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  #16  
Old 02-06-2020, 09:22 AM
ChrisE ChrisE is offline
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I "auditioned" once to play at a place. They said, "We're doing a charity event. You can play for three hours and put out a tip jar. We'll feed you and if it goes well, we'll book you for more gigs."

I played for three hours, and they kept telling me to turn down. I finally just turned off the PA and played acoustically. They still said, "turn it down."

When I was done, I told the manager that I was supposed to at least get a meal out of it. He said, "Sorry, the owner's not here and I don't know anything about that. Besides, the kitchen is closed."

The only other time I auditioned, it was totally unplugged for the manager and a few guests. I played 3 or 4 songs and he said, "That's great; Can you play Thursdays?" and I've played there about 40 times since then.
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  #17  
Old 02-06-2020, 10:40 AM
BallisticSquid BallisticSquid is offline
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I've been lucky for never having to audition at a venue. At a new venue we have accepted a discounted rate but usually they were happy enough that they paid our full rate anyway.

One place held open mics and they would supposedly call bands back that they liked to book them. We played there, they seemed happy, and we never got a call. We were busy enough so we thought ah, whatever!

Anyway...best of luck with the audition!
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  #18  
Old 02-06-2020, 11:08 AM
swampyankee swampyankee is offline
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I was in a band until several months ago. We never did an unpaid audition. If anything, we'd invite someone over to another venue to hear us play, or stop by on practice night (no one ever did).
Not sure what the standard practice is for dinner/happy hour music though.
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  #19  
Old 02-06-2020, 11:46 AM
BallisticSquid BallisticSquid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swampyankee View Post
I was in a band until several months ago. We never did an unpaid audition. If anything, we'd invite someone over to another venue to hear us play, or stop by on practice night (no one ever did).
Not sure what the standard practice is for dinner/happy hour music though.
That can work. I used to video our gigs and set up a youtube channel where I'd post some of our better performances of songs we did well. That was handy in being able to show a potential client what we did.
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  #20  
Old 02-06-2020, 11:54 AM
sford52 sford52 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BallisticSquid View Post
That can work. I used to video our gigs and set up a youtube channel where I'd post some of our better performances of songs we did well. That was handy in being able to show a potential client what we did.
I have a friend who is a magician, and he has done something very similar - video capture various individual "tricks" and the audience reactions, then host the vids on his web site. It's been very successful for him, he emails (or mails) links to his website home page, and the section on performance segments.
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  #21  
Old 02-06-2020, 12:03 PM
BallisticSquid BallisticSquid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sford52 View Post
I have a friend who is a magician, and he has done something very similar - video capture various individual "tricks" and the audience reactions, then host the vids on his web site. It's been very successful for him, he emails (or mails) links to his website home page, and the section on performance segments.
Many times when inquiring about a venue, the booking manager would ask for links to videos. Today I think it's almost a necessity to have in your "press kit". Nobody ever asked for CDs or mp3 files. Not surprised that was successful for your friend.

I set up a camcorder on a tripod out of the way at the venue. This way I didn't have to rely on phone video of questionable quality. I archived the full performances which make great mementos.
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  #22  
Old 02-06-2020, 12:13 PM
Chipotle Chipotle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sford52 View Post
I have a friend who is a magician, and he has done something very similar - video capture various individual "tricks" and the audience reactions, then host the vids on his web site. It's been very successful for him, he emails (or mails) links to his website home page, and the section on performance segments.
Pretty much this. I send links to my YouTube page, which has videos (some studio, some live) of me performing my songs, as well as a short "compilation" video with snippets of the covers I do. That has been plenty to book gigs.
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  #23  
Old 02-07-2020, 03:58 PM
kentwinterton kentwinterton is offline
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Hello all. OP here. Sorry for the ambiguity in my question. The "audition" is just with the manager and whatever staff is there and he said just a couple of songs that best show my style. My question about time was if I did get the gig. And thanks sooooo much for all the brilliant comments and advice. I'll let ya'll know how it goes soon. Kent
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