As some read this headline, most artists and bands are probably wondering why the hell playing rock gigs on a Monday night would be beneficial in any way to their career?
I can hear them all saying right now, is this guy out of his mind?
Why would I or any band want to play rock gigs or any gigs for that matter on a Monday night in front of absolutely nobody? Where’s the logic in that?
Who plays rock gigs on Monday nights anyway?
Let’s think about this idea logically for a few minutes and try to consider why going after gigs on a Monday or Tuesday might pay off in the long run.
Free Stage and Rehearsal Space
Once you shift your mindset from trying to be an overnight rock star to understanding how to use your local resources cleverly. Planning some rock gigs on Mondays or Tuesdays will at least save you some money.
Let’s face it booking a rehearsal space with a decent PA system isn’t cheap. What better way to practices your music in a live setting than playing on Monday nights? When you know for sure you can get away with mistakes?
Less Competition To Play
One thing about this strategy is for sure, if your struggling to get gigs in the first place, you can be sure that no-one is really knocking down doors to fill the slots on these nights.
Learn to walk before you can run and try to settle for something that isn’t the limelight but understand that it’s all part of a bigger picture. Who know’s where a weekly Monday night spot can lead you too anyway?
Road Test New Songs
Playing rock gigs on a Monday night idea is similar to big famous bands playing a handful of small club shows before their next big tour. Why do they do this?
To road test new material, test out different sounds, get certain effects and ideas right before you go out there and play infront of bigger audiences. Again, it’s really all about realizing that the Monday night gigs are really a stepping stone and nothing more, however they need to be utilized properly and what better time and place to road test new songs.
Try Out Different Sound Engineers
Probably one of the most annoying and most important aspects of any bands live show is the audio engineer they use. From my own personal experience, finding the right audio engineer can be quite time consuming and frustrating. Sometimes it can take months or years to find the right guy.
However, without the right engineer, you should be a little hesitant to try and play profiled gigs. Not having the right sound guy is a sure way to kill your live career very quickly.
Most venues that have Monday night rock gigs, would provide an in-house guy, however a great way to try out new sound guys and test out their ability is to play on a quite night where it’s ok if things go terribly wrong.
Make sure you have a friend in the crowd though who can provide feedback thought. You can’t always hear everything from the stage and the truth is that it needs to sound good off the stage as opposed to on stage.
So there you have it. Four well thought out reasons why considering rock gigs on a Monday night could start to make more sense. Once you start looking at the cup being half full, it makes total sense if you’re a young band looking for gigs to try and pitch yourself for the next Monday or Tuesday night slot?
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