Do you have a rival band?

[GCDEF]

We get along well with other bands in the area, but there's one band I always want to see crash and burn. Their drummer quit and played with us for a while and was a real pain in the butt to work with. We booted him and he went back. Just because of all the grief we endured I want to see them fail.

 

Anybody else got a band you're in friendly or not so friendly competition with.

[JBJ]

not since we were in highschool and withotu sounding like an arse, we were out and out much better than the rest of them back then.

 

I'd rather worry more about what bands I enjoy playing with and who we're mates with instead of who I don't like and what they're upto.

 

Saying that, it would be interesting if our ex singer (and my ex girlfriend) started something up doing originals and we let battle commence.

[Strings74]

Sure do.

 

Next time I see that damn Kiss (yeah, like THAT's a cool name) I'm so going to unplug somebody's cheeseball rig.

 

[zookie]

John Phillips Sousa stole all my moves.

[fastplant]

When I was just starting out it seemed like any time we played with another band it was a battle of the bands. Now I get along with pretty much every band we play with.

[Roy Brooks]

In a way I could say that the bands I play with are in some kind of competition with other bands in the area since we play some of the same clubs. But I don't compete with the standard cover bands since that is not the music we play.

[superiorparts]

all the bands in my area are comprised of pretty nice people. we all get along and share information. there was this one band that was a great band but had one member that always wanted to outdo everybody and put everybody elses band down. he has since been booted from his band and everybody gets along good.

 

kevin james

 

www.monkeyboneband.com

[Outrider]

There's a couple of bands in my area that really chap my ass, one in particular (hereafter referred to as THE BIG ASS BAND,) but it's only because they play out a LOT in the venues I keep unsuccessfully trying to land.

 

For instance...we're both booked for upcoming shows at a local bar. Last week, the bar changes owners/names and the new owner cancels our show...but not THE BIG ASS BAND's. Back at the beginning of the summer, I couldn't get any gigs at a local resort, because they had given THE BIG ASS BAND *ten* dates over the season.

 

Honestly, I don't see how they do it. On top of all that, THE BIG ASS BANDis a 7-piece group, and I don't see how they can afford to keep it together, based on the local pay scale.

 

In truth, they're actually good people, talented musicians, and obviously have their {censored} together. Nobody knows about my raging internal jealous streak, so I guess nobody's gonna get ill over it.

[elsongs]

I don't have a rival band, though it would be cool if I did...it would be sooo Purple Rain.

[orfalot]

We just do the weekend warrior thing and stay busy enough that we really don't get out and see the other local bands. We've been around so long that some other bands may look at us as a rival just because we maintain so many local bookings. Sometimes I even think its time for us old geezers to slow down a bit and let the newer bands go for it. That thought goes away every time I hit the stage!

 

I did get pissed at another band at my solo debut and still my only solo performance about eight years ago. It was a charity event to help a young accident victim and all the bands were truly playing for free. I had asked the oraganizer/our drummer for 15 minutes to do my thing and he used me basicly as a filler between bands. I was playing everthing in Open E, no singing, and had popped off a couple of short diddy's when the next band arrived. We knew they would have to load in and I had set up as not to get in their way. When they started bringing stuff in I moved over out of the way but two or three times while I was playing they ran into me or the guitar like I was in the way. It got so bad that I played one more song and called it an event. That particular band was definitely the best there that day and the headliner, they put in a good performance but I'll always remember the rudeness.

[Edward]

A rival band, set up right (a bit of faux rivalry) can be a big seller.

 

I'll always beleive that whether they knew it or not, Oasis and Blur's labels colluded in the so-called "Battle of Britpop", helping both sell a much bigger quantity of singles that were reltively mediocre and certainly neither act's best work.....

 

It'd be a pain in the ass though if you always had someone set out to do you down. I had an ex girlfriend who was bitter like that (the irony is it was her ended it, but she turned very bitter when i got over it - especially when i went out with someone else). All you can do is rise above it.

[conquerorworm]

we did.

 

here they are.

 

that is honestly them. they've since broken up.

 

my current bass player used to be in a band with the guitar player, and they were all two faced jerks.

[srsfallriver]

I had rival bands when I played in original rock groups (late 80's - early 90's) and when I played in original Latin groups (mid to late 90's). I now play for a Boston-based wedding band, and I'm sure there's competition, but its far friendlier. We often hire members of other Boston wedding bands for subs.

[elbow]

No rival band per se, but there is one band that we sometimes (like twice a year) that is a kind of a house band at a place we rarely play at... and they run the sound. See where I'm going now?

 

These assholes do moronic stuff like turn down monitors to where we can't hear them, turn off backup singers' mics at random times... it goes on (this stuff never happens when they play).

 

But I think the only reason they do that is they are afraid of us. We can come into the place, be polite, but own the stage when we are up. Their house regulars start diggin' it and they get threatened. Kinda funny.

 

We are friends with the guy that runs the place, only come when he invites us, and we have no animosity towards them for their music, and try to keep it cool. If we let it get to us, they've won their little game.

[XamendedX]

theres friendly rivalry between the members of my old band and our new bands. The singer is Die Like Me (toured with It Dies Today), The bass player is in Sever Your Ties(haven't done anything but play local shows) and the rest of us are in Dark Lay Still...in the local scene I think SYT has us beat as far as show attendance, but they always open for the big bands cause their manager is also the guy that books the majority of shows down here. On a national scale, Die Like Me wins because of their touring and Time Lambesis of As I Lay Dying is their manager. and our band wins for world domination because we re on the radio everyday in Argentina, sold out of our euro disto.'s merch of ours, sold out of our US merch distro. and our little 4 song demo sold for $75 on ebay

[Brian Krashpad]

We have a bunch of bands I suppose we're in competition with, but we're pretty much all friends. I've seen more dissension within their bands than I've seen strife between our band and theirs. There's often some good-natured jousting between bands but in our case it has not been ugly.

 

It's more like a little family of 5 or 6 bands that play in the same general stylistic ballpark, so that often a couple or more bands within the "family" will be on the same bill. In a lot of cases there's some overlap in membership or ex-members of one band playing with another, etc.

 

BK

[Terry Allan Hall]

Not enough hours in the day to worry about silly crap like that!

[caveman]

Back in the old days we did but they were just wannabe rivals and never a threat to any of our gigs. They played great canned covers and we had our own way with the originals. We packed the dance floor and they didn't. The math was easy.