New bass player is now a few months in..

[Blackbird 13]

 

... and man, it makes all the difference in the world! The old guy was lazy, had no interest in learning new songs, no stage presence, and was the definition of "getting by". The new guy wants to be here, has been in the local scene for a while, wants to add new stuff, has fun onstage, and it's just night and day.

 

This band's been going since 1/1/2010... and from then to mid/late 2012, I'd say we maybe added enough songs to almost double the setlist, and practiced maybe once every six months.

 

In the few months the new guy has been in the band? "Locked Out Of Heaven", "Hard To Handle", "Cruise", "Alcohol", "American Girl", "Lonely Boy", "Beer Money"... I swear we've probably added 10 to 15 new songs, and tightened up the looseness or "rigging" on 20 or so of the previous ones ("Dynamite" and "Forget You" have a whole new life with the cohesiveness).

I look at the songs on the horizon (lots of country, as we took a semi-regular gig at a franchised country bar..  as well as some stuff like "Shots", The Clash's version of "I Fought The Law", "Don't Stop Believin", and more...).. and I'm not groaning about how I'm going to pull it off with a subpar musician (and an overall lack of enthuasm because of it), but I'm eagerly awaiting making it happen!

 

 

It's SOOOO nice to actually be playing with three other musicians who, to one extent or another, "get it".. Since we've started, we've always had one (and sometimes two) guys who just weren't a good fit. Some weren't the best musicians, some didn't understand the business of playing in a cover band (and how that differs from an original metal band, or a "play what we like" band), some just had no commitment to the project..... and after three years and a few months of pushing through with this band, I just wanted to share my excitement. Already seeing results too... getting some new rooms, quite a few private party requests at the gigs, and people seem excited about what we're doing again.

 

Here's hoping I'll have lots more good to post about in the rest of 2013!

[Tullsterx]

That's awesome man! Yeah, change can be good. There's a lesson here for everyone "get rid of people that are not pulling their weight." Those folks are really disrespecting the whole band and it's a violation of trust in my opinion. 

 

[tim_7string]

I wholeheartedly agree. My band has been going for two years now, with just myself and the drummer left from the original line-up. I got rid of two bass players and the guitarist/bassist simply because they just weren't interested in getting better or improving the sound of the band. They were only there for the money and treated it like a fill-in gig. It's much better to have three guys on the same page that want to be a part of a band.

[vbshredder]

Yeah good for you man. It only takes one weak link to drag the whole band down. A good bass player tightens everything up so much, and having a {censored} bass player is just a bad as a lousy drummer. I too am in a band where we all get it - we just never let anyone who showed signs of loserdom try out for more than 15 minutes...it was GTFO dude. We knew we had something special and didn't want to {censored} it up. Now we are really becoming one of the best bands around here (hampton roads). Playing tough songs, and everyone learns them in their own time -the way it should be

[Blackbird 13]

 

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vbshredder wrote:

 

 

Yeah good for you man. It only takes one weak link to drag the whole band down. A good bass player tightens everything up so much, and having a {censored} bass player is just a bad as a lousy drummer. I too am in a band where we all get it - we just never let anyone who showed signs of loserdom try out for more than 15 minutes...it was GTFO dude. We knew we had something special and didn't want to {censored} it up. Now we are really becoming one of the best bands around here (hampton roads). Playing tough songs, and everyone learns them in their own time -the way it should be

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We're actually in the same area. What band are ya in? (PM me if you'd rather not post it in here)

Always good to see more 757 people here!

 

 

 

EDIT: I've figured out at least one of the band's you're in. I've heard about you guys, although I haven't actually heard you. We're one of the circuit cover bands, which makes it difficult to get out and see other bands. Still, props to you guys for moving up the ladder... which can be really hard in this area!