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Bandmates showing up at gigs looking..weird

E

edpal

Inactive
Oct 3, 2007
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#1
Tell us your stories. Here is mine.

I play in a "rock band of Christians" - basically we rock hard but the lyrics have a message. So we arrive at a gigand the drummer has shaved his entire head but a little circle on top(10-12" hair), had a huge tattoo of crosses put on each side of his head and that piece of hair glued into a cross sticking up from his head. I'm not making this up. The rest of us think it looks like ca-ca and are planning on telling him at meeting this weekend he needs to let the hair grow back, it's too weird even for OUR gigs.

Your turn.

P.S. Hit the link in my sig. if you're curious.
 
#3
The guys in my last punk band used to show up to gigs looking like they got mugged on the way home from a fishing trip. It used to drive me crazy. Now in my current band, there are so many guys all doing their own thing, it would be fruitless to even care. Dudes will be playing in ripped t-shirts next to a guy in a suit and tie... Total fashion chaos.
 
#9
I've given up trying to get any sort of "uniformity" of onstage apparel in my band.

There are a couple of guys who routinely dress more "casually" for our gigs than I would prefer, but none of them get so far "out there" that the rest of us are embarrassed to be on stage with them. And they're decent players and people in every other respect so it's really not worth making a big stink about. We probably don't look quite as "pro" as we could onstage but we've got a full slate of well paying gigs, we all get along on the road and people always seem to have a good time at our shows so I figure why mess with something that's working?

The other thing is, our youngest guy in my band is 25 and our oldest guy is over 60 with the full gamut represented in-between... so just on account of the varying ages we're never going to look like a completely coherent group. As long as we play well, that's what matters more to me.
 
#10
Ok, I wasn't totally up- front about our band's real dilemma with our drummer's head-art since i didn't want this to turn into a religion-bashing thread. Deal is, some Christian denominations totally freak about tats to begin with, and crosses on the head would push them over their self-righteous cliff screaming. We have a really big gig coming up which was arranged by one of those denominations - I told the drummer in private that they may not let us play if he won't cover his head. He told me he won't play if that is the deal. I really like his playing and he is a great bandmate, but for this. IF the worst case scenario happens and he pooches this gig he's fired. Drag. We've probably invested $1k+ in this gig, made arrangments to get pro video and sound, 2 band banners, t-shirts to sell, and rented a truck since we need major gear and it's a 2 hour drive.

Myself I could really care less - I've been in band where the singer wore a toga, guitarist wore a skirt and lace panties. And I was the bass player for an Alice Cooper clone band with full stage show....I look MARV-ELOUS in purple eyeliner, full whiteface and glitter nailpolish. Honest.:bassist:
 
#11
OP - I think what one of the biggest issues is, is that the cross has become so co-opted across cultures that a lot of people don't really know what it stands for anymore, or its true origin (brutal, tortuous slow death for the most despised criminals in the Roman Empire). So they just assign meanings to it based on the other clues they see in context. Black Sabbath was using crosses as inlays on their guitar necks years ago already. You can drive all over Western Europe and see a cross on every corner even though probably less than 1% of the currrent population in that part of the world adhere to beliefs bearing any resemblance to evangelical Christianity.

So, your drummer comes out sporting crosses on his body in various forms and maybe he is sincerely sold-out to Christ but unfortunately most people aren't going to be able to see that because of all the "noise" put off by the tats and weird hair... and because of all the people they've already seen wearing crosses who clearly have no affiliation with (or in fact outright antagonism toward) the Christian faith. The prevailing impression is going to be that he's just a goofball who's trying way too hard on the whole radical look thing.
 
#12
jaywa said:
The prevailing impression is going to be that he's just a goofball who's trying way too hard on the whole radical look thing.
Click to expand...
Basically. HE's a "simple chap" but a darn good drummer. I hope you're right and it just blends in with all the other goofiness. We're the 9th band in a 10 band line-up so hopefully somebody in one of the other acts has even a funkier "do" and tats so that bridge has already been crossed(pun intended). Thanks.
 
#19
one of my guitar players showed up dressed in all white from head to toe, we're in a country band. He looked like Freddy Merury for the night....weird. He did it one more time after that but stopped...hope it never happens again though!
 

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