Early, on time or late?

[Bonafide]

As a musician, appointment keeper, friend, husband, wife, etc.. are you habitually early, on time or late?

Myself - habitually early. Which also means I am always on time…or never late. Which means I get the benefits (whatever they may be) of being early but also the challenges of waiting for someone who is not even an ‘on timer’.

In a band environment I can check out the gig, meet the club owner, talk to the sound guy, check out the stage, make human connections, prepare.

In all my years on the planet where I had control of my own movement, I have never been late to anything, anywhere, ever. Not to a gig, a doctors appt., business meeting, dinner or coffee with friends, production deadline, session etc …not anything. Not once, not ever. It doesn't matter whether I am traveling for it or local.

It used to frustrate me dealing with the ‘late arrivals’… as it felt like such a disrespect of my time. Now at this stage in life, I let folks do what they will. It's revealing and useful.

The excuses for being late are endless, predictable, boring and rarely valid...but I have noticed that those who are late are generally always late and have years of excuses to pull from.

 

[Oddly]

Man, I could've written that post almost word for word!
I will, however, never give people a pass on being late.
I let them know I consider it disrespectful to me, and I expect an explanation.
I also have a 15-minute maximum. If you've not at least contacted me to say you're on the way, I won't be there after that.
I've found most people are rarely late again with me.

 

[Jebberz]

I always plan to be early, (usually 30 mintes to 1 hour, depending on how far I need to go) so if I encounter delays (traffic, have to stop on the way, loading time longer than usual, etc) so I end up on time.

Almost never been late , never to a gig, a few times to a rehearsal (I have to cross a bridge to my go to drummer's house, and a few times, there were an accident there so a 20 minutes drive took me as long as 1h just to cross the bridge). When it happened, I phoned the bandmates to explain the situation, so they can do something else than wait for me until I arrive).

 

[jeffb28451]

Early. Always, unless totally unforeseen stuff happens. I don’t mean “slow traffic”: I mean, I plan for slow traffic, etc and still expect to be there 30 minutes early. Set up, tuned, vocal processor dialed in, batteries set, etc...

 

[Oddly]

I'm guessing this vote will be overwhelmingly 'early'.
We're bass-players, the solid guys and gals who make it all work.

Now try this on a drummer, singer or guitar forum...

 

[Bonafide]

Early. Always, unless totally unforeseen stuff happens. I don’t mean “slow traffic”: I mean, I plan for slow traffic, etc and still expect to be there 30 minutes early. Set up, tuned, vocal processor dialed in, batteries set, etc...

- Always appreciate gigging with folks like you.

 

[Bonafide]

Now try this on a drummer, singer or guitar forum...

Ha...man that made me laugh! No dis to my good drummer peeps!

 

[superheavyfunk]

I always plan to be on time. Everyone else is almost always late, so my "on time" arrival ends up being defacto "early."

In the end, it's all carrots. Playing music is the reason I'm (t)here, and complaining about stuff isn't gonna make me any new friends or opportunities. I use my free time to get jazzed about the gig by listening to music, or schmoozing with the venue owner or just enjoying a little time to relax.

 

[jeffb28451]

Oh, I also carry extra batteries, guitar strings and drumsticks (why!) just in case. Of course, if a drummer ever actually needed sticks on the job, I don’t know whether I’d give them to him / her or not.

As a bassist, I feel my inner “ den mother” working at every gig and even at practices. Just me, I guess.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Since around 1995, always early. That's when I landed my first, real, responsible job. I haven't been late for a day of work since, and was only ALMOST late for a gig 2X in my life. Both for reasons out of my control, and I made it on time any how. Had I not been prepared to arrive early, I would have been late.

I'm with you on all of your post except the acceptance part of other people's lateness. I still have some work to do there, which brings up an amusing story I'll try to keep short...

I work for this one guy who is ALWAYS late, every single time, everywhere.

One morning he was coming to pick me up for an out of state gig. He said, "I'll be there at 8AM." I said, "No you won't, please tell me what time you'll REALLY be here because I'm going to be ready and pissed if I'm ready at 8 and you don't show up till 9. I have a late night the night before and could use the extra hour." He hemmed and hawed and then said, "OK. 9 is the latest we can leave."

He showed up at 10:30, no apology, as if nothing was wrong.

I said as soon as I got in the car, "We need to talk." I explained as calmly, clearly, and nicely as possible why this late BS really gets under my skin, and after about 10 minutes of my gentle rant, his response was...

"OK. I understand. I'll have to remember from now on that you have a problem with lateness."

And he wasn't trying to be sarcastic or mean. He meant it completely.

 

[Bonafide]

Oh, I also carry extra batteries, guitar strings and drumsticks (why!) just in case. Of course, if a drummer ever actually needed sticks on the job, I don’t know whether I’d give them to him / her or not.

As a bassist, I feel my inner “ den mother” working at every gig and even at practices. Just me, I guess.

LOL you and me both. My local gig bag is rocking a drum key, sticks, brushes, batteries, picks, tools etc... my drum key save has gotten me alot of free Topo chico's.

 

[Jefenator]

Depends on the situation for me. My pre-COVID day job was super relaxed, so I’d often roll in 15 minutes “late” and often still be the first one there. For my current COVID-19 survival job I usually show up 15 minutes early - and it starts an hour earlier!

 

[Bonafide]

Since around 1995, always early. That's when I landed my first, real, responsible job. I haven't been late for a day of work since, and was only ALMOST late for a gig 2X in my life. Both for reasons out of my control, and I made it on time any how. Had I not been prepared to arrive early, I would have been late.

Same...once I was nearly late for a dental appointment due to a freak thunder storm, but I was so early in transit I still made it with 2 mins to spare.

I'm with you on all of your post except the acceptance part of other people's lateness. I still have some work to do there, which brings up an amusing story I'll try to keep short...

I work for this one guy who is ALWAYS late, every single time, everywhere.

One morning he was coming to pick me up for an out of state gig. He said, "I'll be there at 8AM." I said, "No you won't, please tell me what time you'll REALLY be here because I'm going to be ready and pissed if I'm ready at 8 and you don't show up till 9. I have a late night the night before and could use the extra hour." He hemmed and hawed and then said, "OK. 9 is the latest we can leave."

He showed up at 10:30, no apology, as if nothing was wrong.

I said as soon as I got in the car, "We need to talk." I explained as calmly, clearly, and nicely as possible why this late BS really gets under my skin, and after about 10 minutes of my gentle rant, his response was...

"OK. I understand. I'll have to remember from now on that you have a problem with lateness."

And he wasn't trying to be sarcastic or mean. He meant it completely.

Actually, my acceptance tolerance is pretty much zero, I just no longer have to say anything. But I used to 'not so calmly' vocalize my position. Now because of my own life situation, I just don't use those folks for work anymore or accept a gig from the person if it's asked of me. 90% of my peer group are fantastic and professional. And since most of my work comes from my own history, reputation and resources I have found there of enough folks like you and I who are grateful enough for the work or opportunity to respect the time (their own time included). Cheers!

 

[Bob_Ross]

At least 25 years ago I recognized that, intentionally or not, I had apparently adopted a personal motto: "Couldn't Be Late If I Tried"

...and believe me, I tried! But between my personal sense of ethics & responsibility, and perhaps my short attention span which prevents me from getting distracted by things that might otherwise prevent me from getting out of the house on time, I literally can not make myself late for an appointment.

The public transportation in my city has certainly done their best to confound my intentions, but even so...nope, I just can't seem to be late even if I wanted to.

Which I don't. I think people who are habitually late are inconsiderate, disrespectful, and deserve their own level in Dante's hell.

 

[mrcbass]

Always early, probably annoyingly so sometimes. It's how I was raised and it was severely reinforced by my college marching band professor: "Early is on time; on time is late."

People who are habitually late drive me nuts, but unless they work for me, it's pointless to worry about it or get into it with them.

 

[friskinator]

Habitually late people never change unless they suffer memorable consequences for being late. And even then, they still may not change.

 

[john_g]

I'm guessing this vote will be overwhelmingly 'early'.
We're bass-players, the solid guys and gals who make it all work.

Now try this on a drummer, singer or guitar forum...

Funny timing for this thread...we just had the "lateness" talk with our drummer at practice yesterday. He is late for EVERYTHING. The rest of us are, at worst, on time but usually early. Its getting to the point where....drumroll...we might need to fire the drummer! lol (funny but, its true)

 

[LBS-bass]

For gigs I give myself time for something to go wrong, so I'm usually early. For rehearsals I plan to be there on time, and I'm usually on time.

I find that getting to rehearsals early is disrespectful to the hosts. I host many rehearsals myself, and I don't want people showing up until the appointed time; I'm probably eating dinner or otherwise not ready for them. To avoid confusion I usually set a "ready to play" time which means if I say 6:30 and you need to set stuff up, be here by 6:15.

 

[DirtDog]

If "on time" means being there a suitable time before downbeat (e.g. 15 minutes for rehearsal, 90 minutes before gig), then I'm on time 100% of the time. Thanks to my upbringing with an Army sergeant-major for a father!

The phrase X of Y (e.g. "7:30 for 8:00") is part of my DNA at this point. Meaning show up at 7:30 for an activity that starts at 8:00. Not "show up very close to 8:00 so that we can start sometime after 8:00". I can't abide by lateness.

But there's different expectations for different situations. 5 minutes early before a meeting of my peers. More like 10-15 minutes earlier than that if we have a general officer in attendance.

 

[TheReceder]

I spent the bulk of my life being early... then learned how to be "on time". Since then I've been preached to that if you're not early, you're late.

My response... if you're early... you're not on time.