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What the %$^#

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 92857
  • Start date Start date
Sounds like a Drunk running amuck. Bad news......:rollno:

The problem with people like this is that they are almost never not drinking. Nobody can fix a drunk. Cut your losses and tell the rest of the band that if they want to enable him, they can, but you are tired of wasting your time.

It will come to a head sooner or later, save yourself all the aggregation you will experience between now and then.

+1
my tolerance for this type of activity in a band is zero.
get rid of the guy ... there is an ocean full of guitar players out there.

+1 to all of the above.

The former drummer of an occasional band I'm in started having a beer every so often at rehearsals. 2-3 years later, he's checking with the people running the charity gigs we play to find out how soon the bar opens, making sure we can drink (the guitarist and I do not drink at rehearsals or gigs, ever) and then taking 2 drinks at a time. We confronted him about it at what turned out to be his last gig with us. We asked him to please wait until after the gig before diving in. He agreed to do so, then went immediately to the bar.

Drunks are drunks and will say whatever they think they need to to get you to leave them alone so they can go get a drink. Bad news with this guy, and I join the chorus saying to move on....
 
I'd be out for clocking him in the face!..or i'd have a serious discussion with the rest of the group....No tolerance for that, and it's totally unprofessional....The joys of being in a band.You may play some good music but if you cant get along as a team/family...You'll just be unhappy.....Good luck
 
Biiiig +1

It's time to hit the flush handle with that loser. The sooner, the better. A year from now, when the band is kicking major arse (with a real musician on guitar), it will be all smiles.

Unfortunately it's not going to go down that way. I discussed it with the drummer and his said "I'd sure hate to see you go...". The others are not going to take a stand. They'll take the path of least resistance.

I'm a homebrewer, and I sometimes have 30 gallons of beer around the house. I'll usually buy a beer at each break and get a big glass of water to go with it to say hydrated. I'm not going to come down on anyone who wants to drink responsibly. But a half bottle to a full bottle of vodka? And tell me you can handle it, I'm a wimp?

Ridiculous.
 
Ugh, that's one of my pet peeves. Yes, you need to check your sound, and horn players need to warm up their lips, but once you've done that, please, no noodling.

And personally, I'd be very concerned about working with someone who drinks as much as you've described.

Actually, he plays snippets from 4-5 songs between every song. Sometimes he hits one that resonates with an audience member, and they'll want us to play that song. But he's the only one that knows any of it and the rest of the band hasn't learned it, rehearsed it, or possibly even heard it. Sometimes he actually turns to the band and says "we can do it, count it off!" As Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.
 
He could be any one of several local legends from this area.

They work for a while, hack off enough folks they can't work, drop out of sight for a few months, then show up all "clean" and ready to work. it usually lasts a few weeks/months before it's back to their never ending search for the real hard bottom.
 
Guitar players especially with not change no matter how often the rest of the band asks.
This is one of the silliest things I've ever heard. Bassists can be just as hard headed as any guitarist. Same goes for pianists, drummers, horn players and so on. Guitar players seem to get set apart from other musicians here, which doesn't make sense to me.

On topic: I agree with what others have said about an intervention. It may be easy for him to blow off one person, but its not so easy to realize everyone thinks it.
 
Guitar players seem to get set apart from other musicians here, which doesn't make sense to me.

It is because we are not guitar players(no argument about us being *bass* guitar players, we can beat that dead horse some other time :D). Code of the schoolyard, from an episode of the Simpsons- I can only recall one rule: Always make fun of anyone who's different.
I am not disagreeing w/the rest of your statement, just theorizing as to why we so often dis guitarists.
 
That's the problem with AD(H)D characters: Unless you handle them correctly, they will do more and more "evil" and contraproductive things to actually get your attention. And while they think they did their best to do so, the rest just shake their heads in denial.
My brother-in-law has ADHD, so he is not only talking for hours but also moving and yelling and doing. You do not have to listen to that for hours, the only thing he wants is the feeling you actually care for him, that you take him serious. Looking at your post, you guys (and the rest of his environment) did everything wrong here. Not that I blame you, no - I am far from that, but think of this when you meet him next time.
I learned to handle AD(H)D (and most of the other psychic handicaps out there) when I first met him. My wife tought me how to handle this. Everybody out there longs for a bit of respect and wants to get the feeling of accomplishment. While most of us can put that into a certain ratio, AD(H)D characters lack the balance in this. Exessive drinking is a (very serious) symptome!

Let me make my point clear that, apart from what I just mentioned, drinking that much (especially before and during a gig) is a definite NO GO (ADD or not) and must be taken seriously
 
Hey, just because most of you guys have had trouble with stupid people in your bands, it doesn't mean that it's ALL bad. Be grateful you guys actually have been in bands and gone gigging! I have never been in a group that ever went past rolling around in the grass claiming that it was "parkour."

Yes, I'm dead serious. That actually happened.
 
You need to sit him down all of you when he isn't drunk and tell him if he doesn't stop drinking during the gig he is out and then start looking for another guitarist because yours has a sickness that just isn't going to go away without intervention of professionals. Had a drummer that crawled into a bottle nice guy sober but a mean drunk. We drink for free his demon was scotch in water glasses and it showed it's ugly head one too many times early on and we replaced him. Good luck
 
You need to sit him down all of you when he isn't drunk and tell him if he doesn't stop drinking during the gig he is out and then start looking for another guitarist because yours has a sickness that just isn't going to go away without intervention of professionals. Had a drummer that crawled into a bottle nice guy sober but a mean drunk. We drink for free his demon was scotch in water glasses and it showed it's ugly head one too many times early on and we replaced him. Good luck

The OP is saying that he's already tested the wind and the other band members are not going to back him, they're going to back the drunk.
Alcohol is a very strong drug. So is playing in a band when it goes right.