What Types of Places are You Playing?

[ferg]

I was just perusing the "post your live setup" thread, and I see a lot of posts where the signal chain ends with "-->house PA", meaning people have a guitar, some sort of signal processing, then go into a venue-provided PA system.

My question is - what types of places are these?

My acoustic duo has 3 semi-regular gigs right now. 2 of them are "coffee lounges", which seem to be a "thing" around here - they're places that serve premium coffee and an array of coffee-centric beverages, along with pastries and other types things you'd see at a Starbucks or Peete's or what have you, but also serve wine and beer and even light meals (salad's, sandwiches, wraps, cheese plates).

Personally, I LOVE playing places like this, for a couple of reasons:

1) I believe a place that sells beer and wine covers their costs more quickly if most in the crowd are having a couple.

2) I don't suspect some mild musical form of beer (or wine) goggles hurts the reception of our performance, especially when we play songs that are intended to be funny.

3) It just happens that most of our friends, given the option, would like to have a drink or two during a weekend evening out.

4) Despite the booze, the places we play do not get rowdy, loud or otherwise unsavory.

That's two of the places (the 2 that actually pay us, FWIW) - the other place is just a straight up dry coffee house (rather cool one, albeit) that sells a premium cup of coffee for 69 cents (which is UNHEARD of here in the den of iniquity that IS Orange County, CA). Without getting too far off track...I'm starting to wonder if this is some sort of front...but it's a fun place to play nonetheless...

So, back to the house PA thing...NONE of these places has a house PA. I'm "targetting" about a half-a-dozen other places that range from dry coffee houses, to coffee "lounges", to Mexican Restaurants to full-on Pubs and there is nary a one "house PA".

I have a good friend who plays similar venues (but different ones), and the experience is the same.

We're talking to someone about hitting the stage at a local farmer's market - that's the only "house PA" I've come across.

As much as I know a "house soundman" may be a bit of wildcard, I would LOVE to just show up and plug in.

So - what types of places are you folks playing where this mythical "house PA" exists? Are you talking about open mics? If not - what is the size of the venue? Where are you located?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a regional thing or if I'm just searching for some unattainable thing....

About half of my duo's gigs have been at venues that have a house PA and sound person. These include a restaurant/bookstore, another restaurant, a coffee shop, a bookstore/coffee shop, and a venue where they record a radio show and we are the musical guests.

I would add that while it might be easier to not lug your own equipment and do your own sound, relying on someone else's equipment and ability to get the best possible sound is not always good. I have been disappointed at least as much as I have been pleased with relying on house PAs and sound people. I will say that although I hear a lot of complaints about difficult sound people, I have only encountered one real jerk.

[backliner]

We have a couple weekly jobs at coffee-house and restaurants, plus a couple retirement homes monthly. VERY low volume in these places. The singer brings a simple acoustic type amp with an XLR in. I play mostly acoustic (un-mic'd rhythm), except solos which I swell in a mag pu with a pedal into a 30 watt combo amp. The cornet player uses mutes - no mics. Bass uses a standup, with a slight reinforcement amp sometimes.

I still have some simple (Bogen) PA stuff left over from years past (we eventually went to Crown PA's, for the loud Rock&Blues&Soul stuff etc). But it stays home. You never know though...

I'd rather run my own sound than use any house PA. Last year we played a local (big) joint with drunks on the house PA. Not the first time (but it will be the last).

[Rick Jones]

When I play on the mainland UK or the continent, my gigs are limited to places that have a PA, as I travel on foot....its the task of Lucy my promoter to make sure they have a sound system of some kind. I carry two preamps, all my own leads and a sure beta 58... My nueman stays home for risk of being stolen.
What I end up with ranges from literally a keyboard amp or kareoke machine, to multi thousand euro hard wired systems. I try to play music venues but often I play the rough rowdy ones that others are reluctant to play at.

At home I take my Mackie system everywhere, and prefer that as I know what I'm getting.

[815C]

I play mostly locally around Nashville with the occasional road trip. I was playing 4 - 5 times a month doing a rock/country/motown gig at the Opryland Hotel, but the flood in May knocked that venue out of action till November. It was actually a horrible venue with the stage raised up to high in the corner, surrounded by mirrored/glass walls - awful sound. There was a PA, but no sound man - our keyboard player had the mixer next to him and doubled as the sound man. I've heard that they've remodeled the place in the post-flood refurb and I sure hope they've designed it to sound a bit better.

I play regularly at an upscale place called Sambuca that has a great sound system, sound man, etc. Classy joint with good food - I always like playing there. We do jazz/motown/rock there.

I get to play the Wildhorse Saloon now and then which is fun because its a large venue with a really great sound system. There's a guy running sound for the monitors and another guy running sound for the mains. Huge stage with state of the art everything. We do country & rock there.

This year I've also started working with a band that does only private events (weddings, corp gigs, etc.). On most of these gigs, the leader brings his own PA and just vocals and keys go through it - guitar, bass, and drums and just stage volume. Not the best sound, but it seems people acclimate to whatever the sound is. Great musicians and the pay is pretty good, but the venues range from hotels to country clubs to back yards, to wherever. We played a gig last weekend that was outdoors at a historic house - and there were no lights outside. Guess they didn't think about that. When the sun went down it was pretty dark.

I also do a jazz duo gig with a singer (the same girl that sings in the Wildhorse band). I'm on my Gibson L-5 and she sings. I like those gigs alot. We play restuarants around Nashville. Usually her voice is mic'd through a small house PA and the guitar is just stage volume (I usually play a small Roland JC-55 amp on these gigs).

I've also played acoustic guitar and mandolin at the Schermerhorn with the Nashville Symphony and Choir, as well as played fiddle at the Grand Ol Opry. Those were fun gigs, but they don't happen very often. Probably the best two sounding venues I've ever played at.

Here are some pics....

Sambuca...very cramped stage. I have a 2' x 2' piece of real estate to stand on. I don't like using music stands, so my charts are in a notebook on the floor written with a Sharpie in large, old man font. Amp is mic'd. Acoustic guitar (Taylor ES) goes straight into PA - not the best acoustic sound in the world, but it works for the tunes I use it on there.



Sambuca w/ Sharif Iman who's tune SHINE is currently around #44 on the Adult Contemporary charts



The Wildhorse...(my guitars are at the far left in the 1st pic, and I'm on the left in the last pic). Amp was mic'd, fiddle went into LR Baggs Para-Acoustic DI into PA.






The Opryhouse....playing an electric 5 string fiddle through that sound system was an incredible experience. Plugged the fiddle into a pre-amp and into the PA.



The Schermmerhorn...got to play acoustic (I was mic'd - and had in-ear monitors) sitting right behind the horns and in front of the choir. Heavenly. On one tune I went out front & center & played mandolin in a 7 piece mando ensemble for a couple tunes backed up by the Symphony. Don't get to do that everyday - very memorable. The mando ensemble was not mic'd - but the room acoustics were so good my wife (who was up in the upper balcony) could hear the mandos really well.



I also recently played a solo jazz guitar gig at the Parthenon in Nashville. That was a cool gig as it was for a private reunion of the 1960 Rome Olympics athletes. No mic - just an L-5 and a Roland Jazz Chorus amp. The acoustics inside were awesome.

[Losov]

The coffee lounge thing sounds good but my experience has been that they're like bookstores - they don't pay, at least not in my area. OK I guess if you want exposure, have CDs to sell or are just foaming at the mouth to perform.

I mostly do restaurants that become bars after dinner hour. Very comfortable gigs and you don't need a ton of equipment. I rarely encounter a house PA anymore, but when I do they tend to be more than adequate for the task and run by people who know what they're doing.

[Bob Womack]

Strictly studio for this season. I'll let you know when I come up for air.

Bob

[Rick Jones]

Here are some pics of various venues I play at,they vary enormously;





[IMG][/IMG]

[Rick Jones]

[Alpione]

Wow - very cool guys. Lots of different venues of different sizes and shapes.

I'm off to my dinky Open Mic at a bar nearby.

Adam

[ferg]

Originally Posted by Alpione

Wow - very cool guys. Lots of different venues of different sizes and shapes.

I'm off to my dinky Open Mic at a bar nearby.

Adam

I often hit the open mics in between gigs around here. We only gig once or twice per month, and I like to sometimes play with other friends without doing anything "serious" with them.

However - there are NO BARS with open mics around here - just coffee houses. I know there's a lot of moaning and groaning by some on this board about playing bars, and people being drunk & loud and not paying attention to them, but there's part of me that would really like to play a couple of dives. There are a few where I might try to book a gig, but I wouldn't mind hitting up an open mic at one now and again...

[ELK]

A couple bars regularly and a bunch of private parties at various times. Not sure how much I'd want to do if more were available. I'm happy playing about two times per month. I have a day job so if I have to play much more than that it keeps me from relaxing and enjoying the weekends.

[TerryAllanHall]

Originally Posted by ferg

I was just perusing the "post your live setup" thread, and I see a lot of posts where the signal chain ends with "-->house PA", meaning people have a guitar, some sort of signal processing, then go into a venue-provided PA system.

My question is - what types of places are these?

My acoustic duo has 3 semi-regular gigs right now. 2 of them are "coffee lounges", which seem to be a "thing" around here - they're places that serve premium coffee and an array of coffee-centric beverages, along with pastries and other types things you'd see at a Starbucks or Peete's or what have you, but also serve wine and beer and even light meals (salad's, sandwiches, wraps, cheese plates).

Personally, I LOVE playing places like this, for a couple of reasons:

1) I believe a place that sells beer and wine covers their costs more quickly if most in the crowd are having a couple.

2) I don't suspect some mild musical form of beer (or wine) goggles hurts the reception of our performance, especially when we play songs that are intended to be funny.

3) It just happens that most of our friends, given the option, would like to have a drink or two during a weekend evening out.

4) Despite the booze, the places we play do not get rowdy, loud or otherwise unsavory.

That's two of the places (the 2 that actually pay us, FWIW) - the other place is just a straight up dry coffee house (rather cool one, albeit) that sells a premium cup of coffee for 69 cents (which is UNHEARD of here in the den of iniquity that IS Orange County, CA). Without getting too far off track...I'm starting to wonder if this is some sort of front...but it's a fun place to play nonetheless...

So, back to the house PA thing...NONE of these places has a house PA. I'm "targetting" about a half-a-dozen other places that range from dry coffee houses, to coffee "lounges", to Mexican Restaurants to full-on Pubs and there is nary a one "house PA".

I have a good friend who plays similar venues (but different ones), and the experience is the same.

We're talking to someone about hitting the stage at a local farmer's market - that's the only "house PA" I've come across.

As much as I know a "house soundman" may be a bit of wildcard, I would LOVE to just show up and plug in.

So - what types of places are you folks playing where this mythical "house PA" exists? Are you talking about open mics? If not - what is the size of the venue? Where are you located?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a regional thing or if I'm just searching for some unattainable thing....

I NEVER use any "house PA", as I've had nothing but bad experiences there...either it's cheap crap or poorly maintained or both...so I carry my own.

Weekdays - solo gigs at restaurants (lunch time, mostly) and nursing homes (morning and/or late afternoon). Occasionally, I play evening weeknight gigs at restaurants. (Crate Limo 50 on a stand...perfect size)

Weekend days - Farmer's markets and private affairs. (Carvin PA1200/Carvin LM12s/Hot Spot monitors)

Weekend evenings - festivals, restaurants, etc. (Festivals have their own rigs, as a rule, Restaurants as noted above)

Very rarely ever play bars, as (around here, anyway) they don't pay well and are usually a lot more trouble than they're worth (IMABO, of course )