Yes, my parents came to our Christmas Eve services, and my dad just turned 76 yesterday!
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Do your parents Come to your shows?
- Thread starter markoc
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Thanks 12BitSlab! I appreciate the compliment.
I gotta admit it's fun to have someone to discuss music & gear with on a regular basis. I've benefitted from the musical knowledge I've gained from him, and he's gained from having a dad who was in the industry for years and is also a bass junkie (although nothing like I was years ago.) I bought him his first bass (a '71 Fender Mustang) about a year before he was born. I knew my wife and I would have kids one day, and at least one of them would have no choice BUT to become a bass player!
Did you grab the mic between songs and said: "I wanna thank my mom for coming out and supporting the scene"?
My mom passed when I was 19 and I really didn't play with any bands at or before that time. She saw me play a solo (trumpet) in marching band in a stadium (and on the jumbo-tron) when I was in high school. That was really cool. My dad and stepmom just came to my show on 12/30 and went to another before that. I'm sure they would come to more if we played more.
No. Died many years ago. They were supportive until I started playing out. They were not enthused by the idea of their 17-year-old son coming home late at night from a gig. Especially on a school night. That sort of set the tone for our subsequent relationship. My first wife was a fan; my present wife really isn't in to nightlife, but she's very supportive otherwise.
My parents always attend to every show they can, and been greatly supportive about my bands and musical proyects. We are a musical family, I guess!
I'd guess so. Mine were similarly impressed the day I had mom and the old man up to visit what they gave me to use as an office (corporate campus style headquarters - window office, administrative assistant, all the usual '80s big biz tribal totem markers) and then go out for lunch. Mom was always was impressed by the trappings of career success. Big disappointment for her when I quit that to do my own considerably smaller IT thing a few years later.
Sadly, my parents didn't get a chance to come see me. My dad on his death bed was treated by me on guitar and my wife singing a few modern songs. I think I did this more for me than I did for him, but the memory always softens my soul.
My dad used to come to backyard parties I did in high school with a VHS camcorder and film us doing our thing.
before he passed he didn't come to shows so much, but once in a while he would show up for a few songs then leave.
My mom really only comes to shows at nice venues where she can get a booth or something. She learned a long time ago that some of the heavy metal clubs suck.
before he passed he didn't come to shows so much, but once in a while he would show up for a few songs then leave.
My mom really only comes to shows at nice venues where she can get a booth or something. She learned a long time ago that some of the heavy metal clubs suck.
My parents came to one gig. After our set, my dad grabbed me and said "THIS is what you need to be doing with your life!" I said "Who the F are you and what did you do with my father?"
- Oct 22, 2015
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I'd guess so. Mine were similarly impressed the day I had mom and the old man up to visit what they gave me to use as an office (corporate campus style headquarters - window office, administrative assistant, all the usual '80s big biz tribal totem markers) and then go out for lunch. Mom was always was impressed by the trappings of career success. Big disappointment for her when I quit that to do my own considerably smaller IT thing a few years later.
Yes, I'd say that's it. My parents were of the generation where "success" is linked to apparent position in society beginning with the "right school". Harder still for us girls - my sister who played classical bass and was a graduate of Boston Conservatory lived as a virtual Rodney Dangerfield (don't get no respect) because she and her husband both had to work. In their world, she stays at home.
So I was only okay in their book when I began to succeed in corporate, never mind my own music degree. My parents were very impressed by my boss' Lotus Esprit and all my corporate perks. I on the other hand .... I kept my bass, hey?
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My thoughts entirely, both on the gig attire and parents at shows.
My parents had to endure my endless woodshedding and my first couple of bands occasionally rehearsing in an unused part of their farmhouse and thought it was "a bloody racket". Neither of them ever heard me play at a gig.
I found out from one of my father's friends after his death that he was proud of the fact I played in a band. Pity he never let on while he was alive, all I got from him was a telling off for coming home late and wanting to stay in bed the following morning!
I have to keep reminding myself they were products of the great depression. Just like I have to keep reminding myself I'm a product of the counterculture. We grew up on different planets for all intents and purposes. Their goal was to secure good paying employment and avoid the pain the lack of money subjected them to in childhood. I wanted to push for global peace and goodwill in order to get out from under the dread of immanent nuclear annihilation which I grew up with as a cold war baby. Croching with my head against a wall in my school's basement in second grade when we had bomb drills during the Cuban Missile Crisis goes a long way towards coloring your perceptions about how fragile civilization is. As did the economic privations my mom and her family experienced during the depression.
We are all a 'piece of work' when you get right down to it. It's amazing any of us are even partially sane.
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,167
- 256,921
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Yah, I still remember looking at plans my dad had for a fallout shelter, and being timed on how long it took me to walk home from school in case of The Russians.
To topic, I was permitted to take liberal arts degrees because ... girl. Not that they ever listened to a thing I played, truly admired a pastel I drew or read anything I wrote. The important thing to them was a right marriage to the right guy from the right school so we could live in the right house in the right neighborhood and go to the right church.
And then I started to listen to the Beatles, you know, and it was all downhill from there.
I started playing when I was 14 (59 ATM), and my parents used to come to all the early shows. My dad was the band chaperone so we could play bars when we were 16. He would buy a beer or two for the whole night and listen to us play rock and roll for four hours. Later, he would drive me home, while I slept from gigs that were two or three hours away. He bought me my first bass on my 14th birthday and was always proud of my playing. Took me to every bass lesson for two years and waited patiently in the music store. He passed away a few years back, and part of his estate was an insurance check that I used to buy a Sadowsky NYC 5-string. I felt that he would have wanted me to have that bass.
Ha! Yeah, my wife doesnt come to my gigs either. She has been to a few but thats out of hundreds. She doesnt drink and goes to bed early so it doesnt jive with my gigs. Also, most of the gigs in my last two bands havent been anywhere close to home either which doesnt help.
Been there, done that. Most musicians love making music and making people happy with music. Most attorneys love making people miserable while filling their own pockets. My JD has been invaluable to me financially (I am not now, nor have I ever been a practicing attorney) in business, but my basses have been invaluable to my happiness.
Considering I haven't lived within 3 hours of my parents for almost 20 years, no.
My mom came to her first gig since I was in high school last summer, when my jazz trio performed for the New Mexico Jazz Workshop summer music series.
I don't really care, though. I gig enough (anywhere from one to 3 times/wk) that it's just another job. I don't make a big deal of anyone coming to watch me work my day job; it doesn't make an iota of difference for them to come see me play.
My mom came to her first gig since I was in high school last summer, when my jazz trio performed for the New Mexico Jazz Workshop summer music series.
I don't really care, though. I gig enough (anywhere from one to 3 times/wk) that it's just another job. I don't make a big deal of anyone coming to watch me work my day job; it doesn't make an iota of difference for them to come see me play.
Many years ago...when I still had a band (maybe even before this century started...memory is fuzzy). My mother came out to see us open up for Men at Work. A certain (not to be named) member of that band decided that this would be a great time to flirt with her. Pretty sure it was harmless...but there you go.
