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Walked out on gig

#142
Not going to beat you up over what you did.
My $.02 for the future. Bring your gear.
The one thing I have learned over the years is to "Trust No One."
If Geddy Lee called me and asked to sub for him for the next RUSH concert and he promised that I could use any and all of his gear, his guitar tech would take care of my setup, and Alex and Neil would be there 6-8 hours early for gear check and practice to ensure everything would go smooth I would still bring my ax and amp and spare strings etc. You Never Know.
I'm sorry you had had enough and left, but years down the road someone will have to make a decision and these things stay in peoples mind. The bad things get remembered and the good things get pushed to the back of the mind.
Congratulations on getting the gig. Now you can address these problems with the rest of the band and all will be well. (Hopefully)
Best of luck in your future performances.
 
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#155
Hurricane Jimmie said:
Sooooo..... Are you going to join? Sounds like a fun gig!!
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All I told him was I would consider it. There are some issues obviously with the shake-up in the line-up. They have been a very good band everytime I've seen them. Really the only reason I wouldn't do it - aside from the obvious issues- would be travel. I do not want to leave the island. And I lose money everytime I take a gig and miss some work the next morning.
 
#156
guy n. cognito said:
To each his own
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Absolutely! I agree, to each his own.

For us, it goes like this... Each musician gets $300 for a four set gig, plus food and drink (a reasonable meal and a couple of drinks). It's part of the deal. Fuel costs, loading, travel time, setup, teardown, and unloading, plus four hours playing means about seven to eight hours time. That means somewhere between $37.50 - $42.85/hr for each of four musicians for some real work, which is why a reasonable amount food and drinks is included in our price.
 
#157
Pops OB said:
Absolutely! I agree, to each his own.

For us, it goes like this... Each musician gets $300 for a four set gig, plus food and drink (a reasonable meal and a couple of drinks). It's part of the deal. Fuel costs, loading, travel time, setup, teardown, and unloading, plus four hours playing means about seven to eight hours time. That means somewhere between $37.50 - $42.85/hr for each of four musicians for some real work, which is why a reasonable amount food and drinks is included in our price.
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$300 a man for a bar gig is......unheard of. Mind if I ask where this is?
 
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#159
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
I think I understand what you're saying. In fact, the moment I decided to leave was during the second set: I came out of a trance/attempt-at-going-to-a-happy-place and realized I had been pretending to play bass for some time, not making a sound. On the basis of this, could you pleeeeaase deem me a semi-pro?
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I think you have almost hit on the best solution if that happens again. Hit your tuner or volume pedal so no feed goes to FOH, play air guitar on your instrument, rock back and forth with happy face and have another beer.:woot: It doesn't sound like anyone would have known differently. Learn how to do nothing and look cool doing it.:cool:
 
#160
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
I was asked to sub in a popular country-ish cover band. These guys play regionally and open for larger touring acts. I've seen them a few times and they are quite good. So I said yes. I get the play list and actually listen to all the original recordings. I run through the bass parts at home. I make charts. This is more work than I have ever done for a sub gig and that's only because the material is mostly new and I'm not familiar with it.

Now, these guys use IEM's. I know because I ran sound for them once. So I call the BL and ask if I need to bring my own buds or what. His answer was "we have four body packs, so yeah you could do that". But it's a six piece band, so I ask if they have a wedge to throw on the floor for me and he says "sure".

Fast forward to gig night. It's at a tiny club that has horrible acoustics. A small PA with only vocals in the mains would have been perfect. But, no, these superstars bring towers and subs, etc. And they're late. Everything seems about set-up except for my monitor. I ask BL about it, he asks sound guy, and sound guy says "it's broken". But they drag out a crappy powered wedge anyway. It IS def broken. About this time the drummer wants to know where his monitor is. BTW, it's the drummer's second gig with the band.

Monitor doesn't work, drummer doesn't have one at all. I can hear NOTHING. Drummer can't either. He's young and a little green and his reaction is to bash the hell out of everything. I trudge through the first set and tell myself that we'll get it straightend out on break.

Second set: still no monitors for me and Animal. But now, everyone else's IEM's are crapping out. I'm getting steamed. At one point, half the band is playing one song and half the band another.

A break is hastily called and I walk out the door and drive home. Not proud, but there it is.

I go the next day to get my gear and my bass is in the manager's office with a note on it that says I owe $40 for my tab. Never had my bass held for ransom before!

Anyway, I saw the BL the other night and we shook hands, all cool.

Punch line: he calls me yesterday and askes me to join as permanent bass player!
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Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
Judge away! :) I deserve it. I'm telling this story as some sort of confession for my utter failure to maintain professionalism in the face of extreme diversity.

This band is interesting. They are not seasoned pros at all. They are all new to it, like one year in. They just happend to have filled a void in the local market and assembled a cast of undiscovered raw talent. Except for the keyboardist. He's new to this band and I don't know why he's even there. He doesn't have a clue. He plays arpeggios over everything all the time. I call him Baby Mozart.
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One way to make sure that this never happens again is to take your IEM's with you from now on....I mean, we carry extra strings, 2 or more basses....what's a pair of IEMs weigh? 3 ounces?
 

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