That's because we've hit the magical point in every TB thread in which no one is actually responding to any of the original positions or arguments anymore ...
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Is it really THAT SERIOUS??????
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That's because we've hit the magical point in every TB thread in which no one is actually responding to any of the original positions or arguments anymore ...
Look on the bright side - at least nobody has tried the "if you can't find subs it's probably because your gigs pay crappy and no sub wants them" line of reasoning. Tbh I was tempted to pull it out, but then I remembered that I've even managed to sub out a couple of free gigs, so...
I think we need a corollary to Godwin's Law: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a posted comment having nothing to do with the original topic approaches 1.
Well, it's 4:30, I just got done playing a bunch of old Dale Watson songs, and I have a very nice Blake's turkey pie about to go into the oven . . .
1!
That's what adults and professionals do.
Is it that serious? In the entertainment field you never know who'll see you perform. A good gig can get you more good gigs. A blown one can close an avenue. Bailing at the last minute and putting a band in a bind should only be for serious reasons.
Bailing, showing up unprepared, causing unwarranted problems, etc... who needs it? There are enough external problems that come up, who wants to deal with internal ones too?
I've had to change a commitment I've made (very rare) and I hate doing it because I gave my word. I'll find a competent sub if need be. It's never "Changed my mind, can't do it, have fun". And I've never done it the day of. Yeah, I've played sick... barely able to stand. In fact I didn't, I spent most of the gig on a tall stool. The gig went on. It happened on an extended gig outside the US and no subs were available. Everyone got sick at some point. On the night the drummer got sick he had a local sub in the audience just in case. We hit the last note of the song at the end of the first set and he bolted to the restroom just in time to hurl. Or whatever he did in there.
Clearly some folks take this music thing more seriously than others
. There are places for folks that don't want to take things seriously. Being in a band with serious musicians is not one of them. Save everyone the trouble and stay home, period.
missed one gig a few years back when i about lost my left index finger at work
played thru months worth of gigs while wearing an ilizarov fixator from another work related injury that took me off the payroll for 3.5 years & wish i'd have passed on a number of those gigs
sue me
played thru months worth of gigs while wearing an ilizarov fixator from another work related injury that took me off the payroll for 3.5 years & wish i'd have passed on a number of those gigs
sue me
Can't even believe the thread continued after this post. That was the best thing I've ever seen on TB.
OP, I think you need to take a weekend off dude. You seem pretty wound up.
I have this problem constantly. I am misunderstood because I write in a very sarcastic and casual style. None of this is really all that serious to me (thus the title of the thread). I always come across as "ranting", or pissed, or even a know it all, when I am none of these. If you are offended by anything I have said, then you are taking ME too seriously. If you think I am stressed or pissed, then I have done an awful job of getting my point across.
I have PLENTY of weekends off. In fact, I only do 4 or 5 gigs a month these days (if that). And many of THOSE are fill-in gigs. But that's by choice. I have played gigs since I was 15 (now 41) and even hit the road (regionally) for a decade or so. These days (as posted earlier) I am in school, running a business, doing side work, and have two young kids.
Most gigs these days (again, fill-ins) I play at least a dozen songs I have never played before. Often the guitar player will start a song that was never even put on the set list or discussed prior to my being there. But someone will yell out a couple chords, and cue me if something different comes along, and AWAY WE GO! And it always turns out fine. Nobody gets hurt, and most of the crowd thinks we wrote the freaking song. More times than I can remember a band that I have been in will get a request (sometimes with a Benjamin to go along with it) to do a song we had never played. We hade a quick huddle, picked a key if nobody knows the original key, made sure we knew at least a couple verses of words, and TOOK OFF! Most times it wasn't note for note like the record, but it's CLOSE ENOUGH for rock n roll. And that person LOVED hearing their song. Which is another point. Yes, I want most songs to be dead on, but nobody is keeping score so some will be close enough. And nobody knows but the few on stage. Do you guys NEVER EVER take requests for songs you haven't played together before? If not, that seems "safe", if not dull and/or boring.
And I guess I somehow implied that my view is the only one on the planet. Meh, I know that's not the case. I'm a big boy. I know that others can disagree with me a still be right (for them).
All I was getting at was that I don't get why people in bands take them so seriously. Heck, we have fun in my business that is a regular day job type environment. Yes, we do great work and get a metric ton done every day. But if one of my people says "Hey TF, I want to get a jump on traffic heading to the mountains Friday. How 'bout cutn me loose at lunch?" Whatever. Good people deserve some slack on occasion. They don't abuse it. So what the heck? Get outa here. We could go back and forth over what constitutes abuse, or which scenarios I might not approve of in my own business.
But the simplest form of my point is this. The music business is centered around fun and entertainment. So why do those who perform the music get so serious about it? I just don't understand why there is room for the occasional last-minute day off in every single business on the planet except music.
And, again, for those of you who say you can't find any subs, I don't buy it (in most cases). Like I posted earlier, I have a list of a dozen in mostly rural Eastern NC. If I can find them here, then they are almost everywhere. BUT, if you really REALLY can't, then I guess you are in a different situation.
And, once again, (sigh) I live up to my commitments. I have several people who depend on me and my business to pay their bills. My family depends on me and I am committed to them. I am committed to my school work. Blah blah blah. I DON'T have a PROBLEM with COMMITMENT. (I hope that time it was in English so some of you get it.)
All that being said, I am just throwing my opinions up against the wall. Read them if you like. Don't if you don't want to. But they are just my opinions. I'm not going to type "IMO" every five words so that you guys don't get your panties in a wad thinking I'm a know it all. I usually ASSUME that if you are writing/typing something in a thread here, it is YOUR OPINION. And other than my point about not being able to find subs in most cases, at no point have I said any of you are WRONG. In fact, all I have said is that I don't get it.
Try to have some fun in your lives guys. Life is too short. ENJOY music. Sweating it out every night, and stressing over whether or not a record exec, or the owner of the next big club, or the CEO of the biggest booking agency in the tri-state area is in the audience at every single little gig you play will make you old quick. Just play to the average Joe out there having a good time. And I can assure you, the average Joe doesn't give a crap if you have a fill-in drummer. You play the right songs and you could do them WITHOUT a drummer and they will be fine. (Sigh..... I feel like I have to explain myself at every turn now. That was an exaggeration. I don't REALLY think you should do gigs without a drummer. OK? Calm down. Oy. I live in Literalville now.)
Either way. Sorry if I offended anyone. Do what works for you and don't let me or anyone else tell you any different. Rock on party people!
There's plenty of room for it. It's just that gigs are much less likely to be acceptable last-minute days off. In your business, when it's crunch time, do you let people take a last minute day off? My business is web hosting, and if we have a piece of hardware go down at a co-location and I dispatch a tech and he says "actually, you know what, I think I feel like going to the beach," he's fired.
You are making the mistake of assuming that gigs are the only "business days" for musicians. You are discounting all the hours of practice - individual or in ensemble settings - among other things.
I am not offended by what you say two fingers, you seem like you are comfortable with your attitude towards music. You are probably pretty good at what you do also, if you have the network of musicians available to sub for you, and have plenty of opportunities to fill for others as well.
In the first band I was in, we played out for I think 7 years. We weren't doing it for a living but took it seriously. At times we would slack off and not book many gigs, and even during busy months we wouldn't do more than 7-8 shows. So in that 7 years we obviously had subs for just about everyone. We only had one time when someone missed a gig, and that was when he was in the hospital.
If someone wanted to take a vacation when we already had a gig on the books, it was always with a months notice or more so we had plenty of time to find someone and even have a few practices with them. We almost always discussed booking as a group anyway so that people with families could make plans, we found a replacement bass player for almost a year when ours had his first baby. It worked out that about the time he was ready to play again, the new bass player moved.
So no one was a hard a$$ about any of it. but that was because we were all responsible adults and showed up when they were needed. Life is short and playing music for us was about fun. But just like anything that you want to be good at, there is work involved, and sometimes you have to practice or gig when you really don't feel like it.
So again, I am not offended or mad at anyone. I am just saying I like working with people that I can depend on. It puts lots of stress on the other band members when they have to work with a sub. I guess I never have gotten to the point musically where I could do a gig without practicing some with the band. The times I have been under rehearsed I have always been a bit embarrassed. Maybe the audience didn't care, but I did.
In the first band I was in, we played out for I think 7 years. We weren't doing it for a living but took it seriously. At times we would slack off and not book many gigs, and even during busy months we wouldn't do more than 7-8 shows. So in that 7 years we obviously had subs for just about everyone. We only had one time when someone missed a gig, and that was when he was in the hospital.
If someone wanted to take a vacation when we already had a gig on the books, it was always with a months notice or more so we had plenty of time to find someone and even have a few practices with them. We almost always discussed booking as a group anyway so that people with families could make plans, we found a replacement bass player for almost a year when ours had his first baby. It worked out that about the time he was ready to play again, the new bass player moved.
So no one was a hard a$$ about any of it. but that was because we were all responsible adults and showed up when they were needed. Life is short and playing music for us was about fun. But just like anything that you want to be good at, there is work involved, and sometimes you have to practice or gig when you really don't feel like it.
So again, I am not offended or mad at anyone. I am just saying I like working with people that I can depend on. It puts lots of stress on the other band members when they have to work with a sub. I guess I never have gotten to the point musically where I could do a gig without practicing some with the band. The times I have been under rehearsed I have always been a bit embarrassed. Maybe the audience didn't care, but I did.
Uh..... no, I am not. Where did you get that? I mainly focused on gigs because those are the days that really piss people off if someone misses. Practices, not so much (or not AS much anyway).
(But as I have stated many times before, I think bar/cover/wedding/corporate bands practice way too much. But that's a can of worms I can open another day.)
My band practices a lot because we are trying to take the songs to the next level, and make a huge distinction between us, and other classic rock cover bands in the area.
We feel we've heard enough bands "get by" on certain well-known songs, and we also feel most bands avoid the more challenging popular, iconic songs because of the level of work needed to play them.
And that's why we can't bring in subs.
When certain players practice together, they sow a certain chemistry that another player cannot duplicate by simply walking in, even if they're very, very good.
I guess that's another disagreement hehe. I think many bar/cover/wedding/corporate bands don't practice enough. When I go see music, I want to be blown away. I want to be rocked. I want goose bumps. I want a life changing experience. I most often get a lukewarm, ho hum, it's good enough performance. If the musician's don't care, why would anyone else.
You are the exception rather than the rule. Most people don't know if you are playing a song exactly right or just getting by. As long as you pick the right songs, then you're more then halfway there.
By the way, at no point have I ever condoned playing an entire show of "just getting by", or "close enough" in most cases. I mainly brought that up with regards to requests.
But I would argue that the average bar goer would rather hear any rendition of Brick House or Sweet Home Alabama (played well or not) than hear a band NAIL an old Yes or Rush song with every single complex note having been played/sung to perfection. I once played in a band that worked on "Hold the Line" by Toto. It took a lot of effort to get it right. And we did get it right. But nobody cared when we played it live. We had impressed ourselves, but that was about it. They sat and watched until we got done with that song. Then we would start "Your Love" by the Outfield (much simpler song and much bigger radio hit) and the crowd would come back to the stage and go nuts.
(By the way, most bands don't do Sweet Home Alabama right at all. They miss a lot of the nuance licks in it. Bass players are some of the worst offenders. That drives me nuts. But nobody else.....and I mean NOBODY else in the room ever EVER gives a crap......ever.)
Yeah, because that's crunch time. So really, it's OK to take time off - just do it when it's not crunch time, right? Doesn't sound so ridiculous when you put it that way.
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