So How was your New Years Eve GIG?

I'll report back l8tr.. I'm off to a double NY day gig now....how'd it go last night out there?

Hi Donny,
Well, I played my first New Years Gig in more than 30 years last night. It was 1975 at a New Years gig that I "walked away" from it all. After playing just about every conceivable type of gig and surviving the drunks, the smoke, and the asshole public I just had enough.

Last night I took a gig that came my way from a guy who has a mother in a senior center I play regularly. He was hosting a private house party and it turned out to be the best thing I have done in months. Turns out the guy lives in one of the most expensive areas of Dallas and offered to pay me a ton of money to play the gig. After tips and payment I had a very good mid 4 figure night.

The house was really neat with a seperate wing dedicated to entertainment only - including a private entrance for guests. I played only 3 hours.

The real story though is my Bose L1. The room was not large so I had to tweak my Tyros 3 Eq settings and turn down the Bose to almost off. I had compliments all night long about how nice the music sounded - loud enough to be heard but not overbearing. This morning I got two calls from guests at the party and booked two more private house parties. Both people mentioned how much they appreciated the music and that it was not overbearing.

You know, there were times I wasn't sure the people(only about 20 of them) could even hear the music.

I guess you can say it was a successful night thanks to my Bose L1 system.

Hammer

[This message has been edited by hammer (edited 01-01-2009).]

Ended up with three jobs...the one house job from 5-7PM, then a 9 to 1:00 PM; then an 1:30 till? at an "animal" club, where the club cooked and served after hours breakfast. Things were really uncomfortable, because soem of the patrons obviously had issues with others there about the status of some investments. One of the officers of the club is owner of an investment firm, and I saw a few of his clients who had partied a little too much get into a shouting match or two. All in all, not the most festive holoday NYE parties I have worked over the years.


Russ

Hammer I have a similar story to yours, no not the numbers you talked about. but the Bose. Earlier this month I played a private party at a country club for about 50 guests. Twice the manager asked me to lower the volume. It reached a point that I thought to myself, why are they even bothering having me play, the music is barely audible.( at least to my ears ). Short story is I was paid for the 2 hours I was contracted for and started packing up my gear. The party host came over and said if I stayed he would pay me whatever the cost was. We agreed on a price for the additional time and I got 2 more gigs out of it, including last night New Year's Eve at the same Country Club. It doesn't hurt having the Bose, that's for sure.

Glad to hear some of you had great NYE gigs....I personally performed at 3 of them yesterday. First a small day care center owned by a Big Hospital nearby 12-1pm nice small group about 40 pp....all danced and we had a countdown also lots of fun.
Second a large Independent Living NYE party 2:30-3:30 about 100pp...count down with dropped ceiling balloons, Father Time costumes, all out dancing & Champagne toasts flowing!
Third was the biggie High End Active Adult Community 8:30-12:30, 400pp....went there & set up 3 hours in advance on stage because it was nearby I was able to go home relax & return before the show started. Full blown dinner, with 3hours of a packed dance floor afterwards, followed by a drop down 10 foot screen and live feed from Times Square in New York City Dick Clark"s Rockin'Eve Ball Dropping at midnight...a great time had by all. Just got home from 2 more New Year Day shows today......Tomorrow Epiphany (holiday Dance), a Christian holiday on celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus...
Latin Dancing All night long, Yea!

Happy New Year


[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-01-2009).]

1st show was a solo at a large retirement community for 100+ poeple...

2nd was a band gig for a dinner dance at a local animal club...

Both went well, clients very happy...

2 more today, 1 tomorrow, 1 Saturday then off Sun/Mon...



------------------
Bill in Dayton

Had (4) gigs that day, but the last one screwed up and dbl booked. The piano player was already there, playing.

But all ended well, as the AD took me in his office and booked me 12x in 2009 for a $10 raise too.

I was burned out anyway that day after (3) performances - enough money for me and I got home early.

More today, tomorrow and then it's pretty crazy in 2009.

We had one of the best NYE gigs we've had in a while.

Ironically it was the same place we've played for the last 3 years (a Club on the Gold Coast in Oz that's had extensive - 9 million dollar extensive - renovations).

Great people - friendly, polite AND out for a rockin' good time.
Dancefloor was packed all night.

HORRIBLE place to play acoustically (glass and Marble everywhere, smallish reflective dancefloor that usually gives us a "sound headache"), but this year we used a "certain PA system" for the 1st time (at NYE) and we went home happy and headache free.

We played everything from "pin drop Ballads" to the latest Top 40 (and AC/DC) and it all sounded awesome.

played a "Freebe" for the neighbors(average age75)at the club house. 6 to 8 then home on the couch by 8:30. had a great time, but man i'm out of shape. today i feel like crap and i don't drink. 1st gig in 2 yrs.

I had fun playing with my classic rock cover band at a local bar from 9pm-1am The bar was packed and the dance floor was full until we finished at 1.15am as we were kept playing for a couple of encores. We play there again on Friday so didn't even have to load out the gear so it was nice to just finish the night and walk out with my guitars in hand.

Nigel.....sounds like a fun time for sure for the Band & the audience.

Happy New Year!

I had a potential scare. Went it to set up at 5, cause it was SO Stinkin' cold. ( it's 10 minutes from my house too ). I set up everything, and it all fired up wonderfully ... EXCEPT for the screen on the Bose tone match mixer! Yikes...
So.. I troubleshoot:
1. check all connections
2. switch wall outlet
3. power down and reboot.

Still nothing.

I own the separate ac adapter for the tone match, so I can use the mixer with different setups ... so I tried it with that adapter - BINGO! All the lights fire up. That tells me that the trouble was in the Ethernet wire going to the Bose tower. It must have been wrapped too tightly one night, and became compromises somehow. So ... I juggled it all along the 18 foot length, and sure enough, it started up. Bose is shipping a new one out at no charge, and it worked fine that night after I repositioned it.

Moral of the story:
(Gary plays the drum roll ... )
Backups, or at least a plan B. I don't carry a backup system, but I do have different ways to hook it up, and I live close enought that I could have run home if I had to.

After that - it was a joy of a job. Sorry.....GIG (happy New Years, guys!)

We had a great NYE gig...