Pretty sure My Gigging Days are Over...

[M-Mittlesteadt]

Sucks. But I get it. I get tired of the many routines of a cover band, but that seems to melt away- at least for a time- looking out across the crowd and realizing how happy I make people when I do something. That and... maybe they like beer. Late, loud, long and well, a lot of things... are the seeming stock and trade of MANY gigs. It might be a time to think about different genres, venues, and dynamics to the extent they exist in your area, and maybe a bit of reboot as well.

Occasionally I go to a brewery that has "acoustic nights" and "jam nights". On such possibilities in your area, maybe you become the standing bass player for something like this on a weekly or bi-monthly opportunity to play some but also share the stage where other players can play too. My experience with such things is that it's everything a bar gig ISN'T: Not late. Not loud. Not long. And well, there's still BEER. And if there's not such a thing in your area, be the guy to partner with a brewery or venue and build the band and opportunity! I'd love to do that, but honestly being in three gigging bands, I have no time to be a fixture and point person anywhere for any such thing. But some day that may change.

I have the Rumble 500 (it's actually 350 watts) and 38 pounds makes my gigging life much easier.

I'm looking into a loose bi-weekly "blues jam/open mic night" where they only play from 7-10 and they have a "house" band, and only one bass player. It's looks interesting. I think I will check it out without bringing my bass to see if it might be a good fit. I know the drummer and keyboard player, so it might turn out to be something worthwhile.

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

I'm looking into a loose bi-weekly "blues jam/open mic night" where they only play from 7-10 and they have a "house" band, and only one bass player. It's looks interesting. I think I will check it out without bringing my bass to see if it might be a good fit. I know the drummer and keyboard player, so it might turn out to be something worthwhile.

All things considered in your situation as I understand it- might be perfect. Or at least good enough for now to feed the itch.

 

[brianrost]

The drummer's whole body is riddled with cancer and he was actually inspiring as he said he was going to keep playing drums until someone pulls him off his stool. If he ain't quitting I'm sure not going to.

I can sympathize. I’m playing in a band right now where three drummers died of cancer. All of them had the same attitude, with their time short they wanted to make the most of it. I can only hope I would be that brave.

 

[bassfreakah]

We will all move on to the Great Gig in the Sky. And it will be wonderful. I will see you all there.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

After 45 years of playing and taking a brief hiatus, I've been working towards playing some light, short, early gigs again. A bunch of my old friends and bandmates (of various bands through the years) got together to play a wedding for one of them over the weekend.

I was only going to play about 4 or 5 songs. I only had to bring one of my basses and it was just to play some ZZ Top, SRV and a couple of loose blues jams. So I brought my 4 string P/J bass. I had a stool to sit on as standing (especially in the 90+ degree heat) was not good for me, But at the last minute a mandolin player took it as a stand for his little amp. The bass player had a nice upright and a killer Rickenbacker 4003S and played through a little Bergantino amp and 110 cab. Of course his URB didn't need much additional volume and his Rick was strung with flats so his tone controls were set flat or very bright with little to no low end dialed in.

My Precision is strung with bright roundwounds and it a very bright sounding bass, so when I first started playing my bass sounded so anemic and irritatingly bright (and I had little chance to dial in anything even remotely tolerable). Ugh. I sounded like total crap through his amp (no FOH support). I had to quickly roll my tone control all the way back, turn down the highs and boost the lows a lot just to get by. I know Berg's are great amps and cabs, but this one totally sucked tonewise (as dialed in anyway).

I was already having a bad day physically, but mentally, after talking with so many old friends and bandmates it was really depressing. 3 of my 4 old bandmates are dying of cancer. Others are are just in really bad shape (far worse than me) so I had nothing complain about (and didn't want to). But it was just so sad. We should have called the impromptu band, the "Rest Home Rockers". My right plucking hand was giving me a hard time with my nerves and tendonitis. My (fingertips were numb and limiting my ability to play). But you know the old saying,.. "The show must go on". I played the tunes and everyone said it sounded great (friends in the crowd and bandmates) but I can only assume everyone is deaf as well. LOL.

I've spent the past couple of days contemplating what to do. I can't see myself playing an entire gig at this point. I'm still not convinced I can't play and I'm not giving up without giving it everything I have. The drummer's whole body is riddled with cancer and he was actually inspiring as he said he was going to keep playing drums until someone pulls him off his stool. If he ain't quitting I'm sure not going to.

But unless the perfect situation and opportunity presents itself, I'm pretty much done gigging. This entire last weekend should have been a very good time, but it was just plain depressing and I'm still having a hard time dealing with it.

Vent/rant over.

I feel for you. At age 72, I know the end is coming sooner than I’d want it. I’m very fortunate to be playing in a band I joined back in the early 70’s. It’s always been a horn band so our fraternity of players that came and went is quite large.

The band actually started in 1966, and over the years we’ve lost 6 that have died, a principal founder that retired 5 years ago and our long time guitarist retired to work on recording our music. The rest are still playing either with us or with other bands.

At the moment one of our vocalist/trumpeters, a first class musician and singer had been battling cancer since last year but still make it through a gig. We had to cut out most of the songs he was featured on sings. He’s been huge part of our band product wise and it’s been tough to watch.

The rest of us are still in pretty good shape, nobody is bouncing around the stage like Mick Jagger (personally I have as much visual entertainment value as a potted plant), but we can still play high level material.

In my post gigging life (the point I can’t haul my own gear) I’ll still do session work, and might dabble in writing songs (if I can find a good lyricist)

But there will be a day when even that will not be an option and while I’ll grieve that loss, that will pale in comparison to the loss of my musical brothers. Now and again snippets of memories of them pop into my brain and what joy we had together making music. If that is all I end up with, it was well worth the ride.

Take care brother and best wishes.