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Redemption

jive1

jive1

Commercial User
Jan 16, 2003
12,525
4,060
55
Alexandria,VA
www.jivesound.com
Disclosures
Owner/Retailer: Jive Sound
#1
Ever had a gig where you just didn't do well, folks weren't happy with you and then you played there again later, and they loved you?

I just had that happen to me. I played a gig at a place where I had the worst gig of my adult life at. I have to admit that I just sucked that night. I accidentally left my guitar rig (a POD XT) at the venue I played at the night before, so I played guitar all night through a DI box and my tone sucked. My vocals were fatigued from singing the 2 nights before, and I didn't sing well that night. The repertoire we played with that band did not fit the place. We had no draw because it was a last minute, put a band together kind of gig. To top it off, the owner came up to me and told me that I wasn't very good and even called the agency to complain about me. Easily, the worst gig and one of the most embarrasing moments of my musical career.

Fast forward to a couple of years later, and I play this gig as a last minute fill-in for another band. I'm not sure if the owners remembered me, but if they did, they didn't let on. Anyway, we rocked the place. They loved the material, the place was packed, and the overall performance was much better. The owner even came up to me afterwards to thank me for coming out. It was easily one of the more fun gigs I had this year.

The biggest difference was the material fit the venue, we had good soundman running sound, the gear sounded good, and the band had enough time to promote the show.

Anyone else have stories of redemption, and what you did to do it better the next time?
 
#2
Can't say I have. In the past if we sucked we never got asked back :D I have never had an owner tell us (band) we were bad or complain. We did have a manager or two say we did not fit the club or did not draw enough but thats about it. I was in a couple of bands years ago I expected the owner or manager to give us the hook since we were that bad but never did and we even got re-booked :D

My band today never has those problems since we try to fit the places we play and put on a good show at all times.
It took allot of guts for you to admit this and kudo's for kickin butt the second time. They did not remember the first but will remember this last show and that's all that matters.
 
#3
It's happened to me before. We were booked for a Fri-Sat gig at a club once, and for some reason the Friday night crowd was just not into it. I don't recall us playing badly, but the people that were there really acted like they wanted to be somewhere else.

At the end of the night, the manager comes back ranting and raving about how awful the night was and that he wasn't sure he wanted us back on Saturday night. I put on my negotiating hat and finally got him to admit that we hadn't played badly and that we could play Saturday night as planned.

We came out on Saturday night and played the exact same songs in the exact same order - and that club was alive like I had never seen before. We could do no wrong - they went wild after every song and women tried to take us home with them.

The manager was totally different after Saturday night, wanting to re-book us right then and there. And we took the gigs - but Saturday nights only.
 
#4
I have never been thoroughly redeemed.

I usually have extended periods of mediocrity interjected with fleetingly brief periods of brilliance.

Glad you had a great gig! Those tend to make the whole thing worthwhile!
 
#7
I have a redemption story.

I went to a blues jam once a while back, and was quite nervous and didn't play so well, The host bass player, who is a great player and very gracious, came up to me afterward and talked to me about practicing with a metronome. He was polite, but it still stung. I took it to heart, and it did turn out to be a useful motivator.

About a year later, I was in a blues trio and as luck would have it, the host band at the jam mentioned above was leaving. We pitched ourself as the new host band and we ended up taking over the hosting role. We maintained the weekly jam every week for about 2 years, and it was a great opportunity for me. The bass player from the original band would come play at the jam from time to time and I made a point of thanking him for the gentle kick in the rear that pushed me forward in my playing.
 
#8
INTP said:
I have a redemption story.

I went to a blues jam once a while back, and was quite nervous and didn't play so well, The host bass player, who is a great player and very gracious, came up to me afterward and talked to me about practicing with a metronome. He was polite, but it still stung. I took it to heart, and it did turn out to be a useful motivator.

About a year later, I was in a blues trio and as luck would have it, the host band at the jam mentioned above was leaving. We pitched ourself as the new host band and we ended up taking over the hosting role. We maintained the weekly jam every week for about 2 years, and it was a great opportunity for me. The bass player from the original band would come play at the jam from time to time and I made a point of thanking him for the gentle kick in the rear that pushed me forward in my playing.
Click to expand...

Great story, and big kudos to you for doing what's best for your music as opposed to your ego.

Over the years I've learned to be thankful when someone tells me that I need to work on something, because it takes them more effort to say something than to just let me continue struggling.
 
#9
I just experienced that in the last 2 weeks!

My friend calls me on Wednesday and tells me he's auditioning for a 'money' band the next night, that they are auditioning bass players too and asked if I wanted to go. I agreed. He sent me their full list complete with indications of what songs were complete, in progress and new for them.

I scoped the 'complete' list and discovered that there were not very many that I already knew, but there was a boatload on their 'new' list that I'd been playing for years. In short, I knew all the songs they didn't - they knew all the ones I didn't - and I ended up 'winging it' for the sake of letting them hear my friend's vocals. My parts were 'wombly' - not horrible, but nowhere near what I do when I can prepare and for faking it, I did OK, but for an audition, no...

They were underwhelmed - but they knew that I just heard about the gig the night before and didn't have any time to prepare. They asked me to come back next week and have five of songs from the 'completed' list ready. I came back with 10 and absolutely nailed it!

We finished the set and the leader jumped up and said, "So... You did say you were interested, right???"

The WERE auditioning bass players. They aren't any more. That felt really good.

Yay me!
 
#11
mambo4 said:
Steve Martin wrote in his autobiography something to the effect of:
"It's easy to be brilliant. Everyone can have a great night, once in a while.
The hard thing is to be pretty good, most of the time."
Click to expand...
That speaks to me. We're a cover band playing almost exclusively wedding dances and corporate events including corporate parties, fundraisers and benefits. We've always been a pretty good wedding band over the last 34 years of playing together, but it wasn't until the last 4 years of playing, where we focused our efforts on wedding dances and corporate that we got rid of the hi's and lo's in looking back at any given total performance. We know generally who our audience will be every gig. We know what we're doing. That kind of consistency certainly helps. We always ask for reviews of our performance - that also helps. Yet, we still get through with some gigs and wonder "What the hell was that?" Case in point...last wedding we played was on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Typical mixed-age wedding crowd, but on the older side. Seemingly playing right into our hands because we can keep those 50-70 year olds happy all night. We kept the older folks dancing up until about 10pm and took our 2nd and last break. The place cleared out like a bomb threat at a school. We couldn't believe it. The wedding party stuck around along with a few stragglers totaling about 40 people from a group that started out around 300. But they danced their cans off. I asked for a review and expected the worst. Turns out it was one of the best reviews we've gotten. So I agree - we strive for being pretty good every gig.
 
#13
mrpackerguy said:
That speaks to me. We're a cover band playing almost exclusively wedding dances and corporate events including corporate parties, fundraisers and benefits. We've always been a pretty good wedding band over the last 34 years of playing together, but it wasn't until the last 4 years of playing, where we focused our efforts on wedding dances and corporate that we got rid of the hi's and lo's in looking back at any given total performance. We know generally who our audience will be every gig. We know what we're doing. That kind of consistency certainly helps. We always ask for reviews of our performance - that also helps. Yet, we still get through with some gigs and wonder "What the hell was that?" Case in point...last wedding we played was on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Typical mixed-age wedding crowd, but on the older side. Seemingly playing right into our hands because we can keep those 50-70 year olds happy all night. We kept the older folks dancing up until about 10pm and took our 2nd and last break. The place cleared out like a bomb threat at a school. We couldn't believe it. The wedding party stuck around along with a few stragglers totaling about 40 people from a group that started out around 300. But they danced their cans off. I asked for a review and expected the worst. Turns out it was one of the best reviews we've gotten. So I agree - we strive for being pretty good every gig.
Click to expand...

Dude. If you keep the over-50 crowd past 9 p.m., you're golden. I've played after-dinner dances at engineering conferences, and one set is about the longest you can keep them in the room.

On the other hand, I attended a Building Industry Association dinner with about 1,200 attending where the band was Huey Lewis and the News. Nobody left. It was so cool because the dance floor went right up to the stage, so we were 10 feet away from them.

The next year, everyone wondered how they were going to top that. Whoever was in charge of the music hired some kind of "World Music" group. Seriously, by the end of the first tune, less than a quarter of the room was left. By the end of the second tune, they might as well have packed it in. I hung around long enough to see if they were ever going to get around to our part of the world, but I gave up after 15 minutes or so. Wayne Foster would have been a lot better. Needless to say, there was plenty of embarrassment to go around for the organizers that year.
 
#14
No, but we blew the first part of a show
one night because the drummer showed
up high on crystal.

He started the first song more than two
times faster than we had ever played it.
Had to stop and start over and he could
not get in time until a good way through
the show. Then, everything straitened up
and we ended up having a good show.

You should have seen the look on the
audience faces :o

We never got along after that until we
got rid of the drummer,

Tabdog
 
#15
Munjibunga said:
On the other hand, I attended a Building Industry Association dinner with about 1,200 attending where the band was Huey Lewis and the News. Nobody left. It was so cool because the dance floor went right up to the stage, so we were 10 feet away from them.
Click to expand...

I thought Huey Lewis was under rated.
I liked the singer's voice and the band
was excellent.

Maybe it was just their style that did
not click with enough folks,

Tabdog
 
#20
Munjibunga said:
He'll play at your house for $85K.
Click to expand...

I'm sure he would. My comment was really based on how most people (at least myself) don't really think about what famous acts do after they are Big. I would think that Huey Lewis was a real treat for this kind of audience.

During better economic times here in Moscow, it was vogue for rich guys to hire name acts for private concerts. A friend of mine went to a private club opening party and was stunned to see that the musical entertainment was provided by Black Sabbath. Apparently Deep Purple did private shows for then President Medvedev.
 

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