HAHAHA! The imaginary friend. I get it now. I wonder why he thinks my wife exists. He has not met her either.
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I'm in multiple bands. BL's getting testy about it. Advise, please.
- Thread starter Robroy
- Start date
I agree on not realistically being able to "prioritize" one band over another, but there are circumstances where you might want to break a gig with one band to perform with the other. For me personally these kinds of circumstances involve the quality of the gig in terms of size, prestige, and importance.
Like I might bail on a jamboree gig if the potential to play the county fair came up. Or ditch the county fair to play at a nice regional music festival. This kind of flexibility is a lot easier to get if you have a sub. I usually try to find someone better than me, just to make it go as smoothly as possible. If I get replaced by the sub, so be it, but usually since they are better than me, they already have other better gigs they are committed to and joining my band isn't appealing, although picking up some work on an otherwise free night might be.
Like I might bail on a jamboree gig if the potential to play the county fair came up. Or ditch the county fair to play at a nice regional music festival. This kind of flexibility is a lot easier to get if you have a sub. I usually try to find someone better than me, just to make it go as smoothly as possible. If I get replaced by the sub, so be it, but usually since they are better than me, they already have other better gigs they are committed to and joining my band isn't appealing, although picking up some work on an otherwise free night might be.
I find this completely reasonable. Both our drummer and our guitar player are in multiple bands.
You MUST blackout your dates, or I will schedule you. IF this goes awry, the best thing you can do is give me a sub. However, I will probably try my best to work with you, if you're usually pretty up front, and not flaking on me.
If you have blacked out a date, I will NOT schedule you. I don't even need to know your reason.
I'm near the county line of the wet county (two miles from the liquor store). And we make the occasional Costco run (Louisville). A family sized bottle of good stuff there is about $20 cheaper than at costco in Seattle.
But you bring up one of the fun stats. Apparently drunk driving is a more serious problem in dry counties because of all the people driving sometimes across multiple counties to get booze.
They have a fun activity here. You get a designated driver and feel free to get hammered. Then the cops pull over the designated driver. They then attempt to get you to get out of the car for whatever reason. If you do, the second your foot touches earth, they bust you for public drunkenness. I drink very little so it's not an issue with me, but I've heard some interesting stories. I've also driven through quite a few small town sobriety checkpoints on back roads on my way home from gigs.
Sort of. I probably should have said "more experienced". But the drummer and lead guitar player are definitely better.And that's the more talented band?
Yeah, if I come up with a situation like that, I might find myself doing just that. And I'm with you about getting a bass player "better than me".
I'm a huge "let the chips fall where they may" sort of guy. Truth be told, it would just free me up to focus on other projects. There's always something waiting. I have roughly 80 felled trees to cut up.
I'm near the county line of the wet county (two miles from the liquor store). And we make the occasional Costco run (Louisville). A family sized bottle of good stuff there is about $20 cheaper than at costco in Seattle.
But you bring up one of the fun stats. Apparently drunk driving is a more serious problem in dry counties because of all the people driving sometimes across multiple counties to get booze.
They have a fun activity here. You get a designated driver and feel free to get hammered. Then the cops pull over the designated driver. They then attempt to get you to get out of the car for whatever reason. If you do, the second your foot touches earth, they bust you for public drunkenness. I drink very little so it's not an issue with me, but I've heard some interesting stories. I've also driven through quite a few small town sobriety checkpoints on back roads on my way home from gigs.
AHHHH YES.
Buford T. Justice
Crazy, at least here we have one set of laws for the whole country, Although the police of some counties enforce them with more enthusiasm than others.I'm near the county line of the wet county (two miles from the liquor store). And we make the occasional Costco run (Louisville). A family sized bottle of good stuff there is about $20 cheaper than at costco in Seattle.
But you bring up one of the fun stats. Apparently drunk driving is a more serious problem in dry counties because of all the people driving sometimes across multiple counties to get booze.
They have a fun activity here. You get a designated driver and feel free to get hammered. Then the cops pull over the designated driver. They then attempt to get you to get out of the car for whatever reason. If you do, the second your foot touches earth, they bust you for public drunkenness. I drink very little so it's not an issue with me, but I've heard some interesting stories. I've also driven through quite a few small town sobriety checkpoints on back roads on my way home from gigs.
I know. Crazy as it sounds some guys play that way. I worked with a keyboard player one time who relied on a transpose button. Problem was the guy would often forget to transpose for the next song and to make matters worse he would often drink too much which caused him not to listen. Consequently he wouldn't know he was in the wrong key until someone pointed it out to him.
I hated that!
- Jun 9, 2013
- 173
- 97
- Disclosures
- Bacchus / STR Endorsing Artist and direct Dealer of new and used MIJ Brands.
Finding a sub might be a good idea. Don't go canceling gigs that were already booked, that's never a good idea, it only gives you a reputation for being flaky.
after you complete your confirmed bookings i might have a word with the band leader about introducing a dep, but if that goes down badly then I'd just play in the band that you enjoy playing with most and quit the other.
Sounds like the bar band B.L is a bit off a jerk though, I mean really, it's just a bar band...but still no point making enemies over this.
Truth be told, from what you say I think the Family band may fall apart too once the young pianist finds his own band project to get into playing music he likes, (and he may actually get some rewarding work in the future). But, that band seems to have more potential than the bar band, and if the pianist does leave eventually (likely if he doesn't really like the music) you could probably find a replacement.
Good luck with it.
after you complete your confirmed bookings i might have a word with the band leader about introducing a dep, but if that goes down badly then I'd just play in the band that you enjoy playing with most and quit the other.
Sounds like the bar band B.L is a bit off a jerk though, I mean really, it's just a bar band...but still no point making enemies over this.
Truth be told, from what you say I think the Family band may fall apart too once the young pianist finds his own band project to get into playing music he likes, (and he may actually get some rewarding work in the future). But, that band seems to have more potential than the bar band, and if the pianist does leave eventually (likely if he doesn't really like the music) you could probably find a replacement.
Good luck with it.
That is fine and well in a METRO area like you {especially you} and I live, while in the O.P. situation,where HE is, there might very well not even reside
another bass player. Much less one that could qualify as a sub.
Although, the B.L./keytard could just shift the pitch down to play the bass parts, while doing so all in C.
another bass player. Much less one that could qualify as a sub.
Although, the B.L./keytard could just shift the pitch down to play the bass parts, while doing so all in C.
Well, we used to have one set of laws for the whole country, it was called Prohibition. Eventually most of the country figured out it was a bad idea. But there are some counties in some states where local ordinances like to keep the 1920s alive.
I use the calendar on my cell phone religiously. Often, in both bands, we'll be called upon at a gig to schedule a future gig at the venue. I pull out my cell phone calendar and often give the yes or no ritht there. However, In the early days I missed a date and double booked. It's imperative that all dates be logged.
We have fun jokes about it here. What is the difference between a baptist friend and a methodist friend"? The methodist will say "hi" when you see him in the liquor store.
My wife and I were looking for a church here after about a year and came upon this fairly large local baptist church. After the sermon, An "affluent looking" middle aged woman came up and introduced herself. She was all smiley faced and everything and brought up that she was on the county council. I mentioned that I had attended a couple of city council meetings and had some ideas about how to really revitalize the downtown area but that they "are, uh, not very baptist friendly". The smile left her face so fast you would have thought I threatened her life. She quickly excused herself.
I not only think dry counties are dumb, I'm actively involved in eliminating the lunacy here - and I attend a baptist church which is as tea-totalling as the rest of them. I just don't talk about it much there.
I've only cancelled one gig that was already booked. It's complicated and part of the remaining bad blood in "adult" band. It goes like this:
When we got the guitar player to quit, he had scheduled us to play a spot in a few months (about two months away when he quit) at a place a friend of his owned. He said he would cancel it.
So, I took it out of my calendar. Subsequently, my family a couple weeks later got a gig for that date. Meanwhile, as the date approaches, the Adult band is looking for a new guitar player and someone sez, “Hey, wonder if he really cancelled it?” They task me to call the place. I call and, surprise, he never cancelled it! So I call my family band to tell them, “oops” and they say, “But we just mailed out the flyers.” I say “never mind” and call back the other venue and come clean on what happened, let them know we need to cancel and that it was a fluke that will never happen again. They were completely understanding and told me to call back once we’ve broken in our new guitar player.
My mistake in this: I also come clean with Adult band about what happened and the new drummer comes absolutely unglued. How dare I make the decision for them, etc., etc. Now, technically he was right. However, because we had never talked about subs for the band before this, and we were really trying to get tight for future gigs, I made a decision during the phone call that, in hindsight, I should not have made. It literally never dawned on me to consider the idea of the band doing the gig with a replacement. I was in the wrong.
I apologized profusely to the band, explained the mindset that caused it and re-iterated that the huge contributing factor was the circumstances under which the gig was scheduled in the first place and then NOT cancelled like it was supposed to be. The band was disappointed, as I would have been to. And I felt bad. But the drummer just would not let it go. He whined for a couple of weeks and made no small number of comments about my personal integrity. It was water off a ducks back for several reasons, but it certainly gave me a new perspective about his character. You learn a lot about a person by how they respond to disappointment, regardless of who was responsible for it.
But I think creating additional “strife” with him is what was driving the BL. And this drummer wants to play every day and twice on Sundays. He may be the member that really IS in it for the money, but just doesn’t want to admit it. Thing is, I’m an IT professional and this drummer is below the poverty level and is a welder when he can get work. He has different social skills than I do and I cut him huge slack. That is how this could go through what it did and still fizzle. I’m Mr. Spock to the bitter end. I gave a few quick lectures on blame looking backward and responsibility looking forward. You don’t live in the past. You learn from it and move on.
