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Taking one for the team

mboogiemanusa

mboogiemanusa

Mar 6, 2009
538
13
Ventura CA
#1
One of my cover bands got offered a plum slot on an upcoming benefit concert with 3 other local bands. Should be great publicity with local news / radio coverage and an estimated attendance of about 600 peeps. Large outdoor event with covered stage and pro PA. The only downside is that for our band to get on the bill.....the drummer and I had to agree to provide bass and drum support for one of the other acts. They are basically a 3 piece coffeehouse "fools on stools" band playing originals. We did our first practice and received their demo to learn .....and to be polite ....they are gawd awful. The lead singer really can't sing, the guitarist plays Jerry Garcia style lead doodles through out all the verses / choruses and the keyboard player has his volume set on 11 for every song. Most of the songs are just 2 chords yet they turn into 8 minute jams. Unfortunately the lead singer is an icon in the community, wealthy and politically connected. He is large part of the citizens committee that organized the benefit and has been given the responsibility of booking the musical talent for this event. We can't back out without looking like a couple jerks and our bands appearance would be cancelled. They have no business really playing at this of event except that the singer created it so that they would have a showcase for their songs. Well I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I appreciate them putting our band on the bill but supporting these guys will be "taking one for the team"
 
#3
BullHorn said:
Bad publicity is good publicity. Nobody ever remembers the bassist or drummer anyway, so just roll with it and try to enjoy.
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+1. No such thing as bad publicity. As long as you kill it in your own set, all the other musicians and club owners will just admire you for putting up with the other crew.
 
#7
JehuJava said:
I'd do it. What else do you have going on that day? Just let them know you baby your gear and expect them to treat your gear the same way.
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Sorry. Misunderstood what drum and bass support meant. Anyway...unless you have something better going on it might be fun. At least you'll get a story out if it ;)
 
#8
The best/funniest things in your story, IMO are as follows.

First, another angle into how inept they are is that they are bringing in a competent rhythm section. You and your drummer are a machine, as opposed to the rest of the package. YOU KNOW where this is heading. A great rhythm section becomes unnoticed and the icing on top is incompetent/sub-par leads, vocals, etc. Have no fear. They are making it bad for THEMSELVES.

Secondly, I love it about a keyboard turned up to 11. Our electric guitarist and me face this every Sunday. The dude is plowing through who-knows-what with a stage amp for a monitor. I'm not kidding, it's a tsunami of sound. Worst of all, he'll either rip off a line I'm laying down, pedal through the root, or rip off some aspect of the electric's melody/countermelody. BUT AT 11 and ALWAYS in the same register as whatever he is ripping off. (sorry for partial thread hi-jack).

In short, look at it this way. You guys will look good, add some funny stories, and be able to contribute more fully to the "gig stories" area of the boards....
:D
 
#9
hrodbert696 said:
+1. No such thing as bad publicity. As long as you kill it in your own set, all the other musicians and club owners will just admire you for putting up with the other crew.
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Yeah.......it actually doesn't work that way. There IS such thing as bad publicity.

To the OP: unfortunately, this is what happens with these "benefit" gigs. Musicians get abused and manipulated. At the end of the day, the "exposure" you'll get is worthless. I would personally tell them that prior commitments will keep you from participating in the second act.
 
#10
I agree with both of these. :)

BullHorn said:
Bad publicity is good publicity. Nobody ever remembers the bassist or drummer anyway, so just roll with it and try to enjoy.
Click to expand...

Yeah.......it actually doesn't work that way. There IS such thing as bad publicity.

To the OP: unfortunately, this is what happens with these "benefit" gigs. Musicians get abused and manipulated. At the end of the day, the "exposure" you'll get is worthless. I would personally tell them that prior commitments will keep you from participating in the second act.
Click to expand...

In reality, it ain't as big a deal as we make it out to be. In the end nobody is going to associate you and your drummer with the stool band. Nobody cares. The toughest part for me in gigs like this, and why I sometimes welcome them, is to practice looking like you're loving it. I think that's such an important part to being a pro (and doing the right thing), and it's often an incredibly difficult thing to do. The urge to somehow let the audience know that you know that this is horrible, can be powerful. :) In the end you'll probably gain more for your band by helping these guys out, than through the exposure your band is going to get by just playing the gig. These "powerful" community types can do a whole lot more for you than playing a gig to 600 people who don't really care one way or another.

I do unfortunately agree with guy that the "exposure" you're looking forward to is worthless. For a plethora of reasons. I hate to be a cup half full kinda guy, but these outdoor "benefit" gigs in my experience more often than not attract people who are never going to come out to a club to see your band anyhow. And unless it's a very foucused kind of concert, it's often just people wandering around doing their own thing, with the band being background music.

If I were in your postition I'd do the gig with no expectations other than feeling good that you helped a bunch of people, and put your talents and work towards a hopefully worthy cause.
 
#11
One benefit of working for free at benefits is that benefits are attended by people who are there solely to repay someone for coming to their benefit, so you are sure to be asked to play for free at another benefit by someone who thinks you would be perfect (having heard about your generosity in doing it for free). The exposure just snowballs.
 
#12
Faraday said:
One benefit of working for free at benefits is that benefits are attended by people who are there solely to repay someone for coming to their benefit, so you are sure to be asked to play for free at another benefit by someone who thinks you would be perfect (having heard about your generosity in doing it for free). The exposure just snowballs.
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Ain't that the truth. I played with a woman for a while who got on the "cancer benefit" circuit. She asked us to play 5-8 free gigs per year, which we politely declined.
 
#13
I think the right thing to do is to support them and not leave them hanging like that, even if they suck. You're just hired. It's not your fault if your employers are bringing themselves down.

Are you being paid? If not, it's totally not worth it.
If so, are you being compensated extra for playing with the other band?

By the way, I like the "fools on stools" phrase.
 
#16
guy n. cognito said:
Yeah.......it actually doesn't work that way. There IS such thing as bad publicity.
Click to expand...

In the OP's situation, if he's confident that he and his drummer can play well, I don't see a downside. If the set crashes and burns, they won't be the ones taking the blame. If it goes well, they'll be thanked as the ones who saved the day.

As for the value of benefit events in general, that isn't the issue; the OP has already made a decision that playing the benefit is a good move for his band. The question is whether to support the fools on stools or not.
 
#17
hrodbert696 said:
In the OP's situation, if he's confident that he and his drummer can play well, I don't see a downside. If the set crashes and burns, they won't be the ones taking the blame. If it goes well, they'll be thanked as the ones who saved the day.
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If the Fools on Stools are really as bad as the OP says they are, then it'll be nearly impossible to avoid getting sucked into the black hole they create - in which case, there will be ample blame to go around - regardless of the fact that the drummer & bassist are strictly fill-ins. That's kind of the way it works - in music, as in life: If the team wins, everybody is a winner. If the team loses, everybody is a loser - even the ones who played really well. That's why playing with truly bad musicians is such a no-win situation - and why I personally avoid it at all costs. :eyebrow:

hrodbert696 said:
As for the value of benefit events in general, that isn't the issue; the OP has already made a decision that playing the benefit is a good move for his band.
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So it's out of the realm of possibility that the OP could have made a tactical error? :eyebrow:

MM
 
#18
Joe Nerve said:
The toughest part for me in gigs like this, and why I sometimes welcome them, is to practice looking like you're loving it. I think that's such an important part to being a pro (and doing the right thing), and it's often an incredibly difficult thing to do. The urge to somehow let the audience know that you know that this is horrible, can be powerful. :)
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I think this is a great point. Also, in conjunction with the above, realize that someone is almost guaranteed to record some or all of the show or take photographs, and eventually the stoolies will see some of the videos and/or photos. Be the guys that look like you're loving it - don't get caught rolling your eyes, smirking, etc.

It can't hurt you, but it can definitely help you.
 

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