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Lazy sub drummer, bad gig (not humor)

#22
Llewellen said:
Who prepares for two months to sub on one gig? I mean, he would end up playing for $1.49/hour, not including travel, load in and load out time.
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I don't think anyone is saying the drummer should have spent a full two months preparing, but rather that the drummer had a whole two months of lead time, so he certainly had the opportunity to do at least a little prep—which he didn't.
 
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#25
and this is why you have at least one rehearsal...two months out and not at least one quick rehearsal? I know a lot of bands or guys in bands, subbing and what not don't do rehearsals but I think it's almost mandatory. Seems to me like it would have saved everyone a lot of grief here. but as always..your mileage may vary.

Honestly if it were me I would of asked for a rehearsal if I was the guy subbing. if not, I would of been shedding this material til I knew it in my sleep to avoid looking like a fool onstage.
 
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#27
Llewellen said:
Who prepares for two months to sub on one gig? I mean, he would end up playing for $1.49/hour, not including travel, load in and load out time.
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If you can't find time to learn the songs with 2 months notice, you don't have time to do the gig.

Also i'm guessing the reason for both the unknown sub and lack of rehearsal is because this was a gig involving significant travel.
 
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#28
Fuzzbass said:
Did a bar gig last Friday night with an all-original power blues/funk/rock trio -- which interestingly enough has been my busiest band. As usual, I didn't know who the drummer would be: the #1 guy will be leaving the band because of his day job, which has already been keeping him from many of the gigs, so we've been using a variety of subs and looking for a replacement.

I get to the bar and start unloading my SUV. A guy I don't know comes up and asks whether I'm the bassist. He must be the drummer, so we introduce ourselves. He then says he wasn't completely up to speed on the songs, so hopefully I could communicate with him. Yes, of course I will -- but that goes without saying in a no-rehearsal sub situation, so this was an "uh oh" moment.

Some background: the name of this band ends with "Blues", which is highly misleading because only 20% of the songs are straight blues. The rest are a mix of blues, rock, R&B, funk/go-go. Obviously they're not jazz fusion in terms of complexity, but nearly all contain gotchas of some kind: tags, syncopations, stops, rhythm and/or tempo changes (and modulations, though that won't affect the drummer). Point being, you can't come in cold and fake your way through.

Given that caveat, I gently warn the guy that the BL isn't bashful about calling members out if they're not playing his music right, but it's not personal, happens to everyone including me, so just nod and keep rolling. Guy responds with "I've been on tour with (so and so) and (such and such), I don't really take that well". Another "uh oh" moment. I shrug and say okay.

Gig starts and it quickly becomes clear why he sought my assistance: he did almost no advance prep. The BL was especially unhappy, and after the 1st set I found out why: the drummer had two full months to prepare.

I'm pretty sure this happened: the guy thought "Blues band? Oh, this'll be a sleepwalk like amateur open-mic night", so he didn't bother to review the tunes until his drive down to the gig, at which time he realized that his assumption was dead wrong.

The 2nd set was worse than the 1st, partly because the songs were trickier. The BL tried to restrain himself, giving instructions through a gritted-teeth smile, but eventually got so frustrated that the smile turned upside down and he started changing his song lyrics to include snippets like "drummer didn't learn my music", and "he should give the bass player half his money" (which was darkly hilarious, and not the least bit excessive because I had to hand-hold the dude through every song that wasn't straight blues).

The 2nd set ends -- one more to go, but the drummer starts packing his gear! The BL was incredulous, but the drummer said "keep the money, this is not fun, I'm done". BL cussed him out for quitting. Drummer stood and puffed his chest, then turned away, saying "I'm not going to get thrown in jail because of you". (Side note: unless the drummer was strapped, the only possible result would have been drummer in hospital, BL in jail). BL only became more infuriated by that childish threat. Manager turned on the house music and said "it's okay guys, we'll call it a night". The back and forth continued at lower volume. I tried to stay out, but when the drummer said the BL's behavior was wrong, I pointed at him and angrily said "YOU'RE wrong, you didn't bother to learn his songs".

I'm not saying it's OK to call musicians out. Onstage frustration, anger (etc) is counter-productive, can look bad to management and audience, yadda yadda. That said, the BL has been living for his music for decades. He's done three self-financed albums, and early this year recorded an album in Nashville that was completely financed by a small label. The label is currently promoting him through various channels and his single is getting some airplay. So: the BL has made small but significant steps toward his lifelong dream, and this was one of his CD release gigs, but he got utterly disrespected by a sub drummer who was too unprofessional to do his job and too self-important to be apologetic about it. I didn't recognize the artists the drummer claimed he'd supported, but even if they were somebodies, it doesn't effin' matter: you give your best at every gig, not just the high-dollar/high-visibility ones. In situations like this imperfection is expected and acceptable, but utter cluelessness is not.



P.S. Turns out that the drummer was recommended by the producer of the BL's album -- and that producer is now aware of what happened. The back-and-forth moved to Facebook over the weekend, and the producer publicly told the drummer "You disappointed me, and more importantly, you disappointed your bandmates". Later, in a different thread posted by the BL, the producer said "A certain 'drummer' has been trying to call me but I do not accept his excuses". I've no idea whether this producer is a significant player, but he works as an exec for the label, frequently records artists at Sound Emporium in Nashville, and it's probably not a good idea to disappoint anyone active in the music scene.

Note: I'm not interested in karma/vengeance. The drummer is out of state; hopefully I'll never run into him again, end of story. That said: the BL has occasionally suffered consequences from his lack of restraint (and I hope we don't lose this venue because of the onstage dust-up), so by that same token it would be perfectly reasonable for the drummer's rep to be stained by his unprofessionalism. He had two months to prep, and if he had the talent level that he claimed then it would have taken him only a couple/few hours to listen to the tunes and write charts/cheat sheets.



TL;DR: see thread title. Just venting (sigh)
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Wow..I really got nothing else. Two months to prep is a boatload of time, and it doesn't even sound like he looked at the set list once.
 
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#28
If the BL/artist's producer recommended the sub, it's on the producer, to a degree. But it does sound like the material is NOT sub-friendly and so the BL/artist must know that, in order for the gig to be a success, there has to be SOME kind of run-through/pow-wow prior to playing for paying customers. This was a "CD Release Party" on a TRIO GIG with a new sub drummer that the BL hadn't sorted at all prior to hitting the stage? Unprofessional. It's not surprising to me that the BL/artist's career isn't exactly exploding. It's his name up there in lights; he IS the product. Lame quality control, if you ask me. But he trusted his producer, I guess. Bet that won't happen again.
 
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#29
murph7489 said:
and this is why you have at least one rehearsal...two months out and not at least one quick rehearsal? I know a lot of bands or guys in bands, subbing and what not don't do rehearsals but I think it's almost mandatory. Seems to me like it would have saved everyone a lot of grief here. but as always..your mileage may vary.

Honestly if it were me I would of asked for a rehearsal if I was the guy subbing. if not, I would of been shedding this material til I knew it in my sleep to avoid looking like a fool onstage.
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I pick up a fair amount of sub gigs where there's no rehearsal whatsoever, not even at the soundcheck. I can learn songs at home just as easily as I can through rehearsing. Most of the time it's seamless. Might make a small clam here and there but nothing serious. That's what a pro fill-in person does. If you can't hang in those situations, you shouldn't take the gig.
 
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#32
Llewellen said:
Who prepares for two months to sub on one gig? I mean, he would end up playing for $1.49/hour, not including travel, load in and load out time.
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Probably don't need 2 months but he had 2 months to prepare and he didn't. Very unprofessional and not cool. BL should have had just shut it down instead of blasting him on stage. I get it though.
 
#35
A tale of two Richard Craniums. Unless your BL is 13 years old, there is no excuse for his unprofessional behavior, "he started changing his song lyrics to include snippets like "drummer didn't learn my music", and "he should give the bass player half his money" Are you kidding me? That's more embarrassing than a bad drummer. The drummer should have learned the songs, but when he didn't, the BL should have manned up and behaved like a grown up. I wouldn't play with someone like that.
 
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#37
bearhart74 said:
Someone who cares about what they do? When I take a gig I prepare no matter how much time/effort it takes.
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Exactly. If you accept the gig, it's your responsibility to be able to play the material. Whether it takes two months or two minutes to learn is irrelevant. If you don't want to put in the work, don't accept the gig.
 
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