Losing a gig/audition

[Marcus Willett]

Originally Posted by GSPLBASSDC

+1.....if you can play, then you can play

I agree that's how it should be, but often that ain't the case.

[GSPLBASSDC]

Originally Posted by Marcus Willett

I agree that's how it should be, but often that ain't the case.

sad but true...just because you look a certain way doesn't say squat about your abilities.

[pagan109]

Yeah some people can get very rude!
i saw an ad in the local forum.Replied to it...they said they would call me and tell when and where to come.Nothing for one whole week.I called the up...there were like .."Yeah,come tommorrow"
Like there aint interested in getting a bassist for their band.
Well the audition didnt go too well..1)right into the first song and my E string snaps.I didnt have any spare ones.2)their old bassist was there for the jam.As i was leaving...i had to ask..since i was sure they werent going to tell me..whether i should come again.Again they were like .."Yeah ,come on wednesday"...thats it..i decided i wasnt gonna call them unless they called me.They didnt call,I didnt call ...that was the end ofit.How rude was that?
later i found out that they had patched up with their old bassist and he was back in.Why did they even make me come then???

[Bard2dbone]

Not long after I got out of the Navy, a band I had had records from since high school was auditioning for a bassist.

I was in a music store. I had just made a payment on the bass that became my main mass for about eight years afterward, when this older guy comes up to me while I am playing it. He starts asking 'Can you sing while you play?' "Do you know this song?' 'How about this one?' 'Can you do that one in G, in stead of E?' Then he goes away for a while. He comes back and gives me a card with directions on it and tells me that Foghat is looking for a new bassist. You have to have an invitation to audition, and this is my audition. I was all psyched. The store let me borrow that bass for the audition. I drove over to Dallas, went to the auditorium where the auditions were being held (the Coliseum at Fair Park, how cool is that?) showed my invite to a security guard, and went inside.

Inside I joined a line of about a dozen guys looking nervous with a gigbag on their shoulders. Then a guy comes up, identifies himself as a member of 'the Mangement Team', (Foghat needs a management TEAM???) and says "I know you're a monster player or you wouldn't be here. But we're also looking for a look. And you really don't have it. You can go."

Bastard.

I went home and broke up all my Foghat records with a pair of vice grips. It took about ten years till I could be riding in someone else's car, hear Foghat and not change the radio.

I'm less bitter now...seventeen years later, or so, but it still sucked.

Yes it's official. I'm too ugly for Rock and Roll.

It could have been worse, I guess. If I HAD got the gig, I would have signed on just in time for the plummet into obscurity. "Attention shoppers: On aisle four we have a special on bait worms. And on aisle seven: FOGHAT!!!"

I could see it.

[RLT]

Not too ugly for Rock and Roll. Too ugly for management teams that drive bands into obscurity.

[steveksux]

Don't forget this is the ENTERTAINMENT business, not the MUSIC business. A huge part of making it today is image, not talent. They're selling fantasies as much as music, maybe moreso.

Just the way it is... How many girls singers are there out there that can sing like Christina Aguilera and look like Johnny Knoxville and dance like Fred Sanford? We'll never know, cause they aren't going to make it in the music bus in this day and age being ugly and unable to dance.

As you get further along, the stakes get higher, so do the requirements. The top bands may get 100 talented bass players to choose from, why not pick the one that's also marketable because of looks, stage presence?

Randy

[LittleJaco]

Originally Posted by rllefebv

Oddly enough, one of my current bands is a blues/R&B fronted by two female singers

-robert

now thats the way to go!

['JC']

bard2dbone - that's a great story.

well not great, but you know what i mean.
and certainly does put things in perspective.

[Maverick Blues]

Regarding classified ads and rudeness attached thereto:

I only started thumping in February, after years on other instruments. A couple of months ago I decided it would be a good sanity check to try playing with some actual people rather than just practicing solo. So, I went looking for classifieds from laid-back older folks who just wanted to jam for fun (I certainly didn't want to screw up a group's band practice, or let down someone that was trying to do some serious improv or whatever.)

Contacted two likely candidates. One led to a great bunch of guys who have been letting me sit in on their practices as they try to get a band together, and it's been a tremendous help to me (and, I hope, to them -- at least they have someone to cover the bottom end as they work out their sets).

The other ad was pretty vague -- implied they were older players and just wanted to mess around with "oldies." They were also looking for several different players, one of which was a bassist. I wrote a polite email asking what they considered older players, what they considered "oldies" (I'm not up to handling big band jazz or similar, but stuff from my school years would be okay), and whether they were planning a band (because of their looking for specific instruments) or if they just wanted to jam for fun. Didn't want to waste their time, ya know?

Well, they did write back and answered the questions (politely enough, if in very few words). But I hadn't indicated my instrument when I emailed them, and instead of the expected "So, what do you play?" question, the only inquiry in their reply was:

"Do you have a place to practice?"

Maybe I was off-bass (heh) but that set off bells, whistles, red flags, flashing lights... I mean, if they're more interested in whether I have a place to jam than what INSTRUMENT I play, they're not looking for players, they're looking for a venue.

I wrote back and said no, sorry, I don't have a place for a group to play (true), and told them I was a new-to-the-instrument future bassist. I also indicated I'd be happy to forward a few mp3 recordings to give them an idea of where I was at, so as not to waste their time if they felt I wasn't ready.

Never heard a peep from 'em again, which sort of confirmed that what they REALLY wanted was to be able to turn it up without the neighbors calling the cops on 'em.

Fun stuff!

'rick