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Live Band night of show

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  • Live Band night of show

    A buddy of mine who promotes local bands offered to have a band available every night we are open for free to entertain the guests in line.

    All we have to do is hang some posters and have the bands fliers available at the exit.

    Any thoughts as to the pros and cons about this.

  • #2
    Boni

    Even though you don't have to wait in line at Graystone Manor we have a house band out of Nashville that does wicked instermentals! They are known in October as the CornStalkers and they ARE LOVED BY THE CROWDS!!!!! I strongly suggest you go with it! Shane and its rock on! Shane this time!
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    • #3
      Sounds like a win, win situation...
      http://www.bigscaryshow.com
      http://www.rabidbadger.org

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      • #4
        I wish we did not have a line! (Ok maybe I'm lying there)
        I believe any que line entertainment is worthy...

        We are actually expanding on our 5-6 busy nights (1 hour wait) to assure we don't lose the crowd.

        So definitely a cool thing to do - plus the bands will promote you since they are playing there!

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        • #5
          Potential live band issue

          Two potential issues could be power and audio competition between your band's PA and your haunt's sound design.

          If the haunt's straight loud it may not be an issue, however, if you try for zoned audio and count on triggered sound effects the band may interfere with your design.

          That and power managment would be the only issues I'd forecast.

          The benefits seem to far outweigh the disadds. Any band, even the least known in a city, bring out some people you may not have otherwise sold a ticket to. If I were doing it I'd also have the promoter responsible for the PA, lights, and standard drum kit on site so that bands show up, plug in and play. Constant set up tear down is going to be taxing on your staff, as only the most seasoned performers are going to show up and not need anything from you.

          I'm working with a local manager here in Nashville to get some bands for thursday nights next season, may or may not go with fri sat.

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          • #6
            Was talking with someone at hauntcon about this as I have had a band at my place. One thing they mentioned is that one should be aware of the effect a live band can have on your crowd. Heavy Metal Mosh Pitt music can get the crowd so wild, they are ready to fight in the q line and inside the haunt. On the other hand, this person had a James Taylor type of musician one night and the crowd was really lathargic.... Food for thought....
            www.atheateroflostsouls.com Or if you need makeup or supplies www.abramagic.com


            "I am a frickin evil genius who deserves some frickin respect!"

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            • #7
              I wouldn't do it...

              1) Some people might hang out, I never want anyone hanging out. Once they go through we want them to leave. They tie up parking and resources to manage the crowds.

              2) Bands usually bring drinkers or problems.

              3) Its loud and will overlap with your attraction and could draw complaints from other business in the area.

              4) Has nothing to do with Halloween. You want to set the tone the atmospere before they enter and what does some band have to do with that unless it goes with your theme.

              Larry
              Larry Kirchner
              President
              www.HalloweenProductions.com
              www.BlacklightAttractions.com
              www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
              www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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              • #8
                I will still disagree and here is why.

                Originally posted by drfrightner View Post
                I wouldn't do it...

                1) Some people might hang out, I never want anyone hanging out. Once they go through we want them to leave. They tie up parking and resources to manage the crowds.

                2) Bands usually bring drinkers or problems.

                3) Its loud and will overlap with your attraction and could draw complaints from other business in the area.

                4) Has nothing to do with Halloween. You want to set the tone the atmospere before they enter and what does some band have to do with that unless it goes with your theme.

                Larry
                This all depends really on how your set up in Larrys case from what I seen at his haunt I can understand. But at Graystone Manor its rock on baby here is why.

                1) They enjoy the band before they go in. Lots of times they come back in and spend some more$$$$$ They listen to the band. Then they get hungery and spend some bucks on food!!!!! If you have a concession like we have and a food court like we have trust me you would love to accomidate them!

                2) Heck Haunted Attractions in general bring in the drunks! I dont know what it is about wanting to get drunk and scared at the same time!

                3) Depends on the size once you enter our haunt you cant even hear the band anymore. Make sure you have plenty of room for this. Graystone Manor does. If your free standing and don't have neighbors you want have a problem. Heck were right across the highway from a high school and they always have Friday night games and when they play at home they come in after the ball game and eat and eat while they listen to the band. This usually brings in more ticket sales.!

                4) True it dont really have anything to do with Halloween but if did right like the Cornstalkers and blend in with the attraction it WORKS!

                Again like anything it really comes down to the room and if you can benefit from the band. In our case WE DO. Shane and its you really just need to see if it can work for you! Shane this time.
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                • #9
                  it also depends upon

                  it also matters what type of band.
                  Myself and my haunted house had a stage set up outside of my haunt where we came up with a really cool concept. I ha dmy organ and 3 synthesizers dressed as a ghoul and All the music I played live outside was ricoched through the house via small speakers. Created great que line entertainment. Provided a different haunt Expereicne each time as well as promoting myself and something unique about my haunt,
                  Robert J. Frankenberg

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                  • #10
                    Something to think about....

                    No matter what genre of music is played you're not gonna "entertain" everyone.

                    A lot of people hate metal, punk, country, hip-hop, reggae, etc.

                    What is entertaining to some is just plain annoying to others.

                    Waiting in line for an hour or more is bad enough without having to listen to music you absolutely hate.
                    Guerilla Haunter

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                    • #11
                      After having bands for the last 5 years, this year we have put an end to it.

                      Some of these reasons overlap what Larry mentioned, but I'll restate them anyhow.

                      1) They tie up parking. On Friday and Saturday when we push 2500+ through our house, we use every parking spot we have and still end up having people wait for a spot. Yes, it's a cool "scene" to have a band, but we're going to bring 2500+ in regardless, band or not.

                      2) It really screws with our cue line audio / actors.

                      3) The bands *usually* suck. Sorry, but they play for free for a reason. Don't get me wrong, we've had a (very) small handful of decent acts, but in general, they suck. Around here we get mostly younger kids who do thrash metal and slit-your-wrist-EMO shit that I personally can't stand. I love Pantera, but these bands suck. Definitely not a crowd pleaser for the most part. The folk band went over real well (/rolleyes).

                      4) One of our volunteers is a pro-sound guy and was awesome enough to keep his entire PA at the haunt for the season as well as come down and run it every night. It sounded great. Unfortuntely, he is more than likely leaving us to move back north and as such, no more PA. In years past, the bands were required to bring their own PA. We had to single out a lot of bands because of this, many don't have a PA or at least a PA large enough for the venue. The bands that were able to bring their own PA generally have no idea what sounds good or how to mix a live performance.

                      5) They don't bring any additional (paying) crowds. Yes, they might bring a groupie of 10, but none of them pay to go into the haunt, hell most of them expect to go in for free. We've always let the bands go in for free, which sometimes ended up as 20 groupies going with. We booked (and PAYED!) a fairly popular country act in our area. They were supposed to do all of the advertising for it, MySpace, website, etc. Seriously, a half dozen people showed up to watch them.

                      6) Stage - What are you going to use? We're "in" with the county and they let us use their stage, but it's an entire day project for 6 people by the time we make multiple trips to pick it all up and then assemble it to build the 24x16 stage. Then another 4-5 hours to tear it down and haul it all back at the end of the season.

                      7) Also as Larry said, it has nothing to do with a haunt. If people are bored in the cue line and we need to bring in a band to entertain them, that goes to show that we're not doing our job with cue line actors to entertain the crowd. We have a group of fire breathers / eaters that come in and do some really cool stuff. That also has nothing really to do with a haunt, but it's at least entertaining to everyone in the line.

                      My 2c.
                      -Brandon Kelm
                      Operations Manager & Technical Director

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