Members doctorno Posted July 26, 2005 Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 Friday night my band had a gig at this bar that we have been trying to get into for a year or so. It's a nice place and we were expecting a good turnout, so we wanted to put on our best performance we could. What does my drummer do? Well, the stickless wonder arrived with a digital drum set that he had bought the night before. We didnt know {censored} about it and had no idea how to get the thing in the mix, and he had no idea on how to get a decent sound out of the thing. Needless to say I dont thing we will be invited back. Any of you got some band member horror stories? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted July 26, 2005 Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 Lessons learned: 1- Digital drums are to be avoided when possible2- Never bring a new piece of gear to a gig without trying it at a rehearsal first Although I'm guilty of that sometimes, I always seem to buy a new guitar right before a gig! But I learned my lesson over the years: I change the strings (LaBella 10-52, what else?), install strap locks and do a complete tune-up before showing up, even if that implies going to bed at 2 am the night before. And I always have more than two guitars on stage anyway... But when I was less experienced I did stupid things, like buying a brand new Telecaster and keeping the stock 9s on it and wondering why the sound dissappeared when I switched from my LP! Doh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doctorno Posted July 26, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 Yeah I know, but the sad thing is we have been giging for a while now, and he is definitely old enough to know better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cherri Posted July 26, 2005 Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 1. Shows up at 5:10 for a 5:50 performance at a national festival, with the hardware he broke the night before still broken. Starts apologizing because he had the time wrong and thought he MISSED the performance. 2. Showed up 2 1/2 hours late Saturday. Yeah, we're auditioning his replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hamer Player Posted July 26, 2005 Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 Originally posted by doctorno Any of you got some band member horror stories? My bass player is a hopeless drunk. One gig after he spilled a full pitcher of beer all over his amp, he got mad, walked out into the crowd (while still plugged in) and let some dude in the audience play his bass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doctorno Posted July 26, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 A few years back, the guitarist decided to drop a pitcher of beer on my pedal board, fried half of the pedals. After that and the statement "Oh well, thats what happens when you play live." I decided to take my leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted July 26, 2005 Members Share Posted July 26, 2005 Originally posted by doctorno A few years back, the guitarist decided to drop a pitcher of beer on my pedal board, fried half of the pedals. After that and the statement "Oh well, thats what happens when you play live." I decided to take my leave. Hahaha, instant classic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members riffdaddy Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Our singer feels he should be the only one in the band to sing tunes. That would be fine if we did hour-long shows, but we play for three hours a night when we work. Consequently, his voice is slowly deteriorating. It wasn't that great to begin with. Now he's singing close to a half-step flat by the end of most nights. We finally made the decision (without him) to go ahead and assign a few tunes to different people in the group. What did he do? Double the lead vocal--out of tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cortfan Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 We have an excellent guitar player, but sometimes I would like to kill him, just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members acousticvoodoo Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 I'm a guitar player... but because I'm not "excellent"... I want to kill myself. But I "endevor to perservere"... so everything's OK! michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cozmicslop Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 We're opening for a pretty important regional act signed to TVT records. Singer is nervous. Has a few too many tequila shots. Forgets the words - all original material. Asks for a music stand and places all his music on the music stand. Halfway into second song, he knocks over music stand sending paper splashing all over the stage. He's the one who {censored}ed up, but they wanted to kill me because I couldn't stop laughing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LosBoleros Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 I hate it when we take a break after about two hours of playing and the band members disapear. When it's time to go back on I grab who ever I find and say, "Stay here", then make a mad dash through the club, in the bathrooms, out in the parking lot to find the rest of the band. This really drives me nuts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 I hate it when a guitar player feels that he is the only instrument that needs to be heard, during a song he will go to his amp and crank it up to 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Fortunately, it's been a long time since I've had to deal with any bandmate horror stories. I did play with this one drummer who was always forgetting parts of his kit. Forgot his sticks several times and had to use random tree branches found on the ground, etc. This guy was also a chronic complainer, to understate things. He'd bitch and bitch about everything, and blame everyone around him for anything that was wrong, and if nothing was wrong he'd make something up just so he could bitch and point fingers. Needless to say he never lasted long in any band he was in, and he's really lucky nobody ever killed him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ZomBiE DinkLE Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 I had a bass player who would throw his picks out during shows when we all knew that no one in the crowd gave two {censored}s for his picks. he would also tweak and re-eq his amp during songs! we filmed him doing this at one show and it was priceless to see a band rocking out while the bassist twiddles with his knobs. the good news is that our band sucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members riffdaddy Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 I've thought about throwing out picks, but with the goal of trying to land them in people's drinks. Is this wrong of me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ZomBiE DinkLE Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Originally posted by riffdaddy I've thought about throwing out picks, but with the goal of trying to land them in people's drinks. Is this wrong of me? not at all... I encourage it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Knottyhed Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Originally posted by riffdaddy Our singer feels he should be the only one in the band to sing tunes. That would be fine if we did hour-long shows, but we play for three hours a night when we work. Consequently, his voice is slowly deteriorating. It wasn't that great to begin with. Now he's singing close to a half-step flat by the end of most nights. We finally made the decision (without him) to go ahead and assign a few tunes to different people in the group. What did he do? Double the lead vocal--out of tune. We had a singer who started our band up. He's a great mate of mine, decided we should start a band, found a drummer where we work, booked our first rehearsal studio came up with the band name... his only problem being that he was completely, utterly, hopelessly tone-deaf. We rehearsed for months without him ever getting a single song right and we were all too nice to tell him how bloody god-awful he was. Eventually push came to shove and we slowly took all the singing duties off him and relegated him to keyboards. Once that was done we were gig-ready in no time, and then on the last rehearsal before the gig he brings his own mike to rehearsal plugs in and does impromptu (awful) backing vocals when he thinks we're not looking/listening. We asked him nicely not to do it at the gig, but I think we were too subtle about it cos, sure enough he turned up to the gig, and plugged a mike into the PA - the only saving grace being that he sang quietly and we were able to drown him out!! It's a mystery to me why somebody so bad at singing would be so determined to do it... and short of telling him to his face that I never ever want him to sing on any tune ever because he sounds like a wailing cat I'm not sure how to bring it home to him that maybe he should give up on the singing. If he didn't happen to be a really good mate, an all round great bloke (apart from the singing) and the guy that started the band I've no doubt we'd fire him... does anyone else have problems like this - or is it just that I'm far too nice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 About a month ago, a bassist I'd hired for a particular gig (my regular bassist, Wendy, and her regular sub, Rich, were both gigging with other bands that night) came to the gig "cranked to the gills"...a definite no-no! If that wasn't enough, during our 1st break, a group of about 30 folks came in all wearing the same Church Camp t-shirts...obviously, not a group that would appreciate him picking up my guitar and singing a song about Jesus getting what Clinton got in trouble over (if you get my drift )...which, unfortunately was PRECISELY what he did! So, there I am coming out of the can and hearing him screech this ABSOLUTELY inappropriate song and simultaneously listening to the restaurant's manager demanding to know what's going on! I went over, unplugged the PA from the wall, grabbed him by the collar and explained that if he opened his mouth for any reason the rest of the evening, I would convert his dog-house bass into an impromptu enema! Fortunately, the restaurant owner has known me for years and knew this bozo was neither of my regular bassists, or I would probably never be allowed to play there again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Originally posted by fuzzball I hate it when a guitar player feels that he is the only instrument that needs to be heard, during a song he will go to his amp and crank it up to 11. Well the problem is that most soundman feel that the guitar is the only instrument that doesn't need to be heard... Wherever we play, it's always the same {censored}: only thing you can hear through the FOH are drums, bass and vocals. So when people complain to me during the break they cannot hear my guitar, and that I know that if I get the soundman to raise it, he'll bring it down as soon as we start again, I just crank my Marshall higher (like 4 instead of 3!). What am I to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzball Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Trust me the sound man was not at fault here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members squealie Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Originally posted by Lee Flier Forgot his sticks several times and had to use random tree branches found on the ground, etc. That may be the goofiest thing I've ever heard. LOL! Drummers are stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 LOL yeah it was pretty lame. Not all drummers are like that though, I actually get along with most of them pretty well. The drummer in my current band totally has his {censored} together and is one smart dude, and a KILLER drummer, so I guess I had some drummer karma coming to me after dealing with that other one... LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members squealie Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Originally posted by Lee Flier Not all drummers are like that though, I'd take that bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tonemaster2 Posted July 27, 2005 Members Share Posted July 27, 2005 Ever notice how stupid most musicians are?? If you have a problem bandmember, get rid of his ass. Your only as good as your weakest member, and don`t tell me that the guys ` a great player. Doesn`t matter how good he is, if he forgot his {censored}ing tools. We had a keyboard player, who constantly had gear problems,,,the same ones every gig, because he didn`t ever maintain his {censored}. Well, he`s history now. For the first time in a real long time, I`ve got bandmates who actually have brains that can reason, are on time, take care of their stuff, and have common sense. We`re all on the same page. Drummers are the {censored}ing worst tho!! T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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