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Our Band is doing everything wrong. Should I try to fix it or just quit?
- Thread starter 51PRI
- Start date
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You might point out that everything changed greatly in the last 2 years due to the worldwide health issue and that bar/club/venue owners are being more critical in live band selection. The same old status quo isn't viable anymore.
Since you are asking for opinions here it seems to me that you've mostly made up your mind but are seeking validation.
That being said..............pull the trigger and leave if the above mentioned points don't elicit a desirable response.
If after 18 years you don't have a following................this raises questions. It sounds to me like this band has passed it's heyday and is in its death throes.
I would do my best to part as amicably as possible as soon as I found/started my next project.
Simply my opinion and you may take it or leave it as you see fit.
Since you are asking for opinions here it seems to me that you've mostly made up your mind but are seeking validation.
That being said..............pull the trigger and leave if the above mentioned points don't elicit a desirable response.
If after 18 years you don't have a following................this raises questions. It sounds to me like this band has passed it's heyday and is in its death throes.
I would do my best to part as amicably as possible as soon as I found/started my next project.
Simply my opinion and you may take it or leave it as you see fit.
The lead guitar player is on board with having a band discussion to see if the others recognize a problem. He says he knows how to bring the subject up delicately. So we'll try that.
I may be wrong in thinking that what I have in mind can fix things, but I'm not wrong in seeing us play the last set to nobody and us not getting repeat bookings at places we used to play regularly.
I agree. I was in three bands till events of 2020 forced me to quit one, my favorite one. The other band is an all original band, a vanity project, really,bat this point. We're considering a switch to covers so we can book gigs. There is no scene for original bands here.If this were not Talkbass I would swear you were in my band. And we'll, you can't be the bass player in my band because I amAnyway, 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.
Anyway, the way I solved my problem (which is very very close to yours) is I joined another band or three, but I didn't quit my HS buddy band. Hey, it's fun playing with those guys. The truth is though we have been playing together so long (and the same material) I don't have to practice any of the material. The other bands I am in provide an opportunity for new material, new gigs, just new everything.
I agree. The band has been together in total for ~ 30 years. Things were MUCH different then.
With all due respect those players, as great as they are, are little known outside of blues, or guitar, fanatic, circles. They aren't mainstream in the same way that SRV and Claption we're in the 80's and 90's. If you play a Kingfish song you might as well play an original. Both will be unknown to most bar patrons.
This is an excellent point. You don’t have to push a blues band in a completely different direction to make it more accessible to the mainstream audience, widen your base and opportunities, and get more gigs. There is a ton of crossover blues that hit the mainstream and is familiar and entertaining to a wide audience. Reconfiguring the playlist and tightening up the presentation would go a long way.
Yes, but those are the people who come to blues shows. Regular folks don't care about the blues and will just walk out the door. You have to cultivate an audience that likes the kind of music you do.
Oh, I wasn't suggesting you play their songs, but that their popularity (although, granted, nowhere near the levels of Clapton or SRV) is indicative that there is still an audience for the blues. Perhaps this varies from place to place, but here in the Pacific Northwest there is a vibrant blues scene, with good venues and plenty of bands playing originals and "covers" (which, of course, in the blues covers a lot of ground).
Oh yeah. In fact I was in a great Clapton tribute for six years but more recent than that even.
Sounds to me like our OP is in a situation that's been dwindling for quite some time, maybe they're all starting to wake up. All except the BL who may be a one trick pony.
Hey, it sounds like it’s working for the rest of the band. Only OP seems butt hurt about it.Do you play lead guitar in a Blues band , over 55yrs old and still play all the same songs you did when you were 25. just trying to understand your post
Personally, that band wouldn’t work for me. I never would’ve gone on the audition.
Did that explain it sufficiently well?
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I didn't audition. I played three or four gigs with them before we had our first rehearsal.
O.P. - Just a thought= maybe find a good blues/R&B singer?
A stand-up vocalist can connect with an audience in blues and R&B. I'm not saying a 4th member, just a featured vocalist.
This could also help rein in your guitarists and focus on songs rather than solos.
A stand-up vocalist can connect with an audience in blues and R&B. I'm not saying a 4th member, just a featured vocalist.
This could also help rein in your guitarists and focus on songs rather than solos.
OK. I'm even more gobsmacked. You not only know what they sound like, but you've actually played WITH them.
You really need the money? It sounds like you are intent on taking a situation that is working for everyone BUT you, and remaking it to YOUR liking. Did I get that about right?
It's no longer working for any of us. We're not holding a crowd and gigs are diminishing.
From what you're describing it's no wonder the band is having trouble getting booked. It sounds like a garage band that should stay in the garage and fumble through material there (instead of doing it in front of an audience). I'll bet you'd be much happier in another line-up.
I don't think you got the part about how he's been with this band for 18 years and they haven't evolved. He wants them to remain relevant but they're losing audience and shows and the OP is bothered by that. One person observing that the house is on fire doesn't mean the complacent dogs who stay in there drinking their coffee saying "this is fine" are right.
I live in CT but down in the southwest corner so Hartford and surrounding area events are over an hour a way. I like organ trios so I searched and found Vitamin B-3 - they're very good. Please post back here if you know when they're playing as a trio. They played in Milford in 2020 which is only 20 minutes for me.
Well, that's true, but the writing was on the wall prior to that. We weren't drawing or holding a crowd but we were still being booked. Now the bookings stopped. We probably have waited too late to turn the ship around.
Blues and blues/rock had a great run if you think about it. Blues wasn't an important genre in America until English bands like the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Cream, and many others started playing it and making the young American kids, like me, like it. That was some 60 years ago give or take. Quite a run. I think the genre of blues would have died out if those British bands hadn't liked it and started playing it.
Then SRV rejuvinated it in the 1980's.
But that's over now, in my opinion.
That's great. The blues will never die out. And yet it will likely never be as popular as it was during and post Stevie Ray Vaughan. OTOH if I, as a musician in a blues band, haven't heard of all of them what are the chances that the average public has? Not to mention...have ANY of them had songs on mainstream radio, like SRV did? Unlikely.
Blues will always be around. So will polka, big band, zydeco, etc. Having success playing it in bars where people would be happy with country and classic rock, and, let's be honest, Bro Country and hip hop, too? Unlikely.
Radio is obviously a totally different beast now. My hope is that one of these artists, most likely female, will write a blues oriented song that will have mass appeal and bring a spotlight back to blues.
