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Ever "Saved the Day"?

Bass Viking

Bass Viking

Gold Supporting Member
Aug 30, 2004
10,337
13,440
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
#1
Last summer I went to watch a charity show that had a line up of bands performing for the evening. I was sitting with my drummer friend, who was also there as a spectator. The drummer for one of the acts pulled a no-show, so they recruited my friend to play. The kit was set up but only one drum stick could be found. People were scrounging around to locate sticks. I saw another friend of mine emerging from the kitchen with a wooden spoon, LOL! Finally, a set of sticks was obtained and my friend played the set. The band's singer was very grateful and thanked him afterward. She was also ready to kill the regular drummer. Oddly enough, he showed up later. We said Hi to him but didn't mention anything, and he didn't say anything either. Very weird…

Anybody here ever answer the frantic call "IS THERE A BASS PLAYER IN THE HOUSE!!! How did it go? Were you forced to play a P.O.S. instrument? Did you manage to fake your way through? Were you offered monetary compensation?
 
#2
Two stories kind of remind me of this:

The first one isn't really like a "BASS PLAYER IN THE HOUSE?" type thing, but during one of my old band's shows my guitarist's guitar head blows. Apparently he had screwed with it the night before and it crapped out on him... and completely cut him off at the beginning of the song. It was our "trademark" song at the time, so I proceeded to play more intense than I ever had before. I did two bass solo, played chords (!), just pulled out everything from my sleeves while my useless guitarist just kind of danced and rocked with me. After the song was done he got a replacement amp of another band's, but he later told me that I was his hero. If we wouldn't've pulled that off, he would have been horribly embaressed/depressed. I still haven't gotten myself to play that well...

Another time someone actually DID ask for any bass players in the crowd... the bassist and singer had gotten arrested on the way to the show. I was like 17 at the time... so me, the guitarist (who decided to sing) and the drummer just kind of screwed around with the bands' songs as frame works. Of course, I didn't know any of the songs, but I'm pretty good at improvising. I got a lot of recognition from it and I'm still friends with the gnarly drummer.
 
#3
Yeah, years ago I was a member of The Birds standing between Roger McGuin and Nicky Hopkins for about...oh...10 minutes when their bass player got held up at the airport.

Fastest rise and fall ever in the music industry. 10 minutes.:D
 
#4
Different way here... but you'll catch the karma

Local High School dance (long ago, when they actually had bands at the dances!) I'm there just after band practice to hear a great local group... bassist breaks a string... I run to the car grab my bass - hand it to him and he finishes the night. I'm a Hero! ;)

ONE YEAR LATER - above lesson NOT learned, and here's where the karma kicked in... I'm playing a High School gig and I break not one but TWO strings the A & G (Foxy Lady - new song at the time)... CRAP! Bass HOPELESSLY OUT OF TUNE!!! Kid in the audience dashes out comes back - hands me HIS bass... I finish the night. He's my hero! :bassist:

Lesson (finally) learned... only one string broken since then in the mid 70s - I play with a lighter touch now, and always carry a spare set of strings. :hmm:
 
#5
My wife got a call on a Saturday morning while I was out doing errands. They wanted to know if I could sub that night for Percy Sledge's bassist. By the time I found out it was too late, they already found someone. To make it worse I found out the keyboard player was Mike Finnigan.
 
#6
A different kind of save the day, with minimal bass content:

At one point, I played harp with a baroque opera company. I was the weak link, learning on the job with a bunch of great people who, unlike me, were all trained musicians. I was one of the "continuo" players, ie, we improvised our accompaniment off of a bass line (<- minimal bass content)

This time, we were doing a really early piece form 1605 or so, and we had a guest soprano from the Houston Opera slumming with us to get a chance to do this kind of repertoire. She started the show, after some little dance thing at the beginning, with two long and meandering recitatives, accompanied only by my buddy on theorbo.

Only that night, he accidentally turned to the second song instead of the first and started playing his intro to the wrong song, and thus, wrong key. Guest soprano is standing there looking scared, not knowing what to do, music director also doesn't notice anything's wrong.

So I've got the bass line to the right song in my folder, but I've never played it, and I seem to be the only besides the singer who notices that he's setting her up to have no clue what to sing. So, as he gets to the end of his intro, waiting for her to come in, I just play one giant rolling chord in the right key and stare her down to let her know I've got her. She launches into the song and I do my best to improvise an appropriate accompaniment on the spot. I'm the only instrument playing, and it's a live show, and I don't have any harmony figures - just trying to make rational guesses based on my bass line and her vocal line, and also play something tasteful and interesting and appropriate.

Meanwhile, my theorbo buddy first gives me a puzzled look, then realizes what he did, and scrambles to find the right page. He finds a time to come in, we stay a duo for awhile. The music director now has noticed, sees that we've got it in hand, and just grins. Then I find a time to ease out, and let them carry it the way they've rehearsed it. I don't think the audience ever knew there was anything wrong.

As the weak link, this was my first time feeling that I really was ready to be part of the group. Doubly good that another slummer (1st cellist with local symphony who played with us to keep up his gamba chops), came up to me at the intermission and said "nice save".
 
#7
One day in 1985 or 86, I was hanging out with a couple of friends who were in a band together; one was the bassist and the other was the drummer. Their band was supposed to play a small, informal, private party that night.

As it got closer to time to load and go to the party, my friends were getting worried that they hadn't heard from their guitarist or singer. After making a few calls, they found out that the guitarist & singer had decided not to do the show and had gone out of town.

My friends didn't want to be looked at as people who would blow off a commitment, regardless of how small the show was, so they decided to just go and face the person that had asked them to play, explain the situation and deal with it.

Instead, I said "We know enough musicians, let's go get some other friends and play the show." We ended up rolling in with 1 singer, 2 bassists (1 that could also play guitar), 3 guitar players and 2 drummers, calling our band Bulls... and we all switched off based on who knew which songs.

It was a glorious fiasco. :smug:
 
#8
A few years back, it was a Saturday night right after Christmas, I'm home already in my PJs and watching one of the bowl games. Around 8:30 or so, phone rings. It's the lead guitar player for a popular local band. In a frantic voice, he asked me if I could sit in with them. (A couple of months earlier, I had practiced with ,then did a show when their regular bass player was out of town.) I said sure, when? He said "right now." WHAT??? They were at the County Club to play for the yearly Heart Ball and somewhere there was a mixup and the bass player could not be located and needed me right now. I told him it would take me a little while to get my rig together and load and that I didn't have a tux. No problems. They had his total bass rig set up and ready to go and just wear a coat and tie. So, off I go. Apparantly they had made an annoncement to the crowd that a bass player was on the way and mentioned my name. Quite a few of the those in attendance knew me, so when I walked in the door, a great round of applause and exclamations rose like the second coming. Man - what a feeling. So, I just walked up to the stage, straped on the guys Pbass, turned on the amp and away we went. :cool:
 
#9
A few years ago a fellow bass player and friend of mine died very suddenly. He played in a country band, (I am more of a rocker).

Went to his funeral on Friday afternoon, and played my bass through his rig Friday and Saturday night. I only knew a few tunes the band played, and everything seemed to be in a different key. I spent the entire weekend staring at the guitar players left hand.

It wasn't a great performance, and I learned to respect country music. All in all, the gig got done, the bar was happy, the band got paid, and I got a good feeling by helping Ron fulfill some of his final obligations.
 
#11
Drinking in bar..completely faced....mention I play bass..guy says "cool, because ours didn't make it, your on.."
Commence to take way, way to many bass solo's...during break he offers "You know that guy Jaco?" Yes.."You ain't him.."...'Well fake a$$ George Benson, how many times are you gonna play the same lick?' I counter...

We hit it off after that and has called me back numerous times.
 
#12
Rebecca said:
A different kind of save the day, with minimal bass content:

At one point, I played harp with a baroque opera company. I was the weak link, learning on the job with a bunch of great people who, unlike me, were all trained musicians. I was one of the "continuo" players, ie, we improvised our accompaniment off of a bass line (<- minimal bass content)

This time, we were doing a really early piece form 1605 or so, and we had a guest soprano from the Houston Opera slumming with us to get a chance to do this kind of repertoire. She started the show, after some little dance thing at the beginning, with two long and meandering recitatives, accompanied only by my buddy on theorbo.

Only that night, he accidentally turned to the second song instead of the first and started playing his intro to the wrong song, and thus, wrong key. Guest soprano is standing there looking scared, not knowing what to do, music director also doesn't notice anything's wrong.

So I've got the bass line to the right song in my folder, but I've never played it, and I seem to be the only besides the singer who notices that he's setting her up to have no clue what to sing. So, as he gets to the end of his intro, waiting for her to come in, I just play one giant rolling chord in the right key and stare her down to let her know I've got her. She launches into the song and I do my best to improvise an appropriate accompaniment on the spot. I'm the only instrument playing, and it's a live show, and I don't have any harmony figures - just trying to make rational guesses based on my bass line and her vocal line, and also play something tasteful and interesting and appropriate.

Meanwhile, my theorbo buddy first gives me a puzzled look, then realizes what he did, and scrambles to find the right page. He finds a time to come in, we stay a duo for awhile. The music director now has noticed, sees that we've got it in hand, and just grins. Then I find a time to ease out, and let them carry it the way they've rehearsed it. I don't think the audience ever knew there was anything wrong.

As the weak link, this was my first time feeling that I really was ready to be part of the group. Doubly good that another slummer (1st cellist with local symphony who played with us to keep up his gamba chops), came up to me at the intermission and said "nice save".
Click to expand...

This story is awesome. And I don't even know what a theorbo IS.
 
#14
Not exactly the same kinda thing, but similar.

Was on a missions trip to the White Earth native american reservation in Minnesota. They asked our worship team to lead worship at a local church service. Cool, we do a basic piano/acoustic guitar (me) and two singers set. The pastor from the church speaks, and at the end of his message, he asks his worship team (Bass player, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar) to come play music. He then speaks directly to me from the pulpit, and asks me to join them. Little did I know, they didn't play with any chord charts/music, they played songs I had never heard before, and they were all an upbeat, almost flamenco style. I pretty much followed the guitar player's left hand until I figured out the key, then started playing lead parts whenever I got lost. Worked out well :D
 
#15
One time my trio was getting ready to play at a coffee shop. I got there early to set up, and I had to move a few things on the stage. There was a podium with a compartment under the top, so I opened it just to see what was in there. Nothing much ... a few lyrics sheets, set lists, a capo, just random crud. So I moved it out of the way and set up the PA.

We started playing and did a couple songs, then one of the guitarists realized he didn't have a capo for the next song. It fairly blew his mind when I calmly got up, walked over to the podium, got the capo and handed it to him saying, "There is a god, and I am his instrument."
 
#16
A bit different but...

About 17 years ago (I was around 30), my best friend had a basement/garage band. They used to get together every week to jam. I would tag along to have a few beers and help them out with sound and whatever else they needed. The bass player was a bit of an a$$ and would moan if anything wasn't to his liking (understand, this wasn't a proffessional gig, it was for fun). Well, after one of his hissy fits, he stormed out. The guitarist looked at me and said "your here every week, can you keep a beat?'" When I said I think so, he told me to pick up the guys bass. He showed me a few notes and explained how to follow him on a three chord song. BTW, it was a lefty bass and I'm righty, but since I never played anything before it didn't really matter.
The bass player didn't show for the next few weeks and I was having a blast, so I went out and bought a bass and amp. Wouldn't you know that the first week I lug my new gear down to the house we were jamming at, the other bass player walks in. he sees me playing and asks the band if he's out. They tell him yes, and I'm waiting for the yelling to start. Oddly enough he says it's cool and apologizes for being a jerk. He explains that his young kid and his new job were stressing him out. He then hangs out, watches me play a bit and starts showing me how to play some things. Really cool.
So now it's about 17 years later, I play in a few bands (including still jamming with those guys), and loving every minute of it.

Mark
 
#17
When I was 17 and learning my way around guitar, I had a beat-up Fender Mustang. I was at the local crabhouse (you Baltimoreans will understand that one) when the gutiarist's guitar developed a broken solder joint and lost all signal. There was no soldering iron available and I lived around the block, so I went home and got my Mustang for him to finish the gig.
 
#18
I got a call from David Bromberg once.....asked if I could bring my rig up to Wilmington for a show that a band was coming to do to help raise money to rebuild the Queen theater in Wilm. De. Got there and it turned out to be the Meters! I wish I had brought the Bigger Rig - the show was not supposed to be overly loud - so I didn't bring the big head or cabinet - too Bad - BUT.....The show DID go on!
 
#19
I got a call Friday night (I was at a gig that ended early) to sub because the bass player was dog sick.
I had one more set to go and they needed me asap. Couldn't make it sadly- hour drive from my gig to theirs.

I've "saved the day" a few times in cases like this. I gotta stop poisoning my fellow bass players! :D
 

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