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Early, on time or late?

Are you habitually Early, On Time Or Late

  • Early

    Votes: 331 72.6%

  • On Time

    Votes: 82 18.0%

  • Late

    Votes: 17 3.7%

  • Carrots Always Arrive Precisiely When They Mean to

    Votes: 26 5.7%
  • Total voters
    456
#101
The older I got, the earlier I became.

I've often worked a day job, BARELY had enough time to run home, inhale dinner, jump through the shower into stage clothes, drive like I stole it to the gig, and got there in time to tune and plug in. I HATED that.

When that wasn't the case, I preferred to get there an hour early.
 
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#103
I allow one hour for set-up time at a gig. I hate to be earlier than that. I'm always on time (one hour early). I played in one band that wanted me to be two hours early - I revolted, they relented. I've found, though, that some of the really good musicians have no sense of time. It's a right brain thing, I think, and it's worth making allowances for them.
 
#105
I showed up a half hour early to rehearsal once and saw some things I don’t think I was supposed to see, namely a strange bass plugged into my rig, a strange guitar plugged into the guitar players rig, and both amps were still warm. I was standing in the room taking it all in when the singer came in and the look on his face pretty much said all it needed to. When asked about this after everyone got there and I filled them in, the singer came clean, he was using our gear to rehearse with a side project he had going. Everyone packed up their gear right then and there and that project was done. For a few minutes I thought the drummer was going to physically assault him. Not cool, beware of where you leave your gear.
 
#106
Bonafide said:
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.
Click to expand...

‘Well, I can’t say I’ve never been late having worked 40 years in outdoor sales. I will say that when I am late, I offer no excuses, but a sincere apology. But for the most part, I’m early. It is a major stressor for me anyway.

I had 3 older siblings, and from my earliest remembrances was my dad continually getting our butts in gear with the mantra “You’re going to be late for your own funeral”. Long after we had grown and move to various parts of the USA , and for the last three month of dad time, he passed away not too far rom my house, which is about 350 miles from where dad was to be buried.

Well in is final wishes he didn’t want the typical viewing, but just a memorial type service at the mausoleum near the grave site. We scheduled his service a few days later on the weekend at noon. With my phobia of being late, I arrived the mausoleum about an hour early, and was watching for dad with one eye, and the other on the clock.

At 11:45, I called the funeral home to inquire where dad was as we had him scheduled for 12:00 noon. I was put on hold while the receptionist checked their schedules. When she got on the line apologizing for the mix up as they had him down for 1:00. It was official. Dad was late for his own funeral.
 
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#107
Depends on the situation. Gig? Yeah I'll be early with plenty of contingency time. Rehearsal that nobody is paying for? I'm going to aim for the correct time, but if I end up coming out of work later than expected, I'm not skipping dinner to show up "on time".
 
#111
Bonafide said:
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.
Click to expand...
Normally I’m the first Band member to show up at gigs. I normally get to work a little early and chill in my car until it’s time to go in. Band rehearsals are the only exception. Not that I’m “late” but the lead guitar player always shows up early to turn on the AC so it’s nice by the time we get there, and I’m rarely the last to show up even though I have a much farther drive than the rest of the guys
 
#113
Bonafide said:
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.
Click to expand...
If you're not 5 minutes you're late!!
 
#114
I played with a singer who would show up a little early and I was always there already, one day she tells me this story.
She was in a class being taught by the famous Jazz Drummer Max Roach and, as an aside, he says .. and well of course Bass players are always on time.
I've thought about that a lot thru the years and I think he was talking about a lot of different stuff in that little statement.
 
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#115
I strive to be somewhere at least half hour early, am happy if I'm on time, but since I rely on public transit to get around for most things, when I believe I will be late, I call. There have been a number of times I thought I would be late and called to say I would be, but arrived on time or a few minutes early in spite of it. Lateness is rare for me, but public transit and air travel takes it out of my control when all I can do is leave extra time to get somewhere because I know something could happen. I've been lucky, never been late to a show, but almost every band I'm in at the moment tends to travel as a pack, so if one is late, we are all going to be late. I've been lucky to gig with people that have their act together.
 
#119
I'm early all the time, no matter if it's to work, a gig, practice, a movie, whatever.

Everyone in my band is late to every band thing we've ever done. Used to drive me absolutely nuts, but they must have me trained now. I'm used to it.... Lol.
 
#120
"On time" equals "late"in my world.

Some years ago I had a band gig out of town, in the mountains about an hour east of home. We had guests in the house, so my wife wasn't going to that one, and things were a little chaotic at home. I loaded up the car, set out, and arrived at the venue about an hour and a half before showtime.

As I was loading in I noticed that I'd neglected to bring the last pieces of gear I usually load — my basses! The adrenaline kicked in, which is never fun. It was too late to go back for them.

After a couple minutes of casting around for a better solution, I did the math and called my wife. We arranged to meet on the road halfway between. Driving to that point and back would take me an hour, less with a little extra foot in it.

She put the basses and the house guests into her car, took off and the rendezvous went well. I got back to the gig with ten minutes to spare before we went on.

I'll skip the time I left my tux behind for a New Year's Eve gig two hours away (yeah, I made that one too). Showtime is as hard a deadline as we're ever likely to encounter, and lots can go wrong to impede us on the way. Nobody wants to be rushed and worn down before the gig, so getting ahead of it is the only smart choice.
 

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