This is part 2 of 3. Scroll down for insider tips and advice on how to best work with your event band, whether you’re looking for Queenstown Bands or further afield.

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 3 for all things entertainment business and LA Social’s recipe for success.

COURTESY OF LA SOCIAL // FULL CREDITS AT END OF ARTICLE

Here’s how your wedding band prepares while you sip bubbles in hair and makeup.

“It looks like rising around 9 o’clock and coming here to our base in Jacks Point Queenstown to have a coffee and scone” then heading to the gym. “Around midday I’m typically chatting with Emma, our assistant, who does the lion’s share of the booking and e-mailing to our clients.” Next, we look “at the logistics of how much equipment we need to round up. Last night our team had 500 people to perform for, so we picked up more gear from another location, a bit of extra fire power, then started packing in for the evening”. After packing in “we grab a bit of down time before going to work where we just smash it for hours and hours”. Smashing it translates to “making sure that everyone’s screaming and has their hands in the air”.

At the end of the night “we do the pack down. Around midnight we start pulling everything out”. If the event is at Skyline Queenstown “it takes a little longer because everything needs to be loaded into Gondolas” to travel down the hill.

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LA Social shared some pro tips for brides and planners alike.

First, “you want to give guests a bit of time to warm up. We look at our client’s run sheets and make recommendations around the start time of the dancing, when they have speeches, and so forth”. Often it’s their first time organizing an event, “especially people planning their own wedding, so we’ll be talking about the room and the venue as well. If a venue is very large compared to the guest list, we’ll recommend partitioning off part of the space to confine the energy so that it feels like a bigger party. Many Queenstown bands, or bands throughout the country work primarily in pubs in bars where this isn’t an issue ”.

Second, “leverage the experience of the professionals that you’re working with”. For example, “we do almost 200 events a year, every year. Have faith that the people you’ve picked to do the job have the expertise to do it”. Venues, caterers, event planners, “and people can certainly talk to us because we do it all the time, so we’ve seen” what works and what fails. “We find that if people get too pedantic about things, even their own choice of music, nine times out of ten they’ll stuff the night up.” Of course, “if you really hate songs we can leave them out. We’ve got lots of other songs”.

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Being entertainers means showing everyone at the party an amazing time. LA Social have honed the perfect method over their 13+ years.

“When we first started we chose obscure songs. It took us maybe five years to get people always dancing and never sitting down. That was the goal and that takes anybody ages to learn. We shortcut that now by sharing our learnings across our teams.” If a song is requested that “we know how to play, then absolutely, we’ll try and find the right spot for it. Or we’ll go with a similar genre. If they like Pink and you only know one Pink song, they’ll probably also like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. We bend over backwards to accommodate people”. Requests have dropped off in the last few years because “our strategy is variety, so people don’t get bored”. There’s always a mix of age groups “you want some 1960s because everybody likes The Beatles, but then it’s surprising what the baby boomers will dance to. They’ll go along with some Calvin Harris, Black Eyed Peas, even Blurred Lines. We make a point not to do the icky bits thought. It feels unprofessional in a corporate or wedding scenario to A. swear, or B. get downright dirty. So, we don’t do that”.

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Planning an outdoor event? Plan B, Plan B, Plan B!

“The main variable is the weather. A lot of time when we’re performing outdoors the weather plays ball, but there definitely needs to be a plan B. Often outdoor events are limited to a more casual acoustic style with portable PA systems, so if the weather changes we can shift somewhere where there’s shelter.”

Noise complaints are a common side effect of late night entertaining. “We have photos of us getting noise complaints which is a bit of a badge of honor.” However, some of the “venues we work in are very volume sensitive, so we have self-appointed guidelines for our teams like no sub”. The sub pounds out the bass which is generally the thing you can hear from a block away. “If all you can hear is a mmm-mmm-mm noise, that’s the sub doing that. If we’re performing in a hotel with guests that are not part of the party or event, then we will leave the sub out. The party will still be impressive, but it’s a necessary compromise in that case.”

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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.

http://lasocial.co.nz/

That was part 2 of 3 with insider tips and advice on how to best work with your event band.

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 3 for all things entertainment business and LA Social’s recipe for success.

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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Photography: Dan Childs Photography // Entertainment: LA Social // Venue: Peregrine Winery // Catering: IN2food Catering // Planning: Mint Events

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Venue: Rippon // Entertainment: LA Social // Catering: Artisan Catering

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Planning: Dinamics Event Management // Catering: Artisan Catering // Entertainment: LA Social // Sound + Lighting: Tom Tom

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Photography: Mic Image Weddings // Venue: Rippon // Entertainment: LA Social // Catering: Artisan Catering

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Photography: Rich Bayley Photography // Venue: Millbrook // Entertainment: LA Social