The drummer for my Rockabilly trio plays with another band, a "pick-up" band where the BL books gigs and then whoever is available shows. He was playing six blocks from my house, so I thought I'd go see them.
It was awful, amateur hour in the worst possible way. Their setlist consisted of every tired, overplayed song you've ever heard; Sweet Home Alabama, Taking Care of Business, Fire (Springsteen). The equipment was cheap; the PA was distorted even though they played at a low volume, the "lead" guitarist was playing with an old solid state head and some kind of cheap PA cabinet and using the reedy, buzzy, fuzzy tone on every lead.
They didn't play a single song within spitting distance of right. It was really clear that they were playing off memory, blatantly reading lyrics on music stands right in front of them, eyes glued to the page. They were just going through the motions, just lifeless, generic readings of these tunes. The BL kept turning his back to the audience shouting out instructions as they were playing.
The BL wasn't a bad singer, but he just read the words and didn't know a lot of the melodies very well. The "lead" guitarist was just an awful singer, monotone, almost whispering, reading the lyrics, didn't know the melodies of the tunes he was singing, just embarrassing to watch.
The BL didn't bother to tune his guitar before he started and it was really badly out of tune the entire set. The last song of the set was "I can't help falling in love with you" and when he hit the opening out of tune chord, I just cringed. How do you not hear that????
If this is the best effort your band can put out, please stay home and stop giving live music a bad name. The saddest part of this story is that they work 5 or 6 times a month. The bar needs to be raised and clubs need to stop hiring "bands" like this.
The one bright spot, besides the drummer, was the bass player. Except for an ill-advised solo, he played really solid lines and he and the drummer kept things from being a train wreck.
OK, rant over.
It was awful, amateur hour in the worst possible way. Their setlist consisted of every tired, overplayed song you've ever heard; Sweet Home Alabama, Taking Care of Business, Fire (Springsteen). The equipment was cheap; the PA was distorted even though they played at a low volume, the "lead" guitarist was playing with an old solid state head and some kind of cheap PA cabinet and using the reedy, buzzy, fuzzy tone on every lead.
They didn't play a single song within spitting distance of right. It was really clear that they were playing off memory, blatantly reading lyrics on music stands right in front of them, eyes glued to the page. They were just going through the motions, just lifeless, generic readings of these tunes. The BL kept turning his back to the audience shouting out instructions as they were playing.
The BL wasn't a bad singer, but he just read the words and didn't know a lot of the melodies very well. The "lead" guitarist was just an awful singer, monotone, almost whispering, reading the lyrics, didn't know the melodies of the tunes he was singing, just embarrassing to watch.
The BL didn't bother to tune his guitar before he started and it was really badly out of tune the entire set. The last song of the set was "I can't help falling in love with you" and when he hit the opening out of tune chord, I just cringed. How do you not hear that????
If this is the best effort your band can put out, please stay home and stop giving live music a bad name. The saddest part of this story is that they work 5 or 6 times a month. The bar needs to be raised and clubs need to stop hiring "bands" like this.
The one bright spot, besides the drummer, was the bass player. Except for an ill-advised solo, he played really solid lines and he and the drummer kept things from being a train wreck.
OK, rant over.
