Members not making gigs

[QweziRider]

I book the gigs with my face and my contact and no one else's. .... I have decided that I'ts best for me to cancel the gig

On the one hand, you seem to have pride in the fact it's you doing the booking, it's your good reputation. Rightly so. But then you follow up with wanting to burn it all to the ground over one person not being able to make it yet again. I'd stick with your pride and forge on with the gigs either as a three piece or find a new fourth member.

 

[fdeck]

My view is that "professional" refers to how we treat people, not whether we're getting paid. When I agree to play a gig, I conduct myself in a professional fashion, regardless of the pay scale.

The time to decide if a gig pays enough, is when you accept the gig. After that point, the same rules apply for free or paid gigs. It's always a judgement call whether to bail on a gig, because special situations do crop up.

On a tactical note, there's an old saying, "never complain, never explain." If you explain why you're bailing on a gig, then people can debate your explanation. If you simply say: "I can't make the gig," then there is less room for hard feelings and second guessing.

Same for firing someone if they bail on gigs. Find a sub. If the sub works out better, keep the sub.

 

[lat]

If the gig is booked using just your face and contact, then going with a sub for the night will not even be noticed. Ditto playing it as a 3 person group.

You play for cheap and free so really it's a charity social club band and deserves to be lower priority in band members' lives than paid work and family time. If you need the guy to be there, pay him, then he can prioritize. (But even with $, travel time with family/friends is important and can be worth more than a gig night's salary.) You have very little leverage here.

Are you performing this guy's (2nd guitar/backing vox) original music and are wondering why he, the star composer, is backing out? Justified.
Doing a bar gig with standard material for free, and are upset that instead he wants to do a weekend vacation with people important to him? Not justified.

For those who say "fire him", remember that you have to be in a paid working job to be fired. This is not that.

If he was asked if he wants to play a gig for cheap / free and he says yes, then he said yes and should stand by his word. If he doesn't like it, then next time he should say no.

EDIT: This is assuming that he was asked. If he wasn't asked, and was told that the band is playing a gig for free / cheap, that's another story. The OP should be getting band members' buy-in before finalizing the gig.

EDIT2: And / or the RG player should be confirming pay before agreeing to do the gig, if it is important to him.

 

[Turbo Sparky]

Folks. I find myself in a bad spot right now. I am the bassist and band manager of my band. I've been playing with the Singer/guitarist for about 8 years and we have been part of a few bands that we put together over that time. We are a 4 piece band and one member (the second guitar/backing vox) has allowed me to book a gig and then only to tell me that he 'mistakenly' made travel plans over the weekend of the gig. He did it last year and he did it again this year.
I book the gigs with my face and my contact and no one else's. We play awfully cheap and for free. With 5 gigs lined up from now until the end of August, I find myself having a very hard time swallowing this. I feel personally betrayed and very hurt. I feel that this one guy could give a &*#k about anyone else. You don't do this twice. I am this close to cancelling the rest of them and maybe even letting the whole thing crash.

I don't know if I'm just being pissy about it or if my feelings are warranted. My actions going forward may be too drastic or maybe just what needs to be done. The other half of this partnership (remember. me and the guitarist/vocalist have been doing this together for the last 9 years) feels like we should do the gig without the other guy, just the 3 of us(includes the drummer). I don't want to. I feel this is a 4 piece band and we play in front of an audience as a 4 piece. Thats it. My partner obviously thinks this is nothing to worry about and doesn't want to change anything. Play the gig. Don't look for another guitarist.
Anyone have a thought as to what I should do? I have decided that I'ts best for me to cancel the gig he isn't going to be at but maybe I should entertain some thoughts about this from the Talkbass community first.

IMO:
Keep the gig.
You now have a trio.
Work on backing vocals, add a chord or two to your playing, fill in some gaps.
Sorry, but once, okay, sucks but "it" happens. Twice?
Check ya later dude.
No respect.
PLENTY of trios kickin' it out there/here.
Good luck.

 

[el murdoque]

I guess it's called a lack of empathy.

I've been in a band that was very low priority for me. It was more a 'meet every other week, make some noise, maybe score a gig here and there' thing.
At least it was for me. I was at a much higher level than the other guys and when I started playing with them, I managed to increase their productivity. They started practicing more and slowly the whole act became better.
At a certain point I realized that the gap would never close. I kept being a part of that band, but it became something of a lower priority thing for me.
The thing is - and that's the point I want to stress: I knew it was something very important to the git/vox guy and maybe the drummer, too. It was something like the peak of their musical career, so I handled it that way. Something I don't care that much for, which is very precious to someone I know. I'd never book a gig with those guys and then cancel because I'd know that this would leave them in turmoil.

 

[electracoyote]

As a band leader myself, one thing that is a constant source of frustration is members with availability issues. Frankly, if you can not make rehearsals and gigs and closely approximate the availability of the rest of the membership, you are a liability. It's just that simple.

Your choices as the one booking gigs and putting your reputation on the line are: Resort to a rotating cast of musicians (so you sound different at every gig when you use subs), cancel gigs (which will put a stink on you so bad you can kiss that client and anyone he talks to goodbye), or replace the liability with someone who can more closely meet the availability standard (the ideal solution IMHO).

Friendships are great, and hanging out with other musicians can be fun. But when you commit to a performance, in the eyes of the talent buyer or booking entity you just made a contractual agreement and they count on you to bring the product you promised. It's not play time for them, it's serious business, so it has to be for you too.

And any musician who doesn't get that and casually compromises you in this way is not really your buddy after all.

Good luck covering the gigs on the books (I hope you don't cancel), and broom that guitar player fast.

 

[fhm555]

Folks. I find myself in a bad spot right now. I am the bassist and band manager of my band. I've been playing with the Singer/guitarist for about 8 years and we have been part of a few bands that we put together over that time. We are a 4 piece band and one member (the second guitar/backing vox) has allowed me to book a gig and then only to tell me that he 'mistakenly' made travel plans over the weekend of the gig. He did it last year and he did it again this year.
I book the gigs with my face and my contact and no one else's. We play awfully cheap and for free. With 5 gigs lined up from now until the end of August, I find myself having a very hard time swallowing this. I feel personally betrayed and very hurt. I feel that this one guy could give a &*#k about anyone else. You don't do this twice. I am this close to cancelling the rest of them and maybe even letting the whole thing crash.

I don't know if I'm just being pissy about it or if my feelings are warranted. My actions going forward may be too drastic or maybe just what needs to be done. The other half of this partnership (remember. me and the guitarist/vocalist have been doing this together for the last 9 years) feels like we should do the gig without the other guy, just the 3 of us(includes the drummer). I don't want to. I feel this is a 4 piece band and we play in front of an audience as a 4 piece. Thats it. My partner obviously thinks this is nothing to worry about and doesn't want to change anything. Play the gig. Don't look for another guitarist.
Anyone have a thought as to what I should do? I have decided that I'ts best for me to cancel the gig he isn't going to be at but maybe I should entertain some thoughts about this from the Talkbass community first.

If everyone can carry their own water, go for a three piece. The worst that could happen is y’all will suck at it. If you can’t pull it off there’s time to decide what’s next but if you’ve accepted a job you should do it if at all possible.

 

[lermgalieu]

To all of those who think that the gig should be less important to bandmembers because it is free or low pay, I respectfully disagree. This isn't about pay. This is about obligations and ethics. If someone blows off a free gig, they very well might blow off a paying gig (for example if they could get paid more somewhere else). If a member agrees to a gig, they should treat it as an obligation, understanding that stuff does happen sometimes. But sounds like in this case he just blew it off, didn't put it on his calendar, whatever, and booked a trip. If he can do without you, you can do without him.

 

[buldog5151bass]

We're not saying it should be less important because of the money, but that it is. Obviously the dude doesn't consider the band a priority, and the $$$ likely is a reason why.

 

[electracoyote]

We're not saying it should be less important because of the money, but that it is. Obviously the dude doesn't consider the band a priority, and the $$$ likely is a reason why.

As much as I agree with you, the rest of the story is, this guitar player is in the wrong band and he should move on. The money or lack thereof matters not. The band standard of accepting freebies once in awhile does not agree with him, and he loses his sense of commitment. He's a bad fit and a liability. He should find a project that either pays enough to keep him interested and commited to fulfilling his obligations or accepts his fickle unreliable ways.

 

[lermgalieu]

We're not saying it should be less important because of the money, but that it is. Obviously the dude doesn't consider the band a priority, and the $$$ likely is a reason why.

Fair enough. I guess I am in the camp that doesn't have time for people like that in my life. If I say i am going to do something, I try my hardest to actually do it. Heck, I've played more free gigs this year with my son's school bluegrass band tan with my own (kind of) paying band.

 

[Spectrum]

My originals band had to deal with a similar situation: 2nd guitarist finds reasons to not show up when and where he agreed to be.

Solution was simple. Got a new guitarist.

In the meantime, we rearranged enough of our songs for a single guitar to get us through until the new guy arrived.

 

[StringslamDan]

If he's the rhythm guitar player, split your signal and run it into a guitar amp and run two rigs. Check out the band royal blood he plays bass and runs like 3 rigs with different effects with the drummer. Don't sweat it just make do. You'll be great!

 

[WardEarth]

Can or does main singer/guitarist play rhythm, if so I say do the gig.
You should try to put your feelings aside and just be a solid leader. Talk to the flakey guy. Chances are, you should probably just start looking for someone. Maybe he’ll come around.

 

[Spectrum]

To all of those who think that the gig should be less important to bandmembers because it is free or low pay, I respectfully disagree. This isn't about pay. This is about obligations and ethics. If someone blows off a free gig, they very well might blow off a paying gig (for example if they could get paid more somewhere else). If a member agrees to a gig, they should treat it as an obligation, understanding that stuff does happen sometimes. But sounds like in this case he just blew it off, didn't put it on his calendar, whatever, and booked a trip. If he can do without you, you can do without him.

Agree with this. I play originals, and trust me, if we were doing it for the money we'd have quit before we began. But a band is a "band", a team, so if you agree to show up and do your part, knowing full well you probably won't get paid (or paid much), then it's flakey to back out at the last minute and let the rest of your team down unless you have a real reason such as a family issue, work issue, health problem, etc.

 

[smogg]

"We play awfully cheap and for free."
This is the problem right here. You want loyalty? PAY ME! You want priority? Make it worth my while. End of problem.

 

[Rogatien]

Get. A. Sub.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

When you’re playing for $150 per member, you know what you’re getting. When you’re playing for enjoyment, pay is on a sliding scale of how much your enjoying the band, the hang, the music, the “gigs”. We’re taking the money out of the musicians pyramid equation, so if the hang or the music suffer at all, that member’s commitment level drops. But they also have the band leader but the shorties to an extent. Sure, fire me and go find another person that will play for free. That can play. That likes you guys.

 

[smogg]

Get. A. Sub.

We need a sub. Gig pays twenny sevn fiddie exposure bucks, split four ways. Yeah that'll work out well.

 

[Rogatien]

We need a sub. Gig pays twenny sevn fiddie exposure bucks, split four ways. Yeah that'll work out well.

Great reply.

OP is frustrated about one of his band member not showing up. The solution is getting a sub. That is very simple.

That guy not showing up already knows about the "money situation". He should quit instead of finding excuses. If you don't wanna play for free, make it clear and stop wasting everybody's time. That was my point.