A House concert is a celebration of independent acoustic music and song in the comfort of your own home in the company of your finest friends, family and music aficionados.

In brief – you need some good friends, a largish indoor space, lots of chairs, bean bags and cushions, some space for BYO snacks/drinks and the ‘Merch Booth’.

If you have a decent sized living room that can snugly seat, beanbag, couch and laze 30 to 60 folks then you have all you need to host a fantastic night of music.

No PA system or amplification is needed as the act performs an intimate acoustic unplugged set. This also means that the room must be arranged so your guests can enjoy the concert space as you would a small theatrette with full attention and few distractions.

We like to stress that these performances are ‘house concerts’ not 'house parties'. This is an important distinction. House concerts often turn into parties when the show is finished, but the actual concert is attended with the same intention that would be had when going to a theatre. Once again, these are actual concerts, not a side addition to a back yard BBQ or bucks night.

Kids are most welcome but very often find their quiet and elsewhere focussed parents sitting ducks at such occasions, it’s up to you and some hosts even have room to set up a crèche for the little sleepy ones.

Hosts need to organise another space or large kitchen where guests can put their BYO snacks/treats/drinks and mill with the act during the course of the evening.

Also, and very importantly, hosts have another table where the artists can lay out their CD’s for sale, alah The Merch Booth! Please let your guests know that artists will be selling their CD’s at your show as many first timers often won’t know to bring a few extra bucks for this and be disappointed.

Usually the ‘doors’ open at 7pm when folks arrive with their BYO, mingle, munch and drink with the artists and get comfy in the performance space.

There are usually 3 sets of music all running about 35 minutes each. First is the opening set at 8pm by David Ross Macdonald.

Following is a 20 minute intermission during which Dave dreams of selling 100s of autographed CDs.

After intermission, the evening is capped off by 2 unforgettable sets by The Undesirables with the style and extraordinary panache that only they can conjure and Dave will join in on some percussion.

All said and done, things usually wrap up by 10'ish and it helps if the host marks on the invitations or tickets a ‘music starts at 8pm sharp!’ message or some such.

This house concert tour, like the 2008 tour we did in March, works to a ‘guarantee & door’ model.

This means that the show ‘costs’ the host $600 and that amount is guaranteed to the act.

This ups the ante for the host who then starts to send out feelers to see if they can ensure 30 to 60 family, friends and neighbours come out and then sets a ticket price that will cover the $600 (60 tix @ $10 or 30 tix @ $20 etc). Any extra money made from ticket sales goes to the artist. The host keeps track of who's coming via RSVPs and collects the money (preferably in advance via tickets, pay pal or lastly by ‘cash at the door’) and the artist is paid at the end of the night in cash.

A house concert is a fantastic way to strengthen family, friend and community ties through music. When embraced in the spirit of supporting touring independent artists and original music such events make for an extraordinary and unforgettable evening.

Every time we play a house concert folks always come up to us and ask us “how do we throw a house concert for next time you guys tour?” and there plants the beginnings of the grass-roots network of touring musicians, hosts and music lovers that we call the house concert circuit. Australia is new to this but it has become a massive network in USA and Canada and it is an exciting and pioneering time to become involved.

So, I hope this blurb lights a few creative fires and answers most of your questions … and please don’t hesitate to email me for any further information … or better still, start to liase with other hosts that come on line, book an evening and join the house concert network.