How did i get myself into this?????

[IvanMike]

Well, i promised myself i'd never do this again......

I used to play with a guitar player/singer/bandleader some time ago. The drummer was great, the rest, not so much. He and i quit about the same time and all was amicable.

Every once in a while i get a call from the bandleader asking me to sub in his current band. One night? no problem! Well.......I get a call a couple of months ago. He is setting up a mamas and papas tribute. Has the old drummer on board, low commitment, learn the tunes at home, practice a few times, will call for gigs. Sure. First night i learn all the tunes beforehand, drummer sounds great, and he has a second guy on vocals and guitar who is awesome! the "mama cass" gal sounds super too. Sure i'll play, why not?

Well the drummer can't do it. neither can the 2nd male gp/singer. Ouch. So he gets another good drummer. Finds a second woman singer who is also good. Keyboard player is classically trained but has never played with a band. we can work on him, right? Still no second male singer/guitar player (boy do we ever need at least one guy who can do both well, maybe just one of the two).

Back at the beginning band leader e-mails us all and says something like "you are all professionals, i expect you to learn your parts so we aren't learning the songs at practice". That's what i always do. I could mail my part in every two weeks for the 2 hour practice. Guess who doesn't really know the songs? Yeah, you were right. The band leader. Sound familiar to anyone? Everyone else is more or less mostly prepared. Mostly. Drummer has a few questions but he's good enough that you can give him a look and be on track. The singers are sorta working out some stuff at practice but whatever. Keyboard player? Well when he's good he's great, but sometimes i have no idea where he got the chords for the songs. Seems to trust the net rather than his ears. Oh well.

Then........Mama cass books a gig. Right before another gig i have the same night. Ok i can swing it. Some more songs get added. Fine. They want us to do christmas songs. Great. Next thing you know we are playing "merry christmas darling" by the carpenters. I want to die. We make it sound ok except for the harmonies at the end. A train wreck. Bodies everywhere. I ask nicely if we can forgo the end and "cass" nearly bites my head off, "that's the best part of the song!" Yeah, when the carpenters and six studio vocalists do it it is.... Then i find out that we are going to be in the paper. And the guy wants us to wear period relavant clothes. Awesome. The drummer wails that we're going to look like a comedy act. You bet. Next thing i know everyone and their brothers find out about this gig and are showing up. I'm sizing my head for the paper bag i'm going to wear over it. See you after the 19th to tell you how it was......

[LaughingGroove]

Ha ha ha, please post the pics when you get them.

Funny story, good luck but I know what you mean. The last band I was in for 2 years. The "hang" was ok, but far from good, we got along most days but when it was bad, it was bad. Didn't really care for the music much either, punk meets alt. (I like blues the best). Any way they wanted to dress in drag and I said no way, they all did except me, then they decided that they liked it and wanted to dress in drag for all shows, I said no thanks you're on your own.

Edit: oh and one time they wanted to do a show just wearing socks on their peckers, I said are you out of your mind? First that has been done before, second I'm 33 and I don't play music to look/act like an idoit. (they were 21,22 age) Why don't we worry more about having a good solid set and work on playing tight rather then worry about how different we can be?

So I know what you mean, I said never again. I'm not in a band now and don't plan on it anytime soon.(well unless BB King calls, but thats not going to happen)

Get togethers now and then but thats enough for me.

[paganjack]

it seems to be getting more and more out of hand. +1 to posting pics! hope it goes better than you expect...

[IvanMike]

well i love being in bands and i play out in one now about three times a month. sub gigs too. And the worst part is that these are all nice people. Just.......misguided. I tell you my wife was about to throw the cd player out the window while i rewound "merry christmas darling" for the 10th time (there are 400 chords in that song).

[Obe]

Middletown, CT...heh, you may be in luck, it is supposed to snow Friday...cancellation?? Let me know where the gig is, I'll check it out, take pix and post up a review

[Pilgrim]

Hold out for the Paul Revere & The Raiders lace-front shirts and revolutionary war jackets. Much more flattering!!

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

Next thing you know we are playing "merry christmas darling" by the carpenters. I want to die. We make it sound ok except for the harmonies at the end. A train wreck. Bodies everywhere. I ask nicely if we can forgo the end and "cass" nearly bites my head off, "that's the best part of the song!" Yeah, when the carpenters and six studio vocalists do it it is....

I played a Christmas show in a pick-up band a few years ago, and Merry Christmas Darling was on the set list. I know exactly what you mean about those vocals: the harmonies are dense, and you've got to nail the right notes, or the whole thing will collapse in a heap of dissonance...

Fortunately, we had a couple of people in the band who were capable of transcribing those parts from the record and writing them out for us. It took a little bit of drilling, but everyone was a pretty good singer (2 girls, 2 guys), and in the end we were able to pull it off quite well with real four-part harmony...

One of the worst parts of playing in a band is when the person choosing the cover tunes has unrealistic expectations about what the band can reasonably manage - and what it can't. There is a real art to knowing what will work - and just as importantly, what will not - and choosing one's material wisely...

MM

[IvanMike]

Originally Posted by Obe

Middletown, CT...heh, you may be in luck, it is supposed to snow Friday...cancellation?? Let me know where the gig is, I'll check it out, take pix and post up a review

oh great. for the record, the gig is NOT cancelled (sigh) and is at Gaetano's in wallingford accross the street from archie moores from 6:30 to 8:30 tonight. Then my gig with my regular band is in derby at archie moores (coincidentally) from 9:15 to close. yeah, 9:15. it was supposed to be 9:30 but i get a call last night that they want us to start early because they're having some sort of party. So i have to get there in 40 min through a snowstorm. great...

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

I played a Christmas show in a pick-up band a few years ago, and Merry Christmas Darling was on the set list. I know exactly what you mean about those vocals: the harmonies are dense, and you've got to nail the right notes, or the whole thing will collapse in a heap of dissonance...

Fortunately, we had a couple of people in the band who were capable of transcribing those parts from the record and writing them out for us. It took a little bit of drilling, but everyone was a pretty good singer (2 girls, 2 guys), and in the end we were able to pull it off quite well with real four-part harmony...

One of the worst parts of playing in a band is when the person choosing the cover tunes has unrealistic expectations about what the band can reasonably manage - and what it can't. There is a real art to knowing what will work - and just as importantly, what will not - and choosing one's material wisely...

MM

Amen. I'm the guy who can pick out and transcribe everything from the recording. Drives me nuts when others get it dead wrong or get those wrong parts from fake books, the net, etc. Oh well. The unrealistic expectations re: the material is a biggie. The best part is when the person has unrealistic expectations about their OWN ability. that's a hoot. Like i said, the bandleader and "mama cass" are nice people, but they seem to be unable to hear when something isn't working. It's always flabbergasting when we end a train wreck in practice and they say "boy oh boy, that sounded GREAT!!"

Oh yeah, i forgot. they had to pick a name for the band because of the gig and the article - we are - "the california dreamers". I think i'm going to be sick. Article and video (thank god i'm not in it) linked below

http://www.myrecord-journal.com/site...d=646391&rfi=6

[Obe]

IvanMike, no incriminating evidence from me, a little bit too far to travel in a snowstorm.

Also, definitely part of being a good musician is at least knowing when things are wrong and need to be corrected (knowing how to correct them is another part). I wonder how much a big ego plays in this?

[CapnSev]

Dude that sounds like every gig I sign up for.

[Passinwind]

Sounds like big fun bro! or sumthin'...

I do a fair amount of sub work, and every so often it goes really wrong, but that's really another level of cluster you're dealing with.

I just got the cancellation call for my Christmas party gig tonight. Way too much snow and ice here for it to make sense, especially since it was going to be at a fairly remote vineyard with way too much killer wine in the mix. So I dodged the Christmas song bullet pretty much completely this year. We have a big book of jazz arrangements, which I refuse to practice more than a couple of times a year. I probably only wasted an hour or so on that this year.

I lived in Wallingford for a while BTW. Drive safe man.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

...they had to pick a name for the band because of the gig and the article - we are - "the california dreamers". I think i'm going to be sick.

LOL oh man, I'm glad I wasn't drinking something when I read that! Can't wait to read how it turned out!

[RustyAxe]

Man, that was a funny read! Thanks for posting. And please do post the pics of you in your bell bottoms and fur vest ... we'll be waiting!

[RustyAxe]

If it wasn't snowing I'd drive down to Wallingford just to see this ...

[IconBasser]

so... how'd the gig go?

[IvanMike]

well.......................

friday comes and so does the snow. I get a call from tony (from my real band - shameless plug www.tonyferrigno.com). our gig at 9:30 is cancelled. rats. $120 down the drain. However, condsidering CT didn't plow or sand for hours i never would have made it after gig #1.

I check my e-mail on the phone. the drummer for the "dreamers" cancells. says something came up at work and he won't drive through the snow. I call the bandleader, and he freaks. Next thing you know I get the job of calling back the original drummer who we used to play with and was at the first parctice (remember him?). Keep in mind that the night before i call said drummer to vent about how nuts this gig has become. So i call jim the drummer. Ask if he's sitting down. Maybe he should get a beer. Or a shot. He lives in the town we are gigging in, poor guy. So yeah, I end up saving the gig by calling Jim. (a side note - Jim Stavris is one of the three best drummers i've ever played with and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet).

So i end up giving jim cues all night. play a couple clams because i'm paying attention to keeping him in the loop about dynamics, breaks, etc. I also find out that i'm the only guy who actually wore my copy of this rediculous shirt that the bandleader bought for the backup band. Picture a black bandanna. now picture seven of them sewn into a t-shirt. Yeah. Really. I'll see if i can get pix.

My wife goes and it turns out she was friends with the singers in High School. That's cool. They have a good time. The show went as expected. mystery guitar and keyboard chords everywhere. Guitar because he's lost in space, keys because he got the chords from who knows where instead of listening to the songs. One song where the singer/guitar player forgets where he is and throws a verse in the bridge.

Oh yeah. I've tried to explain to the bandleader about judicious usse of effects on guitar and voice. He has wayyyyy too much effects on his guitar at all times. a zillion patches on his multi effects unit. Likewise, on his mike he runs through some crazy expensive processor to put effects on his voice before going into the mixer. Refuses not to. No way i can control how much is on him. The levels drive the mixer crazy. He sounds like he's in the bottom of an empty oil tanker.

Likewise, we are all stuffed into an alcove. Except his amp. That's on the side of the opening. Everyone in the audience who cares keeps telling us the guitar is too loud. All he keeps saying is "no way it's too loud, all i hear is bass". Could be because his amp is in front and to the side of him and he's standing in front of my amp............

So i drive through the snow for this.

And it gets better. The bandleader sends out an e-mail afterwards. He wants to get in on the summer festival thing. he feels that we should book studio time right now to record a demo. And, he wants us to rent a hall, invite a bunch of people for free and record a live video for you tube. Really.

[AlembicPlayer]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

And it gets better. The bandleader sends out an e-mail afterwards. He wants to get in on the summer festival thing. he feels that we should book studio time right now to record a demo. And, he wants us to rent a hall, invite a bunch of people for free and record a live video for you tube. Really.

HAHA! this is getting better every post!

keep it coming, this is great stuff!!

[dmusic148]

Awesome. If I had a nickel for every time.......maybe it's a Connecticut thing. Pics please. Can't wait to see that shirt, "I don't WANT to be a pirate!!!!"

[Eilif]

Wow, sounds like a trainwreck that hassn't quite ground to a halt yet. Keep us updated. I hope you won't be on the hook for any of the costs related to the upcoming youtube video fiasco.

[paganjack]

this is epic. sometimes musicians are completely oblivious...it's funny.