What is it about the rumble of a line of Harleys that gets the adrenaline pumping so hard?
We played this as an audition as one of their "house bands" for the weekly Bike Night at the Richmond Quaker Steak & Lube. Four bands will be picked to rotate in every week - so this could mean a once-a-month gig from mid-March through October. We took a chance with giving a freebie for that reason.
One thing that left no doubt at all was that the crowd was there to see the band. We were scheduled to start at 7 PM, for about an hour set, and by the time we hit the downbeat it was standing room only. That made us pretty happy, since it meant we filled three large dining areas for a crowd of about 250 people. We wound up doing a pretty long 1 1/2 hour set. Hey - people kept throwing money at us so we kept playing. We wound up with about 30 bucks in the tip jar. Once our set was done, the place emptied out pretty fast. We finished about 8:30, and the crowd had finished their drinks and food and vanished by 9. Quoth the manager: "Wow! You guys drew a LOT of people out for a Wednesday night!" She also gave us each a $25 gift certificate for doing the audition - which was a nice surprise. I'm not gonna complain, since that was actually a bit higher value than our $125/hr rate!
She's going to be calling us back in about two weeks to "book the whole season." Not only will we likely be doing some Bike Nights, but we'll definitely be doing quite a few Country "Theme Nights" for them in the next year.
March is gonna be a busy month for us: Post Commander's ball for two American legion posts, plus Richmond East Moose, and maybe a Bike Night!
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
Awesome sounding gig. Packed house mid-week. Gotta love it. I hope many gigs come from it. Also a couple of extra 8) 8) for the bike-night stuff. We love our tunes. Good times. :)
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
THAT'S how you do it!!! Congrats on the new gig!!! :D
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Just a follow up on this one . . .
It's been a month, and there's been not a peep from the manager there - to any of the bands that took a chance on them for that monthly gig.
Nothing positive, nothing negative, just silence. Oh well, just goes to show ya there's no telling what's gonna land you a gig. It was a gamble, and a fun gig. Evidenced by the total lack of follow-up afterwards, the manager was running a scam trying to get cheap entertainment. She's a pretty good con artist. I usually smell those a mile off.
Complaints to the Quaker Steak & Lube corporate offices filed. Don't lie to us, we're vindictive rednecks. ;)
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
