On March 9th, 2025′, the Bayview 109 Lodge in Redwood City, hosted the band “One Man Gone”.
O.M.G. is a Grateful Dead tribute band, located on the SF Peninsula.
We had been eagerly wanting to have a concert at our lodge, on the heels of our successful singer-songwriter concert which we hosted in November.
We decided upon a G.D. tribute band for a number of reasons. One of which, is that in the Bay Area, GD cover bands are quite popular! Those bands almost always have their own loyal following, and therefore you are fairly certain to sell a goodly number of tickets automatically. Secondly, the GD cover band crowd tends to be over 45 years old, basically quite peaceful, fun loving, decidedly casual, and into dancing!
Additionally, One Man Gone had their own manager, and he was quite enthusiastic, easy to work with, and was very open to any ideas that would make the concert work. The band members were also very easy to work with, ran their own sound, and in general were very professional.
The band played 3 sets of music, they sounded great, the crowd loved them, and we received A LOT of very positive direct feedback from concert goers. We decided in advance, as something of a strategic move, to sell beer, wine, snacks & refreshments at a VERY reasonable price. We charged $4 for beer and wine, and $2 for snacks. We did this for the specific reason, that we wanted to make sure that the concert goers felt that they were getting a good deal, and that we definitely were not “sticking it to them”. Many expressed that they appreciated that! Even still, we made a profit off of drinks and snacks. The tickets were $20 in advance, and $25 at the door. By Bay Area standards, this is a VERY affordable day out. We feel that providing a high quality, affordable event, really makes our Lodge look good, and makes a very favorable impression upon the general public, who may want to also become members!!!
The concert ran from 3-6 pm. We had about 80 attendees, most of whom bought at least one drink, and even tipped generously.
Because we were serving alcohol, we hired two security professionals to monitor the event. In retrospect, we could have gotten by with one security person, which we will do in the future. But, better safe than sorry! We had 3 Oddfellows members as volunteers, and two NON Oddfellows volunteers. We also had two vendors at the event, one selling tye-dye clothing, and the other one was selling jewelry. Having vendors there gave the event a festive feel.
We feel strongly, that if your lodge is contemplating hosting a musical event, that a Grateful Dead cover band is a good way to start! It’s a ready made audience, it’s an older, well behaved audience, and that type of audience knows what they are expecting and getting. In that respect, they’re easy to please! Also, we feel that this type of audience is eclectic in their tastes, and will be open to other types of offerings from us in the future.
Going forward, we endeavor to have one event per month. We will for sure have other stylers of music, but we think that having GD cover bands will be a fundamental staple of what we do. Please feel free to contact Bayview Lodge 109 if you would like more specific info on how we created this event.
— By Reed Sutton and Steve Koehler
