|
| |
Regiment-al Blog: Life with Regiment
September 3, 2005
Well here we go with the third installment of The
Regiment-al blog. Well we all had the same idea and decided to collaborate.
Have you as a local band ever had the opportunity to open for a national
act? What a rush! Being able to play with the real rock stars!
You think you just about made it….. until you arrive for load-in. The tour
manager will tell you to show up about 5 to 8 hours before the show. So you
load up every instrument, stage toy and effect you have in the van and head
out to the venue. You are ready to make your statement to the big bad world.
Yeah.
You will get there as early as possible and wait…..and wait……and wait. All
of the nationals have up-teen roadies setting up as well as doing sound
checks and if you are real lucky, you will get to hear the roadies and techs
play a couple of the acts' songs to check things out. Most often, you will
get to see a great performance. Most of the roadies and techs are musicians
themselves with bands back home and are fantastic at their craft. Other than
the “hurry up and wait” atmosphere, we like to get to load-in early to
observe the sound check. Check out the up and coming musicians and network.
We have all learned a lot about stage set up, tear down (this is REAL
important, the faster you can tear down the more the acts and tour manager
will like you!) and checking levels.
Other than the pleasant surprise of seeing good musicians during load in,
you wait….and wait….and wait. The major acts will have a buffet and private
dressing room while you and the fans you brought hang out by the van and
party. But that’s not a bad thing; you get a reality check on your rock star
status. You then promise yourselves that you won’t act like a rock star when
you get signed.
Yeah, Right!
FINALLY! Your chance to load in has come, never mind that the doors have
opened and people are coming in. You get about enough stage to set your drum
kit up, set up your amps and hope to heck you don’t fall off the stage while
performing! Pre-tuning in this instance is a must because all the sound help
you are most probably going to get is on the fly so know your presets in
advance!
Also, have your set list ready and know what you are going to say before
hand. Practice your show till you have it down cold. Usually a band (in our
past experience) gets 20 to 30 precious minutes to wow the early crowd. The
band does not have time to say…”what song we play next.” You just get up on
stage and leave everything there and hope the people like it.
Pump the opening acts while on stage. You were invited to open because you
could get people into the venue and to warm the audience up for the majors.
We found that paid off well. We pumped the fans up for the majors and more
than once and it has paid off. We have been asked by the tour manager to
play another song or two as a thank you.
Opening for a national show is a rush. It’s a learning experience; don’t
ever get frustrated and don’t forget to network!
You can visit our website at
www.regimentmusic.com or
www.myspace.com/regiment.
Archives:
October 2005
September
2005
June 2005 |
| |
MusicBizAdvice.com donates 20% of its
Amazon proceeds to Habitat for Humanity and Oprah's Angel Network to help
musicians rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We will do this through
September 2006.
Suicide Hotlines
Resources & Links
|
