Add new material 5 hours before load-in?

[glocke1]

I love my band. Our singer is a very cool and talented guy. But sometimes I just gotta LOL.

He sends a text to us about 30 minutes ago that he has "2 or 3" country fans coming tonight so we should play 2 songs that I've honestly never heard before.

Not my idea of fun...but it happens and sometimes happens at the last minute during a gig.

A couple of years back Im out running errands the day of a gig, and the BL sends a text saying he wants us to do this little feat tune. Forget which one, but I dialed it up on you tube and was like no way and had no time to go over it before the gig.

I've been on other gigs where the BL calls out a tune I've not heard before and says its easy peasey and rattles off the changes. We get through the first verse and things are sounding way off as some of the chords are inversions and other things were going on they didn't tell me about either.

Honestly, unless they are top notch players most people performing live in the local scene have no business trying to pull off last minute set list changes with tunes the people on stage havent heard or played before.

 

[TOOL460002]

My favorite is when numerous songs are renamed for seemingly no reason. That one I stopped trying to understand. Trying to shoehorn in a new song or cover I can get, even if it's an objectively bad idea. That said: Yes. Done it to varying degrees of success and failure.

 

[Rich67]

YES. This. "On the bass, Derek Smalls. He wrote this."

 

[TheReceder]

Life is a highway is easy if you have time.... you don't By now you're setting up so what I say doesn't really matter...

But... if he wanted to throw out a country tune unprepared.... I'd have gone with a 1 4 5 pasic like long haired country boy or even, My Maria.

 

[Rich67]

or just play along and when that time comes, you step in and announce the next tune is "Jet City Woman". I hear the Queensryche library is an easy chirp.

 

[LBS-bass]

Just because there are five hours before load in does not necessarily mean that everyone's time is free.

This happens to me frequently. Guys tend to forget that women's gig prep also includes hair and makeup, which can take a significant chunk out of your day, especially if you need to straighten curly hair like I do, which takes an hour by itself. There's a reason I had my hair pulled back in my avatar pic. Was too tired to do it that day.

 

[Aceman]

Option #1: Just say "No"
- And add that for future reference you will be more than glad to learn three country, disco, metal, and reggae tunes just in case. But not the day of the show.

Option #2: Pull down the tab, chart it on paper w/ A Sharpie real quick
- And add that for future reference you will be more than glad to learn three country, disco, metal, and reggae tunes just in case. But not the day of the show EVER AGAIN.

Option #3: Tell him to play the bass itself. Should be no problem, only four strings and whatnot.
- And then have the band send him three songs he has never heard the lyrics to 6 hours before the next show.

I'm a fan of #1 & #3

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

As a bass player I would just go along for the ride. The guitar/keyboard players will have a tougher time. I’d rather play poorly on material I’ve never heard than play poorly on songs I should have know all along. Atlas Shrugged.

 

[Aceman]

This happens to me frequently. Guys tend to forget that women's gig prep also includes hair and makeup, which can take a significant chunk out of your day, especially if you need to straighten curly hair like I do, which takes an hour by itself. There's a reason I had my hair pulled back in my avatar pic. Was too tired to do it that day.

Hey - I have to untangle my wig, get my guy-liner and rouge done, lip gloss to match my pink burst guitar, and arrange my trouser sock just so! It isn't just women. So sexist....LOL

 

[LBS-bass]

Hey - I have to untangle my wig, get my guy-liner and rouge done, lip gloss to match my pink burst guitar, and arrange my trouser sock just so! It isn't just women. So sexist....LOL

OK, some guys DO get it

 

[Mechanical]

I think if the guitarist can pull it off, and the singer can play guitar (or not) have them do those songs acoustically.

Like this?


That said, that tune doesn't seem too difficult.

 

[David McIntire]

Question... If everyone said No cuzza notice? How would on call studio guys succeed?

Answer? Chart changes, and create lines in the style of. I can do any song, within reason, certainly any radio hit, whether I heard it or not, in ten minnits. I learn songs on stage. I am a metal head, at heart. I do all styles, tho, in my current acts. I got a call a few weeks ago. Hour anna half notice, 1.5 hours of new country. Some originals. I do not listen to New Country. Never heard the tunes, except two. I knew the band. I knew the guitarist. I can read chords watching the guitarist's left hand. I took the date. Made scads of cash. It was not perfect. It was enjoyed by the audience, however. Immensely. I learned to play bass guitar. So I do.

A bonus? No one else here would, or could, take that call. My calls, and minimum rate, increased.

My band takes requests, even. We listen to a tune on a break. Open the set widdit. It's only difficult if you decide it is. Trust yerself.

 

[bass.slinger]

At least you got some advance notice... we've added new songs during the set a few times. You just have to trust your skill and experience and roll with it.

BW

This - and it turns out our guitarist / singer does not really know them either. Pretty embarrassing.

 

[gumbynotpokey]

Ok, we're in A. Follow the changes. Here we go!

When the Hammond B3 player functions as BL on a whim, and calls a tune he wrote and none of us have ever heard, and sings lead on it - while me, the drummer and only guitar pound away at it, the guitarist and organ trade unplanned solos on improv choruses of unknown number, and all that stuff.....

 

[Bass Viking]

A couple of years back Im out running errands the day of a gig, and the BL sends a text saying he wants us to do this little feat tune. Forget which one, but I dialed it up on you tube and was like no way and had no time to go over it before the gig.

And then he suggested a Weather Report tune.

 

[sawzalot]

I’ve learned tunes moments before a show in different keys than the original, with no rehearsal. With enough practice and experience it’s fun rather than terrifying.

 

[REV]

Is the singer providing charts for the last minute material?

 

[3bc]

as long as you settle on a key in advance i don't see why you couldn't add a couple country tunes to a set an hour or two in advance. shouldn't take much more than one or two play throughs to chart a typical country song using a number system.

 

[brianrost]

I’ve had to learn songs on set breaks before

Back in the 80s I did a country club party gig in a pickup band where the guitarist and drummer took me into a room and ran down all three sets in less than a half hour. I recall I remembered a little over 50% of it, mostly early rock and roll, New Orleans R&B and some Cajun tunes which is not very common here in New England.

The first two sets went pretty well, by the last set I was starting to slip up a lot more. At the end of the night they asked me if I wanted to join a new band they were just starting.

Almost 40 years later I'm still playing with them off and on and they still call songs on the gig that I've never played before

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I love my band. Our singer is a very cool and talented guy. But sometimes I just gotta LOL.

He sends a text to us about 30 minutes ago that he has "2 or 3" country fans coming tonight so we should play 2 songs that I've honestly never heard before.

Thats what YouTube is for… better get cracking. But after the gig, you need to have a conversation.

I will say this on his behalf, it just may be he knows or thinks these important promoter types that might help you get better and more important gigs.