Cover bands in bars: MacDade loves them and certain sections of the Northeast love them. It requires a lot of people that enjoy hearing bands in bars, with bars big enough to fetch a cover on Saturday night, or that can dole out $400 to an act like ours to keep people drinking. In most of our area this is a disappearing thing...

Sound guy ditched us for something else, now we have to rent a PA at the last minute, we don't have our own gear... xoB, do you know anyone who does sound?

Yes, I'm waiting for a call back. Kenny did the Pope on the parkway.
Got it. Check your email.

Was the Pope tight?

Yes, but not the altar boys.

A certain Mr. X. O. Bruise came to see us last Saturday

...been so busy I forgot to tell him not to say anything bad about the bad parts.

We entertained the people, and then we ran out of dance songs for a crowd that obviously wanted them

Dance songs are not the forte of the acoustic act

Other than that, people said we were OK and that's about right for second gig, first with the percussionist.

Any pictures with the elusive Monsieur Bruise? Glad your second show was a success!

Not what I expected. I missed the first set because it took 2.5 hours to get there from the BBQ I was at in Sparta... no, Sparta, NJ. Anyway, when I arrived, there were a bunch of attractive young ladies standing outside smoking, so I was surprised the sign on the door said smoking was allowed inside and there was a stack of ashtrays next to each cash register, but very few smoking.

The next surprise was the place was crawling with young attractive ladies. Seriously, they outnumbered the guys at least three to one. As a spectator, it was kind of fun watching them interact with the guys, the bartenders and the other groups of girls. The two sided bar with two booths at one end and a pool table at the other had no place to perch, so the groups, each with a defacto leader, milled about. I could predict much of the dynamics, knowing what they would do and why, even though I suspect they didn't, they were just following age old rhythms.

OH, there was a band. A motley looking crew, especially the back row, but they played well together, reasonably tight, and good music. Unfortunately not nearly loud enough to compete with the chattering chicks. But people were listening and dancing when they could.

There was one cash register across the bar from me and under the bar was a plastic trash can. One of the fancy plastic jobs about a foot high and maybe eight inches in diameter. Half way through the second set it was over flowing with tips, and I watch them count out 60 ones and stuff them in the cash register taking 3 twentys for the tip basket, so I think the bartenders were happy. Cost me $4 for the first bottle of Yuengling and $3 a bottle for the next three, a fair price but the bar owner should be OK too.

Oh, and the men's room was clean and dry, but no paper towels.
Did I mention there was a band?

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

Nice! When is the next gig? I do want to get out to one... if I can stay awake late enough.

There is a semi-private family backyard thingie in September, and we have asked Haggerty's for an October booking but haven't heard back yet. You never know. What xoB didn't mention, because I asked him not to say anything bad, is that we did run out of dancey songs mid-second set and wound up having a bunch of those semi-drunk chicks sit down. That's not a terrible thing for the bar as they have already paid for beverages. But you never know.

I don't think these Saturday bar nights are ideal for us in any way. Acoustic covers, those should be done in slightly quieter environments. But the rest of it is First Fridays and festivals and whatnot, and I don't even know how you get in to those kinds of things. I know we are incredibly bookable but I also know I'm not the person to go about it.

We are kinda sorta on the edge of a bunch of bands that play at Snipes Farm and other Dead-related things. We play some Dead and are getting better at it, but the area is already saturated with Dead tribute bands... but with stuff like "The Weight" and our folksy renditions of "Angel From Montgomery" and "Bring It On Home to Me", there is kinda room for a lot of cross-pollination.

Cool. As you well know, Im into the Dead. Going to see DSO 3x this summer and a couple others this year. Im still interested if things play out right.

Back at Haggerty's Oct 7, but it's a tough situation: our percussionist quit and we have to figure out a new one. Meanwhile one of the band has hip replacement surgery, on the day after Labor Day...

Ah being a middle age band

Crap, I'll be away that weekend. You draw great eye candy. :sniff:

Cancelled at the last minute anyway!

Venue is having renovations and the township told them they can't have live music with no windows.

We'll re-book for more dough, but it's sad when this happens

No live music with no windows? That's very weird. Or is it really that what they can't have is a crowd with no windows, and they know you guys are hot shit and will pack the place?