Booking

Bands/Benefits/Parties & Groups/Private Parties

Bands (General Stuff)
How to approach us: (it’s important to read all the booking info before you write in)
If you are local and over 21, you can play here. If you are not from our hood, you have to come in with folks who are local. They make the approach. We make exceptions for LGBT folks.

To book, scroll down to how the different days of the week look. You choose the day of the week you like. Go by your draw so you don’t have to fork over cash for the tech. We don’t want your money, so choose well. You can trust the ‘updates’ after each day to be correct with where we are with the booking calendar.

NOTE- Do Not arrive before the stated time. 1 Hour before your start time is typical.

Non Paid Gigs:
Tuesdays, we do shows in the front room (we move the pool table) with no cover but a pass the hat situation. Nothing super loud but various genres(acoustic/rock/indie/folk…). No Punk or Metal (see: Saturday nights), sorry but its too loud for the front room and everyone will hate you and us. If you are on top of it and had some folks show up, we will happily recommend you to the other bookers and the paid stuff.
We are open to folks proposing a lineup or us booking it, usually its a 3 band lineup. We have a simple PA set up with 2 jbls (no monitors unless requested) and the bartender runs the sound. We are open to you all helping with the sound too. This is a good direction if we don’t know you and/or your(single band) draw is less than 20 folks. Make sure to read the info under ‘things to consider’, it applies to you too.
 update- we are booking july onward.

Saturday evenings in the winter (December-February only), we do acoustic only shows in the front room from 7-9pm. You can book them. We will do the sound and it’s a pass the hat situation. Update: there is one left for the winter.

We will respond to let you know that we got your info and will forward you to the bookers. Email your style, single band or a lineup, web link/s, contact info and confirm you are local.
When you write in, title it ‘non paid gig’.
Email us at bands@elriosf.com

Paid Gigs: you have options…

All of the following slots are for bands. You choose the bands(3 max) and the day/slot that fits best with your draw. Choose well because if you don’t meet the required number for that particular day, you will end up owing us for the techs time($25hr) to help you. We do not want you to pay us. We also trust your intelligence to grab the right day.
You play the rear room and will need a door person back there to check stamps. We charge your folks at the front door and will stamp your folks. We will not charge people not here for you. If you don’t watch the rear door, this other crowd may go into the room. It does not effect your required number for the night. We go by the numbers of paid at the door.

Sundays(winter only)
50 min required draw.
6p arrival/7p start.
Update- we are booking the winter now.

Mondays
40 min required draw.
7pm arrival/8pm start-sharp.
We have dj’s in the front room after 9pm with no cover each Monday.
Update- we are booking Aug onward.

Wednesdays
60 min required draw.
8pm arrival/9pm start-sharp.
We have karoake in the front room at 8p.
Update- We are currently booking Sept 2010 onward.

Thursday Nights
80 min required draw.
8p arrival/9p start-sharp
We have a world dj up front after 9p.
Update- We are booking Oct onward.

Friday Nights
100 min draw requirement.
LGBT bands only.
9p arrival/10p start- sharp.
We have dj’s playing up front.
On Fridays, we provide the rear room door person(no extra cost).
Update-We are booking OCT 2010 onward.

Saturday Afternoons/
March to November with bands on the patio.
150 min draw required.
3p arrival/4-8p play time.
Update- All Sat afternoons are booked for this season.

Saturday Nights
150 min draw.
8:30 arrival/10p start
Sat nights are not booked thru the normal bookers. There is no break on the techs fee. $25hr regardless of draw size.

Salsa Sundays (march-november), we have a dedicated group of bands we work with(who we also love to no end) and rarely add new bands. It does not mean though that you should not chat us up.
Email us at bands@elriosf.com

When You Write In- Give us band names, links, your contact info and what day you want to look at. Title your subject line with “nonpaid gig” or “paid night”. Don’t give us some big bio, just bare boned info. If you are a local, we are happy to book you. You don’t need to sell it. We are a community space and have a great deal of respect and admiration for live music, we will do everything we can to try to book you. Thanks for wanting to play here.

Things to know so we have a mutual love fest:

-All band members and crew must be over 21 and have legitimate id. You will be id’d. Regardless of what other clubs do or your impressions of ABC laws, you must be legally of age to perform at El Rio

-1 hour arrival before you want to play/start is typical. If you are playing the back room, come in first and the tech will show you a rear room door to mission st. to load in from. Do not load in from our front door unless you are playing the front room or patio.

-We begin on time with 30-40 min sets.

-If you are the booker or the main band who grabbed a date, you are responsible to make sure all other bands are clear about the rules.

-We do not allow bands to do their own sound(there are some exceptions for acoustic stuff). We like our neighbors and want them to be able to sleep at night. Your tech is welcome to work with ours though.

-We have plenty of sound and are trying to make you look and sound good, don’t show up with big ole speakers/amps, whatever… our space is small, your sound will suck.

-Be on top of it, you should expect us to be.

-Know the space you are playing. Come in on another night, chat up the techs, they are friendly enough.

-You are responsible for your own press. Feel free to bring us flyers for your show. We will include you on our website, guardian ad, club email list and weekly voicemail msg for the club. Make sure to look at any posted info we have for you for corrections, especially our web site. That is where all the press gets grabbed from. There are also a lot of you and it’s easy for us to make a mistake. Feel free to email us with corrections:  bands@elriosf.com

-Don’t book shows back to back, it will kill your draw and make us do dentistry on you with no anesthetic.

-If you cancel your show for any reason within 48hrs of your scheduled show, you will still owe us the cost of our tech for the block we have agreed upon.

-Always check in the week before to confirm all is well.

*****EVENTS FORM FOR BANDS  (click here) ******* To be filled out only after you have a confirmed date.

Our Sound By Space: Live and Dj
Front Room: For Live, we use a simple pa with mics, two jbl mains and monitors if requested. It’s a small room. The bar staff tend to run the sound and are open to the bands helping. We also have a dj booth with a mixer/dual cd and two turntables. Dj’s are welcome to supplement the equipment. There is a juke box and ipod connection as well.
Patio: Our patio is a great multi-functional place for live music, dj events, movies and pretty much any performance imaginable.  We can accomodate many types of bands from rock to salsa as well as a top notch dj setup for club applications.
Rear Room: We have a nice vocal PA that we can also run hand percussion and some electronics through, if necessary. It cannot compete with Marshall full stacks at maximum volume but can compete with drums and amps at a reasonable volume for the size of the room.  Because of its acoustic design, amps and drums are very loud in our back room performance space and do not need to be mic’ed.  We have monitors at the front of our stage.  They are on one mix.

What we are using:
*10 channel allen & heath board
*approximately 2000 watts of amplification
*5 shure sm58, 4 shure sm57 microphones
*2 d.i. boxes
*2 York Pulse series speakers (horn, 10″, and 15″ woofer)
*2 JBL speakers for monitoring (horns and 12″)
*2 JBL powered sub-woofers
*2 technics 1200 turntables
*2 denon cdjs
*rane 4 channel dj mixer (no individual channel eq)

We are not a big club so if you show up with some big ole speakers to add to what we consider a perfectly fine system for the level of sound we can handle and the space we have, you will make us cry, alot…

DPW is fining clubs for the flyers you all are putting up on your parties, in locations the city finds to be inappropriate. El Rio does not flyer for any of our events except internally.
See:  http://www.meshsf.com/newpage/meshsf/article.php?id=301&section_id=6&front for a good writeup on the topic.  Please follow SF’s Posting Guidelines at: http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfdpw_page.asp?id=32470
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Benefits/Fundraisers

We love benefits, we really do. We are all part of this wonderful SF community and should give back to it at every opportunity.
With that said, email us at benefits@elriosf.com with the following info and we will contact you with available times.
-What is the benefit for?
-What do you want to do during the event? (DJ/Live -Music/Food/Film/Performance Stuff/Dance Around Naked)
Preferred times and days?
-What areas do you want to use? (Front/Patio/Rear Room)
-Realistic number of folks attending?
We do not charge for the use if the club. We charge only if you need a service from us like a sound tech, door person, film tech or cook. The staff rate for Fundraisers is $15hr(each and includes setup and tear down). If you don’t need staff, there is no charge for our space.
Did I mention we love benefits??

We try hard to make booking easy and thus, can be pretty booked up. We save a certain number of days each month for emergencies and/or last moment stuff. The best approach for dates is to say what is the most ideal and then we work from that. You can also look at the ‘updates’ behind the booking info for bands(see above)- that generally describes where we are with the calendar for events that have live entertainment.Don’t be afraid of approaching us even though we look booked out. We are a community space and will bend over backwards and sideways to help you. And sometimes things cancel… Saturday afternoons are very popular and book far in advance.

Things to consider

You funds are generated by the door, donations(can also include food), raffles, auctions… we do not do any arrangements related to bar sales. It is our only income and we can’t mess with that. We also do not do beer busts.

We are a bar, all guests/performers/volunteers, must be over 21 years old(no exceptions). Avoid live entertainment and it is much easier to find dates. Look at the calendar page to see how and what others are up to with their events. You can not tell what is free though by looking at the calendar.

You are welcome to bring in food or have your event catered. You can only cook (BBQ) by using our staff. You can not outright sell food but can do a suggested donation (Health Dept Requirement).
You can not bring in/sell any beverages (non/alc).
Tell us if you have never done a fundraiser before, we will help.

If you are not familiar with our space, come by before you write in. It will be much easier to discuss options for your event.

Services we offer- Sound ( Live and DJ), Film, Catering (BBQ on site), Door and Bar.

In el rios book of grand acts, benefits are up there… so pat yourself on the back, your mama/papa would be proud. Somebody raised a good egg. Thanks for what you are doing.


(click here) EVENTS FORM FOR FUNDRAISERS    To be filled out only after you have a confirmed date.

DPW is fining clubs for the flyers you all are putting up on your parties, in locations the city finds to be inappropriate. El Rio does not flyer for any of our events except internally.
See:  http://www.meshsf.com/newpage/meshsf/article.php?id=301&section_id=6&front for a good writeup on the topic. Please follow SF’s Posting Guidelines at:http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfdpw_page.asp?id=32470
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Parties and Groups
You are welcome to bring groups into the club. Please warn us though, especially if you are a group over 20, there are better times to do it. We will also recommend ways to try and avoid the door charges, bring in more staff to serve you quicker, what the events are like and when not to come ’cause your guests will all get caught in a huge evil line out front. We don’t cut the door rate for groups, the door is how the entertainment gets paid but you are welcome in most cases, to come in prior to us starting up.
We are a first come, first served space and in turn, do not reserve space for folks but we will happily tell you when to come in and what spaces to grab.
We see ourselves as a community resource and space and will do everything we can to try to help you.
We try to not book back to back groups unless they are small.
It’s cool to bring food in for parties but we ask for a deposit of your id and that you bring everything you need for it with you. We will return your id after confirming everything has been cleaned up. We do not allow anyone to use the bbq in the club besides our staff.
We do not allow trolly’s or buses with groups, it is too disruptive to our regular customers and we do so love them.
Birthday Parties: We are honored that anyone would want to spend their birthday with us! Write in and we will try to work with whatever plans you had in mind.

Email us at parties@elriosf.com

Private Parties/Use
We allow private use of the club depending on what you need from us and our schedule. We generally only allow private use during non normal business hours. For private use of the entire club, we charge $20 per person($1,000 min) on the bar and for any additional staff you may need(door, sound/video tech, cook). For private use of the rear room only, there is $500 minimum on the bar plus whatever staff you need from us. We do not do ‘buy outs’ of normally open days or nights.
Our hours are mon-thur, open at 5pm and close when the mood strikes us. Fri’s, we open at 4pm and close at 2am. Sat’s, 1pm-2am. Sun’s, 1pm-10pm(mar-nov) and Sat 5-2am/Sun 3pm-10pm(dec-feb)
Speak up if you are a non profit, working with no budget, a poor film crew, a poor anything…, we will try to help you.
email parties@elriosf.com with your ideas and we will see what we can do.
*****EVENTS FORM FOR PRIVATE EVENTS AND GROUPS (click here)******  To be filled out only after you have a confirmed date.
don’t look at the calendar for available dates, it does not show what is actually free.