House Concerts.

They certainly are! Not only are Eric’s shows a really fun time with lots of great music, laughter, and puns, but the intimate atmosphere of a house concert lets you get up and personal with Eric.

1. A space in your home large enough to accommodate at least 30 guests, Eric, and his guitar.

2. 30+ friends, coworkers or family who’d love to take in a concert where they meet the musician and new people!

As the host, you will invite the guests (ie: audience) into your home for the concert. 30 is the smallest group that makes this work, and the largest group that works is usually about 50 (it depends on the size of the room you’ll do this in in your home). Eric has done house concerts for up to 60 but you obviously need to have the space to do that.

You should have a room in your house that will fit the guests, seated. Couches, chairs, kitchen chairs, floor, & cushions become the audience seating. Bring up those random chairs from the basement or asks your guests to bring their own! In the summer, people have opted to do these in backyards, on a patio deck, etc. This can work too.

If your house concert will be indoors, then you do not need a sound system. Eric brings his guitar and small PA/mic. He plugs into an electrical outlet and that’s pretty much all that’s needed.

If you’re interested in an outdoor deck concert in the summer, there is a small additional cost for the outdoor PA (speakers). It’s approximately +$45 for that rental that the hosts pays.

Typical start time for the music is 8pm. You usually invite guests to arrive after 7. The music is usually around 70-80 minutes. This allows for a decent end time and for socializing before and afterwards.

Usually guests bring a drink and a snack – unless you want to provide refreshments yourself. People mingle before and after the show. Guests can also bring extra seats if needed! House concerts can have alcohol or not – that’s up to you.

House concerts are very intimate ‘listening’ performances where the audience has a chance to listen to the lyrics and Eric’s stories between songs.

These are not ‘house parties’ where the musician sings in the corner while people talk and party. In that case you can just play a recording and get the same result! This is a concert in its direct form. People won’t get up and move around/talk during the concert – and Eric is pretty good at setting that up at the start of the show if you’re concerned. Often the host gives a bit of an intro at the start of the night and mentions this.

Guests can be anyone you know: friends and their partners, co-workers, family, neighbours, people from your sports team or choir… Sometimes hosts allow friends to invite their friends (and so on…) to get a good group together. Go through your e-mail list, address book (remember those!), go through your Facebook + twitter friends – you’ll usually find that getting at least 30-35 people is pretty easy. If you think you can round up 40, then go for it.

There are two options for hosting.

Option #1:

The host pays the full fee and simply invites their friends and family at no cost for an evening of great music and fun.

Please contact us for rates if you’re interested in this option.

Option #2:

There is no cost to you – as long as at least 30 people attend the house concert, and pay their admission fee.

There’s a house concert tradition that has guests pay their admission to the show like they would in any other venue. Admission per person is usually $30. If you want to propose an alternate admission, let us know. You’ll be able to best assess what your guests would be comfortable paying for an evening of entertainment, and tell them the cost when you invite them. You’ll make a commitment to having a min. # of guests at time of booking (ie: “I want to host a house concert, and I’ll have 30 guests”). When you invite people, you need to have them commit that they’re indeed attending and when they show up they pay their admission. Usually hosts have a list and a little container/basket to put money in, right at the door – sometimes it’s even self-serve.

From time to time there are ‘no shows’ (ie: people who end up not attending). It’s actually not that common but sometimes emergencies happen. It’s not the end of the world but keep in mind that 30 people is the minimum number of people to make this work for the ‘no cost to the host’ pay option. What we ask is that if there are a lot of no-shows bringing the total attendance to fewer than 30 that the host makes up the difference. We’ve run this past people across the country and they’ve told us it’s a fair way to approach it. Without this we could end up doing a show for 9 people in a living room and that’s not good for anyone!

Keep in mind, that no-shows are uncommon and you are likely not out of pocket one penny. We’ve seen that as long as the host does a good job of telling invitees that a yes is a ‘FIRM’ yes (emphasizing commitment!) that people usually don’t back out. Based on a lot of experience, this has proven to be the best way to prevent last minute cancellations.