• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

when people act weird about your gear...

#81
last-p-bass.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: andruca, SasquatchDude, Gaolee and 1 other person
#85
Plutonium244 said:
Why? What is un-Jesus-y about a plain white Jaguar? Now if it were BLACK, then I could see your point?
Click to expand...

At a church I played at a while back, the worship leader (also the youth pastor) played a black Les Paul. He got grief from a few members because it was a "satanic" color. I just wondered how they rationalized the black laquered piano. I played with some really good muscians there, but could not stick around with the general closeminded attidtudes.

I can't imagine why anyone would have an issue with the Jag, except for pure ignorance or he just doen't want you there for some reason.
 
#86
Well, sounds like you've learned a couple of great lessons regarding the business side of music!

1. Image matters no matter what anyone says, and sometimes those who dictate the image required know nothing about music. It sounds like you were unaware of such and handled it like a pro this time, but this experience should have clued you into the type of environment that this particular church is going for. It's up to you whether or not the gig/volunteer opportunity is worth maintaining to you or not.

2. No matter where the gig there's going to be members of the audience that are jerks. Whether a church deacon teasing you about your bass and asking you to hide your pedalboard or a drunk at a bar screaming "slappin da BASS" and asking to sit in, someone is going to act rudely; how you handle those people is what those who hire you will remember.

Btw, I think that skateboard pedalboard is really cool!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ReidK, friendlybass, heynorm and 1 other person
#87
BigBobbyBass said:
Exactly what I would expect, unfortunately .... Funny how at punk shows no one ever makes rude comments about gear..
Click to expand...
Actually I played a "punk show" back in high school and the club owner made fun of my guitarists Jackson "Randy Rhoads" V for being junk. I get that it's a metal guitar and maybe not an obvious choice for "punk" but that is what made it kind of cool, he used it ironically. And we wern't a metal band, we wern't even punk, we were 90's alternative. I remember punks also making fun of his hair becuase it was long. Believe it or not "punks" often don't go against the grain, they are carbon copies of their idols and friends and want to follow and fit in just like anyone else.
Funny thing about that show, the whole time the crowd just stood their watching with their arms crossed like they hated us and we didn't belong, but they still clapped enthusiastically between songs. Haha. I know we were good, and I know we played well that night, and they liked it, they were just "too cool" for us non-punks to admit it.

As for the OP's church question. I'd proably quit that group but that is just me. I feel like the point of playing music with other people is to connect with them, and if they are jerks and your audience is judging you then you aren't connecting, and you aren't having fun.
I also would feel like the skateboard would be hidden behind a monitor and noone would see it anyway?
 
#88
gln1955 said:
At a church I played at a while back, the worship leader (also the youth pastor) played a black Les Paul. He got grief from a few members because it was a "satanic" color. I just wondered how they rationalized the black laquered piano. I played with some really good muscians there, but could not stick around with the general closeminded attidtudes.

I can't imagine why anyone would have an issue with the Jag, except for pure ignorance or he just doen't want you there for some reason.
Click to expand...

Really? Don't like priests wear black usually? And so do Amish. Since when did black become the color of the devil? It's like people who think an upside down cross is satanic when in reality it often times was use as the symbol for Peter who was crusified upside down.
 
#94
hrodbert696 said:
Love the skateboard! I want one now, and I don't even skate.

My question would be this - were you there as a ministry, to play music as your contribution to the life of the church, or were you there as a hired musician? If you were a hired musician, then the church is a client and they may have an image they want to maintain that doesn't include skateboard pedalboards up front. Objecting to the Jag is silly, though, it's a perfectly respectable bass. Maybe the deacon was just an awkward type and meant it as a good-humored ribbing rather than a real criticism, but failed to get the intended humor across. If you were there as a ministry, it is on you to decide how to approach the gig in a way that serves the worship rather than yourself; but I would expect any decent church to be gracious about honoring whatever gift gets brought to them, even if it's not what they had in mind - the widow with two mites and all that.

I do tone things down myself playing in church vs. a bar or club. I play much simpler, the pedalboard stays home, and I don't bring the bass that has a gigantic decal of Batgirl on it. It's much more about supporting the worship than putting myself forward as an entertainer. Which is not to say you did wrong to bring what you did - it's your decision to figure out what fits the gig.

There certainly are many churches who are more uptight about image than about the gospel, and the story doesn't reflect very well on them, at least as you've told it. But then nobody's perfect and we can all use a little grace and forgiveness.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with the ministry vs hired musician thing.
In my opinion, you pedalboard is awesome cool, creative and a looker but I wouldn't bring it to a church gig. (Keep in mind I know nothing of churches gigs!!)

As for the bass you definitely should stand up for it, unless there's a big branding of unwelcomed values on it for a church nobody should down-talk about your choice of instrument, hell to we criticize the paintbrush a painter use to make his art?
 
  • Like
Reactions: friendlybass

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back