Because I'm getting older & grouchier, gigging has become a real PITA. My biggest issue is the musical ignorance of most audiences; dunno what's it's like in y'all's neck of the woods, but in my area,(West Central Florida) the only thing the people know here is metal, classic rock & southern, and believe me...I am SO sick to death of that crap. So, last year, I got together with a friend & we put an ad out for band members. I told them "we are sick to death of playing 'what the people wanna hear', or 'something we can dance to'. We wanna play what we like, and if they like it, they will come...if not, we won't work & we'll abandon the project.
Fast forward a year later. We are now so booked up, including weekdays, that we hafta turn gigs down. We do NOT call clubs anymore; they call us from our reputation looking to hire us. Just this weekend we got 13 bookings throughout the year, without dialing ONE PHONE NUMBER! And we play the music we love; the hell with whether or not you can "dance to it". But they DO!
This has gotten really big really fast. What was our secret?
In a town overrun by bands doing Skynyrd,Allmans,Petty,Fleetwood,and tired old bar band crap, we decided to give the people something different. But...not just different. My motto has always been "nostalgia sells", because people today are pretty disillusioned with the world & society in general, so let's give them music that brings them back to a happier & simple time; a time where music was the most important thing in most people's lives; even non-musicians. Let's do nothing but 50's & 60's, especially British Invasion & surf. And maybe a little classic country, so I have an excuse to bring the pedal steel.
And it has WORKED! You would not believe how wild people go for our playlist, which includes The Dave Clark 5, The Monkees, Herman's Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers,Freddie & the Dreamers,the Outsiders, The Searchers,Johnny Mathis,the Platters,Elvis,The Ventures, and all the "feel good" music we grew up with. It is REALLY great to have a clubowner call US up & say "hey your that 60's band,right? We want you!!" When the occasional audience member comes up to us & asks for Skynyrd, we tell them "sorry; we don't do Southern or Classic Rock" When they ask why, we say "we figure every other band in Tampa Bay does that stuff, & we are SO tired of it, and we figured most people here are, too".
Turns out we were right!
Fast forward a year later. We are now so booked up, including weekdays, that we hafta turn gigs down. We do NOT call clubs anymore; they call us from our reputation looking to hire us. Just this weekend we got 13 bookings throughout the year, without dialing ONE PHONE NUMBER! And we play the music we love; the hell with whether or not you can "dance to it". But they DO!
This has gotten really big really fast. What was our secret?
In a town overrun by bands doing Skynyrd,Allmans,Petty,Fleetwood,and tired old bar band crap, we decided to give the people something different. But...not just different. My motto has always been "nostalgia sells", because people today are pretty disillusioned with the world & society in general, so let's give them music that brings them back to a happier & simple time; a time where music was the most important thing in most people's lives; even non-musicians. Let's do nothing but 50's & 60's, especially British Invasion & surf. And maybe a little classic country, so I have an excuse to bring the pedal steel.
And it has WORKED! You would not believe how wild people go for our playlist, which includes The Dave Clark 5, The Monkees, Herman's Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers,Freddie & the Dreamers,the Outsiders, The Searchers,Johnny Mathis,the Platters,Elvis,The Ventures, and all the "feel good" music we grew up with. It is REALLY great to have a clubowner call US up & say "hey your that 60's band,right? We want you!!" When the occasional audience member comes up to us & asks for Skynyrd, we tell them "sorry; we don't do Southern or Classic Rock" When they ask why, we say "we figure every other band in Tampa Bay does that stuff, & we are SO tired of it, and we figured most people here are, too".
Turns out we were right!
Congrats on finding a winning formula man! Keep it up and rock on!
