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Is the 50 - 100 for the night? Man I'd be looking to throw in some backing tracks if for no other reason just to see if they would up the pay a bit . . . just saying. Man that won't cover gas much less equipment cost and upkeep these days.



That's for the 5 piece jazz band I used to work with in the restaurant 2 miles from me that changed ownership last December and they threw out the bands. Now they have steam tables for happy hour where we used to set up at 7PM until it's time for the thumpa, thumpa urban disco the place turns into at 10PM on the weekends. Great, huh? I do have 3 regular commercial duo gigs coming up this summer where I get $150-200 but there's some driving too. I'm the whole band with a sax player. Not sure yet if we're still going to do the casino thing with a third person. I'll probably get a couple of big band gigs later this year so that's what, maybe 5 or 6 total gigs and a few Xmas parties if I'm lucky. I'm sure I could do freebies in some coffee shop but I think I'll pass on that.

It's all DJ's now, they're the ones that have taken over the live music scene. I'll give them credit, they're not just schleps playing songs, they are very good entertainers, they show up with their crew and they're making $500-1,000 or more for a party. These are not regular gigs as we know them, around here they basically lease a big club for the night and put on a show. After paying the owners they keep everything including the door and the booze or maybe it's a percentage. I'm sure there's different ways to split the money. One of my young friends drove me to one and it was exactly the same as we all remember, a big lively crowd including a doorman with a long line waiting to get in, lots of noise, lots of foxy babes just no band, it's a huge sound system with one main DJ and usually a couple of guest DJ's. It's those guys who are the local stars now not musicians.

You can find these places on Youtube and see what's happening. Look up the big spring break resort areas, you'll see lots of lights, smoke, anywhere from 500 to 1000 people, lots of booze, yelling and screaming, wet T shirt contests, all that good stuff we all remember with a crew of DJ's up front. Just like 1974 on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood or any other big city in the developed world. Just no bands. Or to be precise, few bands. Yes I know there are some but not many.

Bob

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