Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

we have a show next weekend and my guitarist, also my lifelong best friend, is leaving the band to handle personal issues. lots of folks are telling me to keep it going but not sure if i would ever a comfortable doing this with another guy up there. he held us back in some ways that he couldn't go on the road ever and that was one of the things i wanted to do was at least pull a few weekend out of town shows.

once the dust settles after this gig, i'll make a decision on what i'm going to do.

in this band, i handled everything from booking shows to the merch to all of the promotion. it would be nice to be able to sit back and find a band who has someone doing that already.

time will tell.

It is sometimes a difficult transition when a band gets a new member, they never sound or feel the same, but eventually if you let it it will go to another place and be as tight as the old one but in another way.

I've played in a lot of bands from bad garage bands to concerts ... and I have played with a lot of musicians some good and some bad and everything in between ... there is one constant ... good bass players are hard to find ... you will have no trouble finding good musicians to play with ... try some different things ...

yup.

...what Jwr2 said.

It will never be the same, but as Bob said, with time things will feel right. I also made a tough decision to quit a band I was in with my best friend, but everything worked out. I don't know of any Motorhead trib bands in my area,(Chicagoland), but it sure feels nice to know there's at least one out there. Keep it goin'!!!

My guitarist and drummer pretty much grew up together and when the drummer quit for medical reasons the rest of us were just getting our second wind so we found a new guy which brought a whole new dimension to our playing. We never really skipped a beat and are better than ever now (IMO). So keep pluggin' away .

Sometimes Sean, this sort of thing can be quite positive. So keep it going...you might come out of it with something fresher & perhaps get an injection of renewed enthusiasm! You might be able to tour now....

I do a lot of fill ins, I play with people I've never met before sometimes like last Thursday online live, haha! You grow as a musician when you diversify and play with different people. I always encourage people to play with as wide a range of people as they can, play different styles etc. it all helps you. I play with the radio sometimes, up and down the dial, you become a quick tuner and learn a lot of styles you ordinarily wouldn't know.

thanks for the words, guys. it's been a pretty emotional weekend for me. lots of folks at the shows i went to this weekend were either offering their services to join up or asking me to enlist in their ranks. that was very cool and was definitely a positive boost.

i don't know if any of the old school metal guys here remember At War, but their guitarist called and wants to jam to keep the band going. That in itself is the biggest compliment i could get. At War were local guys who made it semi-big with some world tours and stuff and were heavily influenced by Motorhead. He's come to several of our shows and can travel as needed. I just need to make sure he's reliable. At War has been trying to put it back togetehr for 15 years to no avail and I am not sure who in the band is the hold up. but it can't hurt to jam it out and see, eh?

It won't hurt to check it out. I had one of their albums a long time ago. For some reason the band Whiplash comes to mind when I think of them. Maybe I bought the albums on the same day. Anyway, go for it! Don't ever stop playing!

oh, I'll never stop playing, but I think I am done with this project. i sat down and jammed to the songs today for practice and just felt uninspired.

and yeah, at war and whiplash do sound similar.

They feel similar too...try gettin' medically compensated for either one...

Phlemmy...when it comes to trying to make bands work, remember the words of Jean Paul Sartre: "Hell is other people"...

Bass players frequently find themselves being the ones who keep trying to push the rope uphill to the bitter end...that Derek Smalls character didn't come out of nowhere...

I feel your pain...

Sean, you never know how things will turn out. The band I'm in now is actually 75% the same as a band I was in 19 years ago! Over that time, we've all had many changes, musically and in life, and have all played with many different people and in lots of different styles. Now, the 3 of us are together again with a new lead player - the last thing anyone could have predicted then. And, we are having more fun than ever. I know it's small consolation to you now, but weird things happen.