Why it's always good to be early...

[Joe Nerve]

So I have a wedding to play yesterday. The venue is Clarks Landing Yacht Club. I type it into WAZE and head out leaving myself the standard extra hour and change that I do for long drives. 2 Hour drive. I arrive. Parking lot is empty. Hmmm.... I don't see my band truck. I see the venue, it's a catering hall, but it's empty. Not a soul to be seen. I panic for a second, but realize sometimes these places have multiple areas to have receptions. Nothing doing. I double check the venue name on my itinerary. I'm definitely in the right place. Double check the date. Call my wife to make sure I'm not having some sort of senior moment (I've had lots on my mind lately). Everything seems to be in order. We're still in October, it's not September or November. I'm in the twilight zone now... figuring there's an excellent chance I'm about to ruin somebody's wedding and get my band awfully mad at me. I Google Clarks Landing Yacht Club and lo and behold...

there are two of them in NJ.

50 miles away from each other.



Always type the address into your navigator, boys and girls. And always be early! I made it just in time to get 5 minutes worth of food at the cocktail hour, and not miss a beat.

That's my bass humor & gig story for the day, but I ain't laughing just yet. Maybe by lunchtime.

 

[Oren Hudson]

Another lesson learned. The one that got me once was an address that was good in GPS. I get to a point and dead-end. I discovered that it was on the lake between two different states and was difficult to get GPS to put me in the right one. But for a helpful motorist, I would have missed the opening.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I always shoot to be early, especially when going somewhere new. #$_-&$# happens. And with the $$$ and level of gigs @Joe Nerve is playing, this is not a gig to jeopardize.

 

[Spidey2112]

The 'hurry up and wait' mentality the military was so kind to suggest has always served me well...

... with the wife, not so much.

 

[bolophonic]

Holy cow. Why are there two yacht clubs with the same name?

 

[Mechanical]

The only one I know is in Point Pleasant? I think.

 

[Joe Nerve]

The only one I know is in Point Pleasant? I think.

Nope. Type it into waze.

 

[Biggbass]

Siri... "I found TWO Clarks Landing Yacht Clubs, which one would you like directions to?"

Waze..."The American people are counting on you... to drive. Let's go."
(Morgan Freeman's voice)

 

[Spidey2112]

Siri, "I found TWO Clarks Landing Yacht Clubs, which one would you like directions to?"

" The one where pinkies extended for tea is a requirement, but only between 4 and quarter past."

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Wise is the bass player who allows time for earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, traffic, road closures, bad directions, and getting lost. Early is the bass player who experiences none of these.

Good show, old bean.

EDIT: Add car trouble and flat tire to the list.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[turf3]

Yep, I was in the same situation once - on New Year's Eve (remember, back when bands used to get hired for NYE?) - a sub gig, but I had played with the guys once before.

I got to the Harvey Hotel plenty early (like an hour or more, like I always do). It's NYE, right, and there are multiple ballrooms, right? So I ask at the front desk "where's the NYE dance" and they direct me down the hall. To the ballroom. Where there is a band setting up. And NONE of the guys looks even remotely familiar. And there are TWO accordion players. When the band I am subbing with is a classic rock cover band... "Hey guys, where's the rock band? " "No rock band, we're the polka band " (yep, I could have figured that one out).

Now there are about four or five Harvey Hotels in the metro area. I figure, I must have gotten the wrong one somehow. SH!!!T!!

Of course none of the phone numbers I have for the band does anything but ring or go to an answering machine (this is pre-cell phones). I call home and ask my wife if there's a message or anything - YES!

The message says: "Hey - when you get to the Embassy Suites, they will give you a special badge that lets you into the backstage area where you can get something to eat, etc." I KNOW the BL told me "Harvey Hotel", but OK, let it ride. Now there are also about four different Embassy Suites in the metro area, but - one of them is right next door. Quickly over there, and there's the band I remember. I just got the mouthpiece on the horn in time for the countoff.

Closest I ever came to really blowing a gig.

 

[DWBass]

Ha! Done that before. Showed up at the wrong venue. Call up the band leader. Says it's the other spot we played last year. Good thing it was in the same city. Just a couple miles away.

 

[roller]

Wise is the bass player who allows time for earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, traffic, road closures, bad directions, and getting lost. Early is the bass player who experiences none of these.

Wise bassists don't Waze.

 

[ONYX]

That's your classic "Spinal Tap" moment.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Another lesson learned. The one that got me once was an address that was good in GPS. I get to a point and dead-end. I discovered that it was on the lake between two different states and was difficult to get GPS to put me in the right one. But for a helpful motorist, I would have missed the opening.

Oooh, I've been to that movie.

Last summer we played at a private party on Lake Hayward in CT. GPS said it was in East Haddam, but it was really in Colchester, and both towns had a "Lake Hayward Road." Naturally, I went to the wrong one first. Nothing like pulling into someone's private driveway and realizing you are nowhere near any body of water...fortunately got on the phone with the BL and got straightened out. A time when access to an actual paper map would have made life easier. Gaaah.

 

[mrcbass]

Yeah, I never get how people don't think like that, that stuff can happen and being late is just not appropriate. But it seems to be a general infection these days. I have band mates that seem to think rehearsal time means that's when they leave their house. Very infuriating and am not confident it would be any different for a gig. I've had "early is on time" ingrained into me since a very young age and this was reinforced by one of my college instructors.

 

[andruca]

I have recurring dreams of being late (usually inappropriately dressed) to a gig. Weird as I'm the first to arrive to almost any appointment in my life. Not every band I gig with has this spare time por contingencies policy, but OTOH lately my gigs are getting fewer and more informal.

 

[Blankandson]

That would have been me but for a side-job about 5 years ago. Wife and I told a local organization we would update all the addresses on their website. Using GPS. Out of about 50 we found that the GPS took us miles out of the way on about 6 locations. We used the actual physical address but the GPS said "no it''s not there!" So we had to pin-point our actual location on each of those sites, then use THAT GPS code, and we found it. The hardest part was later that day trying to convince the location managers that they had to use the 'new' location code, otherwise no one would ever find them. So we now have TWO paper maps in our vehicle; Rand McNally and Michelin.

 

[bdplaid]

Have I ever told you about the gig I had 3 hours from my house... and... forgot my bass? And I was so early I went home, got it, and made it back in time for the downbeat.

 

[Ant Illington]

So I have a wedding to play yesterday. The venue is Clarks Landing Yacht Club. I type it into WAZE and head out leaving myself the standard extra hour and change that I do for long drives. 2 Hour drive. I arrive. Parking lot is empty. Hmmm.... I don't see my band truck. I see the venue, it's a catering hall, but it's empty. Not a soul to be seen. I panic for a second, but realize sometimes these places have multiple areas to have receptions. Nothing doing. I double check the venue name on my itinerary. I'm definitely in the right place. Double check the date. Call my wife to make sure I'm not having some sort of senior moment (I've had lots on my mind lately). Everything seems to be in order. We're still in October, it's not September or November. I'm in the twilight zone now... figuring there's an excellent chance I'm about to ruin somebody's wedding and get my band awfully mad at me. I Google Clarks Landing Yacht Club and lo and behold...

there are two of them in NJ.

50 miles away from each other.



Always type the address into your navigator, boys and girls. And always be early! I made it just in time to get 5 minutes worth of food at the cocktail hour, and not miss a beat.

That's my bass humor & gig story for the day, but I ain't laughing just yet. Maybe by lunchtime.

Wow. Were you shaky playing the first couple songs? Must have been a lot of adrenaline and cortisol pumping in that 50 miles...