Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[GwenOnBass]

You don't have to live in the country to enjoy country gravy!

Is the world ready for more country gravy?

 

[mikeoso]

You don't have to live in the country to enjoy country gravy!

Is the world ready for more country gravy?

Well, I dunno about Ireland, but here in the US Heartland, that stuff is what people put on everything! Including pancakes and watermelon.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Irish shepherd’s pie isn’t that far off from southern white gravy with sausage and bacon fat on biscuits. Both weigh the same in your gut.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Well, I dunno about Ireland, but here in the US Heartland, that stuff is what people put on everything! Including pancakes and watermelon.

And for the moment I appear to be marooned in The Colonies for a while, owing to a bizarre cluster of events. And onect in a while take a breakfast at Perkins, an American standard for imaginary fine dining. And a tablemate helpfully directs me to the Senior menu on the last page. She's being helpful, actually, because she knows my actual caloric needs are few. That and (my doctor informs me this week - there's your obligatory "doctor" reference for GoF credibility) yes my doctor says one of my prescriptions suppresses my appetite.

Right, the Perkins breakfast menu is where anyone can have a chicken fried steak with country gravy and eggs no matter how far you are from Georgia. It's way too much for me and settle on "Eggs in a Hole" and ask for Tabasco. I may have learned to put Tabasco on eggs in Denver. By the time I arrived in LA it was as normal as waking up.

For a proper Irish breakfast (also way too much for me to demolish), let's skip the country gravy and go directly to black pudding and fried eggs. Mushrooms, baked beans, broiled tomato, bacon, white pudding and toast, that'll do you. All day. I really miss black pudding at breakfast.

There's always scrapple.

 

[SoulReflection]

Happy Soulful Sunday...

 

[beans-on-toast]

Happy Soulful Sunday...

The song made a big impact both in the civil rights movement and on songwriters. Bob Marley lifted parts for One Love. He later retitled the song One Love/People Get Ready and credited Curtis Mayfield as a cowriter. After Curtis was paralyzed from the neck down in a stage rigging accident, proceeds from the many covers of this song helped keep him afloat.

 

[LBS-bass]

Gig yesterday was a riot and a half. First, I never did get any sleep that night, and had to do the show anyway. Second, the person who booked the gig had assured us, when I asked him three weeks ago, that everything was under control with the sound system. He assured me quite forcefully that the house had its own system and that the guy who booked us for the club was a pro sound guy who had said he would be there. He acted like I was out of line to even begin to suggest that there might in any way be a reason to double check on all of that. It was a big discussion that was heard by everyone in the band.

So I packed up my gear and drove the 35 minutes to get there. I'm a little early but the drummer and the new guitarist are already there. There's no sound system and there's no sound tech. We wait. The guy that booked this venue showed up, and eventually texts the sound guy and is told that, no there's no house system and, no, he's not planning on coming out there today. Turns out the sound guy had said he "would be there" back in June for a show that was double booked and cancelled.

Well, this was pretty upsetting because I'd been really adamant about wanting to make sure this was all lined up and was brushed off quite forcefully, as this guy likes to paint me as an obsessive worrier, since I actually like to double check things. But, even with the fury rising in my soul, there was really no point dwelling on it. This is, by the way, the same guy who isn't holding it together musically.

Luckily for us, the new guitarist also runs sound. He called his wife and asked her to load up her car with the gear we needed and bring it out. It took about an hour for her to get there. So we ended up with a very late start time, but we did manage to pull off a show. The venue seemed pretty chill about all of it, which was something of a relief.

As to the music itself: We played really, really well. We did not have time to play everything we had planned for, but we played one long set, took a very quick bathroom break, and then played a short set to finish up since they had an event planned at our scheduled stop time.

And here's the best, or worst, part of all, depending on how you look at these things. The guy who doesn't play well? Dude nailed almost every part. I do not know where he pulls this from on some gig days, but it is like he becomes a different player sometimes on stage. We did have some issues; I was extremely fatigued due to no sleep and started one song in the wrong key. Then we started it again and that guy came in early. But for the most part, we really did an outstanding job, and the crowd absolutely loved us.

At the very end, the saxophone player for the next band up came up and blew his horn during the instrumental break and it was brilliant. High energy, and the new guitarist stood next to me on stage and has great stage presence.

So all in all, it turned out well. We're all confused now about how to handle our ongoing problem, and reminded of why it's taking us so long to resolve it. Obligatory gig pics below.

Me and the mythical hop tree (it was a brewery):

The wall mural kitty and my #1:

TL;DR: Gig yesterday went well, despite a very late start due to stupidity.

 

[GwenOnBass]

You planned the earrings to coordinate with the murals? Great call.

 

[LBS-bass]

You planned the earrings to coordinate with the murals? Great call.

Happy accident!

 

[beans-on-toast]

And here's the best, or worst, part of all, depending on how you look at these things. The guy who doesn't play well? Dude nailed almost every part. I do not know where he pulls this from on gig days, but it is like he becomes a different player

Always nice when everything comes together.

Is it possible that he feels more relaxed/up for the gig with his wife at the show? If so, let her know that he plays way better when she’s there and encourage her to attend.

 

[LBS-bass]

Always nice when everything comes together.

Is it possible that he feels more relaxed/up for the gig with his wife at the show? If so, let her know that he plays way better when she’s there and encourage her to attend.

No, it's the new guitarist's wife that was there. This guy's wife never comes out. She would rather drink acid.

 

[LBS-bass]

And since it's soulful Sunday, I'll post this as it's the last song we played yesterday that the horn player joined us for. Not sure this qualifies as soul; it's funk but we all know that funk has soul

When I was a kid I brought this 45 to school and wore it out during rainy days at recess. I was always a bit off.

 

[beans-on-toast]

No, it's the new guitarist's wife that was there. This guy's wife never comes out. She would rather drink acid.

If you are going to allow him to stay in the group, it would never hurt to offer a compliment, tell him that he played really well. Perceived negativity can stress a player and affect their performance. Positive feedback can help.

 

[LBS-bass]

If you are going to allow him to stay in the group, it would never hurt to offer a compliment, tell him that he played really well. Perceived negativity can stress a player and affect their performance. Positive feedback can help.

Already done. A lot of back-patting and mutual admiration happened afterwards coming from and to all of us, but it won't hurt to say it again.

 

[Stumbo]

... "eventually texts the sound guy and is told that, no there's no house system and, no, he's not planning on coming out there today."

And how difficult would it have been to send the same text when you voiced your concerns?

Seems to me the guy is reacting to you as a woman and not in a good way. More like you're questioning his manhood.

He deserves a verbal thrashing for his "forceful" diatribe. Don't let him live this down.

Oh, and the git player who nailed his parts : is he on meds(legal or illegal) or some other substance? For him to be able to do at a gig what he can't do at rehearsal is concerning.

 

[LBS-bass]

And how difficult would it have been to send the same text when you voiced your concerns?

Seems to me the guy is reacting to you as a woman and not in a good way. More like you're questioning his manhood.

He deserves a verbal thrashing for his "forceful" diatribe. Don't let him live this down.

Oh, and the git player who nailed his parts : is he on meds(legal or illegal) or some other substance? For him to be able to do at a gig what he can't do at rehearsal is concerning.

It's the same guy. The guitarist we've had in the band since day one, not the new guy. He also booked this gig. And this is not the first time this has happened with him, in fact, I mentioned that when we had the discussion and said I really don't want a repeat of the first incident and that's the only reason I was asking.

So here we were again, after all that. I'm not the kind to say "I told you so," but you better believe it took all my strength to hold my tongue.

I don't know why he reacts to me in that way. I also question whether it has something to do with my gender, but when I mention this to others in the band, they say they have the same problems with him. It's just that I tend to be the one who brings up questions like this one. The others will offer more input on various aspects of his performance. Generally it's all part of the situation where he feels like he's outgunned as a player, and I think bringing in a really stellar guitarist has just made that more obvious. He probably feels like he isn't doing anything right, which is kind of true.

However, there are other issues that don't help. He's busy with work and family life, his wife is unforgiving of any schedule changes he might want to make for the band, and I think for him rehearsal is an escape from all of that and he just wants to have fun. For the rest of us, it's only fun if we play well.

I edited my first post because, in truth, he isn't always great on stage. He used to be consistently better than he has been recently, but one of the reasons we brought in another player was that his gaffes were becoming so frequent that it was becoming an embarrassment, and our enthusiasm for doing shows with him was quickly disappearing. So if this has motivated him to step up his stage game, at least, that's not a bad thing but I would expect it to be temporary, at best.

One thing that was different yesterday, though. He had a music stand in front of him with chord changes. He's never done that before.

 

[Stumbo]

One thing that was different yesterday, though. He had a music stand in front of him with chord changes. He's never done that before.

So he's compensated for not memorizing his parts? Better than the alternative.

 

[LBS-bass]

So he's compensated for not memorizing his parts? Better than the alternative.

I was surprised that he asked me to bring a stand for him. We did have a lot of material to prepare for this show with only a month to do it. The rest of us can play just about anything by ear; I play intervals, and don't really remember the chord changes, per se, and I'm usually good as long as I remember the first note I play in any song or section.

I'm not big on music stands in a rock band, but if it keeps him from playing the wrong changes, I guess that's ok with me. It at least shows that he's committed to stepping it up a bit.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Rest in peace, Mr. Baker. Say hi to Jack for me....

 

[beans-on-toast]

And how difficult would it have been to send the same text when you voiced your concerns?

Seems to me the guy is reacting to you as a woman and not in a good way. More like you're questioning his manhood.

He deserves a verbal thrashing for his "forceful" diatribe. Don't let him live this down.

Oh, and the git player who nailed his parts : is he on meds(legal or illegal) or some other substance? For him to be able to do at a gig what he can't do at rehearsal is concerning.

One thing that you can count on is that people will screw up. Some more that others.