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Gig Report: 2/13/10 GTA @ Bobby McGees (Chicago Ridge)

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(@tommy-guns)
Posts: 314
Honorable Member
Topic starter
 

My band's (GTA-Grand Theft Audio) latest gig was at Bobby McGees in Chicago Ridge IL this past Sat night. It was a 2 band bill, us and another local cover band called "Slightly Offensive". GTA played first (9pm-10:45pm) and I have to say this was our BEST showing to date. I really think we "WOWED" the crowd between the girls stage presence, how well the band played & the material we were covering, we are definitely different from all the other cover bands in the area. We made band "swag" which consisted of laminated "VIP passes" which we gave out to people who were "workin it" on the dance floor. Our "VIP passes" were VERY popular. The passes had our picture collage on the front that we are using for our promo cd cover and on the back we have "Rollin VIP w/GTA Tour 2010" and our band website info etc. We made 25 passes and they were all gone 3/4 of the way through our set. We had a "rock star" moment when we played Ke$ha's "Tik Tok", you could hear the crowd sing the chorus back to us OVER the band. That was very cool!!! My friend said he saw one of the BIG bouncers walking past singing the Taylor Swift song we were playing. He said "I can't take the guy seriously now". I thought that was funny. The second band's guitar player came up to me after our set when we were packing up and he told me "that is a bad ass guitar". The way I have my rig set up I can replicate the new electronic sounds on the Top-40 recordings, fade it in/out, harmonica, keys, synth, blend it with the guitar on the fly. So those were the highlights.

Then at the end of the night its time for us to get paid...Our contact was "Mark", well Mark left already (we've heard this one before). So Jennie (Slightly Offensive) & I are talking to the person who I'm guessing is 1 step below Mark. "Well, due to it being Valentines Day weekend and we are having a Mardi Gras party next weekend AND we didn't get quite the crowd we were hoping for...(blah blah blah blah), I know your deal was for each band to get paid $400 but I was wondering if you would cut us a deal and I would let Mark know that you 'worked with us' and he would probably book you again...etc". So I asked him "How many people did you have"? He replied we drew 140ppl. Now I know from the bouncer that the place at capacity holds 250ppl AND Mark told me that anything over 150 ppl we would get a "bonus". So I told him about what Mark said about the bonus and he replied "Oh, that's 150 ppl per band". Well, first of all 150+150=300ppl and thats over capacity. Secondly, if I'm drawing 150ppl, you will be paying us $1k+ to play here. I usually START negotiations at $10 per person (100ppl = $1k). So we (Jennie & I) told him "No, we'll take the $800" and be on our way. He said "Ok" and he went to the back to get us the $800. When he did that I told Jennie "Next time we charge them $500 each". Bobby McGees tends to book the same bands together so the next time we play there we will probably be playing together again, which is cool because I like them. We've become friends over the last couple of months after we got on the same bill together back in November. We've been working together, setting up the setlists for the bands because we both play some of the same songs, you do this one well so you do that...we'll take the other one etc.

Our next gig is Friday 3/12/10 at Jordan's Pub in Orland Park (its a very small room) and we are working on 2 gigs for a South Side Irish party in March so hopefully 1 of them comes through for us.

Aslo:
Check out our MySpace page, we have song from our promo demo up and hopefully pics from this past Sat night soon.
MySpace http://www.myspace.com/grandtheftaudiotheband09
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grand-Theft-Audio

If you would like to get on our mailing list shoot me a pm and I will add you to our list. I send out a monthly newsletter for the band via "Constant Contact" where I create links to places we are playing (thieir Facebook/MySpace) our MySpace page etc. Its REALLY cool and interactive.

Our setlist from Sat night:
Kerosine - Miranda Lambert
Black Horse & A Cherry Tree - KT Tungstull
Wild Nights - John Mellencamp
Save A Horse - Big & Rich
Mercy - Duffy
I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry
Poker Face - Lady Gaga
So What - Pink
You Belong w/Me - Taylor Swift
All Over You - The Spill Canvas
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard
Piece of My Heart - Faith Hill
Fight For Your Right - Beastie Boys
Crush Crush Crush - Paramore
Redneck Woman - Gretchen Wilson
Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood
Crazy Train - Ozzy
Shut Up & Let Me Go - Ting Tings
Tik Tok - Key$ha
Take It Off - The Donnas

Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!

 
Posted : 15/02/2010 12:05 pm
(@kent_eh)
Posts: 1882
Noble Member
 

Sounds like a good gig.
That's a pretty wide-ranging set list. Sounds like you guys are ready for most any type of crowd.

Too bad about the traditional "getting f**ed around over cash" thing.
It seems that this is a pretty much universal problem.

I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep

 
Posted : 15/02/2010 3:16 pm
(@tommy-guns)
Posts: 314
Honorable Member
Topic starter
 

Yes, the crowd accepted everything that we were doing. We played everything at a VERY HIGH level too without sequencers. Margaret said she had about 5 different people who I did not even know her stop and say how awesome we were. One guy said he had to call his girlfriend at home to hold the phone up when we were playing the Lady Gaga tune - he said he couldn't believe how well we covered it! Katy had a bunch of people stop her too. We definitely made an impact on Sat night.

Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!

 
Posted : 15/02/2010 4:12 pm