Band issues following a sub-par show...

[invader3k]

This is lengthy, so bear with me...

So, as I've posted about before, our cover band has had some issues recently. We finally found a new drummer back in January, and had been without a dedicated lead singer since October, when our previous drummer and singer bailed on us at the same time to form their own group.

Anyway, we ended up settling on a new singer about a month ago. He has never been in a serious band before, and most of his experience was through karaoke (I know, I know...). Anyway, he's a nice guy, roughly in our age group, and has been reliable as far as showing up on time and working on learning the lyrics for practice.

We had a show this past Saturday night at a rather low key local bar, and to say it was one of our weaker performances would be putting it nicely. The singer forgot lyrics to quite a few songs, and didn't really put on much of a stage show...he'd turn his back to the crowd, and ask our guitarist for help with the words in the middle of songs, etc. He tried to get the crowd into it a few times by making banter between songs, but after a while it got lame because he kept saying the same stuff over and over, and the crowd became pretty indifferent. No one was expecting him to perform perfectly, but his showing was definitely pretty bad. A handful of the songs went terribly, because he'd suddenly go into the chorus without warning, or the drummer ended the song early because he got thrown off by the singer... We did get paid, at the very least, though I felt we didn't really earn it that night.

The most irksome part to me is how good our band was just a few months ago. We were doing a lot of shows (for us), and people who had heard us before thought we never sounded better. Since the previous singer and drummer left, it seems like our band has been lurching around without direction, and it's been hard finding good people. The current drummer is good, but lacks confidence, and sometimes his playing is tentative (though he was fine at this past show). The singer...I don't know what to do with him. I'm worried his confidence was destroyed after this performance, and it's hard for us to have faith in him now.

To top it all off, the drummer just posted something on his myspace site yesterday about whether or not he should give up playing music for now because of this show.

I don't know if I'm asking for specifice advice here, or what. I just feel like this band is becoming an injured horse that needs to be put out of its misery. I hate to say that, because the guitarist and I are lifelong friends and have good music chemistry, and the drummer is at least competent (though his availability is awful...he works Friday and Saturday nights usually, making it hard to book shows). Just don't know what to do at this point. It's frustrating to place so much energy into a band that doesn't seem to be moving forward.

[Phalex]

Sounds like a classic case of L.S.D. (Lead Singers Disease).

Don't sweat a poor performance. It has even happened to me. A lot. Can he sing?? A great singing voice can make up for a lot of on stage blunders.

This past Saturday, our singer forgot some lyrics, he came in late after a chorus, and he even some how managed to fall off of the newly added riser in front of the stage.

The guitar player started a song twice (the second time in the proper key thank God!) and broke a D string in the middle of a lead.

The drummer bought some new sticks and apparently couldn't hold onto them during a few key sections.

I myself am a total idiot and screwed up Wonderful Tonight. Yep, Wonderful Tonight. I've played that stupid song for better than 20 years, and OOPS! I pulled some really atrocious crap on some harmonies too.

All in all, the gig went pretty good. The crowd was big, they had a great time, they were very appreciative, and they called us back for a record 5 encores. The bar made a lot of money, the owner of the hotel was happy, and we had three people approach us about potential band jobs.

Playing in a band is magical. Sometimes you make the lady disappear, and sometimes you cut her in two and make a bloody mess all over the stage.

[tank49]

Don't sweat it too much. I think we have all had shows that didn't go like we planned. Learn from it and move on. Get everybody back together, talk about it and use it to motivate yourselves to improve.

The lead singer for my old band was new to performing when we started and at first he was terrible but he got better and is now a tremendous performer.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Sounds to me that You are forgetting how much work and time it took to get the original band to sound as good as it did. And how many gigs it took to lessen the stage fright even a bit and tighten the performance.

So these two key figures were on their first gig, probably in an unfamiliar environment surrounded with people with high expectations. They were probably scared sh**less but too embarassed to say so.

You said that the night was a total failure?
But You finished most of the songs correctly, played the whole set, and not too many people walked out the door just because of Your playing?

Right?

Sounds to me that You did ok for the first gig. The next one will be better, if Your karaoke singer has the balls to try it again. Do have faith in him, You do still remember the first time You climbed to the stage? Frightened? Multiply it by 10 if You have to sing.

Don't let one minor setback to discourage You. That way nothing gets done.

Unless You're born pro, those things You described has happened to every one of us.

Just my 2 cents worth
Sam

[Jimbob Jones]

I'm in exactly the same position as you, a good guitarist who is a close friend, and any other musicians you get on board never seem to "click".

It took my brother TEN YEARS to find the right group of people for his band, so don't be afraid to call the band a day and just you and the guitarist go on the search for another drummer and singer. But I'm not saying you have to sack your band mates! Just, if you feel that it is right to call it a day, dont be afraid to.

I hope it all works out for you!

JBJ

EDIT: +1000 to what the guys above me said.

[brianrost]

Originally Posted by invader3k

I don't know if I'm asking for specifice advice here, or what.

I'll give you some anyway: You and the guitarist need to start singing yourselves. Then find a drummer who's actually available to play gigs.

Good luck!

[pilonian]

I think a lot of us have had experiences like this. Recently it happened similarily to my band. We just got a new singer, who is an incredible improvment to our sound and band with pipes like you wouldn't believe. However just about a week after we got him, and we scraped most of our old set, we were offered a show, so we figured hey, might as well try and see what we can pull out. Well we pretty much wrote an entire hour set 2 days before the show, only had like one or 2 covers in it.

Anyways, we were told all we'd need to bring was our own amps and guitars etc, and that there was a PA set up that we'd just mic into. So we get there, and the the PA was probably the worst / most underpowered system in the world, and the sound guy didn't know what he was doing. so our mix in the monitors was terrible. I couldn't hear our singer or lead guitar, and our drummer was in a box so it was mildly hard to hear him. So me and the rhythmn guitarist just did our best to remember exactly what we had run through before.

The Lead singer actually made up 90% of the lyrics on the spot cuz he forgot most of them, because we actually never sat down and finalized any, haha, but no one could even tell. Our singer does some songs on piano and acoustic guitar, switches around, but the sound guy couldn't get the DI to work from the acoustic. and the paino was just an upright that I eventually had to re mic because the guy just placed a mic near it and was telling me that would be fine. also if i moved outside of a metre square box there was a mystery feedback that was deafening

Anyways, we got a video back from the performance, and it wasn't a train wreck, obviously we're going to be over critical of it, but there was good feedback, and really we just look at it now as a good practice. If you dwell on problems that happen with one bad show with new members, you're not going to be able to go anywhere, you may have to change your sound a bit, but just think of as a practice, and try and get a few smaller shows that don't matter in there.

Oh and Make Good Choices

[invader3k]

Originally Posted by brianrost

I'll give you some anyway: You and the guitarist need to start singing yourselves. Then find a drummer who's actually available to play gigs.

Good luck!

Yeah...I agree, to a point. Actually, our guitarist was the lead singer as well for quite a while. The problem is, he isn't a very good front man, and I don't think he ever will be. If he's playing and singing at the same time, his playing becomes pretty robotic, and he pretty much sticks to the rhythm parts and that's it. Not so exciting. Plus, he just kind of stands there, like he's locked in front of the mic.

The drummer is a nice guy, who happens to live in the same town as us. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but in a town of about 10,000 residents, it's tough to find a drummer. We've dealt with so many flakey drummers from out of the area who inevitably couldn't make it to practice regularly, that I guess we settled on a local guy who wasn't available as much. Maybe that was the wrong choice. Hopefully he'll be available more on weekends in a couple months when things slow down at the auto factory where he works.

[swohawk]

There was once this blues guitarist that wanted to add a singer. Found this young kid with a set of pipes that just wouldn't quit. The only thing was, he had a paralyzing bout of stage fright and would only sing from behind the guitarist's stack.

After a few gigs, the guitarist and bassist were able to talk the singer out from behind the stacks and convince him to just go out and have fun. The rest became history.

The guitarist: Jeff Beck
Bassist: Ronnie Wood
Singer: Rod Stewart

Moral of the story is: Give it time.

[TheXym]

Originally Posted by swohawk

There was once this blues guitarist that wanted to add a singer. Found this young kid with a set of pipes that just wouldn't quit. The only thing was, he had a paralyzing bout of stage fright and would only sing from behind the guitarist's stack.

After a few gigs, the guitarist and bassist were able to talk the singer out from behind the stacks and convince him to just go out and have fun. The rest became history.

The guitarist: Jeff Beck
Bassist: Ronnie Wood
Singer: Rod Stewart

Moral of the story is: Give it time.

+1000. I tell this story to my choir students who are afraid of singing solos or even trying out for them. The only way I've seen to overcome stage fright is time and effort.

[aceshigh]

Yes, ditto to the others, give it a try.

But do not insist!! Try hard to make it work but if they don't respond, if they don't put effort and try to improve, move on.

You must not be the only one trying to make things work. They must have THEIR OWN desire to make it better for your efforts to pay off.

Otherwise, you'd just be forcing people into something they do not want to do.

Just my 2c