What a crazy day...

[mtizzle]

Not really a gig story, but more of a practice story...

Backstory:

Two months ago a friend of mine saw a sign for GCSU's battle of the bands, and almost instantly called me asking if I wanted to give it a shot. We didn't have a band together, but we knew some people. We slapped together three originals for the audition, but we didn't have a drummer - it was just three of us: two guitars, one of which was singing, and me, the bass player. We had the singer stomp on my bass case in order to 'lay down a beat'. A week after the audition we got a call saying that we made it to the final performance (five bands, and we're playing 4th next Thursday!), but the excitement quickly died down - we needed a drummer, but we had no place to keep a drum set. Long story short, we get a drummer, and I made some calls and found us a place, but it was expensive for college kids - 50 dollars a week.

Rant and resolution:

I made a deal with the man who leases the building: we would rent the place for two weeks - May 28th through April 10th - and we would pay him 100 dollars up front. May 28th rolls around and I can't get in touch with him. Turns out he's in Miami with his band. Monday I call him and ask if we can at least pay him and move in, as our drummer just had his drum set in his car. We had no safe place to put it outside of the practice space (damn dorms...). He tells me that he's too busy, and Mondays are off limits, anyway, because that's when his band practices, but to call him on Tuesday at seven and we could move in. I call Tuesday at seven and he's in Atlanta with his band. He couldn't let us move in because he has the keys. We had enough of it. At that point, we wouldn't get a full two weeks worth out of the room, so we decided to pack it up for the night and search for new places. We head back to our rooms.

Five minutes later I get a call from our guitarist. "Hey, -kid's name- said we can use his lake house. (Georgia College is really close to Lake Sinclare) Get in the car and let's go." So a 30 minute drive later, we unload and start to practice - the first time the full band has played the songs together - and it was HOT. We're going back today, and I'll get some recordings if I can.

Thanks for letting me rant...

Oh - and does anyone around Milledgeville, GA have, or know of, a rehearsal space that we can rent?

[Doufuss]

Sorry to hear about your experience. Make sure you get yer dough back.

Here's one: My bro was in a cover band and one of the band mates took it upon himself to handle the arrangements. All the band members submitted the rent money to this guy and the first two months went fine.

On the third month, said bandmate came to the band and advised them that he used the money for a 'business deal' which did not turn out the way he had planned.

Whoopsie! My bro leaped over the drum kit and pinned this fellow on his back, choking him ala Homer and Bart.

It all worked out in the end, but dude, watch your back.

PS - Good luck with the show.

[mtizzle]

Originally Posted by Doufuss

Sorry to hear about your experience. Make sure you get yer dough back.

Here's one: My bro was in a cover band and one of the band mates took it upon himself to handle the arrangements. All the band members submitted the rent money to this guy and the first two months went fine.

On the third month, said bandmate came to the band and advised them that he used the money for a 'business deal' which did not turn out the way he had planned.

Whoopsie! My bro leaped over the drum kit and pinned this fellow on his back, choking him ala Homer and Bart.

It all worked out in the end, but dude, watch your back.

PS - Good luck with the show.

Thanks, man.

I would have done the same thing. I don't take people screwing with my money well.

Fortunately, we never paid the guy - it was just the fact that he was leaving us out to dry, and we had a nice set of drums that we couldn't put anywhere but in our drummers car....in the parking lot. I guess another key piece of information is that the show is on April 8th, and the reason it's such a big deal is because we have so little time to actually rehearse.

[Oraflora]

Sounds like you've made the best of a bad situation.
I love how the dude with the space asks you to call him the next day, but leaves out the detail that it won't do you any good, since he is in Atlanta?!

What the?

[mtizzle]

Originally Posted by Oraflora

Sounds like you've made the best of a bad situation.
I love how the dude with the space asks you to call him the next day, but leaves out the detail that it won't do you any good, since he is in Atlanta?!

What the?

Yeah, when I called him he was just like "Yeah...I decided to stay in Atlanta with my band tonight. Sorry.... Just come by tomorrow (Wed.) at 11 and we'll get you taken care of."