Band is driving me nuts with last minute changes...

[TheReceder]

TB needs to generate a sympathy card button.
We all try to make playing fun, but there are so many intellectually challenged people out there that make it so hard, if not impossible.

 

[oldcatfish]

Vent...

I generally try not to create a lot of drama (or any drama) for that matter..It's generally pointless and is non-productive, but this current band Im in is putting me on the short train to nutsville.

B/L books us for an afterparty for a concert. I just assumed it would be a start time around 11 or midnight..Nope..It's a multi band event and we were given a 2 am to 4 am time slot lol. A couple of us complained and the B/L reluctantly got us moved to the midnight slot. The show is in a sketchy part of town also (basically an all night warehouse party)

The setlist for this show was mailed out on tuesday of this week, I asked for it by last weekend as during the week I just simply have very little time to go over anything new they want to play and lo and behold, there were a couple of new tunes in the list, so I took today off from my day job to work on them. Just now finished working on them and the B/L decides he wants to switch them with something different...

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

A lot of that is on me I realize, I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them.

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

sigh...

--If you don't stand up for yourself, nothing will ever change.

Here's what I did with a church music director that kept changing songs for their big Easter service (usually the most attended service for churches).

The first time he did it, I reminded him that I had a day job with long hours and had limited time to prepare if there were changes. Two days later (two days before Easter), more changes. My response...good luck with their service, included in the email was the contact information for a couple of other bass players that I knew who also sub for churches. I figured that I permanently burned that bridge. Within an hour, the response back from him was that we would go with the original songlist.
And, I have played at that church multiple times since. Music is always given at least one week in advance, unless I get a last minute call to sub.

You have to decide what you are willing to put up with, and what you aren't. Make it clear and be very firm. You may get kicked out of your band, or you may wake up the band leader to the fact that he has to respect his bandmates. Either way, you'll be better off.

 

[SactoBass]

Vent...

I generally try not to create a lot of drama (or any drama) for that matter..It's generally pointless and is non-productive, but this current band Im in is putting me on the short train to nutsville.

B/L books us for an afterparty for a concert. I just assumed it would be a start time around 11 or midnight..Nope..It's a multi band event and we were given a 2 am to 4 am time slot lol. A couple of us complained and the B/L reluctantly got us moved to the midnight slot. The show is in a sketchy part of town also (basically an all night warehouse party)

The setlist for this show was mailed out on tuesday of this week, I asked for it by last weekend as during the week I just simply have very little time to go over anything new they want to play and lo and behold, there were a couple of new tunes in the list, so I took today off from my day job to work on them. Just now finished working on them and the B/L decides he wants to switch them with something different...

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

A lot of that is on me I realize, I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them.

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

sigh...

It sounds to me like the so-called "BL" doesn't have a freakin clue as to how to actually be a BL.

I would run away from that scene as fast as I could and find *responsible* people to play music with.

 

[40Hz]

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

Well yeah. Saying: “Get yourself another bass player.” seldom goes over very well.*

Not your problem.

Onward!

* (That was what you were going to say wasn’t it? I would.)

 

[Oddly]

@glocke1 , seems like the best way forward for you would be to offer to take over as the music director here...or as full BL if you really want to have things run properly.
That'd be assuming the rest of the band have even the slightest ambition to improve the situation.
If it's apparent they don't, then walk away.

 

[Stumbo]

There's always a song...

 

[Sid s]

People driving me crazy is one of the number one reasons I leave bands.

You have more than one number one reason to leave bands ?

 

[Stumbo]

 

[Stumbo]

 

[glocke1]

@glocke1 , seems like the best way forward for you would be to offer to take over as the music director here...or as full BL if you really want to have things run properly.
That'd be assuming the rest of the band have even the slightest ambition to improve the situation.
If it's apparent they don't, then walk away.

that just would not work...KB player simply doesn't want to rehearse at all..The B/L doesn't see a need for it. A couple of us do want to rehearse but the few times it happened it was largely a waste of time...I can't take over as B/L for a variety of reasons..Musical Director? Thats possible, but the lack of ambition to actually rehearse would make that pointless.

Our time tonight was just moved to one a.m. also. blech...

 

[lokikallas]

You lost me at after party. Nothing good happens at an after party. Just more hard drugs, sleepy people and police busts.

 

[micguy]

I play church gigs. We don’t rehearse a lot, but we do rehearse. To pull that off and make good music requires that everyone have the tunes spelled out, charts and mp3’s all sent out a couple weeks in advance - there’s a lot of organization and effort put in to make things happen. And the musicians have to be willing to practice on our own, we show up knowing our parts cold.

I’m willing to do a lot of work to play great music. I’m not willing to go and wing it with no real organization, and play half assed music in front of an audience.

 

[lfmn16]

He doesn't know it's a problem unless you talk to him.

No need for drama, just tell him that you work during the week and don't have time to prepare new songs at the last minute. If you can't get them by the Friday prior to the gig, you won't be playing them. He might surprise you and say, "Cool, I didn't know." If he's a jerk you can always quit.

Guaranteed he'll test you at least once. Stick to your guns.

Things like this are why I try to cover as much ground as possible BEFORE joining a band. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've simply said, "Sorry, that's not what I agreed to when I joined the band."

 

[Nevada Pete]

You took time off work to deal with a set list that had two new tunes on it and was late getting to you to begin with?

Do you see a problem there?

 

[murph7489]

"I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them".

what? your band is going to play songs that you never even rehearsed together before? ..that would not fly with me...you have to work out endings sometimes when a song fades out. Not to mention just playing them together to make sure everyone is on the same page..No way would I ever do that..

and jam through the tunes with chord charts in front of them?...also a no..you memorize your parts and bring it into rehearsal ready to play without charts..unless you are a swing band or classical or maybe some kind of jazz thing...but in rock.? hell no.

The rest of it wouldn't bother me so much..although I doubt I would of taken a day off work to prepare songs unless it was a very high paying gig..and a rehearsal that night...

call me crazy..

 

[interp]

Vent...

I generally try not to create a lot of drama (or any drama) for that matter..It's generally pointless and is non-productive, but this current band Im in is putting me on the short train to nutsville.

B/L books us for an afterparty for a concert. I just assumed it would be a start time around 11 or midnight..Nope..It's a multi band event and we were given a 2 am to 4 am time slot lol. A couple of us complained and the B/L reluctantly got us moved to the midnight slot. The show is in a sketchy part of town also (basically an all night warehouse party)

The setlist for this show was mailed out on tuesday of this week, I asked for it by last weekend as during the week I just simply have very little time to go over anything new they want to play and lo and behold, there were a couple of new tunes in the list, so I took today off from my day job to work on them. Just now finished working on them and the B/L decides he wants to switch them with something different...

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

A lot of that is on me I realize, I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them.

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

sigh...

There are different schools of thought on this, and much depends on the skills and attitudes of the players. FWIW, the tightest band I was ever in played about a thousand gigs over a 7-year period and during that time had three rehearsals. YMMV.

 

[fhm555]

Vent...

I generally try not to create a lot of drama (or any drama) for that matter..It's generally pointless and is non-productive, but this current band Im in is putting me on the short train to nutsville.

B/L books us for an afterparty for a concert. I just assumed it would be a start time around 11 or midnight..Nope..It's a multi band event and we were given a 2 am to 4 am time slot lol. A couple of us complained and the B/L reluctantly got us moved to the midnight slot. The show is in a sketchy part of town also (basically an all night warehouse party)

The setlist for this show was mailed out on tuesday of this week, I asked for it by last weekend as during the week I just simply have very little time to go over anything new they want to play and lo and behold, there were a couple of new tunes in the list, so I took today off from my day job to work on them. Just now finished working on them and the B/L decides he wants to switch them with something different...

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

A lot of that is on me I realize, I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them.

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

sigh...

Why not just tender your resignation? Offer to cover whatever jobs are already on the books so you don’t burn the bridge, then find a band more to your liking.

 

[UntitledUser]

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

What is the problem, memorize the songs and go, if you hit a wrong note slide to the next fret a couple of milliseconds after, surely is better than the previous fret.

 

[HardNHeavy]

Oh god... I live for rehearsing and getting tight....I want to play that song backwards, sideways and hanging upside down with an apple in my mouth..... A 2am gig, that is weird....maybe on a weekend after a pot of coffee or some other party favor..but that's nuts... Last minute surprises like this will only go so far imo.

 

[edmidlifecrisis]

Vent...

I generally try not to create a lot of drama (or any drama) for that matter..It's generally pointless and is non-productive, but this current band Im in is putting me on the short train to nutsville.

B/L books us for an afterparty for a concert. I just assumed it would be a start time around 11 or midnight..Nope..It's a multi band event and we were given a 2 am to 4 am time slot lol. A couple of us complained and the B/L reluctantly got us moved to the midnight slot. The show is in a sketchy part of town also (basically an all night warehouse party)

The setlist for this show was mailed out on tuesday of this week, I asked for it by last weekend as during the week I just simply have very little time to go over anything new they want to play and lo and behold, there were a couple of new tunes in the list, so I took today off from my day job to work on them. Just now finished working on them and the B/L decides he wants to switch them with something different...

I love playing, but between the "we don't need to rehearse" mentality present in this band, booking sketchy gigs like this and throwing tunes out at the last minute its driving me crazy.

A lot of that is on me I realize, I generally like to do tunes well, and bring them in memorized if possible. These guys are more or less jammers and will just jam through tunes with the chord charts in front of them.

I'm going to have to say something, and I suspect it won't go over well..

sigh...

Welcome to the club. I just QUIT a band for doing exactly the same thing you describe over and over again- no set list until the last minute, putting in new tunes at the last minute, sometimes tunes I have never even heard of, changing things at the last minute, having too many guest players, not being rehearsed enough, and trying to add gigs when I told the BL I had limited availability. Finally I reached my limit (actually I reached it a while ago) and said that is it after our last gig earlier this month. Enough is enough. I like all the people and they are still friends but I have so much other stuff going on in my life I don't need this sort of thing. I am more like you, I like to be well rehearsed although I don't mind jamming inside a tune we know well at all. This was different.