House Concerts
****Hi! A quick note about house concerts before you read the rest of this page. It is currently summer 2020 fall 2024 and we recognize you may be continuing to take precautions against the Coronavirus pandemic. We are happy to work within your comfort zone to make a safe house concert happen for you and your audience.
Already know you’d like to host a house concert with The Honey Badgers? Great! Shoot us an email at honeybadgerfolk@gmail.com and we’ll get started planning a wonderful evening together.
Still need some convincing? Read on!
What is a house concert?
A house concert is a concert… in your home! Or in your backyard, on your deck, in your church’s basement - any space you have access to that can fit two Honey Badgers and a music-loving crowd. We even played on a roof once.
A house concert is also a gathering, a coming together of friends or strangers in a time when it is all too easy to feel disconnected from our fellow humans. They are cozy, intimate evenings to enjoy music and each other.
Why house concerts?
We’re not exaggerating when we say that house concerts (some we’ve played and some we’ve attended) have been some of the happiest experiences of our lives. The nature of house concerts is to allow and encourage connection and togetherness. And we’re all about that. House concerts are rooted in community. And also… they’re really fun. Friends, food, drink, good music, good conversation - can’t beat it.
From an artist's standpoint, house concerts give us the chance to reach new fans and to really connect with our audience. We write songs that are thoughtful, passionate, grieving, joyful, wondering, and we want you to feel them. Don’t get us wrong, we have a grand time playing in bars and breweries, but most patrons there are feeling the beer more than the music! :)
What do we need from the host?
A space where your friends can comfortably sit down for an hour or so.
A minimum of 15 attendees who want to listen to original music.
Think you’d like to host a house concert? You probably have a few more questions. Like…
Do I need a mansion to host this thing?
Nope, not at all! Cozy living rooms are grand. As long as there is space for us to stand and for around 15 people to sit, you’re golden.
Does it cost money to host a house concert?
Yes and no. We do not charge an upfront fee for house concerts, instead, we rely on donations from the audience. It’s helpful to communicate to your guests ahead of time that it will be a donation based concert. We also ask that you make an announcement regarding donations during our performance. We’ll walk you through it, don’t worry!
How many people should come?
House shows can be incredible with a small group of 15 people, a crowd of 100, or anything in between. It’s up to you to decide how many people you would be comfortable hosting. We do ask for a minimum of 15 attendees, for two reasons: 1) 15 music lovers is when it really starts to feel like a special event and 2) with less than 15 people it is difficult to make it financially viable for us to travel and perform.
Once you’ve decided how many guests you’d ideally like to have, we encourage you to invite at least double that amount. In our experience, it seems that approximately 50% of the people you invite will actually end up coming to the concert!
Do I have to provide food and drinks?
Not necessarily! You are free to set out a whole spread of food and drinks if that’s what floats your boat, but it is not at all required. You can make the event a potluck, you can provide snacks and make it BYOB, or you can set out a pitcher of water and a pot of coffee and call it a night!
I’m worried about planning an event like this.
We will walk you through every step of the process, and ideally there won’t be a ton of effort required from you. We’ll need to pick a date together, and a start time. You’ll make a facebook event or send out an invitation (email or snail mail) and if you like we can provide you with a template for the event or invite. For the actual concert, think of it like hanging out with friends! We’ll mingle, play some music, mingle some more - that’s it!
Will there be strangers coming to my house?
Again, not necessarily. Your house concert can be completely private if you prefer. We will list the date on our website as “Private House Concert”. Sometimes fans may reach out and ask if they can attend. This is entirely up to you - we’ll pass along your address only if you are 100% comfortable with it.
What is the order of events for the evening?
Generally the order of events is as follows: Your guests will arrive and mingle for 30 minutes to an hour, then we’ll play music for around an hour or a little more, and then usually another half hour of guests mingling, chatting with us, and purchasing CDs, t-shirts, and other things we offer for listeners to support our work. We can nail down the specific timing of the evening together.
Do you need a place to crash?
Hey, thanks for asking! If you have an extra bed or a floor for our air mattress we would be so happy to have a place to rest our heads. The cost of housing can make it difficult to break even financially while on tour. You would be helping us so much by giving us a place to sleep. I promise we’re well behaved. :) That being said, there is NO PRESSURE to house us. We’re fine packing up and getting on the road after the show. We appreciate you so much just for hosting a house concert for us!
Will you play some background music for my house party?
That’s a little bit different than what we are writing about here. Our hope with a house concert is that folks are listening, engaged, & that the music is the central focus of the event, just as if you were going to an actual concert. So, if you were looking to have an event where people are socializing while we are providing background music, feel free to shoot us an email about your party, and we can discuss our rates!