Renowned for igniting parties, Queenstown Band LA Social share the secret to their success.
This is part 3 of 3. Scroll down for all things entertainment business and LA Social’s recipe for success.
Go back to part 1 for incredible stories of gigs LA Social have performed. We’re still reeling from their refugee camp story.
Check out part 2 for insider tips and advice on how to best work with your event band
Need to book the most fun Queenstown band of them all? Check here.
COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE
We asked LA Social how to fill a dance floor. They shared their secret recipe!
“We try to be a lot more fun than other serious style Queenstown bands” and that comes down to the people. The “background of the people that make up our team is really important”. People who have been in musical theatre are prime candidates because “the front people, the people who are singing and working the room, have to be showboats. If they’re studious musicians, that’s a bonus, but first and foremost they have to be show ponies”. To convince a room full of strangers to party “you have to be the most outrageous personality in the room because that gives everybody else permission to join you in the frivolity”.
COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE
“The goal is that we all feel that we’re partying together. What we try to achieve by the end of the evening is to feel like we’re old friends” with the guests. “That’s something that we are really intentional about. I feel like we can interact much more personably. They can have interactions with our team that can’t be had with a cold, serious” style of musician. “We’re not serious in principle, but we do want to do an amazing job for people. We want everyone to be dancing and having an awesome time because we’re there celebrating important milestones” in people’s lives. “Our job is to make it even more of a celebration. No one wants, ‘Oh, remember at Sally and Jeff’s wedding how everybody sat in the corner because the band were playing songs nobody knew’.”
COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE
Searching for event entertainment reveals everything from violinists to circus troupes. LA Social has made an artform of sitting in the middle.
“My perception is that studious musicians are at one end of the spectrum and flamboyant musical theater is at the other. We try and do both of those things together.” While I “lean toward the flamboyant showboat end of the spectrum I also recognize the need for musical fire power in our line up, and that comes with a lot of study”. Having a mixture of these “personalities in our company, and we’re lucky that we do, means that we can put together” well balanced teams. For example, “we have an awesome drummer” who prefers to sit quietly at the back of the stage “keeping everything sounding wonderful percussively. He’s very, very practiced”. Meanwhile, the singers at the front of the stage engage with the crowd using their performance skills, “so everybody has their role and they work best in that place. If you get that wrong it just doesn’t work, in fact it could be catastrophic”.
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Every event has a few hiccups. Running a multi team company means LA Social can help out when others can’t.
“That’s a key reason we run a multiple teamed company. Sometimes our corporate clients think they booked us, but they never got around to it”, or something went wrong with another Queenstown Band that’s just not as organised, and they’re left without entertainment. “They’ll call us the night before to say ‘Hey, so we’ll be seeing you tomorrow night?’.” That’s no problem because “we can reorganize our teams to make it work”. If you’re running a conventional band model “you’re either booked or you’re not booked. We decided to take the ceiling off the business’s ability to earn. We take that first booking, then a second one rolls in and it’s ‘Great, Shaun and Tiff can nail it for you!’, then another one comes in, ‘Boom, Derek and Fiona will smash it’, then a forth one comes in and it’s ‘Wow, popular date. That’s fine, David and Andrea will own it and you’ll have a great time’. Then the fifth one comes in and it’s ‘How would you like a DJ?’. Especially if Valentines Day falls on the weekend. Everybody wants to get married on that day”.
COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE
It’s nice to know the team entertaining your guests are enjoying themselves and won’t roll their eyes when your cousin requests ‘Wagon Wheel’.
“We all enjoy it, but what makes it enjoyable is different for each of us. It’s connecting with the audience, performing a beautiful song well, or playing your instrument really well.” Lindsay says he doesn’t “get bored singing the same songs all the time because I’m not getting my satisfaction and enjoyment from the singing of the song as much as I am from the audience. I sing ‘Mustang Sally’ and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ at least 100 times every year, but the crowd is different every time and their reaction is different every time. They’re all throwing their hands up, but they’re fresh sets of hands every time. I’m doing it to get people smiling and laughing and that’s what makes me feel good about what I’m doing, and about me”.
COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE
Since 2006 LA Social has grown from duo Lindsay and Ailsa Woods to a team of 20 talented musicians and performers. Equally comfortable at International conferences and intimate celebrations, LA Social entertain thousands of people across the globe with their high energy brand of entertainment – no one can pack a dance floor quite like them. They regularly perform at weddings and for world leading brands like BMW, Aston Martin, and Ferrari. “We can be anywhere from a prestigious charity ball in Auckland, to a grass roots festival in Queenstown, to an enchanted forest gala in Thailand.
That was part 3 of 3. Check it out for all things entertainment business and LA Social’s recipe for success.
Go back to part 1 for incredible stories of gigs LA Social have performed. We’re still reeling from their refugee camp story.
Check out part 2 for insider tips and advice on how to best work with your event band.
CREDITS (in order of appearance)
Header Venue: Mount Difficulty Winery // Photography: Dan Childs Photography // Entertainment: LA Social // Client: Highlands Motorsport Park
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Venue: The Olive Grove // Catering: 63b Catering // Entertainment: LA Social // Celebrant: Jools MacKnight
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Photography: Stefan Haworth // Entertainment: LA Social
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Photography: Stefan Haworth // Entertainment: LA Social
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Photography: Dan Childs Photography // Entertainment: LA Social // Venue: Winehouse // Planning: HQNZ // Catering: IN2food Catering
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Community Christmas Sponsor: Shotover Jet // Entertainment: LA Social // Sound + Lighting: Tom Tom