I was in this three piece 60's garage rock/British Invasion cover band a couple years back. We wanted to add an organist, someone who could double on second guitar occasionally would be a plus, but was not required. We also wanted to add a front man. While all three of us sang lead proficiently, none of us really wanted to be a lead singer; we preferred to concentrate on our instruments, do back ups, maybe each sing a song or two over the course of a three set gig.
So our guitarist schedules two guys to come over one Saturday afternoon. One is a guy who is a guitarist/organist named Sean, the other is a lead singer , don't remember his name other than our guitarist says the guy called himself "the King Of Karaoke" in an e-mail.
Sean is scheduled first; he is totally smoking. He said he was more of a guitarist than an organist, but we play "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone", "96 Tears", and "I Can't Get Enough Of You Baby", and his Farfisa organ playing is spot on, exactly what we're looking for. His guitar playing on some Who, Kinks and Yardbirds tunes, great also, actually a better player than our guitarist. He's got the right gear, the hipster vibe, the whole package. Then "The King" shows up in the middle of it all, and he's a total buzzkill. He tells us he "looked up garage rock on Wikipedia, but still doesn't quite understand what it is". Keep in mind, we are all in our early to mid 40's and were little kids or not born yet when the music we play and idolize was released. This guy was older, would've probably been a preteen or teenager during the heyday of this stuff, but he hasn't got a clue about it. We are all just looking at each other wondering why he even bothered to try out. On top of it, he shows up in a Counting Crows t-shirt.
We run through a couple songs with him. We do "The Train Kept A Rollin'", he's doing it like some kind of lounge singer; we are all holding back from cracking up. At the end he says he's never heard of The Yardbirds, and thought this was an Aerosmith original. Finally he gets it that he's just not the right guy, thanks us for having him over and leaves.
We play a little more with Sean, it's great, we're over the moon, want him to join the band. Then we hang out and talk with him for at least an hour, and then it goes downhill. He starts telling us how we need a cute girl to sing lead so that we "stand out" (I was in two bands like that that ended badly), and then he talks about his availability for practice, which is hardly ever. He's one of these mercenary type guys who shows up for a rehearsal before a show and basically "sits in".
We kept trying to get him back over unsuccessfully. In the meantime we've learned tons of new material,which he would be way behind in catching up to and now have booked a couple gigs we're practicing for, which are only a couple weeks away. He finally agrees to come over one Saturday night, only he doesn't even bring his organ, which is what we mainly wanted him for. He brings a 6 string and a twelve string, and acts like the twelve is an acceptable replacement for a Farfisa organ (?)
We basically lay down the law and tell him it's too close to the two gigs for him to play them with us, unless he can do a couple practices a week for the next two weeks. He only wants to come over on a weeknight, at a time when we are practically done rehearsal anyway. He refuses to rehearse on a weekend because it's "family time".
We had to tell him it just wasn't going to work, if he didn't want to practice. We wanted a real bandmate, not just a sit in. We wound up staying a trio for the duration of the band.
So our guitarist schedules two guys to come over one Saturday afternoon. One is a guy who is a guitarist/organist named Sean, the other is a lead singer , don't remember his name other than our guitarist says the guy called himself "the King Of Karaoke" in an e-mail.
Sean is scheduled first; he is totally smoking. He said he was more of a guitarist than an organist, but we play "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone", "96 Tears", and "I Can't Get Enough Of You Baby", and his Farfisa organ playing is spot on, exactly what we're looking for. His guitar playing on some Who, Kinks and Yardbirds tunes, great also, actually a better player than our guitarist. He's got the right gear, the hipster vibe, the whole package. Then "The King" shows up in the middle of it all, and he's a total buzzkill. He tells us he "looked up garage rock on Wikipedia, but still doesn't quite understand what it is". Keep in mind, we are all in our early to mid 40's and were little kids or not born yet when the music we play and idolize was released. This guy was older, would've probably been a preteen or teenager during the heyday of this stuff, but he hasn't got a clue about it. We are all just looking at each other wondering why he even bothered to try out. On top of it, he shows up in a Counting Crows t-shirt.
We run through a couple songs with him. We do "The Train Kept A Rollin'", he's doing it like some kind of lounge singer; we are all holding back from cracking up. At the end he says he's never heard of The Yardbirds, and thought this was an Aerosmith original. Finally he gets it that he's just not the right guy, thanks us for having him over and leaves.
We play a little more with Sean, it's great, we're over the moon, want him to join the band. Then we hang out and talk with him for at least an hour, and then it goes downhill. He starts telling us how we need a cute girl to sing lead so that we "stand out" (I was in two bands like that that ended badly), and then he talks about his availability for practice, which is hardly ever. He's one of these mercenary type guys who shows up for a rehearsal before a show and basically "sits in".
We kept trying to get him back over unsuccessfully. In the meantime we've learned tons of new material,which he would be way behind in catching up to and now have booked a couple gigs we're practicing for, which are only a couple weeks away. He finally agrees to come over one Saturday night, only he doesn't even bring his organ, which is what we mainly wanted him for. He brings a 6 string and a twelve string, and acts like the twelve is an acceptable replacement for a Farfisa organ (?)
We basically lay down the law and tell him it's too close to the two gigs for him to play them with us, unless he can do a couple practices a week for the next two weeks. He only wants to come over on a weeknight, at a time when we are practically done rehearsal anyway. He refuses to rehearse on a weekend because it's "family time".
We had to tell him it just wasn't going to work, if he didn't want to practice. We wanted a real bandmate, not just a sit in. We wound up staying a trio for the duration of the band.
