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Do you play in two bands?

#21
I did before I quit one. Was too much for me. Whatever you do don’t do a dual band gig thing. People think your a hero for playing in both bands on the same gig but it’s really trying physically and socially. You miss out on a lot of secondary things when you’re occupied all night.
 
#22
stratovani said:
I'm now retired, and I have the time to play in two bands, but before I do I'd like a bit of advice. How do you reconcile scheduling issues, in other words, what do you do if both bands have gigs on the same night? I know the simple answer is to get a sub for one of the band, but what if you can't?
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First of all, congrats on retiring. I've been retired since 2006 and it's all a beautiful thing. I, unfortunately, have to play in multiple bands and accept sub work to get enough gigs to maintain my ability to play. Most of the people I play with do the same thing so it is understood that subs and job sharing has to enter into the equation. If I could get into a single band that had enough work to keep me going I would commit to that band in a New York minute. However, those situations are few and far between around here and are typically held by the A-listers.
 
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#23
i play in two regular acts: it's first come, first served, with an occasional exception, mutually accepted. but yes: all BLs and yourself have to be on the same page so that all parties can know what to expect. the idea is to avoid confusion and/or panic, and disappointment. good luck with your bands/schedules. :thumbsup:
 
#24
stratovani said:
I'm now retired, and I have the time to play in two bands, but before I do I'd like a bit of advice. How do you reconcile scheduling issues, in other words, what do you do if both bands have gigs on the same night? I know the simple answer is to get a sub for one of the band, but what if you can't?
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I have friend who I use as an understudy bassist. We cover each other in the event of scheduling conflicts. If both of us are poor put, I have a 3rd bassist I tap on rare occasions. Having an understudy on my resume has landed me a lot of repeat gigs
 
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#25
I play in two bands, and do a decent amount of side work. I just have a Google calendar shared with everyone who would book me regularly, so they can see when I'm available. So far I haven't been burned by it, but it's only been a year, FWIW.


I didnt read the thread entirely, but I'm sure this is what others do as well.
 
#26
First come first serve. The bandleader for one of the top 40 bar bands I play with knows this a books players way out in advance whenever possible. If a better gig with the another band comes up, oh well, I'm booked. If I'm booked already she just goes down the call list to the next guy. Technically I'm the first call sub for that band, but the "main" bassist has had a ton of work conflicts this last year, so I've actually played more gigs than him lately. He still gets first call, as he is the OG bassist (I'm cool with that).
 
#27
FugaziBomb said:
I have friend who I use as an understudy bassist. We cover each other in the event of scheduling conflicts. If both of us are poor put, I have a 3rd bassist I tap on rare occasions. Having an understudy on my resume has landed me a lot of repeat gigs
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How does this work - getting (or in my case, being) an understudy? My teacher is always saying that he is training me to be able to take his place in one of his bands, but that seems far fetched (for now).
 
#28
mrcbass said:
Want to be, but can't find a suitable second project. Actually, my want for a second project is because my current one isn't working me near enough.

This seems to be a tough area to hook up with bands as bassist - regularly more "bassist looking" than "bassist needed" in my CL cycle. And the current "needed" are ones that I've either explored and passed on, out of my desired genre by a long shot, not in a workable location or ads that appear to be people fishing for email addresses and phone numbers.
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Amen to that - and you are a more experienced bassist than I am!
 
#29
Short answer: first come first served. Use a shared calendar.

Longer answer: I'm a BL in my band and my keyboardist plays in many bands. He uses the first come first served rule and that gives me incentive to always be planning ahead so I can book gigs before he books somewhere else. Sometimes I have to pass on a good gig (and sometimes we play without keys), but that's the way it goes. We have a google calendar for the band and all members are expected to put their black-out dates on there. If it is not blacked-out I can assume we can book it (though I still try to text everyone first, because musicians). It works fine and seems to be what every other band is doing.
 
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#30
Thum5b said:
Maybe it's just me but I'd feel a bit crap knowing a band was turning down gigs because of me, so it's one band unless I can guarantee there won't be any schedule clashes.
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I would feel bad about it if anyone was booking a significant number of gigs, but honestly I have been waiting for our lead singer to followup on a gig here in town that is our favorite gig to play. Every time I walk in there to see another band, the owner asks me when we're coming back. Two nights ago I was in there playing with a different band and the guy that books the place came over to me and raved about my playing with those guys. I figure the only reason we aren't booked back there yet is because our singer isn't reaching out to get a booking confirmed. Which means I'm going to have to do it.

All of these bands I'm playing with only book the average of one gig a month. Two of the four of my current projects could do the shows with a sub. There's been very few times I've had a conflict, and there have always been alternate dates offered that work. I have more conflict with personal stuff that with band overlap. If this is how you're making extra income, it's up to you to figure out how to make that work. No one is giving me so much work that I have to worry about hurting their feelings. If someone were booking steady dates, it would change things.
 
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#31
mrcbass said:
Want to be, but can't find a suitable second project. Actually, my want for a second project is because my current one isn't working me near enough.

This seems to be a tough area to hook up with bands as bassist - regularly more "bassist looking" than "bassist needed" in my CL cycle. And the current "needed" are ones that I've either explored and passed on, out of my desired genre by a long shot, not in a workable location or ads that appear to be people fishing for email addresses and phone numbers.
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I get that here all the time, too. Most of the time when I post ads on CL I hear back from the same people I didn't want to work with the last time. The only thing that is working for me in this town is networking with other musicians.

I'll keep you in mind if I need a sub for this blues band I started working with recently. From what I've seen, you'd probably be a good fit with them, genre-wise and I have told them I can't commit to becoming a full band member because I don't want to do weekly rehearsals. So there's a possible connection to another band. They're trying to book some more shows so if i have a conflict I'll pass your name along.
 
#32
I remember I guy called me up once needing a bassist. I was already in three bands, one with my dad.
I told the guy i was interested, just that there were a handful of dates I had prior obligations, some of them months out. He responded by saying I needed to be committed to his band only. “Oh, sorry that’s not going to work out then.” Was my response. this was pushing ten years ago. I follow his band on social media and have seen maybe ten gigs promoted since then.
 
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#33
I'm also in 2 bands. I'm the bass player in my #1 band and a guitar player in the #2 band. I'm the band leader in the #1 band. Here is where it gets interesting. The guitar player/singer in the #1 band is also the lead guitar/singer and band leader of band #2. Both bands gig out at the same places. There are a couple of cross-over songs. Band #1 plays 70's, 80's and 90's Rock, Southern Rock and a little Country Rock. Band #2 plays Country and Country Rock. Since the leaders of both bands are in each other's band, it makes it pretty easy for the most part to avoid double booking. I have had situations where both bands were booked into the same gig, like at a benefit show. It's never caused any problems. We just have to make sure that we don't play the same songs.
 
#34
LBS-bass said:
I get that here all the time, too. Most of the time when I post ads on CL I hear back from the same people I didn't want to work with the last time. The only thing that is working for me in this town is networking with other musicians.

I'll keep you in mind if I need a sub for this blues band I started working with recently. From what I've seen, you'd probably be a good fit with them, genre-wise and I have told them I can't commit to becoming a full band member because I don't want to do weekly rehearsals. So there's a possible connection to another band. They're trying to book some more shows so if i have a conflict I'll pass your name along.
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Thanks so much! I'd appreciate any introductions you would be willing to provide. I haven't figured out how to get into the networking in this town ….
 
#35
SacRush said:
How does this work - getting (or in my case, being) an understudy? My teacher is always saying that he is training me to be able to take his place in one of his bands, but that seems far fetched (for now).
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I forward whatever set list to my fellow bassist so he has some idea of what's going on, he does the same for me. When filling in for him, I bring a music stand and charts for the songs I'm not familiar with - he does the same when filling in for me. Together, we usually cover whatever booking issues come up for each of us, though there have been times we're both busy. In that case, I have another friend who does an originals project once a month or so, and is usually free. He's not as good as myself and my understudy, so I only toss him gigs when it's absolutely necessary...
 
#37
It helps if one of the bands has their !@#$ together and books early. I got my 2020 (Jan-Dec) gig schedule from band #1 at the end of November, those gigs are set in stone. We will undoubtedly put more on the books as the year goes on, but the band understands that unless it's book early one (or more) of us might be unavailable ... and the BL has a cadre of (usually) competent subs. In 10 years we've never had more than one sub on stage (two might be a invitation to a train wreck). It's worked so far.

I was in four different gigging/recording projects simultaneously for about six years, but over the past year have shed all but the band. I retired from my day job 10 years ago, now I'm starting to retire from my post-retirement gig, I guess. ;)
 
#39
Richard Martin said:
I'm also in 2 bands. I'm the bass player in my #1 band and a guitar player in the #2 band. I'm the band leader in the #1 band. Here is where it gets interesting. The guitar player/singer in the #1 band is also the lead guitar/singer and band leader of band #2. Both bands gig out at the same places. There are a couple of cross-over songs. Band #1 plays 70's, 80's and 90's Rock, Southern Rock and a little Country Rock. Band #2 plays Country and Country Rock. Since the leaders of both bands are in each other's band, it makes it pretty easy for the most part to avoid double booking. I have had situations where both bands were booked into the same gig, like at a benefit show. It's never caused any problems. We just have to make sure that we don't play the same songs.
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Yep. I have a show coming up where I booked two of the bands that I'm in on the same bill. What's funny about that is that they both are the same band, with two different singers. So we're starting out with one singer under one band name, and then swapping out singers to play under a different band name. Makes for some efficient booking :) .
 
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