Bad luck with bands, venting ahead

I guess there should be a dedicated section for venting and rants Usually I don't care for venting/ranting in public, but here it goes:

Two bands (A & B), neither of them are doing gigs at the moment but that's the goal, and has been for a while. Band A was started a 2-3 years ago as a hobby and a learning project, but has evolved into something that we'd like to take further and start doing gigs/recording etc. Band B was formed by myself and the drummer from band A a bit over a year ago as an outlet for wanting to make heavier music with clear goals of getting a setlist ready and doing gigs. Most of us are 27-30, singer of band A is 22, all having fulltime jobs.

There's been a streak of bad luck lately (6-12mo), with:
- Singer of Band A has crappy shifts at work and was unable to attend practice/make lyrics for quite some time. This is now partially fixed since she's made some arrangements and can now participate a lot better.

- Singer of Band B kept promising that he'd put more time to the band, we waited, never happened. His work ended up taking a _lot_ more time than he had anticipated, and we were finally forced to part ways with him. This went well, but sucked all the same.

- Drummer started to show signs of flakiness, partially due to a slight problem with alcohol. Luckily, he stepped up, quit boozing and is now quite reliable. We're proud of him, but...

- Drummer was recently doing pullups at home, the bar which you grasp fell off, resulting in a shattered kneecap, surgery, and at least a month off playing with an undetermined amount of recovery (affects both bands)

- Right before this, the guitar player from band A had a prolonged case of the flu/mono/something, which basically put band A in a standstill for some weeks

- Right before this, guitar player #1 from band B stated that he simply didn't have the time required due to big changes with his work, relationship, other hobby which takes up at least three nights/week etc. That was ok, we kind of saw it coming. Sucks that it happened right after we finally found a new singer for the band.

- Yesterday, guitar player #2 from band B stated that he didn't have enough time for the band. Totally acceptable, as he and his wife had a baby less than two months ago and there's no denying that it's going to take most of his formerly free time, and we understand that he also needs some social time with friends etc.

All in all, I'm a bit frustrated to say the least, as both bands are effectively in a standstill for the time being and have been so for the past couple of months. All of these are things which could easily happen to anyone, there have been no major struggles with egos etc., "family comes first" is something we all understand and so on. Just a lot of bad luck with poor timing.

I'm just angry at the fact that all of this keeps pushing the possibility of taking the next steps further and further. Now, I'm not in a hurry, I just hate having a delay after a delay after a delay (unless we're talking about pedals) :scowl: Also, having to look for two guitar players (who are nice, fit in, can commit both timewise and financially - their share of the rent - can play well without the need of doing endless solos, and aren't total douchebags) instead of just one is annoying, especially as this happened just after spending time and effort finding a singer.

Oh well, such is life.

/venting

 

Thanks for the suggestions A cover project would / could be nice, but the problem is that when the drummer will eventually heal up and the missing guitar is replaced, the two bands will continue as usual (although we decided to make a fresh start with band B, since two of the original members left). Then I'd be committed to three bands, which coupled with a full-time job and a relationship is likely to become a bit too much. Also, it wouldn't sound right to put something up just for a month or two. I get my kicks from doing and playing the originals, and the options I feel like I have open are a) jamming with the others using a drum machine and b) finally learning to use the synths & everything on Logic Pro.

I already started on option B, going to do some drones, synthpop and ambient. Doesn't beat playing things live, though

However, if the delays keep on coming long-term and common ground/solutions can't be found for some reason, I guess it might be necessary to do a reality check and possibly move on/try to find a new band.

 

Kawai-chang:
That's what we'll probably do, as soon as he's well enough to drag his ass to our practice place by public transportation None of us have the need to own a car, so no rides/picking him up.

Bluewine:
For me, gigs aren't an absolute necessity and the long/two year wait was somewhat to be expected in any case, as we have/had people onboard who required time to learn their instruments - considered it early on and it's fine by me, I'm not in that much of a hurry. Having said that, I do expect that we, as a group, work towards achieving agreed goals. Even though we've had a streak of plain bad luck, I'm reasonably sure that if things don't evolve as planned, I'll have my reality check and move on. Oh, and I definitely agree with you on the improvement with gigs/basement thing - I've had quite a lot of conversations on the subject with friends who are in established bands/are full-time musicians. I've already looked at the local classifieds for bass players, but at the moment most of the open spots are for deathcore/glamrock/tech. death metal/symphonic metal, which don't interest me enough. The one or two interesting bands would require a full-time commitment, as in lose the day job, which isn't an option. One option would be to start something new and try to gather committed people, but before I do that and commit myself, I'd like to see whether or not things get back on track after the current drummer gets better. That, or getting more committed people aboard band B and keeping band A on the side for jamming etc.

 

Blue: Yup Well, at least not at a skill level which I'd consider as intermediate, some basic skills existed. Thus the "partly learning" in the OP for band A People have developed through practice and don't sound bad at all, even though there's still a long road ahead to a professional or advanced level but it's enough for what we play. We all have to start somewhere

 

Also, even though the gigs etc. aren't a necessity, they're the goal we've set and to which I've committed and based my own actions for some time now, and taking a huge step back now would... well, suck. Also, we were planning on getting "out of the basement" this Spring/early Summer, which is now greatly delayed due to the stuff listed above.