Tam from Instant Karma here:

I have been from many bands that have been in and around Bakersfield  since the 80's. And I am happy to say "the band is still going strong". We are busy all the time in a rotating system in Bakersfield,Tehachapi, Cal City, and the coast. So I have had a tremendous amount of experience with this subject.

I think there is room for both. But I do have a little bias being in a band. I believe that if you get a great band in there. One that is diverse & plays what your patrons want to hear and also involve the patrons in their performance you can keep your crowd.

I have a great group of musicians where if a customer comes up and asks for a song if we can not play that song we either have something really close to it or believe it or not we learn it on the spot if we can. haha. It may not be exact but the crowd appreciates the effort.

As you know there are many elements involved.  It depends on the age group you are shooting for. Atmosphere you wish to reflect, Promotions, Genre of music, etc. Many factors have to be determined on whether you keep a crowd when employing a band. And therefore when you are employing a Karaoke DJ.

We encourage people to get out there and be involved in music whatever form it is in. And we also encourage bands to pay attention to getting their crowd involved in their performance as well. As well as DJ's or Karaoke Dj's. Thats the key. So if you are seeing people walking out during a Band performing it is not necessarily the Karaoke crowd. It may be that they are not that good or not involving their crowd.

One issue that my clients have told me with DJ's. They just play music all night and do not get the crowd involved or excited like a band musician can. And they pay a lot of money for nothing that way.

But over all I think the two can work together. Clubs and Bars should keep a variety of options open for their patrons. It has worked in the past. There are a couple of places in town and out that are starting on this path and it seems to be working quite well for them. They have bands one night, Karaoke the next, or they also have it on the same night.

The one thing that has happened in and around Bakersfield is there is no longer a rotating system between the clubs and locations that was at one time. Like you can find over at the coast or even in Tehachapi now.  There actually had been a couple of agents that had a handful of entertainers {Bands, Karaoke, DJ's, etc} and they would pitch them to the clubs rotating them for months.When clubs changed hands or closed that network sort of fell out of sight.

The key is to get a network of good groups and entertainers, keep in contact, and rotate them. And I am talking a good variety of all genre of music, comedy, karaoke, the list goes on. There is so much talent here in Bakersfield that the options are endless.

Thanks for listening

Tam = Lead Vocalist = Instant Karma Band