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03-04-2013, 04:41 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Maui, HI | | | Gig issue
So this Saturday I'll be playing a pickup gig for about four hours. It got scheduled a month ago, pending my decision to be included. It is all material that I am not familiar with: country (old and new) and Hawaiian hits. I agreed to it under the condition that I be given a song list to prepare by.
After three weeks of asking I cancel because I'm not getting the simple list I ask for. Suddenly it's apologies galore and I get the list the next day. It's late, but I play ball and spend all of Saturday cramming for this gig. LOTS of study. Yesterday (Sunday) I get together with the BL and her husband who plays lead guitar just to go over a couple of minor issues and tighten up the more complex material. And what do we learn from this?.....
...that there's not one single song that's played like the recorded versions. I wasted all of my Saturday for nothing. The excuse?... "I'm just so used to Bass Player X who has worked with me for ten years."
Upon leaving the husband drops a list of another 20+ songs on my desk to familiarize myself with. I told them that I had a busy week ahead and would be doing some work travelling -which is why I needed the list a month ago- and that I will be spending the gig doing exactly what I despise doing : chasing chords. I am not responsible for any wrong notes, missed changes or trainwrecks, and will be backing out of any songs that I can't immediately grasp.
There is NOTHING that I despise more in life and business than procrastination. Now a gih that sounded like fun is going to be miserable for me. Don't ever let this happen to you.
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Originally Posted by BullHorn  Guitars should pew pew pew on top while the bass is boom boom booming on the bottom. | |
03-04-2013, 04:53 PM
| | Reggaefied User | | Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Swiss Alps | | | Don't do it if it's that bad. They dicked you around, you owe them nothing. |
03-04-2013, 05:24 PM
|  | I wanna be...say, what day is it today, Ted? | | Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Location, Location | | | Yeah, another vote for bailing. Too much flakiness to be worth it if I were in your shoes.
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"The first thing to do is don't stop. The second thing to do is keep going" -Frank Zappa | Lone Wolf Club # 78 Quote:
Originally Posted by hover tell him the cab could double as a pulpit. A gloriously rawkin pulpit. | |
03-04-2013, 05:28 PM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Genz Benz Amplification | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Nashville | | | If I hire a sub or new player they get the song list before we shake hands. You can't expect someone to commit to a gig when they don't even know what the material is. |
03-04-2013, 05:29 PM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Fender Basses, Ampeg, Curt Mangan Strings | | Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: South Shore, Massachusetts | | | I wouldn't do it either.
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"If you don't want the truth don't ask. Make up your own like everyone else does". (Michael Pare as Eddie Wilson/Joe West in Eddie and The Cruisers II).
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03-04-2013, 05:36 PM
|  | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Wantagh, NY | | | Funny, I've had a somewhat similar situation with a band I've done some fill-in gigs with over the last few years. Ask & ask & ask for song list & end up getting it the week of the gig. Luckily, I tell them when they 1st ask me to do a gig, I won't do it without some sort of rehearsal 1st. This at least forces them to give the list before then.
It totally annoys me when this happens, but I manage to get my homework done for the gig. So, whenever one of my bands has a fill-in, I give the fill-in the song list the day they agree to do the gig.
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DOH!!!
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03-04-2013, 05:52 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Florida | | | Sounds like a challenge. Get paid up front.
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"...it's just the bass player. No one listens to them anyways..." - bonzo4880
Peavey USA Millennium Club Member #10 - OFBPOAC #25 - Promethean Club #6
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03-04-2013, 06:01 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Maui, HI | | | I would totally be all for bailing except for two things: 1- it's a small island and I don't need to be docked any rep points, and 2- I do what I say I'm gonna do regardless of anyone else's issues.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by BullHorn Guitars should pew pew pew on top while the bass is boom boom booming on the bottom. | |
03-04-2013, 06:10 PM
| | I wanna be...say, what day is it today, Ted? | | Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Location, Location | | Quote:
Originally Posted by avvie I would totally be all for bailing except for two things: 1- it's a small island and I don't need to be docked any rep points, and 2- I do what I say I'm gonna do regardless of anyone else's issues. | Guess you'll have to bare through and make the best of it then. Hoping it goes as smoothly as possible for you.
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"The first thing to do is don't stop. The second thing to do is keep going" -Frank Zappa | Lone Wolf Club # 78 Quote:
Originally Posted by hover tell him the cab could double as a pulpit. A gloriously rawkin pulpit. | |
03-04-2013, 07:56 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Treasure Coast, Florida | | | I can understand why you want to do it. I think I'd do it too. But I'd explain to the entire band that I would not repeat this experience again without proper preparation. And I would decide what proper preparation is.
But you gave your word for this one. Now you know what to look out for in the future.
Good luck! |
03-04-2013, 08:40 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Southern California | | | It only takes one or two of these experiences to teach you to ask specific and pointed questions to a band leader before taking a pickup gig.
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Originally Posted by bradjonesbass Study what Pino does and do that! WWPD? | Quote: |
"Bob Babbitt changed the world with 4 strings and a groove." -Dave Pomeroy
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03-04-2013, 08:44 PM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Genz Benz Amplification | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Nashville | | Quote:
Originally Posted by testing1two It only takes one or two of these experiences to teach you to ask specific and pointed questions to a band leader before taking a pickup gig. | Ain't that the truth... I was all set to take a sub gig last weekend until I found out I'd have to drive 3 hours to Louisville... On my own dime. Turned out the guy lived in Kentucky but was trying to get players out of Nashville. I'd have burned every cent I made on gas. |
03-04-2013, 08:52 PM
| | | | Isn't "I get the set list x-amount of time before the gig" in the standard T's+C's for a sub bass-for-hire?
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Matt - I Started on Guitar Club #14, Switch-Hitters Club #7, Acoustic Amp Club #336, Fender Jazz Bass Club #935
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03-04-2013, 10:18 PM
|  | Registered User
HPF Technology: Protecting the Pocket since 2007 | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Madison WI | | | If they are that disorganized, you may end up being the best prepared player on the bandstand. |
03-04-2013, 10:28 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | | The best part is, they won't even do the stuff on the list anyway...run away...
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Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris My reggae skills are rudimentary enough that I just play whatever the original guy played. :) | |
03-04-2013, 10:38 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Tucson,AZ | | | Definitely get paid up front.
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"Nothing is what it seems, but everything is exactly what it is." - (B. Banzai) Lefty Union-#72
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03-05-2013, 12:01 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Maui, HI | | | FTR I have played with them a couple of times in a open mic sortof scenario. They thought I was awesome because i could pick up what they were layin down quick. I'm flattered and all, but that's not how I want to play an entire gig. I really think that they just assumed I'd fall in on everything, and were a little stunned when I asked that very question.
But maybe it WILL be okay. Maybe we'll just be sonic wallpaper to a large gathering and nobody will even care what we sound like so long as we're making sounds.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by BullHorn Guitars should pew pew pew on top while the bass is boom boom booming on the bottom. |
Last edited by avvie : 03-05-2013 at 12:03 AM.
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03-05-2013, 10:02 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Treasure Coast, Florida | | Turn the bass frequencies up and the mids down and don't noodle much. This way, when you flub, it's less noticeable.  It will still be a thump. |
03-05-2013, 10:09 AM
|  | Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebie | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: SATX by way of NOLA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassmanbob Turn the bass frequencies up and the mids down and don't noodle much. This way, when you flub, it's less noticeable. It will still be a thump. | That actually sounds like good advice.
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Originally Posted by gigslut I said, Sarah, could you play an "E" there? She screamed "DON'T TELL ME LETTERS! SHOW ME WHERE TO PUT MY FINGERS!" | Quote:
Originally Posted by Immigrant I still think it would work, but I'm really, REALLY wrong about most things. | |
03-05-2013, 10:11 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cincinnati | | | I had a smililar situation in which I learned a bunch of new songs and at the actual gig they skipped many of the songs that I spent the most time preparing. Not to mention the whole "we don't play it like the actual recording" routine. When my band has a sub, which is rare, I offer a recording of all 3 or our sets and a set list in advance. Not that hard or expensive anymore for someone to stick a small MP3 recording device at a practice or a gig so that they can provide something for a potential sub to learn from. If anyone should get a bad rep it should be the band, I wouldn't do it if you think you will be stressed at all. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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