Why is Brass Mash Raising Prices: Short and Long Answer
First of all, thank you for being a supporter of live music! Some folks have noticed that we are offering a $20 VIP entrance for some of our shows. This is a new offering and it can be confusing why we are setting prices the way we are. We’ve also been adjusting our table reservations to be higher prices to match demand.
Here’s the short answer.
VIP Entrance Includes
Your name at the door so you can enter into the show. Essentially skipping the line at the front.
A Special VIP Brass Mash LED Wristband that is activated by our lighting software. These are super cool! And yes you can keep them or recycle them with us at the end of the night!
Guaranteed entrance means that you can effectively plan to see a Brass Mash show. Invite your family and friends!
And here is the long answer…
We want to put on better shows!... and that takes time and costs money. We hope you think that Brass Mash is worth $20!
Hi everyone, this Colin Dean typing here. As the Brass Mash bandleader it has been a great pleasure watching this group grow! For the last 15 years I’ve worked in education, but as of Spring 2024 I will be working full time as a performing musician and freelance music educator. In the last eight years, Brass Mash has grown so much that it now takes up a substantial amount of time to manage. No complaining on my end! This is a wonderful issue that I plan on putting my full efforts toward in the foreseeable future. As I’m sure you know… living isn’t free. My wife Diana and I have 2 beautiful children, a house, 2 dogs, a cat, and all of the expenses that normal families have. It’s been a dream of mine to be a professional musician and now I have the opportunity to support my family with Brass Mash and with my other work as a musician.
Music takes time and we want to be good at it. We have a *big* band with amazingly qualified players. Check out our member page and see that many of our members have BA/Masters degrees in music, decades of experience and references from top level acts. We bring top notch equipment as the band carries a large sound system, lighting rig, and media rig. I could write a book on the technical backend needed to keep Brass Mash afloat. It takes staff for us to run our shows. We need a sound person, merchandise person, door person, camera operators, photographer, and even helpers for loading in and out. All of these helpers vastly improve the show! I could not do it without them. I also want to pay all of these good people a fair wage for the night.
An important aspect to this whole thing is a focus on customer service. To anyone who has called the number on the Brass Mash site… it is me: Colin. I’m happy to be in this role. I give directions to folks who are lost as they drive to the show. I find lost items. I assist in making sure our ticketing system is live and functional. Running a ticketing system takes time. We have had a flood of attendees at our shows in the last three years. As many of you know, it can be very difficult to even get into the venue. We are so appreciative of this issue. Some of our guests have told us that they’d be willing to pay a little extra to get guaranteed entrance. This started with the trending the bays at Liquid Gravity. After a few months we realized that folks were snapping up the bays in a matter of minutes. We since expanded the reservation system to include tables, barrels and the coveted bistro tables near the stage. As more and more people buy reservations… they have higher expectations and I make it my personal business to deliver a great experience.
Lastly… we know some folks are short on cash. Inflation is real for all of us. Our plan for the near future is to keep our door price a little lower than presale. It allows college students or anyone else who needs to budget attend show without feeling gouged. There might be a line though.
Best Regards,
Colin Dean
