When planning your lowcountry wedding celebration, one of the most important things you have to do is choose one of the many Charleston wedding bands to entertain at your reception.
In the process of choosing the right band for your wedding party, you have to figure out how to evaluate the music groups in Charleston.
To help you along in the evaluation process, we have detailed 5 ways to evaluate wedding bands in Charleston, SC.
1. Go See Bands Live
One of the best ways to get a feel for a band is to go see them live.
By evaluating a band at a live performance you get the opportunity to gauge their stage presence, crowd engagement, song selection, and audience reaction among other intangibles. Depending on when you see the band there may be an opportunity to personally speak with the band leader or manager.
Local music events and wedding receptions for friends and family are great opportunities to catch Charleston bands in action.
Ultimately this is the most important aspect of a band’s marketing. All other things being equal, the band that puts on the best live show wins.
2. Watch Bands Via Video
The next best thing to seeing a band live in person is to watch a video of the band performing live.
This video can either be a DVD recording or an online video on the band’s website or YouTube. Here you will be able to gauge many of the same things you can evaluate in a live setting.
Even though it’s not the same thing as seeing a band live in person, one of the biggest advantages of evaluating using video is that you can save a ton of time, money and energy.
The top tier bands that you want to hire will have at least one video of their live show.
3. Listen to Bands Via Audio
Even though video has become ubiquitous with the explosion of YouTube, many bands still only have audio available for review.
Whether this is a sampler CD or demo recording online, listening to an audio recording of the band will give you an idea if the band can play. This may be the first of a few steps in evaluating several bands.
If the band’s demo is questionable, then their live show is probably comparable.
4. Read Testimonials Online
If you are unable to watch or hear a band live or online, you can always read a testimonial from a band’s past performance.
There are several review sites including Google Maps, SuperPages, and Yahoo Local where you can read customer reviews. You can also find personal letters right on the band’s website.
Many of the band’s you are choosing from will no doubt have several personal letters on a testimonial page.
5. Look at the Band’s Website
If none of the aforementioned are available, you can always take a look at the band’s website.
Even though this does not directly reflect on the band’s ability to make music or entertain large groups of people, the quality of a group’s website can be a good indication of the quality of a group’s music.
If a band does not have a dedicated website – if a band only has a Facebook or MySpace page – then you probably want to think twice about hiring them to begin with.
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