Everything people ask, answered here instead of by email.

The band and the people

Do you have regular personnel, or is the band filled with whoever is available?

Named chairs, held by the same players. The Standards and The Headliners draw from separate benches rather than one shared pool, so a jazz drummer is never asked to play funk or a rock drummer to play dinner volume. Most chairs are two deep, and the second name is a specific person, not an agency call.

What happens if a player cannot make the date?

Any substitution is named to you in advance. Subs are how every roster in this business works; the part that goes wrong is a planner discovering one at load-in. You get the name and the reason as soon as we know, which is the promise we can actually keep.

Who do we deal with on the night?

One named person, and they are a player rather than a coordinator. Their number arrives with the contract, weeks before load-in, and they are reachable from load-in to load-out. Two roles sit behind that and they are rarely the same person: whoever fronts the band calls the show from the stage, counting tunes and reading the floor, while the person who holds your booking is the one you call. You deal with the second. The room watches the first. Every booking includes both.

Can we see the band play before we book?

Yes. Ask and we will tell you what is on the calendar that you could attend, or arrange a showcase.

What do the players wear?

Black tie, business formal or all black, whichever your event calls for. Tell us the dress code you have set for guests and we will sit one notch inside it. If you need something specific, put it in the contract and that is what the players wear.

Booking and paperwork

What holds a date?

A signed contract and a 50% retainer. Until both land the date stays available to anyone else asking for it, and we will tell you if someone does.

When is the balance due, and how do we pay?

The balance is due 14 days before the event. ACH and check for no fee, card with the processing fee added. Corporate clients can have net-30 on approval instead, with the terms written into the contract.

What is the cancellation policy?

The retainer is non-refundable once the date is held, because holding it means turning away other work. Cancel more than 90 days out and the retainer transfers to any other date inside twelve months.

Do you carry liability insurance?

Yes. A certificate naming your venue as additional insured comes in the same email as the contract, along with a W-9 and one itemised invoice. You do not have to ask for any of them.

Can you work with our procurement or AP process?

Yes. We can be set up as a vendor, quote against a purchase order, and invoice in whatever form your finance team needs. Ask early rather than late; vendor onboarding is usually the slowest thing on a corporate booking.

How far in advance should we book?

Corporate holiday parties are typically decided August through October for November and December dates, and New Year's Eve books earliest of all. Weddings and galas run longer: ten to twelve months, and twelve to eighteen for a mountain venue or a fall Saturday.

The night itself

How long are the sets, and how long are the breaks?

Sets run 45 to 60 minutes with 15 to 20 minutes between them, set against your run of show rather than a fixed clock. Audio continues through every break at every size, so the room never goes silent.

Can we use your microphones for speeches?

Yes. A dedicated announcement microphone is on its own channel at every size, live from the moment we finish sound check. Hand it to whoever is speaking. No cable swap, no gap, no borrowing the singer's mic.

Will you learn a song we choose?

The first one is included in every booking. Each one after that is $250. Send it at least four weeks out, with the version you mean; there are usually several and they are not the same chart.

Do you make announcements or act as MC?

The bandleader will make short announcements from the stage: dinner is served, the dance floor is open, please welcome your speaker. We do not run the evening as an MC. If your program needs a host, that is a separate hire and we will work to their cues.

Can we add time on the night?

Yes, and it costs what the earlier hours cost. There is no overtime rate. Added time bills at the same hourly figure in 30-minute increments, agreed on the night with whoever holds the budget, so the only question at 11pm is whether the room wants one more.

How loud is it, really?

Dinner and cocktails run 65 to 72 dBA at the nearest table, which is a volume you can talk across without raising your voice. Dancing runs 88 to 95 dBA on the floor. If your venue enforces a cap, tell us the number at contract and we will build the night under it rather than argue about it at 10pm.

The room and the gear

Do you provide sound and lighting?

Yes, at every size, with an engineer. Sound sized to the room and stage lighting for the band. We do not light the room, the tables or a dance floor as a design element; that is your lighting vendor's work, and we will coordinate with them.

Do you need a stage, and do you provide one?

We do not require one and we do not supply one. A band plays fine on a floor. If you want a riser, the venue or your production company provides it, and the footprints we need at each size are published on the technical page.

What power do you need?

Dedicated 20-amp circuits within reach of the stage, one to four of them depending on the size of the band. The requirement most often missed is that they be dedicated: sharing a circuit with catering warmers or a lighting truss is the single most common cause of a problem at load-in. Exact counts are on the technical page.

Can you play outdoors?

Yes, with cover over the band and the desk, power run to the stage, and a plan for the weather written before the day. Colorado evenings drop fast, and instruments and electronics both stop behaving in the cold and the wet. Cover is not optional and neither is a defined move-indoors call time.

The venue has a curfew and a decibel limit. Is that a problem?

No. Mountain and residential venues run on their own rules and we honour them as written. Tell us the cap and the curfew when you book and both go into the plan, including how the last twenty minutes are shaped so the night ends on a high note rather than a cut-off.

Do the players need a green room or meals?

For calls over four hours, a room to hold cases and change in, and a meal per player. Vendor meal is fine. For shorter calls neither is expected.

The music

How much say do we get over the songs?

As much or as little as you want. You can build the list yourself, hand us a do-not-play list and leave the rest, or tell us the room and let the band read it song by song. Most clients do the middle one, and the do-not-play list is the part worth spending time on.

Do you take requests during the event?

From you, yes, and from guests where it fits. The bandleader's job is reading the floor, so a request that would empty it gets a straight answer and an alternative rather than a yes and a bad twenty minutes.