First gig w/the new band went really well!

[TheXym]

Saturday night was the first gig the trio I'm playing with had (we did do a benefit for a former student of mine about a month earlier, but this was the first time out, and the pay was good). The crowd was a bit thin, due to an advertising mess-up and a community fundraiser that drew some of our crowd combined with only 2 weeks notice for the gig so we couldn't really get the word out as much as we'd have liked, it was decent. We got all sorts of positive comments, and the owner asked us to hang out upstairs with him and his college friends who were visiting after the gig.

The advertising messup - the drummer and guitarist played with another bass player a few years ago who was very sloppy and is pretty much an attention whore. They had a falling out and are only able to be barely civil to him (the guitarist had been friends with him for over 20 years). I don't like the guy at all - the first time I ever spoke with him, he asked me - while my wife was right beside me - if I wanted to **** any of my students. Anyway, the guy has burned a LOT of bridges in the area, to the point where the owner was hesitant to book us until he learned that this guy wasn't with them. The press release used the old band name by mistake.

A lot of the local players were at the gig and had great comments, one that meant to most to me was from a guy who has been gigging for over 35 years and getting paid well was this note he wanted the guitarist to forward to me:

Hey .... you folks sounded really good Sat, XXXXXX ..... and I'm thinking you guys really didn't have as much time to practice as you might have liked, but from my perspective, I didn't notice any sluggishness on who was supposed to play what. Your guitar playing, as always, was so smooth and clean. And Xym did such a nice job on the bass ... moving all around on notes without making any me-me-me waves .. not as easy a task as some think.

I'm thrilled, because I've always approached the bass as being a groove instrument, but melodic. My lines are active, but not overplayed (at least I try not to, it's about serving the song). Hopefully, I'll get a recording at practice later this week to share some excerpts.

[Low Tone]

Accolades from fellow musicians are always an upper. We tend to notice a bit more than the average joe listener so it means something when they think you've done a good job. Not taking anything away from the average listener though. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be playing to anybody but each other!

[GearHeadBassMan]

Its so much easier to take criticism and praise from a player who you respect. I saw a band full of older guys who'd toured all over the place and their bassist rips it up, after our set (we had been bullshitting between our sets, he had a mesa 400+ and i had to drool over it) he came up to me and told me that i played the way he wished he played, and then gave me some notes on the performance aspect of our show. put me on cloud nine AND improved my playing.