I'm coming back to this thread a little late, but I find interesting to see how the answers vary. I also believe they reflect the different venues in which people are involved. The music market in my area is quite poor, consisting mainly in (well payed) private parties, concentrated in the warmer seasons (spring, summer). 90% of my jobs are indeed private parties, and extremely tiring and long days. That's why I do not encourage a girlfriend to come with me, no matter enthusiastic she is about my music (and I can not complaint about that!). In addition, in private parties, the socialization question mentioned by Jim (The Pro), seems to me less important, and the public is typically not very interested in discussing music. But I agree, socialization is very important in classier venues. For New Year Eve, I perform in this same place for 4/5 years (and they booked me for next year) [http://www.pousadas.pt/01pousadas/10montanhas/012bartolomeu/index.html], which is considered the classiest of my area (well, at least it's the most expensive
). I was glad that my girlfriend was my company during these years; we are usually invited to have dinner at the table of the hotel manager and family (my presence is intermittent as I perform short sets here and there, before the big dance part of the party). It is revealing for me that, during the last year, this was my single opportunity to play my "rusty" international repertoire (here international is considered everything non-portuguese, non-brasilian and non-spanish), as in my area the music market is dominated by dance-noisy-portuguese-music gigs! That brings up other interesting questions, but that's for another post!
-- José.
[This message has been edited by matias (edited 01-13-2004).]
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