Right on, Stu, about the logistics and focus needed to host HCs. And I'd add that there are two kinds of hosts: people who host house concerts now and then when asked - like us, for our friends passing through, and those who decide to make it a regular thing, even becoming something of an institution in the process (like the famous Cabin Concerts).

Those house concert people such as we've played for, who've been hosting HC's regularly for years, given their HC a name (Russ & Julie's, The Bodie House, Sounding Board, to name a few) are just exceptionally devoted to music, and want it in their lives in the most immediate sense.

It does take passion and a certain amount of strategic smarts. You want an exceptional, intimate musical experience with musicians of your choice... and that's what you get when you:

• figure out how to host it, e.g., parking,
  
• figure out how to publicize,
  
• figure out how to book (not as hard as you'd think).

It's not total charity, in other words. You pay time, energy, and organization, and get: musicians of your choice in your house to play and hang out with.

The food, the chairs, those can be brought by others. You'd be surprised at the resources your music loving friends have... chairs from the back of the church hall, coffee makers, etc. We, for example, paid for none of that, though we no doubt comped the donors seats. And we always make it pot luck, providing just enough to make it homey.

Finding artists: If you love a certain kind of music, you can join related organizations, even attend booking conferences, e.g., Folk Alliance, and check out who's available. Or just look at their websites, see when they'll be nearby! Once artists and agents know you are there and have your web address, you will get calls. Just a matter of getting started.

Our experience playing house concerts has been great, overall, and we deeply appreciate the efforts of the hosts, shower them with CDs, put on a great show, etc. There are the exceptions: once we found our selves in a tiny house in an odd location, picking up toys and moving furniture to get ready for what turned out to be a tiny group of thirteen people, because our agent could have sworn she heard "thirty" would fit in this living room! I mean, it was nice n all, but we probably would not have agreed to it, barely made gas n food money, and felt a little funny having to clean up the house for our own show.

So, it's definitely an exchange, and a hosts' reputation does precede them, after a point! We've actually had a few surprises along the way, come to think of it, but it's fun to have zany stories to tell, too!

Mary

P.S. Found a pic of us at R&J's, in 2006. They asked us to bring our Bose gear, by the way, as they hadn't had a chance to hear it in action. They have a nice house system they wish could have been L1s! (There were 60-70 people in the audience.)

Hi ST!

quote:

Imagine what it was like to share a stage with him and one of my oldest musical pals on Saturday.

A natural "high", I'm sure! Sounds like a "life" memory for you, would have been for me, too!

Thanks for taking the time to diagram your setup. As you know, it helps me a lot to visualize things. I agree with Tom, I think I would have pulled the B1's out a little further and tried it. But, I understand being in the moment, too! Lots of things to worry about at the time.

Thanks to everyone's input on the house concerts. I'm learning several things about them that I had no idea or even thought about! I'm thinking, for the most part, the performers at these house concerts are actually regional or national acts/performers and not just local talent. Can someone chime in and let me know if this is correct or not? I guess I'd better follow the links provided my Mary and see what I can find out on my own. This is whole new area for me to explore!

My prior idea of a house concert was having friends over for either a BBQ or Chili party. Just plain, old jammin' going on here with plenty of food, music and friends...

ST, I kind of jumped on the HC subject without acknowledging your splendid evening! My bad. That's the most elaborate house concert I've ever heard of... with that many acts.

Thanks for the detailed report and thoughts on setup, bass, T1s, etc.

I'm dyin' to know who the headliner was ... and yea, wish you could have been there for the early part!

Next time!

Mary

quote:

Originally posted by MBanshee:
ST, I kind of jumped on the HC subject without acknowledging your splendid evening!

It *was* a splendid evening.

quote:

That's the most elaborate house concert I've ever heard of... with that many acts.

We have done lots of shows in this space. Here is a gig report from last year.
8 Live Acts in 7 hours. This was not the traditional house concert, but it was great training for the events since then.

Does anyone know how the economics of the house concert work?

I assume that the artist is or artists are paid pretty well. Is there an admission price? Are there any tax implications for the host?

Ken

Hi Ken,

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:
Does anyone know how the economics of the house concert work?

I assume that the artist is or artists are paid pretty well. Is there an admission price? Are there any tax implications for the host?

Ken

I looked through the resources Mary gave us

quote:

Originally posted by MBanshee:
There are a couple of really informative sites to do with house concerts... A good place to start is at the Russ & Julie's House Concerts site. There's a "house concerts resources" button that has nice info and links.

http://jrp-graphics.com/houseconcerts.html

It looks like the most common model is:

Paid admission is anywhere from $15 - $25 per person. Typically cash.

The artist is paid 100% of door receipts, or the net after expenses depending the host.

The host at best breaks even, or may incur the expenses as the cost of having live music in their home. I can't imagine the tax implications if there is clearly no intent to generate revenue.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:
Does anyone know how the economics of the house concert work?

I think most artists who are doing this are setting up these shows between other more lucrative gigs, and they generally have a CD to sell.

It would seem, to be a successful host, one would have to have a pretty good network of like minded music lovers.

When I was in my twenties, a couple of phone calls would cascade into a crowd of 50 in a hurry, but that was in the 70's, the smell of the smoke incense coming out the windows was responsible for half the crowd.

O..

here is a link for a website that promotes house concerts for both musicians and ' hosts' wanting to bring music into their home
house concerts

Dancing Dog Muse

A good friend Fran Snyder is involved with home concerts. Fran's a good guy, and his site for this is ConcertsInYourHome.com

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:
What does this community think about the house party as a concept? Can it become a mega trend?

Ken

C-I-C

To all,

I have started a page in the wiki where we can post links to House Concert Resources.

House Concert Resources

Please add links in the wiki page.

When you get there, click the Edit tab near the top of the page. If you don't already have a Username for the wiki, click on Create an account. This should take less than a minute to complete. Please use the same Username as you use here for your display name. That way, we will be able to recognize your contributions.

Have fun and share what you know in the wiki.


Thanks

Considering that many house concerts will be in much smaller spaces than we find in our regular venues, I think there is a wonderful opportunity for L1™ owners to foster the growth of the phenomena.

Would you, as an L1™ owner, support a house concert by providing the sound reinforcement?

It could be a great way to spend a night off - helping someone else share her/his music.

Considering how easy it is to transport and setup (easier than anything else I can imagine for this application), that's a lot of good for a tiny investment.

What do you think?

Provided two Model IIs for my first house concert last night.
Three songwriters in the round, most notably Sally Barris from Nashville on a Classic system.
Tom Irwin & Ben Bedford on the Model IIs.
Held in a former schoolhouse, it was cozy and warm and the music was magical.
It was a great time! You could really feel the emotion in the music in this intimate setting.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Drumr,

Hi Drumr Pete!

I hope you had fun doing the house concert. For me it is sometimes like cooking for company with all that that entails.

Thanks for the links.

Hey, do you have any hints for people thinking about doing house concerts with the L1™?

quote:

do you have any hints for people thinking about doing house concerts with the L1™?

I learned that the performers probably won't touch their Remote/T1, and might be overwhelmed by being in control of themselves.
So get them set up and sounding best you can, then push *technical thoughts* out of your head, relax and enjoy the real sharing of the music.
I'd suggest sitting near the back of the room so there is no temptation to run up a tweak a T1.

P

quote:

Originally posted by Drumr:
...then push *technical thoughts* out of your head, relax and enjoy the real sharing of the music...

I don't know how many shows I have sat through and at the end I couldn't tell you, to save my life, what songs were performed. The L1, and the desire to always SOUND good has been a blessing and a curse. It's become difficult for me to actually enjoy a performance - any performance, anywhere, regardless of the sound reinforcement. It's a topic for another thread, and probably has been discussed at length before.

Pete, looking forward to visiting with you about the house concert...just not sure when.

N