Backline explained: what venues provide and what you bring

"Full backline provided" is the most optimistic sentence in live music. It has meant a beautiful kit with fresh heads and two tuned amps, and it has meant a rusted hi-hat stand and a bass combo that hums. The difference between a smooth festival changeover and a panicked one is whether you asked three questions two weeks earlier.

What the word means

Backline is the gear that sits behind the band on stage and makes the instruments audible to the band itself: drum kit, guitar and bass amplifiers, keyboard amp or stands, sometimes a keyboard. It does not include the PA (the speakers pointing at the audience), the monitors, the mixing desk or the microphones; those are the "front of house" or "sound system" side, even though many people lump it all together.

The distinction matters because a venue that says "we have a PA" has said nothing about backline, and a festival that says "backline provided" has said nothing about whether your keyboardist has a stand.

What is usually supplied

There is no standard, but the common patterns:

Pubs and small clubs with a house PA: vocal mics, a mixer, wedges. Backline almost never, unless the venue runs a jam night, in which case there is a house kit of variable health.

Multi-band nights and showcases: a shared drum kit (shells, hardware, sometimes cymbals) and one bass amp, so that changeovers take 10 minutes instead of 30. Guitarists bring their own amps or use a modeller into a DI.

Festivals: a specified kit, often from a hire company, described in the advance sheet you get after your application is accepted: a 4- or 5-piece drum kit with hardware, a bass rig (head plus 4x10 or 8x10), one or two guitar amps (typically a 2x12 combo or a head and cab), a keyboard stand, DI boxes. Cymbals, snare and kick pedal are frequently excluded and listed as "breakables", which is the polite word for "bring your own".

Corporate and weddings: nothing. The client is buying a finished product; everything is yours or hired by you.

Theatres and larger venues: whatever your rider asked for and they agreed to, at a cost that usually appears on the settlement sheet.

The breakables rule

Even when backline is provided, bring:

• Snare drum, kick pedal, cymbals, sticks, drum key, your own throne if your drummer is tall or particular
• Pedalboards and cables for guitar and bass; a spare instrument cable each
• Keyboard and its sustain pedal and power supply; a keyboard on stage without its own pedal is a keyboard without dynamics
• In-ear monitoring if you use it, with the bodypacks and a way to get a mix
• Every cable you would need if the supplied gear turned out to be one amp short

Guitar amps are a matter of taste. A player who depends on a specific amp sound should either bring the amp or move to a modeller into a DI, which removes the argument entirely and makes the sound engineer's day easier.

The three questions

Send these to the booker or production contact as soon as the gig is confirmed, and again a week before if the answer was vague:

1. What exactly is the backline? Ask for brands and models, and for a photo if it is a house kit. "A drum kit" is not an answer; "a five-piece Yamaha Stage Custom with hardware, no cymbals, no snare" is.
2. Is it shared, and who is responsible for it? On a shared kit, ask whether you may move the toms and whether the kick pedal is included. Ask who fixes a broken head at 20:40.
3. What is the changeover time? 15 minutes on a shared kit is comfortable; 10 is tight; 5 means line-check only, and your gear needs to be on a rolling riser or already on stage.

Put the answers on the gig sheet so the drummer reads them, not just the leader.

Negotiating backline

When backline is not offered and hauling your own is impractical (flights, a long drive, a small van):

• Ask for it in the rider. A one-page tech rider with a clear backline section gets read; a five-page one does not. See writing a tech rider and stage plot.
• Know the hire cost. A drum kit rents for roughly 80–150 EUR a day, a bass rig 60–120 EUR, a guitar combo 40–80 EUR, a full backline package for a 5-piece 300–600 EUR, delivered and collected in cities. Knowing this lets you say "we can bring it for 250 EUR extra" or "please hire it; it costs you less than our second van".
• Trade it. Festivals with tight budgets will often add backline before they add fee, because they are hiring it for the day anyway.
• Put it in the contract. "Venue provides backline per attached rider" with the list. If the venue's kit fails to appear, the contract is your leverage.

Playing on someone else's gear

A few habits that keep shared backline nights friendly:

• Arrive early enough to look at the kit before your set. Tune the snare, check the kick pedal spring, look for a missing felt.
• Do not change the amp settings without a photo of where they were, and put them back.
• Report damage immediately. The next band would rather hear it from you than discover it.
• Thank the crew. Their goodwill decides whether your changeover gets the extra three minutes.

Do this today

• Write your band's breakables list and add it to your packing kits, so a "festival, backline provided" gig never leaves the cymbals at home.
• Draft the three questions as a saved message and send them with every festival or showcase confirmation.
• Add a backline section to your tech rider with two versions: "we bring everything" and "please provide".

Where expert.band helps

Save a kit called "Festival, backline provided" alongside "Full band, own PA" in expert.band's gear and packing tools; apply the right one to each gig and the packing checklist fills in with the breakables and nothing else. The backline answers go in the gig's description so the whole line-up sees them, and the printed gig sheet carries them to the van.