Band Rant

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Thu May 26, 2005 9:28 am

I'm glad to provide entertainment with stories of my friend, One Cell. He's an OUTSTANDING vocalist, but somehow deep down he doesn't believe in himself or something. So he moved away from Chicago, out to L.A. and paints houses. He's a good painter, but its sad for me to see his talents waste away.

He's still a friend, and when he comes back to Chicago we'll get together and play again. But it was ALWAYS a problem to get that guy going on gig day. There were always excuses, followed by the rest of us trying to persuade him that everything would be okay. I can't remember most of them, but here are a few:

"Dude I can't play tonight..."

"...I caught a cold and can't sing."

"...my throat's trashed. I smoked too much pot last night."

"...I crashed my car last night and spent the night in jail."

"...I got arrested last night."

One time I was driving down the street about 3 towns away when he ran across the street in front of my car without a shirt on. I honked the horn and got his attention. He had been running from security at a sporting goods store(and possibly a police helicopter) because he was caught changing price tags on a pair of shoes.

Getting arrested again would have been bad as he was on probation for drop kicking a UPS driver in the head for "cutting him off on his bicycle."

Kids!

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Thu May 26, 2005 9:29 am

I'm going to print this thread out. The group of hobbyist-musicians that I jam with should read this. We seem to be more committed than some of the working musicians mentioned!

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Thu May 26, 2005 10:52 am

NEVER, EVER cancel a gig. My band is very commited & reliable, so I don't have a problem, but I insist that every gig that we do is contracted by an entertainment agency that has looked after me for knocking on 20 years. If you cancel, you run the risk of being sued, as do they if it is the other way around.
A little incentive to honour your commitments.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:10 am

I showed up for a gig at another rat hole bar and the bar had changed management ... the new management had ****** off the regulars and it was almost empty ... I wanted to walk ... but the guitarist wanted to play ... so we set up and played ... it got to the point where there was one bar tender and one customer and they wanted to listen to the juke box instead of the band ... so the drummer and I packed up and left ...

playing some bars is a waste of time ... also playing in some bands is a waste of time ... I don't play in that band or bar any more ...

now with my current band our old drummer loved the eagles club ... so we got booked in for $500 ... we played once and it was kinda scuzzy but the young people liked us ... we played there a second time and there were a bunch of blue hairs who started complaining about volume before we even plugged in ... then several blue hairs express their discontent about our volume and song selection during the night ... (we just don't do any Sinatra or Benny Goodman) ... but the young people loved us ... well this club has a rule ... you are not allowed to say the F word ... so for our last song we play "She F-ing Hates Me" by Puddle of Mud at a rather high volume to really **** them off so they would never hire us again ...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:15 am

I am a member of one band right now but do many fill in gigs with other people and bands, this relieves the tension which works well in my case. I've been playing with the photo lover off and on for four or five years now and have taken some breaks. I play a lot of other situations with the drummer who is also nuts but is a great drummer. I play as much as possible with as many different people as possible. Some are fun some aren't, the ones that aren't I don't play with again usually. I don't do a lot of modern cover stuff (like none actually) so I do a lot of jamming which is fun. The drummer and I are doing an internet thing with the guitarist from the John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown band next Thursday. This guy is really good, he did all the guitar parts in the Eddie and The Cruiser movies. This is a possible extra semi permanent gig for me and the drummer as we can play both blues and rock unlike his normal extra band and we have done a jam with him before so he knows us and has approached us already. I have played in many many bands and situations in my life and don't have time for Prima Donna stuff.
I think "one cell" needs a psychiatrist BTW. I can't stand playing with people on drugs especially when it affects their performance. I guess I take music too seriously to play games with people. Pot heads are usually the worst, (ducking) like duh... now what do we play??? ummm??? staring at the floor. I have played with some really sharp potheads though, it's not the stuff that bothers me, it's the performance, if you're on top of your game I don't really care what you are doing as long as I don't get arrested, haha!
I've seen it all and went through it all many years ago.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:18 am

I played a club one Sunday night (huge place) and there was NO one there I mean just two or three bartenders and the DJ, we played one whole set anyway just so we could get paid, haha! Finally one of the bartenders came over and asked us if we realized that there was absolutely no one in the place.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:36 am

Currently we are getting very selective about where we play ... we do a few high quality gigs at good venues for cover bands that can hold a lot of people who want to hear a mix of classic and modern rock ...

edski · Post by **edski** » Thu May 26, 2005 3:03 pm

Yeah, I can relate, Bob and Jeff, to an extent. It would be real nice to get some nicer gigs. It looks like, if we can keep this together, we might be able to get a few. Still have **** gigs now, and on that comaprison, this one my singer is wanting to bag is actually a fairly good one.

Hey, thinking of the band as a business, this is our one repeat customer. It sure would be nice to get to the point where we can pick and choose, btu it takes a lot of time and a lot of work. I'm not sure that the singer appreciates the work aspect.

When I moved to Florida I had hopes of getting into music to the point that I could float between bands. Had to make a living though, and it's always worked out that I'm basically a one band at a time guy. I would be very welcome to try other opportunities.

I can read music, do ALL the arranging for the band, know my theory very well...but I'm stuck with a singer that doesn't know an A note from a manhole cover, and isn't interested in getting beyond the mimicing stage of singing. Anything that deviates, he's lost. At least the drummer is a very good player. Can't count the times we've had to adjust to something random and uncontrollable from this monkey at the end of each gig. Not that I mind-I don't like playing a song the same way twice.

But he's a damn sight better than the chick we used to play with. A gifted singer/guitar payer, recorded a few albums, had done studio work...somehow was intimidated playing with us hacks. And got MAJOR stage fright. Oh God...

Enough for now...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu May 26, 2005 3:52 pm

some young players can't seem to handle changes on the fly ... they don't seem to want to ever do an interpretation of a song or jam ...

greg_mitchell · Post by **greg_mitchell** » Thu May 26, 2005 4:58 pm

Our band is an equal partnership. If one doesn't want to play a gig, nobody plays. Fortunately all the members are reasonably sane. For now. We usually play about one gig a month, but this month we're playing every weekend somewhere. Tomorrow night we're playing a party that was played last year (supposedly) by the members of the "Wet Willie" band. Should be fun.

edski · Post by **edski** » Fri May 27, 2005 5:25 am

Hehe...the plot thickens...

We're supposed to play a wedding July 9th, although I am not sure if the contract is finalized. Initially, we took from the "request list" the potential customer sent about 18 tunes to learn...we kept to their preferred and OK list, and created a tentative song list.

Well, instantly this yahoo-monkey-boy-one-cell-wanna-be-vocalist puts in a song (Turning Japanese) that was nowhere on the customers discussion. Oh well, actually an OK tune and we ripped a version together pretty quickly.

Well the customer is requesting further changes, basically insisting on several of their preferred tunes. Of 10 tunes the customer wants, we could get 9 of them down (Dave Matthews "What Would You Say" is the only one I'd prefer to stay away from)...and "Turning Japinese" (singer-boys spelling) was one of the songs specifically asked to be left off the set list.

Well, monkey replies back, with a kind of whiney and condescending tone, about how some of the tunes don't sound full enough, we've worked hard, followed your list, know what people enjoy...

Great...if the customer wanted to say "screw it" I would not be surprised. This guy is having a great week

My opinion of him has taken a big hit.

I kind of wish we weren't under the gun as much and needed all the minutes we have to practice...'cos this idiot needs a talking to. And to think he has a management job for a fairly large company. Pretty poor understanding of how to treat customers it seems.

At this point I'm even closer to just recusing myself from any of this bands business dealings and leaving my role as bass player and arranger. Treat it like I'm a hired gun, although I will obviously put in more work (learning tunes, scoring out guitar part ideas, putting together rudimentary charts, rehearsals) than a typical "hired-gun". But if this yahoo is going to screw a budding reputation, then I'd rather start distancing myself sooner than later.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri May 27, 2005 5:49 am

I also think it's not real smart to learn songs for weddings maybe one is ok, 18? never, that's crazy, you never know what kind of krap you'll have to learn, Bette Midler, Perry Como, Ray Coniff singers, haha! etc. If I do a wedding which is infrequently they get what they hired. I take one gig at a time. You never know what's going to happen how it's going to sound. I agree jamming makes playing fun and makes the music real. I'm a member of a band and also a hired gun, we all are especially me and the drummer, it's fun and takes the pressure off. I meet lots of musicians and get to pick the ones I want to play for the second time around (and so do they, haha!). We (drummer and I) got hired for another band last night as fill ins, it's fun. Playing blues and roots music around New England you can get lots of pickup gigs, lots of extra work. Not a big market here for top 40 or weddings, the DJ's got all that years ago.

edski · Post by **edski** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:04 am

Well, out of the 18, only 2 are somewhat useless additions to our repetoire - "Stand By Me" and...well maybe that's the only one.

Some of the others are cool tunes that we had discussed about potentially learning before this wedding gig became a possibility - "Brickhouse", "Friends in Low Places", "What I Like About You" are a few examples. So it's not like we're learning a bunch of stuff JUST for this wedding.

Some of the tunes that our version of one-cell is complaining about are "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Free Falling", "Fight For Your Right"...not exactly like being asked to come up with an arrangement of Stravinsky's Firebird leading into Siberian Khatru. And out of the 10 tunes the potential client seems to be insisting on, 1 is in our rotation already, 4 are tunes we've messed around with a bit.

My point is it wouldn't be hard to add several of these into the set for that gig. They are not hard tunes, and if the client wants them, well you already have a head start regarding audience appreciation.

Awww, f*** it. I don't care anymore, just want to play. Bob, I like the comment about blues and roots music...the guitarist and I are going to put together a list of those types of tunes that we'll try and work out on our own. If the drummer wants to tag along with that side project, great, if not we'll look for another drummer.

And the current circus can be free to morph into whatever garbage monkey-boy wants it to.

BTW, before this band started, the guitarist and I had a repetoire of well over 100 tunes...the current bands 50 or so tunes don't overlap the previous book very much. So it wont take long for Joe and I to develop a book for a secondary gig.

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:06 am

lose the singer.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Fri May 27, 2005 7:56 am

get a DJ to do the **** songs and play what you play ... or hook the DJ equipment into your pa and have somebody in the band DJ ...

then add some special songs ... like "White Wedding" "Love Stinks" "She F-ing Hates me" "I just wanna make Love to you" "Dazed and Confused" "Outside" "Control" "Aint Talkin bout love" ... etc ...