answered a craigslist ad for anice looking place in Beverly Hills. The adread…
"looking for a high energy jazz band, if you can bring the band and have a following, I will put you on stage."
That logic seams to say that they thinkmusiciansin a jazz band know lots of people living inBeverly Hills. And the people thosemusiciansknow,have lots of money to spend. Those are two prettybig assumptions. Good luck finding thatcombination. Even if you find that combination, areyou going to find it every night? Because friends andfamily of a professionalmusicianwon’t come out thatoften. They can’t. This is what we do every night.Would you expect the chef’s friends and family to eatat your restaurant every night? How about thedishwasher, the waitresses, the hostess? Or howabout the club owners friends and family? You see,when you start turning this argument around, itbecomes silly.I’ve started arguing with club owners about this. Ithappened after I played a great night of music in LA.We were playing for a % of the bar. There were about50 people there in this small venue, so it was a goodturnout. At the end of the night, I go to get paid, andhope to book another gig. The club owner was angry.
"Where are your people?"
he asked.
"All these people, I brought in. We had a speed dating event and they are all left over from that."
I pointed out theyall stayed and listened to the music for 2 hours aftertheir event ended. That was 2 more hours of barsales, because without us, you have an empty roomwith nothing going on. He just couldn’t get over thefact that we didn’t walk in with our own entourage offans. Wasn’t happy that we kept a full room spendingmoney. Right when we were talking, a group ofpeople interrupted us and said
"you guys sound great, when is the next time you’re playing here again?"
The club owner, said
"they aren’t, they didn’t bring anyone."
I went home that night bummed out and sent himan email. Telling him most of what you are readinghere and how his business model and thinking isflawed. After a lot of swearing back and forth,because I’m guessing thatmusiciansnever talk to himas a business equal. He eventually admitted thatwhat I was saying made sense. BUT, that’s not howLA clubs and restaurants work. And he has bandsanswering his craigslist ads willing to do whatever ittakes to get the gig. It’s been a couple of years nowsince that conversation. I called his bar, and thenumber is disconnected.So there you goLA club and restaurant owners.Theadviceis free. But you’ll most likely ignore itbecause
"That’s not how it works"
. But if moremusicianskept telling them the same thing, perhaps itwould start to sink in.
About Dave
I'm a professional jazz musician , trying to do my thing in a world that could care less about art. So I try to have a good sense of humor about it all. I also have a wonderful wife and a beautiful daughter, which always puts things in perspective. I also have lotsof interests outside of my music. That said, you can always check out my website to hear my music and see where I'm playing next.www.davegoldberg.co

I read the article. Unfortunately, this has been the way it works for decades now. Always some exceptions, but many follow this ideology. If they want background noise/music, they turn on the radio. They expect LIVE music to bring in LIVE people. Jazz soloing is good for restaurants... Oh, and cover bands are preferred; more people know the song, lyrics, expectations, etc.

Not saying I like or agree, but this is the mindset.


Cheers,

Will

I also enjoyed this article and unfortunately this is how the music scene has evolved. Our lead player would love to do original things, especially on our recordings but the cover band appeal is what the people seem to like. It is interesting to see how many of the people who are not dancing are just singing along but they are engaged and enjoying the experience. I remember a visit to Nashville a few years back and going to some of the cafes where people were working their way up. They would do originals and at times it was painful. Just goes to show that songwriting is really an art.-- Darwin

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Here is the article with its original formatting in case anyone is interested:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-Club-Owners

Thanks for posting,

I swear if you got in your time machine and went back to 1973 and played a faithfully rendered Freebird pre-cover, you would have a whole bar full of people look at you like there's a spare eye and a horn on your head.

Move ahead three years and revisit the same crowd; they have heard it on the radio a gazillion times, and know it's OK to like it, and that's all they will want to hear!

I live in a college town of about 50,000 on the east side of the country, and it's pretty much the same story trying to get gigs in the few places here that have live music. To be truthful, it's been 9 years since I gigged, and a number of those places are either gone or under new ownership, so I can't say for sure it's like that today, but I would guess it is...it sure was then!

It was tough enough for a new band to even get the gig, and then if you didn't have big numbers at the gig, you could cross that venue off the list...and how many new bands have that kind of following?? And what was worse, when we finally got a gig at one of the more prestigous bars in town, it was to open for a bigger act (though still a guy I'd never heard of), and part of the deal was we had to sell so many tickets to the show...I think we ended up taking a loss on that one!!

As much as I enjoyed playing out, I sure don't miss that part!!