Diesel/gas prices--should i get more money at the clubs?

[wiskerbisket]

Was wanting peoples thoughts on this.
We usually get free meal/free beer..sometimes lodging
but has anyone ever mention to the clubs about pitching in a lil more for the outrageous gas prices?
any horror stories of late?

[JeffLeeper]

To be fair, would you drop your price because the price of gas went down?

In other words , that's our problem , not the club's.

Just my opinion.

[BDR]

Everyone does business in a different way ... negotiate the best deal for your band and factor in expenses when doing so. If you can't afford to play a club then play someplace else.

r:>)

[lonewolf]

When booking, I have always charged more for long distance gigs than for local ones. Its not just the gas, but the travel time. Travel time can turn a gig into a full 8 (or more) hour shift.

If you only take one vehicle on a road trip, the gas difference io only something like $5 per 50 miles.

Of course, you could always add a fuel surcharge like UPS.

[drums=life]

It sure looks like it is coming to that lonewolf. When it goes up EVERYONE PAYS. What can ya do?... but to deal with it

[bassist_25]

Everyone does business in a different way ... negotiate the best deal for your band and factor in expenses when doing so. If you can't afford to play a club then play someplace else.

r:>)

Word.

Also, I'll always take more cash in lieu of "goodies" like free drinks or meals. I play music for profit, and a free beer isn't money in my pocket. Just something to think about.

[bassist_25]

When booking, I have always charged more for long distance gigs than for local ones. Its not just the gas, but the travel time. Travel time can turn a gig into a full 8 (or more) hour shift.

If you only take one vehicle on a road trip, the gas difference io only something like $5 per 50 miles.

Of course, you could always add a fuel surcharge like UPS.

That's definitely a good way to look at it, but unfortunatley for us, we all live in four different counties. It doesn't matter what room we book; someone's going to be driving a decent distance to get to the club, so all of the venues have to be paying us a certain amount of money, regardless of their location.

I'm envious of the bands whose members are all based out of one area like State College or Altoona, but still, I'd rather travel to get the right players than play with the wrong players just because they're convenient.

[AtoMikEnRtiA]

When booking, I have always charged more for long distance gigs than for local ones. Its not just the gas, but the travel time. Travel time can turn a gig into a full 8 (or more) hour shift.

If you only take one vehicle on a road trip, the gas difference io only something like $5 per 50 miles.

Of course, you could always add a fuel surcharge like UPS.

That's definitely a good way to look at it, but unfortunatley for us, we all live in four different counties. It doesn't matter what room we book; someone's going to be driving a decent distance to get to the club, so all of the venues have to be paying us a certain amount of money, regardless of their location.

I'm envious of the bands whose members are all based out of one area like State College or Altoona, but still, I'd rather travel to get the right players than play with the wrong players just because they're convenient.

Yeah but in your case - it's a little different lol - I still have a hard time imagining Randy in Waterfall, and you in Houtzdale - that's like - a world away hahaha - so in your case, i understand what you charge

this is where i wish in the original music circuit, you could negotiate more about pricing when doing a show - most times, we'll drive 2, 3 hours for a show - and get anywhere between 25 - 70 dollars - we've gotten 100 bucks in reynoldsville for driving 2 and a half hours in the snow, and we've gotten paid NOTHING for driving 3 and a half hours to Philadelphia - but gas money is always the first thing we state when we're asked to play somewhere..

My list of priorities for payment

1) Gas Money for 1-2 vehicles
2) Band fund
3) Food and/or lodging (although every time we've needed to do lodging - we just went home instead of hotelling it up)

[wiskerbisket]

thnx guys!!

[songsmith]

It's sad that bands make basically the same amount they did 15, or even 25 years ago. Meanwhile, everything costs more. You gotta love what you do just to do this thing.------------>JMS

[moxham123]

Songsmith,

You are so right. Band's wages have not gone up with inflation. Places in this area still want to pay bands what they paid them in 1979. Other businesses like garbage collection and such are permitted to add a fuel surcharge every month to your bill when gas goes up. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to do that. So, when gas goes up, it just means additional expense we all have to endure and the less money we clear.

The other downside to escalating gas prices is that less people are going out to spend money at nightclubs. Just another thing we do not need to have happen.

[RobTheDrummer]

Yea, gas prices suck ass! Put it this way...there are some gigs that I do here that I have to drive 9 hours, some I have to drive 5 hours...and believe me, you want to fill up the tank because you don't wanna be stuck in the middle of Nevada. Oh and 87 here is $3.15...

[ASB10]

I agree with bassist-25...it's about having the right players in any given band, no matter the distance...

For the past two years in Third Standard..we have been playing the basic Altoona, Ebensburg, State College, Johnstown, Indiana circuit....this seems like it's normal, but not when I live in Clarion and our guitar player has been commuting from Sterling, VA every weekend....for me, there's no way to get to a show that's under an hour drive. I look forward to playing in Indiana, because it's only an hour away from me.

Playing in Altoona or Johnstown is often hellish, because it's a two hour or so commute...set-up, play, tear down, drive home ....makes for about 8-9 hours involved in each gig.....not counting what's spent on gas and food....it's 90 miles to Johnstown and 90 miles home, with my V-6 pick up, that's about 3/4 tank of gas at $3/ gallon or a total of roughly $25-30 in gas for a gig that may make me $60-75 max after paying for sound (Johnstown is not a high paying area for us)

And the audience is feeling the effects as well.....many rural bars rely on a wide swath of customer base to fill the room each night, and with stricter DUI laws and higher gas prices, some people are electing to just stay home....and it's hard to blame them.....

[Jim Price]

Songsmith wrote:

It's sad that bands make basically the same amount they did 15, or even 25 years ago. Meanwhile, everything costs more. You gotta love what you do just to do this thing.

I just had this conversation with another prominent longtime area musician this past Wednesday night while I was doing a radio remote at Electric Avenue. He remarked that bands make the same or less than they did 20 years ago; and we discussed the factors contributing to people not supporting live music like they did two decades ago, including current gas prices, checkpoints, etc.

I remarked in another thread about the busy weekend I have coming up, covering some 6-7 different live music events in three days, in three different towns. The down side, of course, is the gas expense. I already was in Coalport this past Saturday to see Nitekast, and in Houtzdale on Wednesday to do the remote; I do the trips to Clearfield and Houtzdale this weekend, and then next week I'll be doing PA Musician deliveries when the new issue comes out. The magazine pitches in a few bucks for gasoline, and otherwise I run gas expenses on the Sheetz plastic and pay the bill at the end of the month. I won't be looking forward to the bill at the end of May...

After this weekend and coming week, I probably will curtail my music-related travels for the rest of the month to give my wallet a break. And I'll keep my fingers crossed that something reverses the direction of the gas prices in the near future...

[bassist_25]

I agree with bassist-25...it's about having the right players in any given band, no matter the distance...

Yeah, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't always find the right players in your backyard. The moment I turned 18 and could legally play in a bar, I started looking for bands in the Blair, Centre, and Cambria County regions. I'm from Clearfield County and to be honest, I really don't know much about the bands from here. I know Kix and Loudmouth because I'm from Houtzdale. I've heard of Buck-It (and they've all been really good things). Isn't Rusty Gun Revival from Clearfield County? I heard a recording from Wide Open on the BYR and was very impressed. I know more about bands from Blair and Cambria County than I do about bands from my own county.

I would like to do some projects that might not be so financially profitable, such as an all-original thing, but as long as gas is $3, I'm just not going to do it. It's not that I'm greedy, but I'm realistic. I've cut out a lot of extras in my spending habits. I don't go out to clubs as often. I don't eat out as often. I'm hitting it off with a great woman, but she lives a little ways away from me, which sucks. I'm going to be treating myself to the new Tool album next week, but that's about it. Majority of the money I make from gigs or from my day job is either used to pay a direct or indirect expense for school. I don't mean to sound like I'm bitching, but I guess that this gas hike does warrant a little bitching. If things don't change, I see very bad things happening to the economy.

If I had the choice, I wouldn't even own a car. If I lived and gigged in New York City, I could take a cab. I could walk into a club with a bass and a DI box (many of the clubs even provide backline), and that would be it.

[bsaller]

Songsmith,

You are so right. Band's wages have not gone up with inflation. Places in this area still want to pay bands what they paid them in 1979.

That's because bands will still play for those low wages. Bands need to quit under cutting each other. If you can't make $100.00 per person for a 3Hr. show don't book it. Soon enough the clubs will come around when they can't find a band for !175.00 a night. Rockpage might make a good forum to discuss band wages?

Other businesses like garbage collection and such are permitted to add a fuel surcharge every month to your bill when gas goes up. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to do that. So, when gas goes up, it just means additional expense we all have to endure and the less money we clear.

The other downside to escalating gas prices is that less people are going out to spend money at nightclubs. Just another thing we do not need to have happen.

[Charltor]

Everyone pays to play for sometime, this usually weeds out the wannabe rockstars from the true musicians who want their shit to be heard and are willing to take a few punches and roll with it till you start getting in the black again!

[Banned]

Hmmmm get more money???? you mean to say your band gets paied, I'm open to any tips on how to's getting clubs to pay your band, MAN I AM HAPPY for you guys I've yet to get ANY cash from a club, I'm always taking it in the wallet when I gig, But I can remember the days when I made a living just playing music in the 80's OH MY GONE ARE THE DAYS. I'm glad the someone is getting revenue for there talents, good luck in all you guys do.

[drums=life]

I will say this, FedUP is definately not here for the big bucks. But we have had some compensation every time we have played. We dont give a fuck about the money, we love to play, some icing is nice once and a while. We make more cash selling our merchandise sometimes then what the club pays. At least we can put some gas in the van to get home. Like charltor said " we all pay to play for one reason or another "

[drums=life]

Here is a good tip Decay. Let the biggest guy in your band collect the money or use a pistol, should get the results your lookin for.