OT: Sad band breakup

[kaaikop]

This is a sad day for me...
We had a beautiful thing going, 6-piece band, with a great chemistry, and a lot
of fun hanging together and making some noise once a week. We were
getting ready to make our first live appearance, which is exciting, nevermind if
we are not as good as pros, first show is always something big.

Two of the guys started plotting to get rid of some band members, under the
pretext that they were not progressing fast enough for them...
By principle, I just walked out. F*** them, I dont like hypocrits, and I hope
everybody else walks out. I can do without people like that.

Sorry, just had to vent

 

[koogie2k]

kaaikop.....man, I just went through the same thing not just a week ago. I know how you feel. My situation is different, but none the less...it still sucks. Do what I did, go find another band immediately. I have tried out with several, some just were not what I wanted to do....I am still looking, but I got to play with several others out there. Get back up on the horse.....

 

[SteveB]

Sorry to hear about your situation.

My band has been together for 5 or 6 years now. However, I've been in various bands with two of the other members on and off for the last 20 years!

Sometimes I think about doing other things, but they're like my family now!

 

[bassmonkeee]

This is a sad day for me...
We had a beautiful thing going, 6-piece band, with a great chemistry, and a lot
of fun hanging together and making some noise once a week. We were
getting ready to make our first live appearance, which is exciting, nevermind if
we are not as good as pros, first show is always something big.

Two of the guys started plotting to get rid of some band members, under the
pretext that they were not progressing fast enough for them...
By principle, I just walked out. F*** them, I dont like hypocrits, and I hope
everybody else walks out. I can do without people like that.

Sorry, just had to vent

Good for you! Who wants to be in a band with people whose grapes are so tiny they have to be underhanded in band dealings? If you look the other way this time, they are bound to pull the same crap with you down the road.

 

[artisan]

i agree with you guys f**k 'em.
nothing worse than playing with knob heads like that.

 

[WesC]

You know I've been playing since I was something like 7 years old. And I hear stories like this all the time. Fortunately, in all my years, I've never personally experienced this situation. I dunno, maybe I'm just lucky enough to be able to spot the weirdos and get out before the SHTF


Anyway, there's always someone else to play with so no need to waste time with egos like that.

 

[Mobay45]

It's not unusual for people in bands to have different goals and different levels of commitment. Everyone just has to sit down and find a level that they can all agree to. Personally, if I were the two that weren't happy, I would have left the band and started my own instead of trying to change that band to suit me.

Bands are like any kind of relationship. It takes of lot of cooperation and respect among the members to make it work.

One more thing - It can be a real drag playing with other musicians on a regular basis that aren't on the same level of musicianship as you are. That's something to take into consideration any time you are thinking of joining a band.

 

[kompressaur]

playing music is fun..band politics is not...I've had some great gigs ruined with egos and the like...but move on,play as much as you can with different people..jam nights can be fun,build a rapport with a drummer(they always like jamming),do some recording with peeps needing some bass tracks,advertise yourself,word gets around.
the one thing is dont ever let go your own practice regime.keep your chops up between gigs.

 

[phatduckk]

i think u did the right thing. playing music is fun... and its supposed to be fun. but BS like that pretty much destoys the fun. IMO you did the right thing.

 

[kaaikop]

Yeah, well... I agree with Larry 100%, happens all the time, only thing is, we are
grown ups, and are supposed to act like grown ups... with r.e.s.p.e.c.t. for the
others. This guy here not only lost his whole band, but a bunch of friends too...
LOL he had the guts to send me an e-mail afterwards, accusing ME of breaking
up the band, and HIS efforts to keep it together... LOL

One day I hope he will realize what a jerk he was!
But I will let LIFE take care of that, not my problem!

 

[phatduckk]

One day I hope he will realize what a jerk he was!

id guess that he already knows

 

[bassmonkeee]

Yeah, well... I agree with Larry 100%, happens all the time, only thing is, we are
grown ups, and are supposed to act like grown ups... with r.e.s.p.e.c.t. for the
others. This guy here not only lost his whole band, but a bunch of friends too...
LOL he had the guts to send me an e-mail afterwards, accusing ME of breaking
up the band, and HIS efforts to keep it together... LOL

One day I hope he will realize what a jerk he was!
But I will let LIFE take care of that, not my problem!

Have you thought about picking up the pieces of the band that weren't involved in the "plot," and continuing on with replacements for the jerks? I mean, if there was great chemistry before, it should be even better with the bad blood gone.

 

[MingusBASS]

+1

 

[Mobay45]

+1 more.

Excellent suggestion bassmonkeee.

 

[Bill]

That's good advice. That's pretty much how Jimmy Page got his new band together after the Yardbirds broke up. That band turned into Led Zeppelin.

And what Larry said earlier about playing with musicians with a lower level of musicianship being a drag is so true! I encounter that frequently when I'm called to sit in for somebody, especially in Cajun bands in which a lot of the musicians are just doing it for fun & not to sound polished & professional.

 

[Mobay45]

That's good advice. That's pretty much how Jimmy Page got his new band together after the Yardbirds broke up. That band turned into Led Zeppelin.

And what Larry said earlier about playing with musicians with a lower level of musicianship being a drag is so true! I encounter that frequently when I'm called to sit in for somebody, especially in Cajun bands in which a lot of the musicians are just doing it for fun & not to sound polished & professional.

Just so everybody knows, I didn't make that comment to be mean. I was just saying that if you have a pretty decent music background and the rest of the folks in the band are playing by the seat of their pants, then it gets really frustrating sometimes. When I was playing with Far Cry, neither guitar player knew the name of the chord they were playing and didn't even know if it was a major or minor chord. That got pretty old. And even more frustrating was the fact that they weren't willing to take the time to learn.

Sometimes it's good to play a little bit with someone that's better than you. You can find that you have more talent than you thought. Early in my bass playing days, I was put in a situation where my band had a really good pianist/singer and his excellent tenor sax buddy sitting in with us for a few songs. I found notes that I didn't even know I had in me that night and was able to keep up much better than I thought I would be able to. Being a bass player, it's hard to find situations where that would work the other way around though. Not that it's impossible, it's just not common since we usually follow the song path rather than lead it.

That being said, I will repeat that it makes for a better group if everyone is on the same page musically and talent wise. There are enough differences to get in the way of harmony (pun intended) without either of those being a problem.

 

[bassmonkeee]

That being said, I will repeat that it makes for a better group if everyone is on the same page musically and talent wise. There are enough differences to get in the way of harmony (pun intended) without either of those being a problem.

Yep. Being in a band is kinda like being in a marriage. You still fight, but no makeup sex.

Okay, so it's exactly like being in a marriage...