Well, if you're gigging Fridays and especially Saturdays, getting home at 2am isn't too big a deal. Depending on work situation, getting to the gig after work on a friday and setting up might be a little tight.
We used to have a monthly gig on a Saturday night (we rotated with three other bands, and every few months the fifth weekend would open up and we'd sometimes snag it) - it was good to play regularly at one spot, and it freed up the other Saturdays for occasional other gigs or personal stuff. At one point we were playing three nights a month, usually Saturdays, and that was fine with us. Occasionally it bloomed into 6 or 8 gigs a month.
Since COVID-lockdowns, many of those gigs have gone away, and we're OK with that. We've paid enough dues, so we've turned into a Studio-rat band (like Steely Dan was for quite a while) that plays the odd festival or birthday/anniversary/retirement gig by invitation (often free of charge for friends etc). For the record, my wife (bassist) and I are in a band with two close friends who also live in the same neighborhood. We're working on our fifth CD (been working it for a while, starting to feel like Chinese Democracy), and we have material for a couple more albums after that already written, some recorded.
We (all four of us) also had a sound production company going pre- and post-COVID, where we ran sound at those festivals - we've given that up too this past year, it became too much like work and not much like fun - and at an amortized average hourly rate of $5 at best, the "wage" wasn't worth it.
Now, regarding De-acquisition Mode...oh man. This past week we had our windows measured for replacement. That meant moving "everything" away from the windows so the tech could get in and take an accurate measurement. And we'll have to move stuff even more drastically when the windows actually get replaced in a few months: 2 feet minimum inside and out clear access. Now most people might think "oh that's no big deal, I have to move a bookcase a few inches or move that storage bench from underneath the window." We have a house full of "stuff". A lot of musical stuff (including leftover sound gig stuff, even after moving 3/4 of it on to our successors, because we still need some equipment for our own sound). But a lot of non-musical stuff. It made me realize we really need to start clearing stuff out. But where to start? I still record at home, so I need the DAW desk area. I still process photos and video, so I need the photo/video workstation too. I have DSLR & video cameras (to create some of those photos/videos), which take up a good amount of space. We both work from home a fair bit, so we need our "office spaces".
The pool table room, which used to be a formal living room (remember those?), is beside the home pub (used to be the formal dining room). Those can't go. The pool table is surrounded by music stuff - mics and vocal amps for vox, and guitars, basses, and their amps, and dozens of acoustic & percussion instruments, since that is our de facto jam/practice room (handy having a pub
right there). The upstairs "bonus room" is the "old music room", filled with a drum kit, more guitar/bass amps, another PA (partly disassembled), oh, and is also my HT room with two projectors and a 150" screen. And the 5.2.4 Dolby Atmos set up to go with it. And seating for six. And shelves and shelves of BDs/DVDs, CD, and books.
There are three areas in the house that could use a purge, so we'll concentrate on those, because there is a lot of "stuff" there that is simply hanging around because we've always had it.
But I'm not quite ready to give up the guitars, amps, and pedal boards.
And as for retirement (probably 10 years away, maybe a bit more): one bandmate retired last year (maybe year before) - she's never been busier! I can't wait to really be able to focus on songwriting and all the other musical stuff banging around in my head. And all my other hobbies (like the photography / videography stuff, plus gardening, plus plus plus...)
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant and get this down - it has helped collect my thoughts, in a way...
