General Music Chat

First of two gigs this past Saturday, THE SPINCASTERS are playing a 4-7 gig at the local Elks Club. First time there and we're going over big time....lots of compliments, lots of bread in the tip jar. All the members are telling us...."you guy rock, can't wait to get you back on the calendar'.


...all that to say, we knew 'we're in" here.

so, last set this member there starts begging to get up and sit in on drums...and he's kind of a loudmouth. after the second or third time he yells out asking to sit in, he says "c'mon let up to play one, i won't embarrass you guys!"

...to which our drummer replies "well it's not US we're worried about you embarrassing!" cracked the whole place up and we did let him up to play one. oh mah gawd....he was HORRIBLE (no surprise) but everyone loved it and it was the right thing to do.

A bit of "Social work" occasionally can be a good thing. I have found that the majority of people who want to "sit in" seem to be "drummers".

quite so re. "social work". and true enough...it's often drummers who want to "crash" the party.

obviously there are plenty of gigs where it would never be appropriate to let a musician you didn't know sit in. and then, there are those where not only is it "acceptable", but it's also a good idea.... like a private club, wedding, affair, or a party where everyone knows the person wanting to get up to sit in.

it was no surprise that this guy was a stiff......all three band members were expecting exactly that. funny how someone's skill set is usually perfectly obvious before they play a note.

Miles said "I could tell if a motherfucker could play as he took his horn out of his case".

It does always seem to be drummers...don't know why.

My favorite comeback was years ago at a college gig in VA. Our folk rock sort of sound was well received by most but one smart aleck demanded, "Do you guys know any Hendrix?"

Our singer replied, "No. But we hear he's doing a couple of our tunes..."

Talbot

I went to see punk rock legends The Damned in 02. They asked the audience if anyone wanted to play drums towards the end of the set. They even announced which song they'd play. A guy went up there and they asked him how long he had been playing drums. He said 15 years. They gave him the sticks and he attempted to play the song with them. It was a huge mess. Then the bands real drummer took the throne back and told everyone "man, if that guy's been playing drums for 15 years, why does he suck so bad". A good laugh was had by all, even the volunteer.

In 'Trilogy', my band that just dissolved, we were playing the bar-lounge at the Italian restaurant and there was a big crowd there for a 'goodbye' party for someone at an office. Lot of 20-somethings. One woman requested (then a guy also requested) a Justin Beiber song. Really. Here we are playing mostly-acoustic classic rock songs.
So, next song, I introduced "here's a song Justin Beiber covered just a little while ago" and we launched into the Eagle's Take It Easy!

I had a blues band that got booked into a country bar that actually had chicken wire protecting the stage. (See Blues Brothers). The bar tender kept calling out Country artists for us to play. She was a cow that was very loud and obnoxious.

Anyway we tried to keep up with her requests but once we started that, we weren't allowed to stray the course, and she thought she was going dictate what we played all night. About 5 songs in, we just started rocking and rolling and most people liked it...but her. We started on something other than what she called out after a few songs and she used every name in the book on us from across the bar. Her cussing was actually louder than the PA system in places...

Anyway, at the end of that song she's still going off...and our guitar player said over the mic, "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?". Oh man....it was on. She started throwing stuff at the stage and then everyone joined in while yelling their favorite country songs. It was scary for a minute, then it became hilarious when we remembered that they had a contract to pay us for 3 days...so we kept pissing them off until they fired us....and they had to pay us for 3 days though we did one set.

It was truly glorious.

Ted

THe worst request I ever got was in fact, with a country band. Some drunk wanted us to play "Red Roses for a Blue Lady." It really went down hill from there...

Talbot

I never ask to sit in, not even when I've worked w/ the folks in the band before. It has the flavor of 'I think I'm better,' seems a bit rude (at least to me), and elevates the expectations quite a bit. At the same time, I've been asked to sit in on occasion, and if I like the band and what they're doing...sure. But it was their idea--not mine. That usually happens when I have friends in the band.

My fave 'sit-in' story, which I read in Guitar Player or some such mag: back in da day, Grand Funk Railroad (remember them?) was doing a gig somewhere in France, and the audience didn't get their brand of bland rock tunes (this was before Craig Frost joined), and recognized that Mark Farner wasn't exactly proficient as a guitarist. Ergo, they started to boo, and kept it up. Farner finally blurted out, 'if you think you can do better, come on up and show us...' Unfortunately, Eric Clapton was in the audience and did just that. Ouch!