OMG I'm not ready.

[Spidey2112]

@LBS-bass, we had a gig, last night... I sing Water's part on Comfortably Numb (as maniacal as I can), and missed a line... totally forgot what to say.

No one cared, nor remembered... after two awesome solos by our guitarist, they probably had forgotten themselves, that I even sang.

Carry on.

Note: If the rest of the band can't dedicate time to get things right, ole Spidey will do it on his own, in the basement... mainly for the privacy, as there's fewer windows down there.

 

[watt]

bassslinger l,

so you're bringing them your version of the theme from "billy jack" then? crimony... you're cutting them NO shorts, are you?!

on bass, watt

mike watt's hoot page

I'm planning to. I have a good day planned. Good things are happening in all spheres of my existence so this is going to be a good show. I just know it.

 

[frankie5string]

I just came here for the "cheap applesauce" and thought it was a retirement home gig.

It doesn't sound like you actually have much to worry about. You have enough playing experience to do this. Usually in this situation I carry a pad of paper and take notes (on staff or otherwise)...

 

[Lance Bunyon]

If I were in the OPs position I'd be most worried about my under prepared bandmates than my own skills or knowledge. I guess after 6 years with my current BL I'm prepared to fake my way through anything.
Real conversation on break last year..."can you play dusty Springfield preacher man?". I look up at the ceiling, run a few bars through my head, nod and say "yep!".

 

[kringle77]

bad crazyness...

No point in mentioning the bats I thought…

 

[Nev375]

I was never ready for any of my gigs. I don't think I've ever felt ready for anything in my life.

Learning how to wing things under pressure is probably the most valuable skill a musician can develop.

To learn that, you have to embrace being somewhat underprepared.

 

[Five or Six]

I screwed up a chorus tonight and stuck in a line from a previous chorus. The funny part, I wrote the song! Only one that knew of the screwup was one of my guitar players. He backs the chorus. We both laughed and no one knew the difference. I don't think anyone notices unless they follow a band.

 

[LBS-bass]

We had a great show. I ended up shelving the one song since I got two other leads, and we had tons of material. Great, responsive crowd and I had some good friends come by. I'll do it next time.

 

[5StringBlues]

And the bats?

We had a great show. I ended up shelving the one song since I got two other leads, and we had tons of material. Great, responsive crowd and I had some good friends come by. I'll do it next time.

 

[LBS-bass]

I screwed up a chorus tonight and stuck in a line from a previous chorus. The funny part, I wrote the song! Only one that knew of the screwup was one of my guitar players. He backs the chorus. We both laughed and no one knew the difference. I don't think anyone notices unless they follow a band.

I've done similar. Blanked on my own lyrics in front of maybe 1000 people.

 

[pepj]

Not worried about anyone forgetting lyrics..
yesterday was a nightmare, Singer totally blew our gig.
Didn't know where he was in the song and lacked any empathy as to where to ad lib to bring it back on track.
So, end result was a leaderless band in terms of where the song goes.
I do these types of gigs all the time..as does the band minus the singer.. so entirely the singers fault..whose gig it was.

I had to apologise to the drummer..who must have been really pissed I booked him last minute.

Some friends said it was 'good' but I'm not going near that again.
I did it as a favours, but there are limits.

 

[Five or Six]

Ya know, if you have a crappy night (and we all do) no one seems to hear little things that went wrong. Then when you are on break everyone says, "boy you guys sound great tonight". What, are you folks deaf? So, unless it's a train wreck by the whole band, I wonder how detectable it was? Recovery by any band member is important and you find out just how good members are when something goes defunct.

I've always maintained that anyone other than a drummer or bass player can screw up and get away with it unless really bad. But, let the drummer miss a beat or the bass player make a mistake, it's pretty obvious. But again, how anyone recovers ( or not) is important. We as musicians are harder on ourselves than anyone else!

 

[pepj]

Yep, by all accounts it sounded good through the P.A but we couldnt have killed it and now my rep has taken a hit, both with drummer and audience.
I might be OTT with regards to what I thought the audience heard, but we know....and thats enough not to repeat that mistake again with that guy.

 

[Marko 1]

...So, unless it's a train wreck by the whole band, I wonder how detectable it was? Recovery by any band member is important and you find out just how good members are when something goes defunct.

I've always maintained that anyone other than a drummer or bass player can screw up and get away with it unless really bad. But, let the drummer miss a beat or the bass player make a mistake, it's pretty obvious. But again, how anyone recovers ( or not) is important. We as musicians are harder on ourselves than anyone else!

I liken it to the skill of hitting moving targets as opposed to a fixed target,

a skill that's very important when playing live with a band.

 

[LBS-bass]

I liken it to the skill of hitting moving targets as opposed to a fixed target,

a skill that's very important when playing live with a band.

Recovery is a skill that most learn through experience, and part of how you can separate those with experience from those without.

There were many good points in last night's show, and a few weird ones that nobody noticed but us. Stuff does happen; it's part of the job.

But it's nice to have people up dancing and having a good time to music we enjoy playing. One of the best parts of last night was a friend who came out that I used to play a lot of gigs with. I hadn't seen him in a long time and we had a lot to catch up on, so we went to dinner after. He had some very good things to say about the band and the way I played last night, and he's one of the few people I trust to give me straight feedback, so I'm feeling pretty happy about a lot of things this morning.

 

[P. Aaron]

Lyrics are always the last thing to come to me. And even once I know them backwards and forwards, the thing I'm most likely to mess up. And the thing the audience is most likely to notice. Break a leg and knock 'em dead!

Just substitute verse lyrics from Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. They'll either laugh, sing along, or not notice.

I've done it. Works like a charm.

 

[SteveCS]

Quel dommage, cher frommage.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Well, it mostly comes down to realizing that nobody else will be ready so what's gained by me doing the extra work?

That can be a pitfall; not learning a song as well as you can because you know nobody else in the band is going to learn it well. I try not to do that as it ends up reducing the expectations all around.

I'd don't sing leads - just some backups - and I am horrible at remembering lyrics!

 

[LBS-bass]

That can be a pitfall; not learning a song as well as you can because you know nobody else in the band is going to learn it well. I try not to do that as it ends up reducing the expectations all around.

I'd don't sing leads - just some backups - and I am horrible at remembering lyrics!

It can be a pitfall. A dreadful one. After the first 50 times or so it happens, you start to wonder why you're putting in so much extra work if nobody cares.

The right response to this, say most of you, is find better people to play with. Unfortunately, in smaller towns, the talent pool is shallow and you get what you get. So... I'm not sure I have a good answer here other than trying to do my personal best with the realization that it's likely going to be overdone based on what I'm going to encounter.

It isn't always like that, though. I had a great show last night with some stellar musicians. See, it is possible, but it takes a while to get there.

 

[pepj]

If someone says they can play a song then it needs to mean they've got it...totally.
What everyone has to work out is how trustworthy is their boast?

My recent nightmare gig was almost entirely caused by the singer literally falling apart.
I suspect nerves or anxiety, stagefright, being the cause, which might explain him doing very very few gigs these last years.
Not that he actually mentioned any of that and since he is a music friend he had the benefit of the doubt.