No Shows ....

[Greywolf]

Last night the promoter had booked 3 artists for a monthly "Songwriters in the Round" only one showed .. This is the 3rd time this has happened with that promoter , usually it's only 1 that skips out. No notice, no heads up from artist or promoter... Luckily the artist that did show up Colt Coates is a consumate pro ,his band Cure my Enemy and his dad's band CC Coates have all played and slayed, and despite recovering from the flu managed to cover almost the whole set , a friend we have booked next month happend to drop in for a few.

I love the creative side of our craft ... the flakiness ... not so much .

How do you deal with artists like this ? Hard to want to book them again when you can't trust them . The Artists that saved the day do wonders for thier cred .

 

[RickP]

There’s a difference between unavoidable circumstances and just ignoring your responsibility to others. No notice, no heads up = no reason = never again. If you stick your hand back in that rat trap, you could hardly blame anyone but yourself if it snaps shut on you again.

Book reliable artists, and reward their dedication and professionalism. Maintain contact with other music pros who do similar events. This way you can get intel on new acts, good and bad, and also have a way to find (and help other promoters find) bands to fill in for the inevitable cancellations. Undependable bands need to suffer through lack of places to play, leaving the good gigs for those who appreciate and take advantage of the opportunity.

On the other hand, be as good of a promoter as you want a band to be for you. Nothing worse from a band perspective than promoters who “change the deal” (date/time/scheduled order/pay) on you post-agreement. It’s awesome when a reliable artist meets a reliable promoter.

 

[Greywolf]

That's the approach I'm taking . It's a bit of a stress when a no show is a friend .
Bad reps get around , as much as good , maybe more. We are ditching that promoter . Luckily I started an Artist directory for everyone who's played there , Open Mic or booked , so while it's a bit more work We can book our own.

 

[RickP]

That's the approach I'm taking . It's a bit of a stress when a no show is a friend .
Bad reps get around , as much as good , maybe more. We are ditching that promoter . Luckily I started an Artist directory for everyone who's played there , Open Mic or booked , so while it's a bit more work We can book our own.

Yes, it’s tough dealing with friends. While you’d think they would make double-sure not to let a friend down, often they are much less reliable than total strangers. Friendship is friendship, business is business… a good standard to keep. But I get it; sometimes it gets mixed no matter what you do.

Having spent most of my adult life in positions where directing people was the norm, I can tell you that these frustrations are common in any profession where you have to deal with that variable called “people.” The most rewarding times happen there, but so do the most frustrating and aggravating of times. Best wishes to you, my friend!

 

[Moondog Wily]

I can only imagine how frustrating that is. In my music community, my favorite artist and I think the best musician around here is the most unreliable individual I have met when it comes to honoring his word on gigs. And he has even revealed to me, lies he has told proprietors about why he could not make it that night ;~(( Total bummer! Lucky for me and my girl, he is pretty good at responding to messages asking him if he is going to show up at venue X this evening!! But whenever we are planning to go and see him or any act he is a part of, I always text him to ensure he will be there!!

All that said, I have faith that the Grey Wolf will take care of business on this!!! I pity the fool who crosses that wolf's path with bad juju ;~))

 

[JasonE]

There’s a difference between unavoidable circumstances and just ignoring your responsibility to others. No notice, no heads up = no reason = never again. If you stick your hand back in that rat trap, you could hardly blame anyone but yourself if it snaps shut on you again.

Book reliable artists, and reward their dedication and professionalism. Maintain contact with other music pros who do similar events. This way you can get intel on new acts, good and bad, and also have a way to find (and help other promoters find) bands to fill in for the inevitable cancellations. Undependable bands need to suffer through lack of places to play, leaving the good gigs for those who appreciate and take advantage of the opportunity.

On the other hand, be as good of a promoter as you want a band to be for you. Nothing worse from a band perspective than promoters who “change the deal” (date/time/scheduled order/pay) on you post-agreement. It’s awesome when a reliable artist meets a reliable promoter.

I 100% agree with this. I have been a people manager for many years too and you have to set the bar and stick to it.

That's the approach I'm taking . It's a bit of a stress when a no show is a friend .
Bad reps get around , as much as good , maybe more. We are ditching that promoter . Luckily I started an Artist directory for everyone who's played there , Open Mic or booked , so while it's a bit more work We can book our own.

To me, if the person you need to have the conversation with is a friend, you can be pretty upfront with a friend. You can tell them this is not how you represent yourself to get good paying gigs.

Musicians are a flaky group of folks at times. Where it really sucks is if the flaky person is a really good player. I have found that it works out much better if you just move on past the flakes and egotistical people. Those things just don't work in a band and gig scenario. Everyone has to be a team player and professional about it or it won't work.

 

[Greywolf]

Very good points by all . The owner has a very low tolerance for flakes, she's VERY serious so , while I lobbied to book the artist for previous shows, they won't be back , and we won't be using that promoter.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

I love the creative side of our craft ... the flakiness ... not so much .

Agree, and unfortunately, these type stories are common. I've experienced it several times myself, or seen or heard of it happening to others I know, and of course, you can find TONS of stories like this at TGP.

We had a band all put together my freshman year at collage. (I've told the story before about the other guitar player and his Mesa Mark II). Well, he was a much better singer than guitar player. He wasn't bad, but was a really good singer who could not only sing, but had stage presence, worked a crowd etc. So after just a couple practices, he decided we'd be better with just me playing guitar and him just singing. The drummer and bass player were good, tight and had been playing together for a while so things came together very quickly after I joined. They had actually been practicing as a 3 piece for months, but singer wasn't keeping up on guitar, and wasn't as good at singing while trying to play guitar. So after I joined things went very fast. We had 10 songs down after two practices. Basically, everyone showed up knowing their parts and it was almost too easy...

So we book a gig. A good sized one with over 1000 people expected to attend for our first gig. An hour before the gig, we were completely set up, tuned up, guitars on stands on stage and out mingling, waiting for the show... but no singer. 30 minutes before, still no singer. 15 before, no singer. Showtime... no singer. We were getting more embarrassed by the minute. 30 minutes after the show was supposed to start, we decided to play a couple instrumentals... that we had never played together before, but songs we all knew and just figured we could jam on. It actually went well. But we were so disappointed (and concerned) at what was happening that we weren't really showing out. Then we got the idea to get someone else to sing a couple songs that we knew. That didn't go well after a few hours of partying (college crowd).

In the end, we played for 35 minutes or so and that was it. The singer was THE artsy one in the band. He was big into (and VERY GOOD at) the college theater group. He was USED to preforming in front of people, and he was talented. We didn't see him all weekend. We were afraid he'd been in a wreck or something... Apparently he got so nervous about the gig that he went home from school for the weekend! Without telling anyone. I hardly knew any of the other three guys before our few weeks together, but we got close fast and like I said, the other 3 were already friends and had played together (all upper classman). When he returned on Monday, the drummer and bass player found out what he did and immediately disbanded. They asked me to stay with them, so I did, but 3 weeks later we hadn't found a (good) singer yet and basketball started so I was out. I would have stayed if we had something going, but trying to start again with daily basketball practice and games every weekend didn't work. Auditioning singers was... a joke. As was mentioned in another thread here today, it's really hard to believe how many people "think" they can sing well, who really can't sing well at all. But really I was just discouraged because we had a really good thing going and one guy flaked out and poof, it was gone. I learned in just a few weeks just how fickle the band scene can be. I actually thought we really had something going, and it didn't last a month!

And some of you already know my band story from 15 years or so ago. That one was pretty funny as well.

 

[dmatthews]

Agree, and unfortunately, these type stories are common. I've experienced it several times myself, or seen or heard of it happening to others I know, and of course, you can find TONS of stories like this at TGP.

We had a band all put together my freshman year at collage. (I've told the story before about the other guitar player and his Mesa Mark II). Well, he was a much better singer than guitar player. He wasn't bad, but was a really good singer who could not only sing, but had stage presence, worked a crowd etc. So after just a couple practices, he decided we'd be better with just me playing guitar and him just singing. The drummer and bass player were good, tight and had been playing together for a while so things came together very quickly after I joined. They had actually been practicing as a 3 piece for months, but singer wasn't keeping up on guitar, and wasn't as good at singing while trying to play guitar. So after I joined things went very fast. We had 10 songs down after two practices. Basically, everyone showed up knowing their parts and it was almost too easy...

So we book a gig. A good sized one with over 1000 people expected to attend for our first gig. An hour before the gig, we were completely set up, tuned up, guitars on stands on stage and out mingling, waiting for the show... but no singer. 30 minutes before, still no singer. 15 before, no singer. Showtime... no singer. We were getting more embarrassed by the minute. 30 minutes after the show was supposed to start, we decided to play a couple instrumentals... that we had never played together before, but songs we all knew and just figured we could jam on. It actually went well. But we were so disappointed (and concerned) at what was happening that we weren't really showing out. Then we got the idea to get someone else to sing a couple songs that we knew. That didn't go well after a few hours of partying (college crowd).

In the end, we played for 35 minutes or so and that was it. The singer was THE artsy one in the band. He was big into (and VERY GOOD at) the college theater group. He was USED to preforming in front of people, and he was talented. We didn't see him all weekend. We were afraid he'd been in a wreck or something... Apparently he got so nervous about the gig that he went home from school for the weekend! Without telling anyone. I hardly knew any of the other three guys before our few weeks together, but we got close fast and like I said, the other 3 were already friends and had played together (all upper classman). When he returned on Monday, the drummer and bass player found out what he did and immediately disbanded. They asked me to stay with them, so I did, but 3 weeks later we hadn't found a (good) singer yet and basketball started so I was out. I would have stayed if we had something going, but trying to start again with daily basketball practice and games every weekend didn't work. Auditioning singers was... a joke. As was mentioned in another thread here today, it's really hard to believe how many people "think" they can sing well, who really can't sing well at all. But really I was just discouraged because we had a really good thing going and one guy flaked out and poof, it was gone. I learned in just a few weeks just how fickle the band scene can be. I actually thought we really had something going, and it didn't last a month!

And some of you already know my band story from 15 years or so ago. That one was pretty funny as well.

Wow... a no show like that would have flipped me out!
Kudos for playing anyway!

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Wow... a no show like that would have flipped me out!
Kudos for playing anyway!

We didn't accept the pay, but honestly my story if more from the "after" perspective. The truth is, we were worried sick that something happened to Dave. He lived 8 hours away and only went home on holidays. We thought something had happened too him. We thought we owed it to them to play some music, but with that in our minds, we weren't prepared to have a great time like we planned.

It was after we found out what happened, that we all got mad, disappointed, etc. Oh well. On the bright side, I didn't get kicked out of that band. So as cool as it was for a few weeks and as disappointed as I was that it didn't work, it was not my worse band experience, as you all know.

 

[JasonE]

Agree, and unfortunately, these type stories are common. I've experienced it several times myself, or seen or heard of it happening to others I know, and of course, you can find TONS of stories like this at TGP.

We had a band all put together my freshman year at collage. (I've told the story before about the other guitar player and his Mesa Mark II). Well, he was a much better singer than guitar player. He wasn't bad, but was a really good singer who could not only sing, but had stage presence, worked a crowd etc. So after just a couple practices, he decided we'd be better with just me playing guitar and him just singing. The drummer and bass player were good, tight and had been playing together for a while so things came together very quickly after I joined. They had actually been practicing as a 3 piece for months, but singer wasn't keeping up on guitar, and wasn't as good at singing while trying to play guitar. So after I joined things went very fast. We had 10 songs down after two practices. Basically, everyone showed up knowing their parts and it was almost too easy...

So we book a gig. A good sized one with over 1000 people expected to attend for our first gig. An hour before the gig, we were completely set up, tuned up, guitars on stands on stage and out mingling, waiting for the show... but no singer. 30 minutes before, still no singer. 15 before, no singer. Showtime... no singer. We were getting more embarrassed by the minute. 30 minutes after the show was supposed to start, we decided to play a couple instrumentals... that we had never played together before, but songs we all knew and just figured we could jam on. It actually went well. But we were so disappointed (and concerned) at what was happening that we weren't really showing out. Then we got the idea to get someone else to sing a couple songs that we knew. That didn't go well after a few hours of partying (college crowd).

In the end, we played for 35 minutes or so and that was it. The singer was THE artsy one in the band. He was big into (and VERY GOOD at) the college theater group. He was USED to preforming in front of people, and he was talented. We didn't see him all weekend. We were afraid he'd been in a wreck or something... Apparently he got so nervous about the gig that he went home from school for the weekend! Without telling anyone. I hardly knew any of the other three guys before our few weeks together, but we got close fast and like I said, the other 3 were already friends and had played together (all upper classman). When he returned on Monday, the drummer and bass player found out what he did and immediately disbanded. They asked me to stay with them, so I did, but 3 weeks later we hadn't found a (good) singer yet and basketball started so I was out. I would have stayed if we had something going, but trying to start again with daily basketball practice and games every weekend didn't work. Auditioning singers was... a joke. As was mentioned in another thread here today, it's really hard to believe how many people "think" they can sing well, who really can't sing well at all. But really I was just discouraged because we had a really good thing going and one guy flaked out and poof, it was gone. I learned in just a few weeks just how fickle the band scene can be. I actually thought we really had something going, and it didn't last a month!

And some of you already know my band story from 15 years or so ago. That one was pretty funny as well.

One of the bands I was helping run, that I was the only guitar player in, had an issue with our bass player going to the keys and either forgetting he had a gig or he didn't care. When he didn't show for setup I started trying to call him, no answer. My wife was able to get a reply from his girlfriend by text to find out they were in the keys. She had no idea that he had a gig. I immediately started calling bass players that I knew. I got lucky and one of them had a gig that got canceled. He was planning on going out and hanging with his cousin. I told him to bring him along and he could hang, get free drinks and food. It was all there. I gave him the address, it was a private party. We played all of the songs in our list that he knew and I was able to coach him through a good chunk of others. The party was a success, it was a 50th birthday party. The people were so grateful for him showing up short notice and saving the day that they gave him an extra $100. He definitely saved the day. Our bass player was promptly fired the next day.

 

[dmatthews]

We didn't accept the pay, but honestly my story if more from the "after" perspective. The truth is, we were worried sick that something happened to Dave. He lived 8 hours away and only went home on holidays. We thought something had happened too him. We thought we owed it to them to play some music, but with that in our minds, we weren't prepared to have a great time like we planned.

It was after we found out what happened, that we all got mad, disappointed, etc. Oh well. On the bright side, I didn't get kicked out of that band. So as cool as it was for a few weeks and as disappointed as I was that it didn't work, it was not my worse band experience, as you all know.

Freakin' Daves... it never ends...