I'm curious.

First of all, if you have a surf band, would you please say:

1. How often you gig.
2. How much you make per gig.
3. Where you live (or the area you gig in).
4. The types of shows/venues you play.
5. What type of "surf" music you play - classic, modern, do you mix other music in, etc.

Even though I come from a "beach" area, I don't think there's a market here for "classic surf" (which I consider the Ventures). There's really not much of a market here for any music - it's all classic rock and 80s, and modern country in the paying gigs, outside of the corporate/wedding band circuit which tends to be "top 40" music. The young kids are playing originals for free in various alt and metal and rap styles, and even pay for play in some cases.

I tried a "60s band" that did a lot of instro (not strictly surf, but things like Out of Limits, Telstar, and even Tequila and Sleepwalk (50s, I know). We also did a lot of 60s "garage/party" rock, as well as bubblegum stuff. We stayed away from "heavy" 60s rock (no Cream or Hendrix) or anything "political" or "druggie" (no Doors, no folk) and stayed away from Beatles, Stones, etc. - partly because we couldn't pull off The Beatles, and we also wanted to avoid the same tired songs that were being run to death on our local Jurassic Rock station.

We thought we could market to the 50+ crowd. We were largely pretty darn good, and people loved the music - and people always came up and thanked us for playing songs they hadn't heard in years. But of course, no one wanted to book us. It seemed to be a product that people wanted...for free. That's true of a lot of styles but I had hoped the country/yacht club set would go for us. We just couldn't seem to break into that circuit.

But outside of that, there doesn't seem to be any audience for it.

I'm curious about other markets and what you have to play to be successful, or if you even can?

Steve

There is a market for good music and good performance of that said good music.

The 'Verb's gigging history can be broken into several parts.

1.) The Beginning

We e-mailed local bookers of local venues asking to be a part of a bill. If they accepted, we got the chance to play on a week night for a portion of the door.

Here, we learned how to play live. How to sound good in a room, what volumes work, and we developed songs.

We gigged out about 2-3 times a month at this point. Going to neighboring cities, etc...

2.) You Are Going to Let us Play on a Weekend?

Booya, we've made it. Right? Still getting a shitty time slot and playing for the door. Occasionally, on a week night, we'd get to play at some pretty nice clubs. At this point we start to see the same people start to show up at different gigs. Fans?

Offers to play private gigs show up at this point, netting more money. Nothing corporate, but house party type stuff.

This is where we learn to play the crowd. No longer as stiff on stage, we have a mature setlist, and the audience warms up.

3.) The Golden Era

We no longer have to seek out gigs at this point. We are no offered gigs at good venues on weekends and we don't have to play first or, more importantly, last. We know we are going to make good money, we know we are going to move some merch, and we are always going to get offered another gig or two directly from this show. We are touring(see step 1 for how successful that is), nearby cities are having us back more often.

We get to play on the radio at several points here, we are getting some really good private gigs. We have developed connections and other local bands we count as friends.

The audiences are now have a large enough recurring cast that the room is really loose and everyone around takes the lead of the of that recurring cast and starts to move around and fully respond to our music.

4.) Welp... That Was That

School, Work, Marriage. Good night band. Nice knowing you.

5.) Remember How Much Fun That Was?

We're back baby! Flurry of welcome back shows in the stage 2 category. Lots of offers for private gigs, good money.

We don't play as often as we should, but it feels amazing when we do, the audiences have been amazing, and the band is really tight.

Appendix.)

You won't be shit live without compelling presence. You won't develop a compelling presence without gigging, you can't hone it in a basement. Get out there, get shows, make connections, learn how to be in your band, and play at the audience. Don't play for them, play at them.

Although I am in the Hang-Ten Hangmen and it is a regularly gigging band, there is really not much to share because many of our gigs are serving as a house band at a tiki bar with occasional outside gigs at corporate events, community events, and public/farmers markets in the area...so, this is not something that could be given as "transferable advice/knowledge".

But my 'regular' covers band plays a variety of tunes from the 50s to the current decade and we throw in occasional surf/instro tunes to provide a bit of a different flavour. The faster surf goes down very well. In our market here, unless you have an 'in' or are extremely sophisticated/organized with managing it as a business enterprise, there is no way a rockabilly/surf/instro group could eke out a regular, decent paying gig schedule.

In my regular covers band, we know that we could get more gigs if we amped-up the business organization side of things. We just are not inclined to do so. There is just no collective motivation to accomplish this despite the fact that it has never been easier and more effective than it is today to properly get a website going, show a 3 minute compilation video of best tunes and provide booking details.

Unless a group is willing to regard their product as a marketable service and treat it like a business, long-lasting, consistent gigging is likely not going to take shape.

Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada

We have an all instrumental band loosely modeled on the Ventures, same lineup. Surf? A lot of the standards: Telstar, Walk Don't Run, Pipeline, Slaughter on 10th Ave, but that's only about 20% of what we do. The rest is mostly covers of pop songs, Beatles (In My Life, All My Loving), Beach Boys (Help Me Rhonda, Don't Worry Baby), one hit wonders (Spirit in the Sky), lite jazz (Wave), etc. Even an occasional show tune like Age of Aquarius. And maybe 4 or 5 originals.
To answer the original ?'s

We play anywhere from 2 to 6 times per month, less in winter, more in summer.

$200 to $700 per gig, usually 3hr. Mostly on the lower end of that scale.

Richmond, VA.

Lot's of outdoor venues in warmer weather, riverfront restaurants, local civic association concerts, 10k and marathon party stops, private parties

We try hard to look, sound, and act professional.

https://www.reverbnation.com/3rdwave2

Last edited: Oct 18, 2015 23:27:30

Just posting cause it's a topic of interest to me. Since I'm a one man band the chance of gigging is low. I have discussed some alternate scenarios with the record label and they seemed open to anything. Maybe we'll create a touring band, maybe in another country to promote my songs. I have even crazier ideas than that but the voices in my head said to keep them to myself. For now.

There is a VFW down the street from me that has live music usually on the weekends in the summertime. Heard 'It's Cold Outside' by The Choir one evening coming from there. There is a Moose club in the town where I work that will have live bands sometimes, usually country. Would surf work in these venues? Possibly. I just have visions of half way through the night some ringer would have his shirt off in the middle of the dance floor yelling 'Play Freebird!'.

I don't know if I could even play live again. The reality is not the same as the stadiums I fill in my brain.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

simoncoil wrote:

Syndicateofsurf wrote:

I just have visions of half way through the night some ringer would have his shirt off in the middle of the dance floor yelling 'Play Freebird!'.

Well, things can get nasty...

.
What type of "surf" music you play - Some people have referred to us as a "traditional" band (and meant it as a compliment), but we actually do a lot of non-traditional stuff. People just don't notice it, since we play with a traditional sound all the time.

YIKES!!! Art imitating my local VFW hall. You guys have a great sound- traditional but... My belief is we need that 'but'.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

- How often you gig?
Twice a month, in the summer more (festivals)
- How much you make per gig?
From 0 to 600 euro's. The average is 300 euro's.
- Where you live (or the area you gig in)?
All over the Netherlands, our drummer is from the seaside, I live at the German border and our bassplayer lives in the middle of the country. Lucky plus is that we each can promote the band in different regions, plus Germany!
- The types of shows/venues you play.
Mostly rockabilly festivals and bars. This summer we played al lot of (kustom) car and hotrod shows.
- What type of "surf" music you play - classic, modern, do you mix other music in, etc.
We called it surfabilly it's a mixture of instrumental (surf)rock with the rockabilly swing to it. More Link Wray than Dick Dale.

Note: We find it hard to break out of the rockabilly & roots scene and even there you have to work twice as hard on stage since we 'don't sing'. But it gets easier with time, and how wilder we act on stage, the wilder the audiences get

www.alohasluts.com
Aloha Sluts on BandCamp
www.arnyzona.com (my photography)
Aloha Fest on facebook

Last edited: Oct 19, 2015 09:59:53

No band. No gigs. No audience. No surf music here in Gulf Shores. A few players over in Pensacola but no bands.
Country, classic rock and top 40. Thinking about finger removal or moving to socal. Finger removal will hurt. Socal seems to either be shaking, burning or washing into the ocean.
Club owners here want country, classic rock or top 40 bands. They don't want the drinkers and party people leaving their floor because of the music.
Maybe I should get another Champion 600, reverb pedal and delay pedal.
Play at home like I have done for years. Or go to work at another radio station--oh, they don't play surf down here on the FM or AM. May be time to sharpen my knife. Hmmmmm....

Enjoying the surf,sun and sand!!

Syndicateofsurf--dude, I am not a boy. I am a 64 year old man. I have survived heart surgery and cancer. I do not need therapy--you read a figurative statement as literal. You misunderstood my message. I am down because of the LACK of surf music in my area. It doesn't matter if the surf scene is abysmal here--literally removing my fingers is something I would never do. My statements were meant to be humorous. Very sorry you didn't catch that. Sometimes my attempts at humor are misconstrued because of the medium.

Enjoying the surf,sun and sand!!

zzero wrote:

Syndicateofsurf--dude, I am not a boy. I am a 64 year old man. I have survived heart surgery and cancer. I do not need therapy--you read a figurative statement as literal. You misunderstood my message. I am down because of the LACK of surf music in my area. It doesn't matter if the surf scene is abysmal here--literally removing my fingers is something I would never do. My statements were meant to be humorous. Very sorry you didn't catch that. Sometimes my attempts at humor are misconstrued because of the medium.

Sorry, was just quoting the song. Good to know you're not into self-mutilation That'd hurt.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

Last edited: Oct 22, 2015 13:03:12