Venues need to consider what they want before hiring bands

NOTE: This blog was published on the date shown at www.TriadLiveMusic.com and is reposted here for archival purposes.  

Children of Karma

Mon-Jul26-2010

    No one likes to get the short end of the stick and even if a venue doesn't charge a cover for the evenings entertainment doesn't mean they should offer patrons less than their best. I live in Burlington which is a good fifty minute drive to some of the venues on the other side of the Triad, so when I decide to travel that distance to see a popular local group perform then I expect an engaging evening, not only from the band but the venue as well. That was not the case this past Saturday night. Oh the band, Children of Karma, was great and we had a good time listening to the music they performed. The venue however seemed to not understand what is required to host a musical act. To start the evening off the band had to wait almost an hour out on the street for the dining area to clear so that they could set up. So a show that would normally start around 10:15 didn't start til after 11 pm. That meant no sound check other than their first song. This particular venue is divided so that the dining and bar areas are in two different rooms. If you are going to have a band play at your venue they should be playing on the bar side, not the dining side. But the real kick in the groin for this night was when the bartender came in and asked the band to lower the volume - that they were too loud. Now, as I was sitting in the front row I can tell you with a certainty that the volume was already below what I would have expected it to be and to have the band lower it even more was just plain insulting to the band.
    Admittedly there are several reasons that factor into the lack of audiences at some venues lately. Most of those reasons start with the economy being so poor, but bands and venues can also contribute to the poor turnout, usually by lack of advertising and promotion, but when a venue doesn't know what the hell they are doing or what they expect when they hire a band then that is a major problem. The venue in question would be much better off either not having live music or switching to acoustic performances rather than an amped up band. As it was, the venue game me the impression that having Children of Karma perform was an afterthought and that is very degrading to COK, who deserve much better treatment than that.