Wow... I feel bad for your band members. Seriously. One OCD guy in a band can ruin it for the rest of the band.
It's important to be exacting and precise, but the disease of OCD can really be a detriment in cases that are stronger then "this guy is really likes things neat and tidy." I call it a disease, because truly OCD people can't just let things go that are seemingly unimportant to the rest of us, can't just relax, or mellow out. Improper things fester in them and consume consume their minds to the detriment of everything else around them. Not only the performance, but to the OCD individual's happiness, too. Far too often, alot of effort by the OCD individual is put into things that really, really don't matter when playing live. If you're at a dive bar, your tone on stage is nearly always entirely different as soon as you drop off stage.
I had a blow up years ago with an OCD guitarist in one of my old bands. He spent so much time setting up his system, which was in stereo, that he stressed everyone out and made the rest of us hustle like crazy to put together the PA system. It was in a place small enough that no one other then the guitarist could possibly notice the stereo effects. What drove me nuts about this guy is that he was constantly concerned over his sound, that he habitually put on terrible performances. No one in the audience cares if your sound isn't perfect or that you miss notes. Not a single person. They do care if they can't really see you 'cause you have your back turned to them while tweaking the knobs and you're on the floor tweaking the pedals. It's terrible and unprofessional.
After the show, the staff was waiting on us to get out of there before they could close the place up and go home. As soon as we were done, the guitarist decided to go and brush his teeth. It must have been an OCD thing, but he took forever brushing his teeth. So there we were, 4 guys in the band and 3 or 4 staff guys all waiting on him.... while he brushed his teeth. That's when I let him have it, chastising him for being rude, inconsiderate, selfish... etc.
The sad thing is that it is a disease. He couldn't help it. He knew it was inconsiderate, but he couldn't stop because of his disease.
Oh yeah... and don't let me get started on how perfect he needed recordings when we were retracking and mixing our album. We spent probably a solid two or three months longer then was ever necessary for an unknown, unsigned band producing their own record (which only had some good songs, no great songs, and several very mediocre songs) in the guitarist's home studio. He NEEDED things perfect, and we collectively wasted thousands of manhours making it nearly 100% right, when we could have literally released it 3 months earlier, made it 95% right, which would have been far more effort then that album and those songs ever needed or deserved in the first place.
One of the last bands I was in, the drummer was OCD. More strife came out of that then anything else. He was an awesome drummer, but most of the time towards the end, I wanted to kill him, especially when gigs were backlined. He was so anal about his gear, that he cancelled gigs when he knew he wouldn't have his set to play on. So frustrating.
At least with him, I had more compassion with him, as I understood his disease better.
One of the worst moments was when we had an opener with a killer, killer sax player. He wanted to sit in with us. While the rest of the band was think "oh hell yes," and dumbfounded with our luck, he got very OCD and concerned about the song structures and stuff, and really put up a fight about him playing with us. The guitarist took him aside and gave him a "shut the %$(# up, be a musician, and put the OCD stuff to the side for the greater good of the band and the show" talk/yell. Ugly, ugly, ugly. I'm surprised no one got decked and that we all kept playing together after that.
The sax player joined in, and it was great. He really added to our song and performance, just like the others knew he would.
Oh... and then there was the gig when his kick drum pedal broke, and he couldn't fix it before the show. Instead of borrowing an inferior, but functional pedal, he tried to cancel the show several hours before we were supposed to go on. UG. Intolerably unprofessional. He got berated enough to play the show, and within 30 seconds, he barely noticed the difference.
Then there was the show that was outdoors. It was at a modest festival, but would have been great exposure for us. He kept complaining about mosquitos and not wanting to get bit. He cancelled, and claimed he had too much work to do for a big deadline. While I know he was busy, he had 3 months to plan for this one show. We saw through his lie, and saw the underlying OCD.
Ok. Sorry about all that, but thanks for listening to me gripe.
