My Band Staged A Coup

Last year, I started my band, and we survived for about 4-5 months, until our lead guitarist had to leave the state.

Earlier this year, I restarted the band with my old rhythm guitarist, and built the band based on the same songs and sound we had before, with little modifications here and there.

The first new guy we pulled was a guitarist turned drummer. We found a new guy to play rhythm, and my old rhythm guy went lead. We found a vocalist, and everything seemed right with the world.

Just before we started gigging, our vocalist brought in a buddy of his, a drummer, who thought that he was supposed to be replacing our original drummer, and as I, the band leader/founder, hadn't known about it, I couldn't tell our drummer about it, and when the new guy showed up, it pissed off the old one and he quit immediately and started his own band.

Being stuck with the new drummer, we started gigging, and it became very evident that the drummer was bad news. Crass, hot-tempered, and forceful, he suddenly decided that it was his band to command, and anything he didn't like set off a tantrum (for example, he had a band he wanted to do a cover for which I didn't want to play because it was boring and repetitive, and didn't suit our style, and he had a temper tantrum and 'quit' for a week). Every single gig would invariably result in him throwing a tantrum about some facet of our performance or other, and it was just very unpleasant.

Because of his tantrums, and the fact that our rhythm guy stated that he didn't want to start over with yet another drummer, I had to more or less capitulate to whatever this guy's whims were for fear of losing a good guitarist, or else I'd have just let him quit or straight up kick him out since he was rude, drunk and disorderly, and a a whiney jerk.

Then one day after a show, he starts tantrumming about our vocalist's performance and decides that he wants to replace him. I ask him why and if he thought I ought to start looking for someone, when he tells me that he already was looking. Turns out that the first several people he asked were vocalists from other bands he was trying to steal, people who were friends of mine, and other people in my network. Through one of these guys, I hear that he was trying to replace me, too.

We play about 15 shows in two and a half months or so, then hit a three week break in our schedule because he was 'going on vacation'. I start getting random calls from promoters and booking people I'd gotten us gigs with who'd heard we were breaking up or going through upheaval, and from vocalists who heard that we were replacing me and the vocalist. Several vocalists and promoters made it very clear that the drummer was talking behind everybody's backs, and that the guitarists were on his side.

During the last couple of shows before his 'vacation,' I started seeing him hanging out with a guy I had never seen in the months we'd been gigging out together, a guy who wouldn't say hi to me or introduce himself, and just passed himself off as a prick in general. During the 'vacation,' I kept getting more and more calls from people asking or telling about the situation, and I finally got fed up and asked my rhythm guy what was going on.

He tells me that he and the lead and the drummer were considering doing a side project together with another bassist because they wanted to do some more high energy hardcore as opposed to the slower, more melodic mood metal we did as a band, and the guy who they had been hanging out with was that bassist - but they were all interested in replacing the vocalist.

Near the end of the 'vacation,' I called the drummer to see if he was in town and ready to practice again because we had a battle in three days, and because we needed to all sit down and discuss the direction of the band and the music and such, and we all agreed to meet the next day.

Well, when he came the next day, he came with two extra guys. A vocalist and a bassist. He tells me that he wanted a new vocalist, and the bassist was my replacement. He didn't want me playing with them any more or in any way involved with the music, he just wanted me to do the management and booking like I had been doing before while still playing.

I couldn't think of what to say, and I couldn't kick him out that day - the rhythm guy was still at work and I couldn't talk to him, and the lead guy was way too passive, being a stoner, so it just came down to me versus the drummer and new bassist.

So I made them all leave my house (after I was able to convince the new vocalist to tell them to leave the old one in and he left), and proceeded to sulk and get good and pissed off.

The next day, I told them they needed to drop my band name and stop playing my songs, since they were doing a genre swap anyhow, and it started a huge bout of drama, which has lasted for a couple weeks now. Most annoying bit is, I could probably eventually get over them stealing my songs and band name, but they have a bunch of my equipment, too.

And the new bassist is a moron. (I hear the drummer actually already pissed him off good and made him quit in a tiff the other day).

Anyhow, this is only a gist, I haven't added all the details, I just needed to say what happened and vent a little because I am pretty damn upset about it.

 

That would be amusing, at least for a little while.

 

Actually, I have taken them out of every show I have organized throughout the islands. They still have the gigs I booked solely for the band.