Re: [Callers] What to ask a band before the gig?

as both as musician and caller, i don't care to see a caller's cards when i'm playing. i ask what kind of mood they want to set, or if they have thoughts on a certain type of music. with very few exceptions, i find pretty much any dance goes with any tune, if the music is well-played. there ARE some exceptions, though, and i've seen things be really weird. however - when i see that happen, it's mostly the caller's fault. i saw someone booked with an old-timey band who called a lot of complicated dances - the music was way too fast. that's what old-timey bands do. in cases like this, the caller needs to adjust their program. but mostly - i don't want to see the card. that's just me. and as a caller, i find it more useful to tell the band what type of music i want (marchy, sleazy jigs, old-timey, rhythmic (for lots of balances), smooth, driving) and let them interpret it as they will. one funny thing happened: i was booked with a "new" band (old-timey jammers asked to play for a dance), so i wrote to them and said i didn't want anything fancy, just 32-bar reels played about 112-116 would be fine. they didn't answer. i got to the dance, and asked them if they had seen my email. "yes", they said, "but we didn't know what you were talking about, so we didn't write back." oh. in the end, we worked it all out.