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This post is part information, part request for advice.
The covers band I play with has been asked to take part in round 1 of a 'battle-of-the-bands' type talent contest in a well-known Paris music venue.
The format is 8 bands present, each having an allotted time slot of 25 minutes (we figure 6 maybe 7 numbers)
Four go through to the next round, on the basis of 'votes' from members of the audience at the end of each band's set. Needless to say, the organiser (Emergenza) gets the bands to fill up the hall with friends and family, thereby selling lots of tickets.
Have any fellow forum members taken part in similar events? How did it go?
What are the key things we should be looking to do (or, more probably, not do?!)
Would you be inclined towards covers (advantage: we know them and play them pretty well) or compositions (we have some that are really quite good but the audience, of course, will not be familiar with them).
All input gratefully received and I will let you know how it went after the event (17 December)
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Good Luck, Marc.
I'd say they are looking for future music acts, and I'd probably do a strong set aimed right at raising the roof with audience participation. 6 songs max maybe even 5 - they take longer than you think. If you've got the audience on your side by song 3, I'd go with a strong original, then close out the set with familiar stuff. Is your front man a strong personality? You need energy from the get-go.
Keep us posted Marc
Ian
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Hi,
I live in France as well & Emergenza is well known. Be careful with them though because they have a bit of a dodgy reputation & have been known to ask for money. Nothing is totally free!
Last edited by bupper; 11/28/10 05:53 AM.
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I put Battle of the Bands in the same category as Open Mic nights.
Free entertainment. Unless there are going to be IMPORTANT people in the audience that could help your career it's a waste of time. From your site you are a seasoned player.
JMO
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Quote:
I put Battle of the Bands in the same category as Open Mic nights.
Free entertainment. Unless there are going to be IMPORTANT people in the audience that could help your career it's a waste of time. From your site you are a seasoned player.
JMO
Free entertainment for the club-owner indeed.
If you are OK with the concept and you are willing to participate, why not?
On other hand; if you are a gigging band playing for cash: don't do these kind of shows. It won't do your credibility any good!
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Quote:
Quote:
I put Battle of the Bands in the same category as Open Mic nights.
Free entertainment. Unless there are going to be IMPORTANT people in the audience that could help your career it's a waste of time. From your site you are a seasoned player.
JMO
Free entertainment for the club-owner indeed.
If you are OK with the concept and you are willing to participate, why not?
On other hand; if you are a gigging band playing for cash: don't do these kind of shows. It won't do your credibility any good!
It appears from his site that they are giging musicians thus my comment.
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John, Quote:
It appears from his site that they are giging musicians thus my comment.
 I didn't google the "Emergenza" site, (if it has one), and I didn't see it on Marc's site, so did you mean "gigging" or "gouging" musicians?
A lot of "non-professional" musicians welcome these types of events as a means of playing for a live audience. I've never played in one of these events, so I can't speak from personal experience, but it could be good practice for a group wanting to get used to playing in front of a crowd.
So I guess it would be "gigging" for the musicians, and a "gouging" by the promoters in order to have free live bands for the event. Either way, it seems to be a "win, win" situation for all inviolved.
Unless of course the band "bombs"! Then it would be a "lose, lose" situation. 
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Quote:
John,
Quote:
It appears from his site that they are giging musicians thus my comment.
I didn't google the "Emergenza" site, (if it has one), and I didn't see it on Marc's site, so did you mean "gigging" or "gouging" musicians?
A lot of "non-professional" musicians welcome these types of events as a means of playing for a live audience. I've never played in one of these events, so I can't speak from personal experience, but it could be good practice for a group wanting to get used to playing in front of a crowd.
So I guess it would be "gigging" for the musicians, and a "gouging" by the promoters in order to have free live bands for the event. Either way, it seems to be a "win, win" situation for all inviolved.
Unless of course the band "bombs"! Then it would be a "lose, lose" situation.
Based on Marc's site and past posts he's not a beginner at this and thus should not play for free unless there are large gains to potentially be made. Battle of the Bands are not typically that type of event.
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Quote:
Have any fellow forum members taken part in similar events? How did it go?
What are the key things we should be looking to do (or, more probably, not do?!)
Would you be inclined towards covers (advantage: we know them and play them pretty well) or compositions (we have some that are really quite good but the audience, of course, will not be familiar with them).
All input gratefully received and I will let you know how it went after the event (17 December)
Marc, I was in a band that played at a battle of the country bands in Las Vegas back in the 90's. It was a outdoor thing which perhaps 10 or more bands were involved. There was some television coverage of the event and radio. We all played cover songs mostly but I did hear a few originals. We all had to use the House PA which had a sound engineer at the console. We had maybe 10 minutes to plug in and get ready to go. Each band got 25 minutes so we had all of songs timed out and in order. We did this just to get some attention & perhaps getting a gig or 2 in some local bars. What we did get is 2 hours of free recording time at a local studio and some free concert tickets. I really don't think it did anything to help us along in my opinion.
Brian
BIAB 2026 Ultrapack- Fender Studio Pro 8, Windows 11, Mac Mini M4 with Logic Pro 11, Melodyne Studio, Luna Pro
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Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this thread and for commenting.
Thanks Ian – that’s pretty well what our provisional set looks like – 4 covers and 3 originals.
Bupper – thanks for the warning. Yes I have seen the various ‘scandals’ reported on the internet by disgruntled artists. To these, I would say:
- perhaps their expectations were too high
- Emergenza have been very upfront and honest as to how their business model works and how their competition functions
- you can find virulent criticism of pretty well everything on the internet if you look hard enough (with the exception, of course, of Peter’s fine computer based music software)
There is indeed a fee for taking part in the competition, which we knew about and have paid. Nobody forced us.
Bupper, hope you can make it to the Gibus for the 17th – we need all the support we can get.
(PM me for a reduced price ticket!)
Thanks John (Silvertones). It could indeed turn out to be a waste of time (we will have wasted a couple of evenings – there is a technical meeting 2 days before) and the modest entry fee. But against that, we will have had the experience of playing, albeit briefly, in a ‘known’ city centre music venue and of seeing just how much support we can drum up.
Thanks for the warning Mike, but I don’t think credibility will be much of an issue. I can’t really see any of our customers (typically local authorities, private bookings and café/restaurants) not hiring us because we have played Emergenza.
Bob – yes of course Emergenza has an extensive web presence.
Thanks Brian for sharing these impressions – the pattern sounds familiar. We have 5 minutes set up, followed by a 25-minute set. Everyone uses house gear even to the extent that drummer’s cannot instal their own cymbals.
If nothing else, it will get us into the habit of not wasting time between songs!
Marc
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We have a local 'music club'. The owner is a childhood friend of mine who bought, at age 19, a share in a variety store and then bought it outright and an apartment building and another. He sold the lot at 50 and bought a house next to my club, (you know guys in ascots drinking scotch) and he runs a once a month night for booking agents, and bar owners. Admission is $10. There are 3 'rooms'. You play for free. If you are lucky someone comes up to you and books your act. The 'agents' and the club owners support this really well, and many of the local musicians got their start there....
It can work. And you should invite potential people to see you....
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Well, as promised although with a slight delay, here is my report on our round one concert. Travel to the venue was made difficult by severe winter weather which, for a time, left us wondering if any spectators would make it to the event. Access to the venue was also extremely difficult as it is in the city centre. I bundled all my gear together and struggled in on public transport + taxi. My bandmates came by car, but spent quite a while looking for a parking space. Somewhat uncooperatively I felt, the event organisers did not provide a keyboard stand, although the mics, mic stands, p.a. and backline were all provided. The venue itself is very rock and roll. Quite compact and dark with no seats in the main area where the stage is. We had been warned that offstage space was limited, but were still not prepared for the total shambles that awaited us. There was a tiny area just next to the stage – in full view of the public and not even cordoned off -where all 8 bands were invited to stock their gear, wait for showtime and, if they so desired, get changed! The soundcheck was, as expected, rather hurried, perfunctory and unsatisfactory. When show time came, we had literally 2 minutes to get our gear on and set up, albeit with the aid of 2 overworked techs. I was at a part of the stage where there was no lighting of any sort – I’m actually invisible in the videos – and I could hear little from the stage monitors. I usually use a ‘local’ monitoring system (involving a mic splitter and an Alesis Transactive 50) which I have full control over, so the contrast was very marked. However, despite all this, I have no complaint with the organisers, Emergenza. No, they are not angels. Yes, they make money from the operation. But overall they did what they said they would which was to provide us with an opportunity to play at a venue we would not otherwise get to play at. We were 4th on out of 8 acts and played a set judiciously composed of 3 originals and 4 covers (thanks to Ian who suggested this). I felt we played with far more energy, but less accuracy than usual. The response from the house was quite enthusiastic – even from members of the audience that had been brought along by the other bands. For the record, we did make it through by finishing in the top 4 and are awaiting the date of round #2. My advice to anyone with a band who is thinking of taking in part in such an event would be to do so. But with your eyes wide open!
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Sounds like not all of the snow was on the ground...
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Congrats, you survived the first round.
Learn from it and be prepared for the next. Give 'em something to remember.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Quote:
Sounds like not all of the snow was on the ground...
You're right Pat.
The sound was not great to begin with, but these videos -filmed on a cheap camera- do nothing to enhance it.
I guess the only point of these videos is to prove we were there, and even that doesn't work in my case.
Anyway, we have just learnt that our round #2 is to take place at the (even!) more prestigious 'Scene Bastille' on 31 March.
See you there
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Quote:
Quote:
Sounds like not all of the snow was on the ground...
You're right Pat.
The sound was not great to begin with, but these videos -filmed on a cheap camera- do nothing to enhance it.
I guess the only point of these videos is to prove we were there, and even that doesn't work in my case.
Anyway, we have just learnt that our round #2 is to take place at the (even!) more prestigious 'Scene Bastille' on 31 March.
See you there
By "snow" I wasn't referring to the sound quality of the video, I was referring to the credibility of the promoters. Everything they told you was true, but in a way that was much less than expected. (as in "snow job")
But as you said, good opportunity to play a high exposure gig! Best of luck in March! We'll all be rooting for you!
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Good news Marc - congrats.
It's difficult for even super professional organizations to stage such an event.
As a band you've got to expect the unexpected - unexpected being more the norm than not.
But you guys did it!
We're all waiting for news of round 2.
Cheers to you!
Ian
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Hi Update time When the results become available at http://www.emergenza.net/show.asp?dett=yes&res=32you will see that we have now made it through the second round and will take part in one of the semi finals of the France competition. I think our balance of 4 covers + 3 originals in our 25 minute set is just about right. The bands that were playing only originals were losing the interest of the non-committed spectators. Whatever else happens, we will have got to play 3 of the better known central Paris rock venues, which is an achievement in itself. Marc
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Further, and perhaps final update...
So last night we played the Alhambra in Paris at the ‘semi-final’ stage of the competition.
I have now realised that it’s quite hard to get knocked out. If the organisers sense that you still have the potential to sell say 30 or 40 tickets at a future concert, you will be miraculously reprieved, even if you were officially eliminated at the last round.
Again, I felt we played OK last night (we should do – we’ve been playing virtually nothing but these 7 songs now for around 3 months!) but we didn’t mobilise that many supporters. Hardly surprising as Sunday is not a great night to drag people out, plus the 1 May is actually a public holiday here.
I guess this is the nearest the band will get to the ‘real deal’. Nice big clean backstage area – with working shower, private pre-stage entry dressing room, dedicated sound engineers for FoH and band (side of stage) …
Best scenario now would be for us to be knocked out honourably (top 2 go through to final). The result is not yet known. I think if we were top 4 we get a ‘professionally finished’ dvd of our set.
I sincerely hope we don’t have to do it all again as it is becoming awkward to constantly pester friends, neighbours and colleagues to come along.
For all this I still think it has been a positive experience for us.
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This is all very good news, Marc. It's all about exposure, and just because you are the winner, does not mean you profit most from the experience. Back in the day, I did quite well being number two a couple of times. A professional dvd of your set would be worthwhile having, as would an increase in your band's credibility for having gone the distance you have. Continued success, my man. Ian
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