Weddingbee boards

Help please!!  Can anyone offer up some Boston live wedding band suggestions?  I'm looking for a 5-7 piece band that plays a variety of music (r&b, jazz, top40, traditional) and costs less than $3500 for 4hrs at dinner reception.  (Is my budget even realistic?? I have no idea!)

I went with Brick Park and they are amazing! They always do local showcases in Boston, usually Fanuel Hall area. They are playing in Marshfield on 8/21 and I'm going to check them out again. After reading this testimonial from a fellow Bee, I was sold on them. Check them out and good luck :)

Paul Loura is a great guy to work with and very reasonable, I think he will be able to accomodate your price range. They are coming all the way to Vermont for my wedding!

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/11/12/the-time-of-our-lives-let-there-be-light/

Hi there,

I've booked Men in Black for my wedding in December....I think they sound great and the woman who reps them at the Hank Agency, had been very responsive this far to any questions/I come up with.  I think we are paying 5500...

A warning about Downtown Fever - 

The band was our top priority during our planning. We booked Downtown Fever based on one distinguishing factor - their charismatic lead singer, Vincent Keith. I checked out MANY bands before booking and he was not only what led us to book the band, but undoubtedly what allows them to charge their relatively high price. My brother, mother and four friends came to the showcase with me and all agreed that this guy was a star and we had to book him (and, thereby, the rest of the band).

We booked the band through Best Bands, and they were pleasant and helpful in facilitating the contract - I would work with them again. The original contract mentioned none of the band members by name and we went through a couple of rounds of revisions to include the singer by name and stipulate that if he became unable to perform at our wedding for any reason and at any point, we would be informed and have the option cancel the band without any further payment. The band's manager, Jordan Kahn, agreed to the adjustment, we both signed the contract, and I put down half of the $5500 fee. I spoke to Jordan's assistant a few times the week leading up to our wedding because they had "misplaced" the electronic form we'd filled out with all our event details. No changes were mentioned and she assured me everything was all set. Our DOC paid the band, in cash, when they arrived to set up while we were at the church getting married. No problems were mentioned to her. Our first dance was a recorded song and we just had some instrumental music at the beginning before the band took their dinner break while we ate dinner, and some of the group wasn't out for that portion, so we had no reason to suspect anything was amiss.

You can guess what happened. The band started playing after dinner with different lead singer, which was a terrible surprise. All six of my showcase companions wasted little time coming over to ask where the awesome front man was. I thought I might throw up. Adding insult to injury, a couple of the band members helped themselves to our cocktail hour (we had provided vendor meals, per the contract) and the new lead singer read from a piece of paper while performing the song agreed to learn for us (also in the contract). 

When I called Jordan he said he was sorry he forgot to tell me that Vincent had left the band and refused to refund my second payment, suggesting that if I was unhappy with the situation I should have asked the band to stop playing, as if we could have just played charades with our guests instead. When my lawyer called him, his story changed and he said that Vincent was going to play our wedding but got sick that day. Either way, he violated our contract and is so far refusing to refund our money with the exception of $500, which he claims is all he can do because he has to pay the musicians. Of course, I agree that he has to pay them - but I don't. He owes us $2750. I'm angry, and it's not so much about the money as it is Jordan's blatant disregard for me as his client and disinterest in keeping his own word.

I am not the girl who complains. I've never posted a terrible review of anything online before, but I feel compelled to do so here because I was in your shoes a few months ago and I wish someone had warned me! Jordan Kahn has proved to be careless and dishonest and I would strongly advise all the bees to stay away from Downtown Fever and any other band he manages. 

Thanks for reading.