General Music Chat

Well, i've sunk to a new low. (i know....hard to imagine)

I left the house Fri night to head out to my truckstop houseband gig. this is a "bass gig" for me. and so i had to first empty my gtr and vibes equip from the night before. got the car loaded up. not much stuff cos' one of my bass amps is left at the truckstop so that's one less thing i have top cart.

anyway, i drive the 45 min there....get out of the car and realize...OH CRAP! NO BASS!!!!! not a good feeling at all. it's about 15 min before we have to drop a downbeat! so, now i call a few bassplayers in town. no dice.

i now have to go into the club and tell my bandmates what's up and see if they have any bright ideas.

we end up calling another bassplayer who lives just down the rd and sometimes subs for me when i've got a gig w another band. in fact....he was scheduled to sub for me the next day (last night) cos i had a gig w Planet Jazz. we call and he's home!

"yeah, sure thing....c'mon by and pick up my bass!" i race over there....this is the first time i'm meeting this guy btw. (way to make a good first impression, no?) and he's super cool and totally understanding. i don't even ask him what kind of bass he's loaning me....i don't have time to chit chat and really...i'm just thankful to have ANY bass to make the gig work.

i grab the bass...it's in what looks like a WASHBURN case. i get back to the club and when i open the case i see a gorgeous blonde MusicMan Stingray tucked inside! yesss! i love those things. never owned one...but have enjoyed playing them from time to time.

we got started only about 5 min late and it was a blast playing his bass! i only missed my low B string a little. funny, i did have a few brain farts playing 4 string on some of that stuff as i usually play my 6 string.

i sent him a note thanking him profusely for saving my dumb ass, told him how much i enjoyed playing his bass, and that he should expect another call from me next wk when i "forget" to bring my bass again!

man! i've been gigging around 40 yrs now...and over the yrs i've forgotten to bring all kinds of crap, but this is the FIRST (and i hope last) time i ever forgot to bring an axe to the gig.

I actually forgot my weapon one night playing at bodyguard - constant double shifts...blah blah. Paid the guy I was relieving to wait just a few more minutes!

But I've never forgotten my axe! Oh no...I wish I'd never said that - I retract that statement and promise to give up drugs and alcohol - what a dumb ass thing to say to jinx myself.

That Musicman is pretty nice eh? I've only played a couple myself. Don't like the look, love the feel and sound,.

Picks, strap, cables - forgotten them all at time or another, but never a guitar!

It happens. Last week we had a gig at a nice local pub near the college. Drummer is an attorney and rushes over from work. Forgot his mic stand. Aaaak! Now we are a 4 piece band with a LOT of 3-4 part vocal harmony and I am recovering from the flu so my voice is still only about 50% of full range. No time to run home and grab one.

After considering the options we removed one of his least used cymbals, duct taped a gooseneck to the cymbal stand and our drummer now has a mic. It wasn't pretty but got us through the night.

Worst "forget" story ( I probably mentioned it here 4+ years ago).

Instant Karma, the Beatles tribute band I was in, was scheduled to do a local cable tv show - broadcast live, and taped and rebroadcast, too.
I had only been with the band 6 weeks at this point - and I had voiced that I thought it was too early to be doing this, but the others wanted the video for getting gigs. Although I was playing guitar AND keys with the band, we picked a 1/2-hr set list that didn't need me on keys - saved a lot of equipment movement issues for me, and we knew the sound stage wasn't big, too.
We had a lead guitarist, and another player who played guitar and Yamaha elec piano. We start setting up in the studio -only for that other player to realize he forgot his carry bag with all his cables, power supply for the keyboard, and his microphones (one for vocals, 2 to mic up amps). He lived an 45 minutes away and we were a little more than an hour from broadcast time. We sent him out to Guitar Center to get everything he needed. After 30 minutes he calls us to tell us that the traffic is so bad in Boston he hasn't even made it to GC yet, so he has turned around and is heading back.
We have to change the song list to remove the 4 songs that had piano - the 1/2 hour set we had been practicing for 2 weeks now has song sin it that I haven't played with them since the first 2 weeks of rehearsals.
It only got worse from there ....