I may quit anyway but I'm just asking for opinions here.
The band I'm has been together and around and playing this region for a long time. I'm the newest member and I've been in the band almost 18 years. The band was started as a blues band, back when blues was "hot" in the wake of the Stevie Ray Vaughn era, and still has that identity/mentality. All of the members of the band have changed over the years except the drummer. The band now consists of two guitars, bass and drums. One of the guitarists is the band leader.
The over riding problem, as I see it, is this...we're having trouble getting bookings. Even clubs where we were one of their top bands won't book us at all this season. So I started trying to figure out why. This is what I've come up with...we don't have a following and we don't hold the crowd that is there. And why is that? Here are my observations/thoughts:
1. We (still) think and play like a blues band. We have two guitarists who like to solo a lot, and they do. Our bar gigs are more like what you would see at a blues festival instead of at a bar.
2. We do originals (blues) and covers. Many of the covers that we do end up sounding like blues, the way we play them. Again, lots of solos.
3. Lots of I-IV-V songs that sound similiar, if not to the public, identical.
4. We don't do a show. At a recent gig the BL decided to let the audience call the songs, and that included songs that we don't know, play, or at least in one case, haven't heard. There was often a long time between songs as the BL found the song online on his IPad and "learned" it onstage. Then he played it, reading the lyrics, occasionally missing chords, and we had to follow him as best we could.
5. At one recent gig the BL called a new original song that none of us had heard and we had to follow him to play it. It was a train wreck.
6. We play too loud. Both guitarists love to play solos and love to hear themselves above everything.
OTOH, the BL books the gigs and does a lot of online publicity, and he pays everyone equally. He has some regional notoriety and probably gets gigs because of that.
Some of this is redundant from another thread of mine. Sorry about that. Just wanted to vent and get some thoughts.
So my questions are:
1. Is this fixable? Should I even try?
2. Should I just accept a "it is what it is" attitude and hang on till the end?
3. Should I even talk to the band about it?
BTW despite the problems we had a good time playing. I had fun. However, we did not hold the crowd playing this way and the chance for more bookings is, in my opinion, greatly diminished by "performing" this way. If we had held the crowd and had people having a good time I would be holdiing my tongue now.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for listening.
You mentioned six points, specifically:
1. We (still) think and play like a blues band. We have two guitarists who like to solo a lot, and they do. Our bar gigs are more like what you would see at a blues festival instead of at a bar.
2. We do originals (blues) and covers. Many of the covers that we do end up sounding like blues, the way we play them. Again, lots of solos.
3. Lots of I-IV-V songs that sound similiar, if not to the public, identical.
These things aren't necessarily ideal, but they aren't terrible. Depending on your audience, you can still bring a crowd, especially if you're more of a background band (although it would seem that the loud guitar solos might prevent this). You can still build an identity this way, but the bar scene might not be the place to do it.
4. We don't do a show. At a recent gig the BL decided to let the audience call the songs, and that included songs that we don't know, play, or at least in one case, haven't heard. There was often a long time between songs as the BL found the song online on his IPad and "learned" it onstage. Then he played it, reading the lyrics, occasionally missing chords, and we had to follow him as best we could.
5. At one recent gig the BL called a new original song that none of us had heard and we had to follow him to play it. It was a train wreck.
6. We play too loud. Both guitarists love to play solos and love to hear themselves above everything.
These things, on the other hand...are terrible. Loud guitars and endless solos are one thing, and it's bad enough - but calling an unknown song on the bandstand with changes that nobody knows, and looking up lyrics on an iPad while there's dead air between songs, that's just bad. It'd be one thing if you could really pull it off, but if you've got audience members calling songs that aren't standards, all bets are off. You can't ensure consistency or quality with that kind of setup.
Luckily, #4 and #5 are the bulk of your problem. If you can fix that, you'll at least have a solid band that is maybe a little uninteresting and a bit too loud but solid at the least.
As for the other issues - does the drummer feel the same way? If so, provided he's a good drummer, you and he will have a lot of influence on the "feel" of the songs you play. You two could easily change up song tempos or even rhythms to keep things fresh. You can play a 1-4-5 blues over a one-drop reggae pattern, or various shuffle beats (at various tempos), or regular rock beats, or whatever. The guitarists can do their thing on top.
Finally - guitar solos - put the guitar amps next to their heads. Amp stands, whatever. That will control volume. Your guitarists may not like it and may rebel against it. Make it happen somehow - reduce stage space, whatever it takes.
It sounds like the band has a few basic things that should be easily addressable, and some things that may be more engrained. Luckily, the basic things should be easy to fix - and if you fix them, you'll have a decent group. If you can't fix the basic things...I'd look for something new.
) say: "Precisely. This is what our audience goes through when we play too loud." If that doesn't work, hopefully you kept in touch with some of the past members you got along with. Start your own band. Hope this helps.
Anyway, the two guitar players in my band are good friends from high school. Meaning all 3 of us went to high school together. The drummer also went to our HS but is a bit older. Most of us are in our early 50s now.
