Esplanade Outdoor Gig : How To ?

[pablo]

Hi all...I know lots of you have done gigs at the Esplanade outdoor stage. My band's interested to do a gig there but dunno how lah. I know i can contact Esplanade to enquire but i'd also like to hear from you fellow softies and maybe can share your experiences as well...Do you need to pay any fees? Soundman,amps,drum provided? Any other useful info is greatly appreciated. We want to perform both originals and covers as well (for covers we have to pay fee to COMPASS?)

We used to gig at the old World Trade Centre Amphitheatre long long time ago (not married yet) and everything's free. With setlist of Loudness,Helloween,Metallica,Iron Maiden,Malmsteen,Steelheart,Extreme and Mr Big,it was pure fun to perform to headbanging rockers...ha ha. 10 years on (married with kids), i thought of having a rock/heavy metal reunion gig lah to bring back the good old memories of performing outdoors and to let our kids see that old daddy can still rock...hee

 

[Anirudh]

hey bro (or shud i say uncle?...hehe just kiddin),

im not too sure about heavy metal gigs at the esplanade man...coz the last time RUDRA played there in november, they had a lot of difficulties with the sound system there...and worse still they disallowed headbanging initially and after calling the police and security, we were allowed to headbang...damn lame lah.

anyway im not too sure about performing there.

cheers

 

[danial]

Anirudh , then the head bang must pause till call then start back eh :lol:

 

[alka1987]

loL cannot headbanging is illegal?

 

[danial]

haha , then baybeats head bang leh ?

 

[drownedout]

Ministry of rock performed there and had a totally awesome show so I don't see where the no headbanging thing comes from.. Not sure bout the fees and such too.

 

[XLayaR]

I've never seen metal acts there before leh, mostly bues and acoustics.....No offence but it would really screw the ambience there

 

[AEnimic]

ronin did a show there,everyone stood up instead of sitting down..so yeah..thats just my experience so far

 

[hay88]

u guys gotta prepare a really good demo or video or ur band playing and mail it to esplanade. can't remember the name of the fella you got to give to. They'll process and see if it's good enough and from what i heard, they pay u most of the time..

 

[pablo]

Yo guys...thanks for all the feedback, keep 'em coming though...

What i know is that Esplanade doesn't restrict to certain genres only;they promote music performances in general. I've seen a couple of rock and heavy stuff performed there before (as also mentioned by fellow softies here and seen in YouTube) and surprisingly families with kids and grannies stood by and appreciate. I must admit that usually with rock gigs the crowd's more 'happening' and 'appreciative' while the other types sometimes the crowd looks like they're creatures from the living dead...hee hee. No offence people, but i've seen and experienced that a lot coz i've done numerous non-rock,non-loud,non-high-pitched,non-headbanging public gigs as well to vouch for this...ha ha

Ambience is subjective;i believe it boils down to the performer. If the crowd loved it and are entertained, screw the ambience. If Dream Theatre,Metallica or Iron Maiden are to gig at the Old Parliament House,i'll still watch it and said...yes you guessed it...screw the ambience

 

[shredrat]

dude if u performing tell us k... anyway why no headbanging???

 

[kerplunk182]

they scared you headbang untill mabok then fall into the sea

 

[pablo]

shredrat, i will definitely post if we're doing the gig but it won't be anytime soon coz we uncles (as Anirudh said earlier...hee) need some time to practise since it has been a long while since we last bang our heads together.

I find it funny that headbanging in rock/metal gigs is always an issue. I think people see headbang as a rowdy and unruly behaviour so in local context; rowdy=violence? Also maybe it's a neck and brain health hazard? Or perhaps safety issue as highlighted by kerplunk182? Ha ha...

Gigs irregardless of rock,metal or jazz are meant to be enjoyed and i believe you can freely express your enjoyment as long as it doesn't become a public nuisance.

 

[BoogieMan]

Hi,

My band MELT played there a few months ago. We were lucky, we were spotted on the web from our website www.melt-music.com and one of the organisers came to see us play. MELT is mainly a Rock, Funk, Top 40 cover band and she liked what she saw. She called me and asked if we could play in the DA:NS festival, but we had to play retro dance music, which we preformed. It was a fantastic night and a really nice place to play.

 

[fgl]

FOR ME AMAZINGLY, i'VE PLAYED 5 TIMES THERE but ALL AS SESSIONIST WITH OTHER BANDS... but never with my own guys ????

 

[Anirudh]

Anirudh , then the head bang must pause till call then start back eh :lol:

ya lah..haha.then it was like frikkin weird with police looking at us and passers-by looking at us like weirdos..but what the heck we enjoyed ourselves!