Gig Gab - The Working Musician's Podcast

Skylar Hamilton is back by popular demand for round two of your questions, recorded across an Airbnb kitchen table in New York City where a roll of paper towels doubles as a mic stand, because it’s the right height and it kills table rumble.

Set lists first: your opener sets the tone, and the tone is yours to set. Easing a dining room into rock-band mode calls for something catchy and upper-mid-tempo with room to breathe; a room that came to see a band wants to know right away what kind of show they walked into. Start cold off a click in your ears instead of a count-off if you want crisp. Put the across-the-board crowd-pleaser second, not first. And treat the night as an exchange of energy: it’s great when the audience offers first, but you can’t plan on that, so you make the first offering. Always Be Performing, right from note one.

From there you get a genuine on-air disagreement about AI and episode artwork, and where the line sits between using a tool and removing the human creator. The audience for your art is other humans, whatever you used to make it. Then stage etiquette, with Rush handing you both answers on one tour: Anika Nilles quietly fixing a wardrobe malfunction mid-song while the show rolls on, and Geddy Lee stopping 2112 to get a dead bass sorted. The call is yours in a split second: if you’re the focal point and the problem has you distracted, name it and bring the crowd in; otherwise let it go and keep playing.

Crowd work closes it out: banter is a skill you learn to summon on demand, not a personality you’re born with. Pick one person or an avatar and talk to them, build a stage character the way Billie Joe Armstrong is already St. Jimmy every night, treat what you wear as a costume your audience assumes you chose on purpose, borrow the bits you love from the front people who inspire you, and then watch yourself back a few days later…alone, and generous enough to find one good moment for every three you’d fix.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 552 – Monday, September 21, 2026

September 21st: National Pecan Cookie Day

Guest co-host: Skylar Hamilton

00:02:28 Use a paper towel roll

Keep Rolling With It

00:04:45 Setlist Management

Starting Songs

00:18:33 How do we continue using AI to maximize efficiency without removing the artists?

Waves NS1

00:31:51 feedback@giggabpodcast.com

00:32:09 Stage Etiquette: What happens when something goes wrong?

The Alter Ego Effect

00:43:13 Crowd Management: Being a front-person

01:03:01 Gig Gab 552 Outtro

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The post The Opener Sets the Tone: Set List Strategy, AI vs. the Artist & The Craft of Fronting a Band – Gig Gab 552 appeared first on Gig Gab.

You’ve earned your seat on that drum riser, even when four people in the crowd know the Bonham parts better than you do. Dave Hamilton and guest co-host Skylar Hamilton (his daughter) look back on Dave’s summer of gigs, starting with a Led Zeppelin and Heart tribute for about 600 people. A shaky moment in Heartbreaker turns into a drum solo nobody rehearsed, and a derailed Living Loving Maid turns a careful recital into a real rock show. Less than a week later, a Casual Gravity night in Laconia starts with six fans and a nearly empty room and ends packed by the third set. Two rules made that happen: don’t punish the people who showed up, and play for the crowd that’s not in the door yet. Skylar sums it up with the question you should ask every time you walk on stage: are you going to bother to be here, or should you just go home?

Then Skylar picks your questions for Stump the Music Geek. You’ll hear how to juggle a day job and multiple bands (put everything on the calendar), what to do when a private-gig client wants to swap six songs 72 hours before the show, the contract clauses that turn last-minute requests and overtime into extra pay, and why one bandleader needs to make the final call on stage. The Sales 101 speed round covers following up with venue managers, what to do when 20 booking emails get no reply, asking for the no like an auctioneer, visiting a venue as a customer when nobody answers your DMs, and getting local businesses to back your band. Play the fill, set the expectation, and Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 551 – Monday, September 14, 2026

September 14th: National Rosa Tequila Day

Guest co-host: Skylar Hamilton

00:02:40 The lessons of perspective: Zeppelin/Heart Underground gig

00:20:16 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/giggab to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

00:21:51 Casual Gravity Gig

Don’t punish the people who showed up

Play for the crowd that’s not in the door yet

Stump the (Music) Geek

00:29:52 How do you handle time management?

00:36:42 How would you react to a client who changes the set last-minute?

00:44:04 What’s your advice on having a bandleader who makes the final call?

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Sales 101, Musician Style

00:51:20 After making initial contact with a venue manager, is it bad business to follow-up with them a week later?

00:52:12 What about 20 booking emails?

00:54:53 Ask Like An Auctioneer

Dia Bondi on Business Brain

00:55:30 How do you get someone’s attention?

00:57:20 How to find local business sponsors for a band?

01:00:37 Gig Gab 551 Outtro

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The post Play the Fill: Stage Confidence, Filling an Empty Room & Booking Gigs – Gig Gab 551 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Nashville’s Lower Broadway isn’t a gig, it’s a gauntlet, and Tyson Hanes and Adam Barber of The Tyson Hanes Band are here to show you how it actually works. You’ll hear why nobody’s from Nashville, why being the small fish in a giant pond forces you to level up fast, and what it takes to play four-hour shifts straight through with a thousand-song list, no set list, and no safety net. The crowd builds the show one tip at a time, so you go from Merle Haggard to Metallica in a single breath, learn a requested tune off a fifteen-second Spotify listen, and lean on shared Dropbox charts and big ears to nail the transitions together. And because new people walk in all night long, you’re not impressing an audience once…you’re re-impressing them for four straight hours. That’s what Always Be Performing really looks like.

Then there’s the business side, and this is where it gets pointed. Tyson and Adam collaborated to their own QR-code song request system with a developer – two taps from scan to Venmo, straight to the band’s group text – and turned it into SongRequestHero.com for other bands. When JBJ’s management mandated a clunkier third-party app, killed their on-stage banners, and then ignored three weeks of professional questions from forty-five musicians, they walked.

You’ll get the full story, plus the bigger lesson underneath it: treat your band like a real business or stay a bar band forever. Answer your email. Send your invoices. Don’t get drunk on stage. Build the infrastructure that lets you sell the Nashville experience to corporate buyers anywhere in the country. And take Adam’s advice: you’ll happily pay for lessons from a better player, so pay for a business coach or a mastermind too. Dave throws SCORE.org into the mix for the free version, with one catch worth hearing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 550 – Monday, September 7, 2026

September 7th: National Beer Lovers Day

Guest co-hosts: Tyson Hanes and Adam Barber of The Tyson Hanes Band

00:02:06 Being a band in Nashville

But no one is from Nashville

Talent is off the charts

The pond is much bigger

Nashville keeps you from getting stagnant

00:06:42 Playing Lower Broadway on Nashville

Playing straight through

Multiple genres

Making money off of tips

From Merle Haggard to Metallica

00:10:26 The talent

00:12:16 The nerdy tech behind being a band playing lots of covers

Shared Dropbox

Audioengine

00:16:53 Playing on Lower Broadway takes big ears

00:18:01 Re-impressing an audience all night

Lose Yourself from The Tyson Hanes band

Playing the same song multiple times

00:20:00 The crowd builds the setlist

Streamlining the process

00:22:07 SPONSOR: Warby Parker – Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at https://WarbyParker.com/GIGGAB — and using our link helps support the show. #WarbyParker #ad

00:23:38 Dave asks the unintentionally loaded question

00:25:57 Developing your own app

00:28:31 What’s your app?

SongRequestHero.com

Dave has used HelloBand.io

00:31:50 JBJ’s management said you have to use a new app and no on-stage banners

00:41:17 The relationship erodes

00:45:36 Musicians bonding together…if they want to

00:48:50 How do bands make money as a band in Nashville?

00:52:27 Going from a “hey, we’d like to pay you in alcohol” band to a corporate band

Bringing the Nashville Request feel to Corporate Gigs

01:00:38 Deciding you’re going to be a pro band before you can be a pro band

Communication!

Mike Schulte from Pork Tornadoes

“Nashville is not the flex you think it is.”

01:06:51 Bringing Nashville to you and your event

01:11:25 When your name is on the door

There’s a benefit and a risk

01:19:53 Get a business coach

Join a mastermind, even if it costs you. Especially if it costs you.

SCORE.org

01:28:00 Gig Gab 550 Outtro

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IG: @tysonhanesmusic

TheTysonHanesBand.com

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The post Re-Impressing the Room All Night: The Realities of Nashville’s Lower Broadway with Tyson Hanes & Adam Barber – Gig Gab 550 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Monitor engineer Kevin “KG” Glendinning joins you live from a Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia: eight countries in seven days into the Lorde world tour…and he’s got the receipts. You’ll hear how fifteen trips through the SNL stage started with a Carson Daly taping, why the rooms that treat you well are the rooms you remember, and what happens when a 32-year veteran finally plugs in a source expander and realizes the “new guys” were right. That’s the through-line: always be learning, always be open-minded, and never let a get-off-my-lawn attitude about new tech be the reason your phone stops ringing. Then it gets into the real in-ear monitor conversations: recreating a Celestion cab with a 2.6mm armature, the one-ear trick that quietly costs Adam Levine and John Mayer another 25% of volume, and why ear fatigue deserves the same respect a pitcher gives his arm.

The road stories land hard from there. Super Bowl XLV in Dallas with snow, the Black Eyed Peas, and a lesson in letting the pros run their own show. Red Rocks (aka “Wet Rocks”) and why a mountain full of shuttle trucks is worth every minute. A locked-up console mid-residency and telling Christina Aguilera the audio will come back, all while genuinely hoping it would. A charter plane struck by lightning over the Amazon, an emergency landing at a decommissioned airfield, and waking up to the news about Taylor Hawkins. Plus the covert phone call that became seven years with Justin Timberlake, and the soft ask years earlier that made it happen. Rehearse enough that nerves turn into muscle memory, thank the people who opened doors for you, ask for the gig you want…and Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 549 – Monday, August 31st, 2026

August 31st: Eat Outside Day

Guest co-host: Kevin Glendinning

00:02:38 Pula, Croatia. 8 countries in 7 days

00:04:36 SNL stage for The Deftones with the Carson Daly show

00:06:20 Making an impression on touring musicians with

00:08:35 Always be learning about the new tech

Learning from the “new” guys

Neve 5045 Primary Source Expander

Waves PSE Plugin

Digico Mustard Source Enhancer

00:13:55 Always be open-minded

00:18:57 Mixing ears and the respect of it all

00:21:02 Chris Rabold mixing monitors for REM

00:22:06 Now some REM stories

00:24:23 Helping get Adam Levine & John Mayer through ear fatigue with one ear monitor

00:26:46 OzFest System Engineers and hearing fatigue

00:27:45 Sometimes it just doesn’t sound right

00:30:44 Super Bowl in 2011 in Dallas…with snow!

And The Black Eyed Peas

00:35:45 Being rehearsed enough to just do the gig (and fix what goes wrong when it goes wrong)

00:36:25 Lorde’s large-and-resilient fanbase

00:39:21 Working Red Rocks..”Wet Rocks”

00:44:33 Christina and the reboot

“Don’t worry…the audio will come back.”

Dave’s issue with the Mackie DL32S losing input signals

00:49:58 Batteries Matter

00:52:31 Miley Cyrus, Taylor Hawkins, Lightning-stuck aircraft, oh my!

00:56:28 Getting paid to see the world

The pros and the cons

00:59:11 The “covert” phone call… and Justin Timberlake

Get to know ML who works for ShowCo

Ask for the gig you want (and, specifically, ask Anthony Giordano)

The Victoria’s Secret Awards!

Watching Muse with Justin

01:06:11 Have gratitude for everyone who you’ve worked with

01:08:14 Kevin wants to answer your questions!

01:09:52 Gig Gab 549 Outtro

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IG: @kev_chitown

LinkedIn: Kevin ‘KG’ Glendinning

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The post Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road – Gig Gab 549 appeared first on Gig Gab.

Your voice is the most temperamental instrument you’ll ever own, and this week Victor Carrillo Tracey – original company member of Broadway’s The Outsiders – walks you through what it takes to keep one working eight shows a week. Hydration and sleep swap places at number one, alcohol and caffeine cost more than you think, and inspiration doesn’t get a vote when downbeat is 8pm. You’ll hear how a single college voice lesson with a head cold taught Victor to navigate around a compromised instrument years before he needed it on Broadway, and why nerves usually answer to preparation rather than talent. Book the room. Play your opener as the last song of soundcheck. Always Be Performing starts well before anyone’s watching.

Then it gets nerdy. Victor breaks down what a swing actually is (think relief pitcher), and how he covered nine tracks at once before working his way up to playing Paul full-time. You’ll pick up forced perspective, the staging trick that tells an audience exactly where to look and translates straight to your own stage. Plus the band sealed in the pit under the apron, monitor wedges in the floor and sidefills in the wings, a rig that tracks each voice around the house, watching a Broadway book get written in real time, and Dave’s case for mixing your in-ears in stereo instead of piling everything up the middle. Victor’s last Outsiders show is October 11th, right around performance number one thousand…and he still tells himself this is the best job ever before every show.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 548 – Monday, August 24th, 2026

August 24th: International Strange Music Day

Guest co-host: Victor Carrillo Tracey

00:02:45 The voice is the most temperamental instrument

00:06:04 The benefits of an education

Always Be Learning – Beginner’s Mind

00:08:54 Learning to navigate around your voice when things are non-optimal

00:13:28 Taking care of your voice

The most important thing is hydration.

Except Sleep is the most important thing.

Be aware of alcohol and caffeine

00:17:01 Inspiration won’t always strike

00:18:35 And taking care of your body

00:20:55 Preparing yourself for success

Play your opener as your last soundcheck song before the house opens

You can visualize this, too!

Book the room to rehearse in advance

Always be preparing

Having a preparation mindset

00:28:40 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/giggab to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

00:30:08 Being a Swing

Kinda like a relief pitcher

Nine tracks at once!

00:33:33 Ok, a detour into musical theater and The Outsiders

00:39:02 Forced Perspective

00:43:12 Missing playing a non-voice instrument

00:45:19 Playing with the band in a theater show

…without seeing your bandmates

00:50:46 Watching the Broadway book being built

And recording the Cast Album at Power Station at BerkleeNYC Music Studio

Jamie Eblen

Justin Levine

00:56:11 Mixing a musical…and hearing it on stage!

Monitor wedges in the apron

Sidefills in the wings

Cody Spencer

01:04:55 Previews are grueling, and great!

01:05:45 Mix your in-ears in stereo

Nothing up the middle: kick one degree right, snare one degree left.

01:07:43 Victor’s leaving The Outsiders after 2.5 years

Choosing your destiny…follow your gut

And make it happen!

Gratitude!

“This is the best job ever” before going on stage every time.

01:12:37 Gig Gab 548 Outtro

Follow  Victor Carrillo Tracey

IG: @victorctracey

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The post From Broadway Swing to Principal: Eight Shows a Week – Gig Gab 548 with Victor Carrillo Tracey appeared first on Gig Gab.