I love the variety of the venues I perform at. Wineries, Breweries, Distilleries, Cideries, Restaurants, Bar & Grills and Hotels are just fantastic places for live music. The performance (setup) areas are as different as the venues themselves. Flexibility is key and every venue requires adaptability. Here’s what I mean.
I recently set up on a beautiful covered wooden deck. It was long and narrow in shape and populated with picnic tables. The first decision was forecasting which direction the sun was going to set. The second decision was how to arrange the picnic tables, so I could create a gear space. I ended up turning a table, setting up beside it and standing my pop up banner right in front of the table. It actually turned out quite nice. I had plenty of room and the pop up hid the picnic table and some cases. Mission accomplished.
I performed at another venue earlier this year with the duo and had to pivot once at the event. The reason? There was a cute little stage created on top of a wagon. It had a roof and railings around it and it looked really cool. The only issue was actually setting up on the stage. I normally set up on a 5 x 7 foot rug and the rug didn’t quite fit (you guessed it, the stage was smaller). Now, add two people to it and you get the picture. So what did we do? We moved the PA’s onto a couple of inverted wine barrels halves on the ground in front of the stage. We then narrowed up our setup slightly to fit. To enter and exit the stage (stairs on one end) my sax player (Max) needed to fold up his chair so I could walk by. It was tight, but worked.
At another venue, the performance area was located behind the building at a back patio that used crushed stone for the walking surface. It was a large space with a pop up. I set down my 5 x 7 foot rug under the pop up and placed my suitcase drum kit on the rug along with my remaining gear. The only issue I had with this space was that the crushed stone would shift under the rug during the performance, causing my drum pedal to jam on occasion and not return to its normal up position. Oops, that was awkward. I had no fix for this one, other than to play a little lighter on the drum pedals and hope they didn’t jam again.
So you can see, the setups are all a little different. Being able to be flexible and adapt to the space is part of the job. So, are you adaptable? I’ll bet you are. Have an awesome day. Cheers!
To read more from Mike Lucy visit his website https://mikeluceyacoustic.com/
