I think I have to walk.

[Mike Whitfield]

I think I can. I'm going to ask the owner what he'd like me to do regarding the 11/22 gig. I contacted him today to let him know we're forced to be a duo tomorrow, and to make sure that that was ok. He has a little trepidation, rightfully so, but ok'd it. The sticky point is that this band is well-known, and these shows are booked under that name, so replacing everyone might not fly with the owner. Tough situation that I'll be very happy to be done with.

Three questions to consider. First, assuming you leave the band (and I can't see how you wouldn't), can you still do the band's originals for the second date? That's important for strategery. You may not even be able to do the originals with a band of replacements under the original band name, although someone here surely knows the answer to that. Second, assuming you can't, do you have a set of traditionals and/or covers ready to perform? Third, is the ale house owner likely to care whether you're doing originals or common traditionals/covers as long as you entertain the crowd? 'Cause it kinda sounds like he might.

I'm still not getting how you're performing as a duo when the Queen gig is for all five, but that's okay, I probably just missed the explanation. I'm also surprised that any band leader would choose to jump genres to do a Queen tribute show without rehearsing; not my favorite band but they were not exactly known for the simplicity of their music. Pride goeth before a fall, and after the fall cometh a long hard winter - if there's any justice.

Best of luck - the best revenge is always a life well lived!

 

[Downunderwonder]

If charts are a problem maybe you could jump onto bass by ear and write the banjo bits out for someone else a bit easier?

 

[dirtychinchilla]

OP, I've had a similar situation recently where the rest of the band almost refused to play a gig. I nearly quit at that point. If you cancel a rehearsal at the last minute, that's one thing (if it's a rare thing). If you cancel a gig, where people's revenue and livelihood is relying on your presence, that is completely not on.

OP is 35. The rest of the band is 26 or so.... Kids. Durn younguns....

In my band, I'm the youngest at a hair off 30. One guy is 30, and the other is a hair off 40. Both the older guys are dramatically less reliable than I am. OK, I'm no kid, but you would have thought at 40 that he'd learnt something about time keeping.

 

[electracoyote]

As mentioned, a big concern would be how to cover the gig that doesn't get played. In my neighborhood, healthy trusting relationships with talent buyers are hard to establish, it's a pretty competitive environment. Backing out on agreements and commitments usually has some kind of negative long-term impact. If OP gets the shaft from "main booker" and the rest of the band and has to renege on his booking, it could burn a bridge and even tarnish a reputation with other talent buyers.

Again, it's a really terrible thing to do, forcing someone to spin, scramble, make excuses, and go into an awkward damage control. I hope OP can cover it, but even that's no guarantee as I've seen talent buyers unhappy when a different group (or even one different member!) shows up than what was discussed and promised.

 

[Eilif]

Honestly, at this point, I'd be clear with the club owner that it not your fault that the one gig was canceled and the other vastly altered.

An offer to try and set something up to cover would probably be appreciated by the owner, but at this point OP needs to be able to exit this group with as little of their stink sticking to him as possible and as much of the blame as possible going on the band's booker.

 

[BassBrass]

You need to get out more. Put a walking bassline on anything and it's ''country''.

Oh? well, I've played Tulsa. Outside the shack/club I met an old big band sax player from NYC who left it all behind to seek out the desert, but he didn't know why except NY was too damp for him. Tulsa was too dry for me.

 

[ArtechnikA]

...Tulsa was too dry for me.

I've been to Tulsa lots of times, didn't seem dry to me. I lived almost 10 years in the high desert of NW NV, where single-digit relative humidity was common. That's dry...

 

[BassBrass]

I've been to Tulsa lots of times, didn't seem dry to me. I lived almost 10 years in the high desert of NW NV, where single-digit relative humidity was common. That's dry...

I was just saying to that poster that I get out far enough to have heard country music, but were I come from less than 42" yearly rain is a drought and that Everything West of the deciduous tree line, like Wisconsin, was too dry for me, but I could adapt with a humidifier added to the HVAC. (Portland/Seattle/Fla./Louisiana parts of Texas are too wet btw, need a dehumidifier.)

 

[Downunderwonder]

Not sure how humidity relates to ''countrifying'' a pop rock tune.

 

[Dusty Elmer]

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

The gig went really well as a 2 piece. Probably one of the most fun shows I've played. Happy bar owner, happy crowd. One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos, all of which were nonexistent last night. Songs were short and sweet, sparse and tight. Really good. I'd play duo shows with the guitarist/singer any day.

The matter of quitting I saved for after we were done. I explained the several reasons I had, and the singer was very understanding and seemed to agree on the absurdity that the upright player/booker tends to bring in. As the main songwriter sometimes I get the feeling that he feels trapped by the band. He agreed on the ridiculousness of even booking a Queen gig, given the kind of band we are, and that it wasn't cool to delete my booking in favor of that one. Maybe he will address it with upright/booker, but who knows. I told him I will not have my name attached to unprofessionalism.

I didn't close the door on working with him again, it'd just have to be under more professional circumstances. All in all, the night went much much better than I expected it to.

Again, thank you all for your replies. You all really helped me a lot.

 

[Outshined91]

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

The gig went really well as a 2 piece. Probably one of the most fun shows I've played. Happy bar owner, happy crowd. One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos, all of which were nonexistent last night. Songs were short and sweet, sparse and tight. Really good. I'd play duo shows with the guitarist/singer any day.

The matter of quitting I saved for after we were done. I explained the several reasons I had, and the singer was very understanding and seemed to agree on the absurdity that the upright player/booker tends to bring in. As the main songwriter sometimes I get the feeling that he feels trapped by the band. He agreed on the ridiculousness of even booking a Queen gig, given the kind of band we are, and that it wasn't cool to delete my booking in favor of that one. Maybe he will address it with upright/booker, but who knows. I told him I will not have my name attached to unprofessionalism.

I didn't close the door on working with him again, it'd just have to be under more professional circumstances. All in all, the night went much much better than I expected it to.

Again, thank you all for your replies. You all really helped me a lot.

Nice to hear that you had a good time after all! Maybe you guys should split off and start your own two piece then... or not.

 

[Dusty Elmer]

Nice to hear that you had a good time after all! Maybe you guys should split off and start your own two piece then... or not.

In a perfect world! It was really great. I've played for 3 years and hundreds of shows with these guys, and never had a show where it was just the 2 of us. If they were all that fun I'd think twice before leaving honestly.

 

[shwashwa]

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

The gig went really well as a 2 piece. Probably one of the most fun shows I've played. Happy bar owner, happy crowd. One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos, all of which were nonexistent last night. Songs were short and sweet, sparse and tight. Really good. I'd play duo shows with the guitarist/singer any day.

The matter of quitting I saved for after we were done. I explained the several reasons I had, and the singer was very understanding and seemed to agree on the absurdity that the upright player/booker tends to bring in. As the main songwriter sometimes I get the feeling that he feels trapped by the band. He agreed on the ridiculousness of even booking a Queen gig, given the kind of band we are, and that it wasn't cool to delete my booking in favor of that one. Maybe he will address it with upright/booker, but who knows. I told him I will not have my name attached to unprofessionalism.

I didn't close the door on working with him again, it'd just have to be under more professional circumstances. All in all, the night went much much better than I expected it to.

Again, thank you all for your replies. You all really helped me a lot.

check to see if the singer wants to bag the queen gig and do your gig. that would be awesome...

 

[Mike Whitfield]

check to see if the singer wants to bag the queen gig and do your gig. that would be awesome...

Plus there's plenty of time to recruit a good upright bassist for November and be the band the ale house owner wanted. Then it's only one more step to being a new band, but one the ale house owner and his patrons already know. They could be a core two or three piece band with associates they can bring in as needed. Although actually, duos seem pretty popular in Americana; that sparser sound just fits that genre better than most. Sounds like the OP had some really good karma going.

 

[Eilif]

Sounds like as good an ending as can be hoped for.

You might have the making of a side duo. I wouldn't count on him ditching the other guys but a tight two piece Americana group can play places a full band can't and with a better cash split.

 

[Humbled]

...One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos...

Really? Per Song?? Umm... I'm glad you're not burning any bridges, that's wise. ...but IMO that in itself is even more evidence that you're ready to move up a league or three.

 

[Dusty Elmer]

Really? Per Song?? Umm... I'm glad you're not burning any bridges, that's wise. ...but IMO that in itself is even more evidence that you're ready to move up a league or three.

Yeah, per song. My feeling on solos, on any instrument, is that less is more, and certainly when it comes to bass and drums. Upright is, I guess, a novelty to some degree, so the first solo would grab peoples attention, then less and less with each successive solo of course. But I think I was the only one watching the audience during the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. etc. solo in the set, and seeing their obvious boredom. We'd play "The Weight" by The Band, and it's a great song when The Band does it, but ours was 8 minutes long. I timed it every night. 3 guitar solos. "Folsom Prison Blues" 2 slap solos, 2 guitar solos, and 2 banjo solos foisted upon me. And the thing is, there were so many good songs they wrote, and we would have to leave some out of a set because they wanted to stretch "The Weight" out to 8 minutes, or "Can't You See" out to 9 minutes. It was just too much wanking.

 

[pcake]

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

The gig went really well as a 2 piece. Probably one of the most fun shows I've played. Happy bar owner, happy crowd. One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos, all of which were nonexistent last night. Songs were short and sweet, sparse and tight. Really good. I'd play duo shows with the guitarist/singer any day.

The matter of quitting I saved for after we were done. I explained the several reasons I had, and the singer was very understanding and seemed to agree on the absurdity that the upright player/booker tends to bring in. As the main songwriter sometimes I get the feeling that he feels trapped by the band. He agreed on the ridiculousness of even booking a Queen gig, given the kind of band we are, and that it wasn't cool to delete my booking in favor of that one. Maybe he will address it with upright/booker, but who knows. I told him I will not have my name attached to unprofessionalism.

I didn't close the door on working with him again, it'd just have to be under more professional circumstances. All in all, the night went much much better than I expected it to.

Again, thank you all for your replies. You all really helped me a lot.

glad to hear that the show went well

did you let the guitar player know you really liked playing with him?

 

[gln1955]

Yeah, per song. My feeling on solos, on any instrument, is that less is more, and certainly when it comes to bass and drums. Upright is, I guess, a novelty to some degree, so the first solo would grab peoples attention, then less and less with each successive solo of course. But I think I was the only one watching the audience during the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. etc. solo in the set, and seeing their obvious boredom. We'd play "The Weight" by The Band, and it's a great song when The Band does it, but ours was 8 minutes long. I timed it every night. 3 guitar solos. "Folsom Prison Blues" 2 slap solos, 2 guitar solos, and 2 banjo solos foisted upon me. And the thing is, there were so many good songs they wrote, and we would have to leave some out of a set because they wanted to stretch "The Weight" out to 8 minutes, or "Can't You See" out to 9 minutes. It was just too much wanking.

Ya'll must have been pretty good otherwise because nobody wants to hear that much wanking. You would be on the right track to get a duo or reasonable trio together and continue as you did for this gig.

 

[DirtDog]

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

The gig went really well as a 2 piece. Probably one of the most fun shows I've played. Happy bar owner, happy crowd. One of the things that always kind of bothered me was seemingly endless soloing that would go on between the upright and the guitar and the drums. A lot of the songs had 2 or 3 slap solos and a drum solo and a few guitar solos, all of which were nonexistent last night. Songs were short and sweet, sparse and tight. Really good. I'd play duo shows with the guitarist/singer any day.

The matter of quitting I saved for after we were done. I explained the several reasons I had, and the singer was very understanding and seemed to agree on the absurdity that the upright player/booker tends to bring in. As the main songwriter sometimes I get the feeling that he feels trapped by the band. He agreed on the ridiculousness of even booking a Queen gig, given the kind of band we are, and that it wasn't cool to delete my booking in favor of that one. Maybe he will address it with upright/booker, but who knows. I told him I will not have my name attached to unprofessionalism.

I didn't close the door on working with him again, it'd just have to be under more professional circumstances. All in all, the night went much much better than I expected it to.

Again, thank you all for your replies. You all really helped me a lot.

Glad it worked out for you!

Was this gig at the aforementioned ale house (first of two gigs)? if so, are you at the point of figuring out what to do for the 2nd alehouse gig? Just the two piece again?