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My drummer REALLY bugs me...

#42
Floyd Eye said:
Last thing I would ever let someone borrow would be cymbals. You're right though, he sounds like somewhat of a douche. I think you ought to kill him. lol
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Can I watch lol , I totally understand when people dont want to lend out gear tho , nobody treats your gear with the respect you would, unless they treat their gear like crap anyway, which happens a lot . I dont want someone`s greasy fingers all over my bright new roundwounds , or their hammer fisted non tipped drumsticks reforming the profile of my cymbals !
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#43
I would expect a drummer to have some spare cymbals, unless maybe he’s a kid starting out or something. You can get cheap used cymbals all the time.

Hell, I got a set of those horrific Zildjian ZBT cymbals free with new a drum kit from MF. Sound like garbage, but in a pinch (with enough duct tape) would get ya through the night. :)
 
#44
ptleftybass said:
"Last night we got a message from one of the bands playing at an upcoming show with us asking if we could share some cymbals with them for the evening since the drummer's car got broken into and a fair bit of gear stolen. My drummer instantly replied back with "Nope. Tough ****. Don't leave your gear in the car next time" and defended himself by saying "I don't want some loser touching my ****"."
The drummer had his cymbals stolen from his car, he may not have had the resources to purchase new cymbals before the gig so I would consider him unlucky and not unprofessional.
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Why was valuable gear in a car, and left unattended?

Our gear is in vehicles long enough to take it to the gig, or back from a gig. If we were going to stop anywhere, someone would be watching the gear. If you steal my gear, I have no gear. I am dirt poor.

If you try to steal my gear, I will CATCH YOU, and God help you.
 
#45
I guess the band could always decide to publicly embrace his attitude.

Hi, we are <insert band name> and this our drummer, <name>. He is a bit of an arrogant ****, let's face it, every band has one, and he's ours! So please refrain from asking his opinion and ignore everything he says. He WILL piss you off if you give him a chance.
 
#47
spaz21387 said:
being nice to other bands has lead to some of the best shows we have played. Think about it even if you dont like their music what if they are organizing a show. Are they going to ask you guys to play it if you were complete toolbags to them?... I dont think so. Even If I dont care for their music I try to be nice.
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Depends on the genre and scene. I have photos on my facebook page of a number of area bands. I went to their shows. Stayed all night. Took photos, and posted them. GOOD photos, too. I chatted with them, gave them solid feedback, (nothing negative, and no smoke-blowing; honestly told them things I liked, and focused on their strengths,) and I was just wasting my valuable time and money listening to cover bands that are no better than a million other cover bands, and being almost fifty, I've probably heard all I need to hear.

When they do multi-band bills, I have to BEG to be included, and so far, I have a measly ONE show out of all this. Do any of them come to MY shows? NO.

Am I angry?

NO.

Would I care if one of my band members told me this or that band SUCK?

NO.

Would I lend them gear?

HELL NO.

I won't lend ANYBODY gear, period. And I won't pretend we have come kind of scene in this town where bands support each other. I know a band "at the top," and they support any band who is NOT VERY GOOD, because they will always look better than said band.

As soon as anybody is competition for their gigs, they will shut them out as soon as they possibly can EVEN FOR CHARITY GIGS. "Uh, we already have a ROCK band for that show; we're looking for one POP and one FIFTIES act..."

And the "rock" band will be as far down the local ladder, as far as playing ability, vocal quality and whatever else you want to name as possible.

That way, they're "promoting local bands," but not taking any chances of helping the competition.

Seen it a million times. I'm glad you're in a local scene that it pays to be nice to other bands in. I had that, to some degree in Minneapolis, when we were an original act, and what we played was pretty far from everyone else's genre.

But playing four-hour Classic Rock Covers?

Man, that scene is so cutthroat, I've had bands send us HECKLERS, and then act all stupid when I SEE THE GUY HANGING OUT WITH THEM LATER.

:spit:

Poop on them.
 
#48
mellowinman said:
Why was valuable gear in a car, and left unattended?

Our gear is in vehicles long enough to take it to the gig, or back from a gig. If we were going to stop anywhere, someone would be watching the gear. If you steal my gear, I have no gear. I am dirt poor.

If you try to steal my gear, I will CATCH YOU, and God help you.
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I won’t share how foolish I’ve been, but let’s say it cost me more just to get the empty (previously NOT empty) trailer back than that set of cymbals cost.

Stuff happens, and we’re all foolish at times, or at least we were at some point in our lives.

In any case, ya can’t be too careful.
 
#49
mellowinman said:
When they do multi-band bills, I have to BEG to be included, and so far, I have a measly ONE show out of all this. Do any of them come to MY shows? NO.

Am I angry?
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This is a great point. You gotta dig that this is not a strictly 'goes around, comes around' environment. While it's not a level playing field there are a few things in music that you can be completely sure of:
1 - If you're a deliberate jerk you'll get nothing, and often make your musical life harder.
2 - If you're deliberately helpful, collaborative and positive you'll probably still end up with nothing.

It's a simple Cost Benefit Analysis. The cost is your time and effort, the benefit is that some portion of that effort might get repaid if you're in a supportive scene. I think you'll find that the majority of the backscratching goes on in the originals scene where there's not a lot of money but there are a lot of bands vying for exposure. If you don't gel well with others or you start feuds you might miss out on some good opportunities.

I can't see there being any benefit to being a Helpful Harry in a covers environment though. That's business competition and if you help out any band that's playing covers at a similar level in a similar town you're just giving them an opportunity to play better than you and mug you out of shows. Still doesn't entitle you to be unprofessional because that gives bands an avenue to dress you down to venues. "Oh that other cover band? The guitarist's a walking swear-word".

The lending gear thing needs its own thread I reckon. Comes up heaps. I'm surprised that we don't have a current thread on that.
 
#51
I play mainly in a "covers" environment. We've always tried to base our set list AROUND what the other bands do. We deliberately structure our list so we don't "tread on other band toes" - this & having an "easy to get along with" attitude has helped us stay valid for years.
What's said behind closed doors is a totally different matter tho;)
Lending gear's another matter tho. No Way! If it's a mate- maybe, but even then, I'd wanna be there, make sure it's set up right etc etc... Not to someone I don't know.
And, I agree, if they're a pro-or wishes to be such, even if yr gear's been stolen, you'd have a back up.
I know I do.:rolleyes:
 
#53
I have spent my share of time in the originals scene. We got to be friends with a few other bands and did a lot of 'exchange' gigs where they opened for us in our town and we opened for them in their town. It worked out really for us at the time. We all liked and supported each other and things were cool.

However, the line was clearly drawn where borrowing equipment was concerned. It just didn't happen among us and there were no resentments about it. The reason being because we were professionals and pros don't need to borrow stuff - they have backups available. If you had to borrow something you quickly got a label of being unprofessional and it is true. I take two basses and two amps and if I blow a speaker it doesn't matter too much because I have two cabinets and all speakers are wired in parallel. If one goes the rest will still work.

I'll repeat that in case anyone missed it : pros don't need to borrow stuff - they have backups available.

Remember it and live by it !!!
 
#54
4 bands played on our drummers full kit on saturday. Its not a super high end kit, but its still all of his gear. All of the hometown bands are friendly with each other here and help each other out.

Your drummer should beware 'what goes around comes around'. You can deny the use of your gear to others, but there is no need to be a dick about it.
 
#55
This is really 2 seperate issues:

1) Gear Sharing: No I am normally not a gear sharer, but under some circumstances I have shared and so have many members of my band. This is on a very limited basis though. I have been on both sides of this. We were playing a double gig (seperate venues) in Nashville a few years ago after our noon show we were packing up and somewhere between the venue and our trailer someone walked away with both of my bass heads (main and backup). So, guess who needed to ask for someone to lend me a head???? Luckily the headliner from the night show gladly let me use his head.

2) The attitude of the drummer: This is the main issue. The drummer has every right to not allow someone to use his gear, but the way he interacted with the other band is just stupid. That's the reason why so many bands never make it to another level because of the attitudes of hate against other bands. I remember back in the early 90's there was a local band in our area that went through musicians like crazy and could only get maybe 1 gig a month at the dive that had an average of 15 poeple on busy night. While my band and several others would be 2-3 a week at the local clubs. The reason was from day 1 that band set out with the "let's trash all other bands" attitude. They would actually walk into a club owners place and tell them "that band you have playing Friday night is just S&^t" and just bad mouth all the locals. We would always support all the other bands. We would make it to as many gigs as possible to see them and just rock with them. The club owners would pick up on that and so would the fans. There is always going to be competition among bands, but let it be competition not a smear campaign. Let the music speak.
 

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