A new year brings out some new peeps. Here are some folks we've met in the new year (l'misparam).
The "Door Guy"
The "Door Guy" is the guest who stand in the doorway the band needs to use to load out at the end of the night. He appears in venues with no elevator, where the band has to make multiple trips to carry out all their equipment. He's got to talk to various family members, the conversations must take place only after all the guests have left, and they must take place only in that doorway. "Excuse me", we say, lugging speakers through the door. He grudgingly moves. We return a moment later for some more equipment and, you guessed it, he's back in the doorway. "Pardon me", we say lugging a heavy mixer and get the same reaction. We must've made five trips and this guy was in the doorway the entire time. Heavin forbid that he notice you and move out of the way! Rather, each time, we have to ask him to move. Nice.
The "It must be a live band" party planner.
This Peep strongly believes that every event must have live music provided by band X. They will stick with their preferred method of entertainment no matter the musical needs of the party and/or the client's budget. This inevitably results in situations wherein a rock band is booked for a gig where the client wants "Big Band" music only or a duo is booked for a gig where the client wants the latest "club" hits. Of course, they don't tell the band any of this until they drop the request list on them the night before the gig.
This brings us to our next peep, the "Last Minute Requester." This client wants to hear lots of non-standard material and drops these requests on the band at the last minute, Then, they can't comprehend that the band might not actually know all of their favorite songs.
Here's an actual list we were hit with over the three days preceding a recent gig.
"1985" by Bowling for Soup
"Break Away" by Kelly Clarkson
"A Moment Like This" by Kelly Clarkson
"It Ends Tonight" by The All American Rejects
"Move Along" by The All American Rejects
"Beautiful Soul" by Jesse Mcartney
"Pon the Replay" by Rihanna
Another recent request was DJ Sammy's remix of Chloe X's "Heaven". Yes, they did want a small acoustic ensemble to exactly duplicate that arrangement.
The "There's Somebody Famous here" guy.
This is the person who feels compelled to come over and tell you that "insert name of Jewish singer/entertainer" is a guest at the event. Hey, thanks for letting us know. Next time, let us know before we medley their most famous song with the theme from "Cheers". Mmmkay?
