Was this complete BS or was I being too sensitive?

[lokikallas]

You stuck around longer than I would have.

 

[B-line]

Maybe the BL wanted to do a twist on the Allman Bros. or James Brown...
Instead of (2) drummers, there would be (2) Bassplayers!
That would fit so well with playing Blues-oriented material!

...He could be a potential musical innovator!
(jk jk)

 

[KeithPas]

Regardless of the specifics; if you are getting pissed off, frustrated and annoyed during the try out it is only going to go downhill from there. I would respectfully pass since I am not as patient as I probably should be.

 

[74hc]

Having two bass players going at the same time is not an audition. I would have told the guy that and said here's my invoice for services.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Being a guy who likes to play devil's advocate and see things from the other's point of view, I'm sorry that I have to honestly say....

I got nuthin.

 

[barebones]

Sounds like you handled an unorthodox and difficult audition with grace and professionalism. I don't think you're being too sensitive, because this was a highly unusual musical situation. (I've had some odd ones myself. Can't say I've heard of anything quite like this.) If it's causing you any kind of loss of sleep or continued frustration, I'd just say that I think it's a story to enjoy a good laugh at and not let it bother you. Doesn't sound like these guys intended to inconvenience you, and you say they're good musicians, so I'd forgive them as nice and talented but clueless people. You will meet many nice, talented, clueless people in the music biz. Ha!

 

[crossstick]

I would have left pretty much immediately, when i audition for a band they're also auditioning for me and those guys were massively unprofessional. You don't audition two musicians in the same room but at the same time ?....lol, that's a new one, especially with bass players

Honestly i would say you put up with a lot more than most people would, certainly more than i would have.

It's a good story though, at least you got that out of it

 

[alaskaleftybass]

You only identified five BS moves out of all that?!

Here's a little story that your audition story brought to mind.

A building contractor is visiting a friend who happens to be an inmate at a mental hospital.
As he is leaving the grounds he notices a bricklayer laying down a beautiful walkway. He stops to admire his work. He tells him "Beautiful work! You know, I'm always looking for good bricklayers. You wouldn't happen to be looking for a job, would you?

The bricklayer looks up at him and says "Well, actually, I'm an inmate here, but my treatment is complete and they asked me to do some brickwork for them while the paperwork for my release is being finished up. So, yes, I am looking for a job."

The contractor gave him his card and said "You're hired. Just come by this address on Monday at 8 am."

The bricklayer thanked him politely and the contractor went on his way. After about 20 paces a red rectangular object came flying out of nowhere, hitting him in the head and nearly knocking him out. He turned around to see the bricklayer pointing at him: "You won't forget now, will ya?

Sorry bro but your story made me tired. At least we got a good bricklayer joke out of it!
You need to develop some better radar, my fellow bass player. After a couple early oddities, you should have packed up by the time you heard a second bass player playing along with you. If you don't have those kinds of instincts, bring your girlfriend/wife with you the next time. They have much better instincts than we do and while you're still thinking about it they will have you out of there with your head spinning and bass in hand.

 

[bigswifty1]

On a BS scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the maximum limit of BS one can tolerate, I give the OP's situation a score of 53.

 

[FerK]

Complete bollocks. You took the high road and behaved like a gentleman. Hats off.

 

[james condino]

If you want to keep playing bass as a lifelong activity, it won't be the last strange audition.....

 

[funkymonk13]

Except he felt both members were more than competent. Hard to get a read without actually meeting the BL yourself but when they called back with the turn down I would have probably said something to the effect of "Thanks for the call back. As you probably realize, I didn't expect to get the job after walking out early. That said, I had a very good impression of you both of as musicians. If you are still looking for someone down the road and want to give this another try, I'd be happy to do it again on different terms. I suspect you will continue to have trouble finding someone at your level going about the process the way you are."

Out of curiosity, since you met the BL at a first location, then drove 30 minutes to the practice facility, did you backtrack at all or is it more than 30 minutes from your house?

Amid the shenanigans, two things that stood out from OPs post: the dudes are good musicians, they seem like nice dudes-offering help load in, follow up/call back(more than most people do on CL), and a few other details.

Don't most of you say you need 2/3: good music, good hang, good pay?

Seems like the potential for that was there. As I said before, a lot of times creative people are quirky and lacking common sense. The issues here coulda been solved with some simple communication like "I'd feel more comfortable if instead...."

Even tho there was some BS this wouldn't have ruffled my feathers compared to some of my own personal experiences & some stuff I've read on here including:

-Smelly/filthy practice spaces,
-everybody starts hotboxing the tiny room w/o asking if you're ok with this
-very opinionated about politics right off the bat
-casual racism thrown in conversation
-yoko shows up and starts ordering people around
-not the type of music they mentioned in the ad
-no musical equipment
-late or don't show up
-guitarist is wayy too loud
-constant super extended cheesy guitar solos
-guitarist keeps changing time signature
-drummers who can't hold a beat
-singer is way out tune

Etc...seriously tho, biggest bummer for me is when the music isn't there or people have a crap attitude. I'll take someone who's stupid but nice and can play well

 

[guy n. cognito]

Amid the shenanigans, two things that stood out from OPs post: the dudes are good musicians, they seem like nice dudes-offering help load in, follow up/call back(more than most people do on CL), and a few other details.

Don't most of you say you need 2/3: good music, good hang, good pay?

Seems like the potential for that was there. As I said before, a lot of times creative people are quirky and lacking common sense. The issues here coulda been solved with some simple communication like "I'd feel more comfortable if instead...."

Even tho there was some BS this wouldn't have ruffled my feathers compared to some of my own personal experiences & some stuff I've read on here including:

-Smelly/filthy practice spaces,
-everybody starts hotboxing the tiny room w/o asking if you're ok with this
-very opinionated about politics right off the bat
-casual racism thrown in conversation
-yoko shows up and starts ordering people around
-not the type of music they mentioned in the ad
-no musical equipment
-late or don't show up
-guitarist is wayy too loud
-constant super extended cheesy guitar solos
-guitarist keeps changing time signature
-drummers who can't hold a beat
-singer is way out tune

Etc...seriously tho, biggest bummer for me is when the music isn't there or people have a crap attitude. I'll take someone who's stupid but nice and can play well

Never let common civilities and a modicum of talent obscure an otherwise completely inappropriate experience.

 

[madbass6]

Warning This is Long!!! I recently responded to a CL ad for a bass player needed to round out a 3 piece blues band. To be honest I was only mildly interested. I currently play in two bands one of which plays out regularly. That being said I took a chance because I like the type of music and because they are based much closer to me than the other bands I am in. They had also posted the ad 2-3 times over the last month or so and appeared to be having trouble finding what they were looking for. I decided to give it a shot. In the ad they mentioned that they practice every Sunday afternoon, and in their response they requested I audition at their next practice. By text I asked them to send me 5-6 songs that I could work on to prepare for the audition. They proceed to send me their complete 40 song set list (IMO this is the first BS move). Why would you expect someone to learn 40 songs for an audition which is 4 days away? Most of the songs were very obscure and I hadn't even heard half of them. I decide to work on getting 5-6 of the songs down good and to at least make notes on the others for the audition. They had a couple of Allman Bros, and Clapton songs which I felt I could nail pretty easily.
On the day of the audition I get a text to meet him at a local restaurant, and from there I can follow him to their practice location which he claims is 10 minutes away. I meet him (guitar/vocals) at the restaurant at which time he tells me he is waiting on another musician. I assume it is the drummer or maybe another guitar player. The other musician pulls up a short time later and we proceed to follow the guy for about 30 minutes to his practice location. When we finally arrive he politely asks me and the other guy if we need help carrying our stuff in. I thank him and tell him I got it. He then starts helping the other guy with his stuff and it was at that point that I realized he was another bass player (BS move #2). I am a little stunned that they would expect 2 bass players to audition at the same time, but I soldier on. It gets worse.
He gives each of us an outlet on opposite sides of his practice room with the drummer in the middle and asks us to set up. Once we set up, and with no discussion or warning he begins playing one of the songs from his list and asks us both to join in (BS move #3). Of course he is playing one of the songs from his list that I barely know, and the fact that there is another bass playing at the same time made just about anything I did sound awful. Even with all this I pretty much had the song down by the last verse. He then calls out another song I barely know and starts playing it. At this point I have had about enough and I quit playing after the first verse to at least give the other guy a chance. He appeared to be struggling also.
At this point the guitar/vocals notices that I have stopped playing (and probably that I am not very happy ) and decides that we should alternate. He allows me to go first he again picks a song I don't know, but without the other bass player muddying things up I am able to get through it pretty easily. The other bass player plays his song, and when they are done the guitar/vocals looks at me and asks me if I can play "Crossroads." My eyes light up. He has finally picked a song I know. We start playing it and its going great until the second verse when I realize the other bass player is playing to (BS move #4). I again stop playing in disgust. They finish the song, and then play another one. At this point I am looking at my phone and not even paying attention to them. I had originally agreed to play from 1-3 pm. It was only 1:45 and I was already trying to think of a good excuse to bail. They play a 3rd song "It's been a long time" by Led Zeppelin which wasn't even on his list. I am still looking at my phone. When they get done he asks me which song from their list would I like to play, and he makes a point to tell the other bass player not to play on this one. At this point I had already decided I was leaving when the song was done, and after telling him once that it didn't matter to me I begin to play "Whippin Post" one of the songs on his list. He immediately recognizes the song and stops me. He proceeds to tell me that they don't play the standard version of the song, but some super slow tempo version he had heard on some live recording (BS move #5) . He begins to play his super slow version and at this point I had completely given up. As soon as the song was over I began packing my stuff up, and told them I had to go. In an attempt to remain professional I shook everyone's hand and thanked them for the opportunity. I left with a new found appreciation for my other bands. A short time after I left, the band leader sent me a text thanking me for my time, but telling me they were going to keep looking (apparently the other bass player did not work out either).
I apologize for the super long post (BS move on my part), but I had a lot to get off my chest. Am I being too sensitive or was this audition complete BS? In hindsight I probably could have communicated to him from the beginning that I was not willing to learn their entire set list for an audition. I would also like to add that they were good musicians. The drummer IMO was very good. However, while I assumed they may be trying out other bass players I did not even consider the possibility that they would try out two at the same time. Aside from this what could I or should I have done differently?

TOTAL BS!!

 

[jthisdell]

There is a reason that bands only have one bass player (except large orchestras)

 

[Nev375]

Yep, total BS.

But as long as I was there I think I would have played up higher on the neck and let the other bassist have the low end.

Some might consider it a waste of time. But to me any opportunity to jam with others is a learning experience. So why not experiment?

 

[bassmonkeee]

Good lord. I can't believe the number of people in this thread who would just bail without even attempting to correct an easily correctable situation. After learning 5-6 tunes, driving as far as you did, setting up, etc--you can't take the initiative to say literally two sentences to get things back on track?

"Let's play one at a time--you go first."

"These are the songs I learned."

Not everyone can run an audition. That's not a deal breaker.

All of this ridiculousness of "you should have played some of your originals at full volume" or "packed up and sent an invoice" is pathetic internet posturing and not indicative of anyone in the real world who wants to actually, you know, play live music in front of people.

There is nothing wrong with being assertive. If they push back, fine. You've at least done SOMETHING to try and salvage the work and time already put into it.

Basically, you took a bad situation and made it worse.

 

[gln1955]

Yep, total BS.

But as long as I was there I think I would have played up higher on the neck and let the other bassist have the low end.

Some might consider it a waste of time. But to me any opportunity to jam with others is a learning experience. So why not experiment?

Yeah, start competing in the guitarist's sonic space and maybe he'd figure out what a bad idea this is.

 

[B-line]

Yep, total BS.

But as long as I was there I think I would have played up higher on the neck and let the other bassist have the low end.

Some might consider it a waste of time. But to me any opportunity to jam with others is a learning experience. So why not experiment?

All well and good, and yes, jamming/ experimenting with others is a good thing, but this poor OP's chain was yanked so many times for this "spot" he needs a new set of links!

(2) Bassists at the same time??

 

[Rabidhamster]

You were much much nicer than I'd have been.

I wouldn't have unloaded. I'd have said something like oh wow this is the new bass player huh?! Awesome! Then I'd adamantly congratulate the other bassist on his new gig and welcome him to the band - this way the rest of the band will be forced to clarify to his face if he isn't in the band.
But by that time I'd be gone.

If I show up to an audition I'm testing you at least as much as you're testing me. Unless you pay really well. Lack of respect - instant fail! I don't care if I burn a bridge to nowhere, that just keeps me warm at night