Maybe you’re a musician.
Maybe you play out.
And maybe you play in bars.
I was just reading some comments by friends who were exercised about the conditions of playing live music in bars – specifically how vexing it is that TVs are sometimes left on above or near the performing musicians.
Been then, endured that, always solved the problem.
Pro Tip #1: Be a problem solver, not a problem causer. Smile.
Pro Tip #2: Don't try and change the world, just make your current GPS (gigging positioning spot) a little bit better for everyone involved and not just yourself.
I get it. That kind of stuff can feel demoralizing.
Personally, I have no problems playing in a bar. My teachers played in bars and taught me how to play in them as well.
It’s noisy, people are there to have fun, and I am there to oblige them.
But one crucial fact remains:
If it’s a bar, . . . it’s a bar.
It ain’t the Sistine Chapel, your living room, a listening room with sofas on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr that serves choco-molto-lattes, or the Royal Albert Hall.
It’s a bar . . . and they have been this way for CENTURIES.
You must remember that bars are not designed for respect.
Their prime directive is quick consumption of copious amounts of alcohol. If you are a musician and a bar is where you are looking for respect for your craft, you’re looking in the wrong place.
If you think that having the TV on is disrespectful, how will you feel about drunks and people who scream and laugh like hyenas? Because stuff like that happens a lot of the times in bars.
How will you feel about dinnerware sometimes crashing to the floor, about the idiots who yell “FREEBIRD!”, about dodging vomit in the parking lot at two in the morning when you’re loading out?
If that stuff rattles your teacups, maybe bars are not the place where you should play.
I don’t want to lay the whole “walking ten miles to school in the snow” Boyd Holmes retrospective on you but . . . . when I was in high school, the first night I played a gig at the Havre de Grace VFW, I asked the bartender while we were setting up why there was a floor-to-ceiling collapsible chain link fence on either side of the stage.
“You’ll see’” was all he said with a laugh.
By midnight, all those old drunk guys started throwing stuff at the stage, a la Blues Brothers.
Red Solo cups of beer, plates with food, all flying through the air directly at the band.
The bartender ran up, closed the fence but by 1AM, I was drenched in thrown beer and Italian salad dressing.
And in the category of "it's not a bug, it's a feature", for every beer that was thrown at me, some old vet kindly bought one for me.
All in all, a good time was had by all.
When I play at the Hotel DuPont, it’s a different vibe. I never had to contend with bar variables when I played in the Green Room or Gold Ball Room.
Think: elegance.
If it’s a bar, expect all the possible variables of a bar environment.
Do not expect things to globally change because you object to what goes on in a bar.
If it has been this way for CENTURIES, why would anyone expect it to change now?
Because. . . you care?
Because . . . it offends you?
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their emotions, needs, and wants – but everyone has to be candid to the realities of a bar paradigm that has existed for centuries.
If the TV set is blaring, I have found that if I just politely say something to the bartender, they’ll usually fix it.
Bar owners and bartenders have a hundred and one priorities on their agenda from paying customers that far outweigh the concerns of the musicians.
Remember, many musicians are probably getting paid LESS than the bar back.
When have bar owners ever been even remotely concerned about the working conditions of bar backs?
Never.
To expect anything different than what has existed in perpetuity is indulging in wishful thinking.
My advice if you’re gigging at a bar: Go with the flow. Don’t bitch about the mix. Have fun. Know the crowd’s requests and play them loud.
However . . .
Don’t like all the stuff associated with bars?
There is a remedy.
Don’t gig in a bar.
Play weddings in country clubs.
Much more refined, pays better, and their loading docks are tidier.
Plus, you get to wear a tux (see Exhibit A).
Maybe you play out.
And maybe you play in bars.
I was just reading some comments by friends who were exercised about the conditions of playing live music in bars – specifically how vexing it is that TVs are sometimes left on above or near the performing musicians.
Been then, endured that, always solved the problem.
Pro Tip #1: Be a problem solver, not a problem causer. Smile.
Pro Tip #2: Don't try and change the world, just make your current GPS (gigging positioning spot) a little bit better for everyone involved and not just yourself.
I get it. That kind of stuff can feel demoralizing.
Personally, I have no problems playing in a bar. My teachers played in bars and taught me how to play in them as well.
It’s noisy, people are there to have fun, and I am there to oblige them.
But one crucial fact remains:
If it’s a bar, . . . it’s a bar.
It ain’t the Sistine Chapel, your living room, a listening room with sofas on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr that serves choco-molto-lattes, or the Royal Albert Hall.
It’s a bar . . . and they have been this way for CENTURIES.
You must remember that bars are not designed for respect.
Their prime directive is quick consumption of copious amounts of alcohol. If you are a musician and a bar is where you are looking for respect for your craft, you’re looking in the wrong place.
If you think that having the TV on is disrespectful, how will you feel about drunks and people who scream and laugh like hyenas? Because stuff like that happens a lot of the times in bars.
How will you feel about dinnerware sometimes crashing to the floor, about the idiots who yell “FREEBIRD!”, about dodging vomit in the parking lot at two in the morning when you’re loading out?
If that stuff rattles your teacups, maybe bars are not the place where you should play.
I don’t want to lay the whole “walking ten miles to school in the snow” Boyd Holmes retrospective on you but . . . . when I was in high school, the first night I played a gig at the Havre de Grace VFW, I asked the bartender while we were setting up why there was a floor-to-ceiling collapsible chain link fence on either side of the stage.
“You’ll see’” was all he said with a laugh.
By midnight, all those old drunk guys started throwing stuff at the stage, a la Blues Brothers.
Red Solo cups of beer, plates with food, all flying through the air directly at the band.
The bartender ran up, closed the fence but by 1AM, I was drenched in thrown beer and Italian salad dressing.
And in the category of "it's not a bug, it's a feature", for every beer that was thrown at me, some old vet kindly bought one for me.
All in all, a good time was had by all.
When I play at the Hotel DuPont, it’s a different vibe. I never had to contend with bar variables when I played in the Green Room or Gold Ball Room.
Think: elegance.
If it’s a bar, expect all the possible variables of a bar environment.
Do not expect things to globally change because you object to what goes on in a bar.
If it has been this way for CENTURIES, why would anyone expect it to change now?
Because. . . you care?
Because . . . it offends you?
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their emotions, needs, and wants – but everyone has to be candid to the realities of a bar paradigm that has existed for centuries.
If the TV set is blaring, I have found that if I just politely say something to the bartender, they’ll usually fix it.
Bar owners and bartenders have a hundred and one priorities on their agenda from paying customers that far outweigh the concerns of the musicians.
Remember, many musicians are probably getting paid LESS than the bar back.
When have bar owners ever been even remotely concerned about the working conditions of bar backs?
Never.
To expect anything different than what has existed in perpetuity is indulging in wishful thinking.
My advice if you’re gigging at a bar: Go with the flow. Don’t bitch about the mix. Have fun. Know the crowd’s requests and play them loud.
However . . .
Don’t like all the stuff associated with bars?
There is a remedy.
Don’t gig in a bar.
Play weddings in country clubs.
Much more refined, pays better, and their loading docks are tidier.
Plus, you get to wear a tux (see Exhibit A).
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