Venues in Cape Town

DrGonzo

Hi guys ?,

Me and my merry band want to organize a gig on the weekend of 27 28 June…

Now, I'm still fairly new here and just want to get some advice and recommendations about booking a show, and where!

Which venues are quite cheap and open to newer bands, and also have a decent-ish sound system?

im hinting maybe the jolly roger in plum stead or ragazi in town… but those are some of the few that i know we can book for cheap.

?

DonRoos

Am I understanding your correctly - you want to PAY to do a gig? Mostly venue's pay you to play and at worst you play for free as an audition.

You need to find a venue that matches your genre as different venues support different styles of music. What genre you you classify yourselves? Covers or originals? How many members in the band?

Manfred-Klose

you can try some of these:

Mercury Live
Assembly
Zula Bar
Waiting Room
Pakalolo houtbay
bay harbour market houtbay
ace of spades
Weinhaus + Biergarten (&union)
Obviously armchair
Ragazzi
Roar
Barleycorn claremont
Ellingtons Bellville
Rabbit hole durbanville
aandklas stellenbosch

some of them dont allow loud drum kits but only for the drums to be played with brushes, so just make sure

DrGonzo

DonRoos wrote: Am I understanding your correctly - you want to PAY to do a gig? Mostly venue's pay you to play and at worst you play for free as an audition.

You need to find a venue that matches your genre as different venues support different styles of music. What genre you you classify yourselves? Covers or originals? How many members in the band?

? Don, not in quite the position yet when venues are scrambling to pay me thousands of rands an hour to get us to play..}

so Yes.

As far as i understand for most venues in CT, if you are an event organiser you hire the venue, organise the bands and take all the door charge and then pay the bands… the venue does not pay bands specifically? they take the bar and perhaps a cut of the door.

We are instrumental, 4 piece - high energy post-rock/metal outfit. all original. so it doesn't leave too many options but its still quite accesiible

eyesuc

DrGonzo wrote: We are instrumental, 4 piece - high energy post-rock/metal outfit. all original. so it doesn't leave too many options but its still quite accesiible

That sounds like ROAR/Gandalfs and maybe Mercury.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gandalfs/209555042400494
Try contacting Antonio, email and phone number on the Facebook page ? None of my friends have ever paid to gig there, just need to talk to the guys in charge and arrange a slot.

Let us know the band name and I'm there to support!

21Fretter

I played the Jolly Roger without booking.

It's an interesting concept behind venues making you pay to gig. Fair enough if they are simply a venue that offers a sound system, but then should they be allowed to benefit from liquor sales? The band should get the full door in that case. It's kinda like if I had a hotdog stand and you set up a beer stand next to me. You will be benefiting from my clientele but then you shouldn't be receiving any of the money received from that specific "event" (the hot dog sale/watching the band perform). If the customers additionally decide to buy liquor, then fair game, that is your product and you've simply made a good business decision.

DonRoos

Sound Studio and Just Wine, both in Milnerton offer such venues. They take part of the door money and profit on booze and you get the rest of the door money (R15?). You will need to do some advertising and get all your friends to come along to make it worth your while.

21Fretter

DonRoos wrote: Sound Studio and Just Wine, both in Milnerton offer such venues. They take part of the door money and profit on booze and you get the rest of the door money (R15?).

See, but why are they "still" getting a percentage of the door imo? The band has already paid to hire the venue effectively, and then the band still has to go through the effort to attract the clientele while they don't even receive the full benefits of their labour.

That makes me think, why do clubs charge entrance in general, they make absolute killings on the bar regardless :\

DaFiz

DonRoos wrote: Sound Studio and Just Wine, both in Milnerton offer such venues. They take part of the door money and profit on booze and you get the rest of the door money (R15?). You will need to do some advertising and get all your friends to come along to make it worth your while.

We've played at both. Sound Studio is very small by they have a PA set up with someone to operate the mixing desk (very important) Just Wine is larger but you must bring your own rig.
Ellingtons also had a rig but the operator did a lousy job.
Die Boer had a great rig and a sound person that knew the job.
Plaasteater (Hazendal) has a rig with a sound person and it's open mic night every Thursday night.
We're playing Hillcrest Quarry on Sunday afternoon and I'm carrying the Cerwyn Vega's :'(

DrGonzo

eyesuc wrote:
DrGonzo wrote: We are instrumental, 4 piece - high energy post-rock/metal outfit. all original. so it doesn't leave too many options but its still quite accesiible

That sounds like ROAR/Gandalfs and maybe Mercury.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gandalfs/209555042400494
Try contacting Antonio, email and phone number on the Facebook page ? None of my friends have ever paid to gig there, just need to talk to the guys in charge and arrange a slot.

Let us know the band name and I'm there to support!

Cool, yeah we played twice at ROAR already and had a blast.. but thanks for the contact, that will help if we want to arrange our own shows!

band name is OhGod! www.soundcloud.com/ohgodband and www.facebook.com/Ohgod.band
check it out and see if ur cup of tea.

[deleted]

See, but why are they "still" getting a percentage of the door imo? The band has already paid to hire the venue effectively, and then the band still has to go through the effort to attract the clientele while they don't even receive the full benefits of their labour.

Ja, I guess you have to look at their reasoning. So they're renting you their sound equipment and engineer, and they're also probably assuming that the location and reputation of the venue will be bringing you an audience you wouldn't be able to attract all on your own, hence a cut of the door. Maybe a bit arrogant of them, since they're willing to sell their "venue image" to anyone who is willing to pay.

Skylark

Nice! Name aside, it sounds very similar to post rock legends God is an astronaut, only listened to one track so far though.

DrGonzo

Skylark wrote: Nice! Name aside, it sounds very similar to post rock legends God is an astronaut, only listened to one track so far though.

thanks man,
we doing a properly recorded EP in 2 weeks time… so can't wait to get that out there for you guys to listen
I'm very excited about it to say the least, we have been getting amazing feedback so far

just confirmed we will be on at Mercury 11 July! so my hustle to book a venue is not so important anymore ?