This stuff rarely happens to me anymore but it still can...
I got a call from a bandleader who said I was recommended to him by someone I knew. He told me about his band, it's projected schedule, etc. and I told him that due to my current commitments I couldn't be their fulltime bassist (I'm booked most Fridays and Saturdays). He said he'd still like to use me when I was free. Said that his band currently had a bassist and they were rehearsing Sunday afternoon, if I wanted to I was free to stop by and check them out.
Sunday morning he left me a message asking if I was coming. I called him after I was done with the church service I was doing and told him yeah, I could stop by on my way to my next appointment.
I get to the rehearsal space, get introduced to everyone and notice there's no bassist there. He said I could go ahead and plug in, maybe run over a couple of songs. The rehearsal space provided backline and the amp's fan was banging away inside it's enclosure so I said I'd go outside and grab my head. When I walked outside I ran into a close friend of mine who's a bassist. He was surprised to see me and told me the leader had just called him 20 minutes ago and asked him to come and play and that he'd be paid. Told him that I was supposed to play but hadn't called him back.
So we walk in together and the leader's standing there with a blank look on his face. Doesn't know we know each other and that we're close friends. Doesn't say anything to my friend and told me that his bassist wasn't showing up and could I run over a couple of songs. Fine, I'm there, what the heck.
Turned out he wanted me to run over five songs, which we did, then I overheard him saying put on black shirts for a group photo and action shots and then they'd record the five songs we ran over.
So far I'm supposed to be a guest at this rehearsal as far as I knew.
I asked him if he was going to be taping the band, he said no, just recording a demo for clubs. And the difference is?
Instead of walking out I went ahead and played the five songs again. They turned out very well. Afterwards he came to me and asked me if I had change for $100, I looked and told him I had $40, he gave me the $100, took the $40 and walked off. I was there for another 15 minutes and then I left.
Around 10 o'clock he calls me and says he didn't get his change. I said I know. He said he'd call me Monday, I said fine. I called my friend up and he found out from the guy who had recommended me that this demo session had been planned, people were being paid (including my friend) and when my name was brought up the leader said I was doing it for free.
So I had a nice conversation with him on Monday in which he tried to backtrack and justify what had gone down. It was supposedly a series of miscommunications... which was complete bull. He was simply trying to get over.
The reason he called my friend at 4:40 was because he didn't think I was going to show up, despite the fact that he talked to me at 4 for this 5 o'clock rehearsal that I was just supposed to check out. The rehearsal did not hinge on me showing up. There was no mention of doing a demo. He said he wanted my friend to play a couple of songs to check out his tone... sounds like an audition to me. Said he wasn't doing it for the money, I told him I am doing it for the money and asked what expectations the person who'd recommended me had set.
This devolved into the usual nonsense about he had a good dayjob so the money wasn't important, he didn't have to rely on gig money
. I told him the importance of the money to anyone concerned is not the issue. If money doesn't mean any more than he said it did, cool... pay the people it does mean something to more. It's a win-win. He even asked me if I charge for rehearsals and I told him yeah, sometimes I do... especially when I'm dealing with unknowns or people I know are flakey, who'll try to get free rehearsals and then hire someone cheaper for the actual gig. BTDT.
I told him that if you want someone to do something, tell them what you want them to do. Don't BS someone to come in under false pretenses and then act like it was a simple mistake. That doesn't fly. He said no one got paid, which he later recanted, said my friend wasn't going to get paid, which is the opposite of what my friend told me. At this point I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could kick him.
At one point he even told me to keep $50 and we could meet and I could give him $10. I LOL'd. I told him I charge more than $50 to come out and do a demo, he was actually stupid enough to say that I hadn't told him that before I came over. I asked why would I tell him what I charge for a demo when it wasn't even part of our conversation and I was simply a guest?
That seemed to stump him so he started in about his faith and how he's a man of his word, all of which flew in the face of the crap he was pulling. I humored this BS for a few more minutes, asking who was supposed to play if I hadn't showed up (my friend left almost immediately)? That baffled him. He asked about performing with him this weekend and I politely told him I'd have to pass. This first impression left a very bad and very familiar taste. I got $60 (I'll let someone else compute that hourly
) and another silly story to tell. If I worked with this guy it would be my own fault now that I know better.
He's called a few times since yesterday, the last call was around 6:40 this morning, said he talked to his manager and now he wants to pay my bassist friend for coming by and he wants to pay me another $40 for a total of $100 for the demo. I have no reason to call him back.
