School Me on Rehearsal Spaces

[spookstrickland]

So I've got this project I'm putting together and I don't have the space and neither does anyone else in the band.  I've never rented a space before so can you school me on:

What to look for in a good space?
What to stay away from?

Potential pit falls and your own Horror stories.

Thanks

[black_out]

You gotta decide how much dough you're able/willing to throw down first. Legit spots at studios and such are generally pretty expensive. We just moved out of one that was costing $380 a month for 24/7 access. Had to split it with three other bands to be able to afford it.  We wound up getting the o.k. from our bass players landlord to practice in the basement of his town house, which is obviously awesome. There were definitely pros and cons to that place, though.

Pros were:
- shit was seriously secure. Had an alarm on our room plus a lock on the door.
- Room was acoustically treated, so shit sounded pretty good. Better than a basement anyway.
- The place is climate controlled.

Cons were:
-We couldn't smoke weed or cigarettes inside.
-having to listen to some of the other bands that practiced there was excrutiating sometimes.
- We had to sign a contract and there was a $20 late fee for every day our rent was late.

[dogfood]

We pay round $200 + or - here in DFW depending on the general upkeep of the place.  Plenty of weed smoking in all three or four places I've rented.  Ciggies are different-outside.  Secure for the most part.  One place was so run down it had a leaking roof, squatters, and a meth'd out onsite manager...SHITHOLE. 

[Lumpy]

Maybe you can find a friend's secure basement or a friendly business owner who is willing to let you practice there after-hours... offer to pay like 100-150 bucks a month. If you can't find that, then you might have to pay for a 'real' rehearsal space. I don't know what Portland prices are, but in NYC I'd say 200-300 per band (per month) is typical (ouch). You'll almost certainly have to share your space, so try to find bands who are already your friends - things are a lot nicer when you already like your roommates. Look for a place with very few stairs (if any), or a place with a service elevator. Look for places where it seems like security is a big priority, you can find parking near the front door when you need to, decent bathroom, and it seems clean in general. I like making a schedule and posting it in the room, so everybody is clear on what their times are.

I've rented a couple... one was a subdivided basement space with black mold on the walls, your clothes would smell musty when you left...  20 stairs for loading in and out. Most of the bands were indie hipster kids who treated the building like a squat (garbage and graffitti everywhere) even though they were paying 300 dollars per band to be there. Every room was a 4-way share and you'd have to move your equipment around, in order to practice. Some bands weren't very good about moving their shit out of the way, so you'd have to move their gear AND your gear. The bathroom was like an indoor outhouse - a toilet behind a piece of plywood for a door, in a space that was basically big enough for the toilet - you had to squeeze in. We found a better space for the same price - a lot cleaner, only a couple of stairs, decent bathroom, etc.

[bass sic]

We found a killer deal a couple years ago for I think 200 mo. But its in the basement of an old high rise downtown and is secure as hell. Were the only ones down there and can come and go as we please. My drummer has a couple band projects and hes down there pretty much every night.

[black_out]

You might want to keep in mind the option of renting a Self Storage space to practice in also. If all else fails and you can't afford a legit rehearsal room, this is almost always an option. Most Self Storage places are cool with bands renting them to practice. It's definitely not ideal though, because if you can't afford a legit spot, odds are you're not gonna be able to afford a climate controlled storage place. That means you're not gonna want to leave you gear there, and carrying your shit back and forth to practice is a pain in the ass.

[Discö Rice]

Places with no heat are pure bollocks. I used to have a space that was huge and uninsulated, and if you plugged a heater in the power would go out in all of the units. Luckily playing drums kept me warm, but the guit-fiddle players had serious problems with frozen fingers. We had to go warm up in the car every couple of hours. The bad part for me was that I'd get hot and sweaty, and if we paused for too long, I was just cold and wet. Summer wasn't fun either, obviously. I'd go through a gallon of water in one practice session. Climate control is worth the money.

[E9th]

My priorities:
Free
24/7 access
working bathroom
no leaks, no chance of flooding
allowed to smoke pot, no cigarettes allowed
beer on tap, or at minimum in vending machine
cant hear other bands thru walls
decent PA
backing amps

dude, just clear out some space in your doublewide and let it rip. nothing beats playing in your own home whenever you want and not having to move gear, bong handy, bbq grill, beer on tap, etc

[Lumpy]

At a commercial practice space, it's hard to find a place with no bleed-through from bands in next room... maybe even impossible. Annoying, but once you start playing it drowns them out. Sucks for trying to write music or record. That kind of isolation is probably only found in recording studios.

Looks like Zachoff has a sweet practice spot arrangement:


Somebody's warehouse or storeroom?

Any place where you're the only band = deluxe.

[spookstrickland]

This might be the way to go.  I found a heated place that is 10x20 for 138.00 a month.  If they are cool with bands it could be great.  I've been looking into places here in portland and most of the "official"  type places want at least 250.00 a month for a small 10x10 (up to 450.00 for the large room) plus a one months deposit and one place wanted a 50 dollar non refundable key charge!

You might want to keep in mind the option of renting a Self Storage space to practice in also. If all else fails and you can't afford a legit rehearsal room, this is almost always an option. Most Self Storage places are cool with bands renting them to practice. It's definitely not ideal though, because if you can't afford a legit spot, odds are you're not gonna be able to afford a climate controlled storage place. That means you're not gonna want to leave you gear there, and carrying your shit back and forth to practice is a pain in the ass.

[zachoff]

At a commercial practice space, it's hard to find a place with no bleed-through from bands in next room... maybe even impossible. Annoying, but once you start playing it drowns them out. Sucks for trying to write music or record. That kind of isolation is probably only found in recording studios.

Looks like Zachoff has a sweet practice spot arrangement:

Somebody's warehouse or storeroom?

Any place where you're the only band = deluxe.

Yeah, our place is rad and it's only $100/mo, but there are a couple things weird about it.  The dude we rent from is between bands & has been for a while, so we've had to share a bit but don't right now.  There's another band in the room next to ours but they're rarely there when we are so it works out pretty well.  We can hear each other sometimes though.  The worst part is that it's not really contracted or anything and the building is being used for what looks like storage now but if someone leases the building, we're out.  It's a huge room though and the acoustics aren't bad.  Here's a bigger pic (we set up different than the pic now)..



The best space I ever had was in the back of Great Divide Brewing about 10 years ago.  It was $150/mo, climate controlled, 24/7 access, and was always stocked w/ free beer.  Pretty small rooms though... Maybe 15'x15' and the parking lot was behind the homeless shelter so leaving at midnight was sketchy sometimes.

[black_out]

In the back of Great Divide sounds fucking perfect! We just got their beer out here a couple years ago, I pick up a variety case of it once a month usually.

The best spot we've been in so far was this dude we found on craigslist in North East Philly. Port Richmond, for those of you that know the city. Total fuckin' ghetto. It was awesome though, because this dude was renting a 5,000 square ft. warehouse for his cover band to practice in. Had a huge elevated stage, computer controlled light show, smoke machine, 100,000 watt pa, the fucking works. I guess he lost his job, so he decided to dry wall up an apartment for himself and his girlfriend in this warehouse, live there, and rent out practice slots to bands. We paid him $100 a month for a four hour slot every Sunday. When we showed up, he had blunts rolled to smoke with us, and beer there. He did light shows for us while we practiced, recorded our set for us so we could go back and listen to it, and just generally was awesome to us. I kinda miss that guy actually, now that I'm thinking about it.