I need some more advice concerning the two restaurant lounges I am no booking. I'm thinking of supplying a house system at both places. The lounges are 125 seats and space is at a premium.

Do you guys work where there is a house system? Do you like that arrangement?

I would probably use an 8 channel stereo Mackie, two two way 15's and one monitor.

For the club, it would be advantageous to facilitate the moves in and out with minimum business interruption.

Obviously, my preference is for something I would be comfortable with, but I don't want to do anything that would not be acceptable for the players who work for us.

I'm thinking that most players could bring their rack or power amp and line out into the house system if they weren't comfortable with the on-board effects in the house system.

Advice, please?


Russ

I think it would be great to have such a system at the places I work.
With the keyboards I use, all I would need to do is plug into two channels of the mixer, set the volume level and play.
DonM

Russ, if you're going to supply an 808S and two C300 speakers, that's a fantastic system - mine. My limited experience with house sytems is that they are usually not as good as your own. This might be different. BUT, I would think most pros have their own stuff and are quite used to lugging around.

You might be adding to stage clutter if the acts don't use the system. Others may not see the system as easy to use as you do. My suggestion would be to hold off on a house system until you've booked a few acts and get their feelings on the topic.

At my most regular gig, they supply a Mackie PA system (12 channel mixer and 2 powered speakers). It works and yes it makes things much quicker & easier for me and other acts to load in and out. However they went too far and also bought a terrible new Suzuki digital grand piano, which plain sucks. Everyone refused to use it and it was badly damaged while being moved within it's first two weeks there. It now sits idle in an unused upstairs part of the restaurant. But having a house PA is convenient. This one also has an MP3 player so it doubles as the house music system when the musos are away or on break.

BTW/FYI: the Mackie speakers were mounted on shelves and they overheated on me one night as I was playing at low volume. If you block those fins on the back of the powered Mackies in anyway they'll do a thermal overload and shut down. JBL EON's don't have this problem.

Thanks for the help...would it be OK to ask that all set-up be done before the dinner hour starts? The early croud in both places is a dinner croud and the place is full at 5:00. Music was scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm, but that would mean an hour wait before performing. How would a start time of 5:30
be. That would allow for a short dinner (comes with the job).

Also...how would you folks think of a request to stay longer during especially busy
times (the race season, after UK basketball games, etc.)? I'm thinking of offering an additional $50.00 for each additional hour, but not requiring the extra time if it conflicts with other plans.It's a three hour job and I can't imagine it ever going beyond 4 hours.

I want these to be fun, fair jobs that musicians will be proud to play. I always give preference to places and people who are enjoyable to work with.

Also, should I provide some kind of house stage lighting? These are pretty dark rooms.

Thanks,


Russ

Man, I wish I were there. You would be great to work with (for).

You should have some sort of lighting.

I NEVER set up when customers are dining. At my Wed/Thurs supper club job, I go set up Wednesday between 1 and 3, then go back home, shower and put on the tux and drive back to start at 7. It's an extra hour of driving. Then, on Thursday when I quit at 11, I wait until all diners have left to tear down. Some of the other people that play there arrive at 6 or 6:30 (the place opens at 5:00), carry their equipment in between tables and set up. This shows no class at all and I don't understand why the owner can't tell the difference. Also, I've seen them quit and start tearing down while many people are still dining and dancing.
I'll continue playing until the customers leave or the owner WANTS them to leave.
$50. for the extra hour would be o.k. if it's a single act. I generally don't ask anything extra to play over if the customers are enjoying it. If they are enjoying it, they usually take care of me tip-wise.

I don't like to eat much immediately before playing. I would prefer to take the dinner on a night when I'm not playing, so I can enjoy it and listen to the other entertainers, if there are any.
DonM

Thanks, Don...if you're in Kentucky, dinner is on me!

Musicians at our places are welcome to have dinner for themselves and a guest on a night they're not playing.

What types of lighting would you or others suggest? Any on-line sources. There are no
stores in Lexington selling any types of lighting systems.

Russ

I love to setup early and go home to relax/shower/change etc. - and I can do that with my regular house gig which is only ten minutes from my house (plus the manager gave me a key so I can setup anytime), but I couldn't do that with any other gig unless it was equally close to home. If I had to setup by 5pm and then hang out at your restaraunt until 6pm or later, I would have to charge you for that idle hour (I don't eat before playing) but most musos would probably not mind since they get a free meal and would want time to eat anyway. It sucks to drag in equipment between customers, and customers can get real pissy about it too.

You gotta have lights... simple works fine though. I like a couple of par cans with magenta gels suspended from the ceiling and on a wall dimmer switch. I also like a ceiling fan over the stage with a wall-mounted variable speed switch.

Here's the website of a good company I've worked with in Tennessee that sells lighting equipment:
http://www.springtree.net/

Extra pay for extra work is fine too. Sounds like a nice, considerate place to play. Where in Kentucky? I might want to take some time off here and come play for you sometime.

[This message has been edited by The Pro (edited 02-16-2004).]

Russ,

Most of the places I've played with house systems were no where near that quality. If they were, I would have been exstatic to say the least.

As for the $50 an hour overtime pay, that's the going rate here as well. A busy night in Baltimore better bistros could make the musician a lot of money, especially in the higher class places in Little Italy where the night's tips may hit $150 or more. The base pay here is about $150 for the restaurants and clubs, but a few pay $175.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary...singles in Lexington at better places make $125.00-$150.00 for a 4-hour job. We're going to pay $150.00 for three hours and an extra $50.00 per hour if the croud holds.

We want to be the places good players want to work. I have decided not to deal with agents. What I want is a core of 4 good players who can count on regular jobs and give them enough nights to make it worth their while. I can rotate them between the two patios and lounges to keep them fresh and also let them rotate between playing Thurs-Saturday for a while and then switch to Monday-Wednesday.

I really don't see the value in making nightly changes, although I want to give newcomers a chance, probably on Mobdays, if they show promise.


Thanks to everyone for the advice.


russ