'Load in' time

menamestom

Do you pay much attention to this?

 Most places we get there an hour before the gig, set up and play.  Some gigs seem to expect you to arrive several hours before and spend quite a bit of time for the sound guy who usually rocks up late anyway.

I get it if there a few bands on but when you are the only band, with may be a solo acoustic performer before, I don’t find much value in getting there way earlier than I need to.

 I get it if you are playing theatres and things and the fees are good, but when you’re getting a fairly low amount that just about covers a couple of hours and travel time/costs if you are lucky, seems over the top and I always tell them I’ll be there later than their load in time.

 Example recently - load in 5:30pm.  Stage time 8-8:30pm.  We were the only band.

Lestratcaster

Depends on the venue and the type of show. If its a proper venue with a good sound system and you're expecting a good crowd then yes get there for load in presumably as we get a soundcheck to test everything is good. 

If its a pub show or something then maybe 1 hour before we play depending on how many other bands are playing. I too dislike sitting around for hours (usually if its a headline show we aren't playing til last). But I feel more reassured everyone is at the venue well in advance and needed whenever called upon. Traffic and other delays could cause us to miss the set.

DefaultM

Worst I’ve had was a private party for the masons saying get there at 5pm to set up for a 7pm start, but when we were set up they made us stand outside the building and called us back in to play at 11pm.

Supportact

DefaultM said:

Worst I’ve had was a private party for the masons saying get there at 5pm to set up for a 7pm start, but when we were set up they made us stand outside the building and called us back in to play at 11pm.

I think that's a bit much! I would have found a pub to wait in...

Supportact

menamestom said:

Do you pay much attention to this?

 Most places we get there an hour before the gig, set up and play.  Some gigs seem to expect you to arrive several hours before and spend quite a bit of time for the sound guy who usually rocks up late anyway.

I get it if there a few bands on but when you are the only band, with may be a solo acoustic performer before, I don’t find much value in getting there way earlier than I need to.

 I get it if you are playing theatres and things and the fees are good, but when you’re getting a fairly low amount that just about covers a couple of hours and travel time/costs if you are lucky, seems over the top and I always tell them I’ll be there later than their load in time.

 Example recently - load in 5:30pm.  Stage time 8-8:30pm.  We were the only band.

Depends on the gig really but I would generally just base it on how long it's really going to take us to set up and Soundcheck.  I'm normally the one who gets there early but no point sitting about waiting for hours.

Danny1969

If it's a theatre show then typical load in is 4:45 ish ..... soundcheck at 5 30 ish. The load out is the problem as you can fined if not out within an hour in some places. 

Weddings, generally load in and set up in the morning about 10"30 or 11. Then go back in the evening about 7:30 and walk on and start playing

Venues where we are the only band, load in at 6 and setup by 7:30 generally. Although we are on at 8:30 or 9 we don't want to be setting up and soundchecking if front of the audience so I prefer to get it done earlier. 

menamestom

If it's a decent size gig and a decent payer, I'll happily get there with plenty of time to spare, I guess the frustration is when it not a great payer, you agree to the dates, then they expect another 2 hours of your time.
We're probably just paying shit gigs to be fair, outside of weddings or the tribute circuit most tend to be pretty shit nowadays.  

BillDL

DefaultM said:

Worst I’ve had was a private party for the masons saying get there at 5pm to set up for a 7pm start, but when we were set up they made us stand outside the building and called us back in to play at 11pm.

Did they insist that you played with one trouser leg rolled up? 

Danny1969

I tend to write the entire evening off if I have a gig so I don't mind setting up and then leaving and going up the pub to kill the time. The London awards shows can be a killer as it's often set up and soundcheck at 5, then come back and play first set at 11:30, then 2nd set at 12:45  ... getting home around 3:30 in the morning 

PolarityMan

Thing is musicians are so unreliable that they set load in time that early just to make sure 1 of the 4 bands is actually there. Hopefully the one bringing the drums.

maltingsaudio

I work to on time is late, I like to be at a venue at least an hour befor the band load in time to get my stuff in order and settled depending on the size of PA required.

Chris_J

For pub gigs where we're supplying all the gear I like 1.5 - 2 hours for setup and soundcheck, just so I can take it easy and have time for a drink and a relax before going on. We're generally setting up drums, guitars, PA, simple lighting rig and sound checking ourselves.

Happy to leave it later if the PA/drums etc is there already and they've got their own sound guy.

For larger better paying gigs I like to set up earlier and then get out the way. Maybe go grab food or something.

fastonebaz

Usually 1.5hrs beforehand for pub gigs, although these days even though we're bringing full band, lights and PA and doing our own sound check, we find we're so slick we're ready early and sit about waiting to start .

26.2

It never makes sense to specify a very early load in time when PA, backline and kit are all provided. I guess for multi-band bills it’s to allow time for soundchecks for all, but as someone said already, the soundman is never on time anyway. We always roll up half an hour before doors and do a quick line check. 

Supportact

Sometimes a venue will just issue its generic info which isn't really relevant to you. 

I remember getting booking information which stated that load in 'must' take place no later than 4pm. It was a solo acoustic gig and I just had my guitar to plug in, no pedals even! The sound engineer turned up about 7.

Danny1969

About 15 years ago I set up a static camera to film our load in because, compared to other local bands we used an insane amount of equipment including 48 channel digital desk, a whole van load of lights, FOH racks with harmonizers and reverbs, multitrack recorder etc.  
We do still use a lot of equipment now in that band but some of it has got smaller 

Supportact

Danny1969 said:

About 15 years ago I set up a static camera to film our load in because, compared to other local bands we used an insane amount of equipment including 48 channel digital desk, a whole van load of lights, FOH racks with harmonizers and reverbs, multitrack recorder etc.  
We do still use a lot of equipment now in that band but some of it has got smaller 

That's brilliant! Haha. Makes me feel less anxious about the amount of gear we've got to set up. 

DefaultM

BillDL said:

DefaultM said:

Worst I’ve had was a private party for the masons saying get there at 5pm to set up for a 7pm start, but when we were set up they made us stand outside the building and called us back in to play at 11pm.

Did they insist that you played with one trouser leg rolled up? 

 No but they insisted we play Mustang Sally, which is way worse.

Fez

We haven't been asked to play Mustang Sally for ages, thankfully.

Fez

Pub gig tonight so 7.30pm load in 9pm start.

Keefy

For a pub gig I’ll get there at least an hour before the start, which is plenty of time to load in, set up, sound check, and have a little chill before the first set.

Theatres usually have a ‘get-in’ time of 3pm and I’ll always aim to arrive then or very soon after. Set up, sound check if PA bod is there, find dressing room and/or ‘green’ room, nip out for something to eat. On occasions a lot of the time can be spent waiting for the PA bod to sort out problems with signal routing, EQ, feedback or whatever.

Weddings - arrive stupidly early, wait around for access to the room/marquee, set up and sound check, then wait around for hours to go on.