#1940568 - 05/11/08 08:02 AM
You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
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Aidan
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Registered: 08/11/06
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Loc: Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
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At the same gig where the drunken oafs fooled around with my piano and synth (see "Get your hands off my freakin' gear), the bandleader and singer was once again persuaded into letting some idiot try and sing a song with us.
In this case, it was Honky Tonky Women. The drunk git borrowed the singer's shades (of course, those make you sing better) and I braced myself for the worst.
I didn't brace myself enough - there was no indication from the howls emitting from the microphone that the song was even familiar to the guy, let alone any semblance of melody and lyrics.
I'm just stunned that the leader keeps letting this happen. These people are NEVER any good. The last time he was duped into this, he was approached by two pretty girls who assured him they knew Dancing Queen by ABBA. It appeared they did - three tones up from the actual key we were playing it in.
So, do you grit your teeth and let these idiots "sing" or do you tell them where to get off? Personally, when I'm out with my own band, the answer is always an emphatic "no" btw.
_________________________
Roland RD-700GX, Yamaha Motif XS7
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#1940631 - 05/11/08 09:55 AM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Aidan]
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Joe Muscara
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Registered: 02/21/05
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Loc: Houston, TX
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How much are they tipping/paying?
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#1940633 - 05/11/08 10:06 AM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Joe Muscara]
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NoahZark
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Registered: 11/06/05
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Loc: Maryland, USA
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This happened to me at our last gig. Our bass player tends to get a decent-sized crowd of friends at our gigs, and one of them asked to sing "Your Song" by Elton John (with me accompanying him on keys). The bassist put the pressure on me, and I made the unfortunate decision of saying yes. Needless to say, the guy's vocals were a train wreck. Ironically, since it was the end of the night and most of the crowd was sufficiently drunk, no one seemed to mind. I personally don't like being party to someone else's bad karaoke night, however, so I think I'm with you from now on: No guests on stage. Period. No guest vocalists. No guest musicians. No lending out the gear. No. No. No. (I figure if I say it enough times, I may actually be able to live by own rules next time.)
Noah
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#1940635 - 05/11/08 10:19 AM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: NoahZark]
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SpaceNorman
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Registered: 12/07/06
Posts: 312
Loc: Michigan
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I'm not crazy about "special guests" ever. If we're playing in public - we've got a pretty firm "NO guests" rule (the exception being if it's somebody we know well who's participation adds to the show...which is definitely the case with some of our sax player's horn buddies).
We have found however that being flexible about this rule in private parties is sometimes a good thing for customer relations - EVEN when the special guest is of "eat shit and howl at the moon" caliber. If the guy who hired us wants to have his entertainment interrupted by drunk friends trying to play rock star ... I'm typically OK with it. As strange as it seems...the clients who are OK with drunk friends trying to karaoke with the band will remember his buddy's off key caterwalling better than anything we played on our own. ....and it IS his nickel...
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The SpaceNorman 
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#1940656 - 05/11/08 11:18 AM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Joe Muscara]
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wmp
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Registered: 12/02/04
Posts: 892
Loc: Boston, MA
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How much are they tipping/paying?
Good question.
This was a wedding gig, right? This isn't your concert, it's their party. Just one gig for you, but a once in a lifetime event fot them. More so than any other kind of gig, you want to let folks make fools of themselves and do whatever the hell they want. You should even have a dedicated mic for them to slobber on. You want them to have fun and you want to make them very happy. If this is a typical wedding gig, you're getting paid large, fed large, and compared to recording session or a concert in a theatre, you're not under much pressure to work very hard or perform all that well.
If you're playing a concert in a theatre, your policy of no random guests from the audience makes perfect sense. For wedding gigs, it's just plain stupid. They've been looking forward to this party for a long time. Realize why you're there and think about the money again. This is a bad time to be a pissy artist. One wedding gig can lead to a lot more. That won't happen if they think you're a ****, no matter how good you are.
You should always wire up the slobber mic on crummy little bar gigs too. What would you do if my biker buddy from the "don't touch my gear" thread wanted to sing Sweet Home Alabama with all his buddies? Don't think too hard. You could drink free for the rest of the night and score the Hogfest gig, or you could wind up ... well, let's just say that they don't appreciate the pissy artist types either.
The last wedding I played was a blast, no work, and I left with five bucks in my pocket for every person in the room. The last time I played a theatre it was a pain in the ass and a boatload of work. I left hungry and sober with about ten cents a head.
Don't be stupid. Unless you're hitting 'em out of the park in the big league, weddings are the very best gigs on earth.
_________________________
--wmp
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#1940674 - 05/11/08 12:03 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: wmp]
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Aidan
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Registered: 08/11/06
Posts: 310
Loc: Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
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I hear what you're saying, up to a point. If it had been mine host, or someone he had "sponsored" for it, I'd probably stretch a point. But most of the time these are drunk bit-parters, who as long as you're polite enough with the refusal, aren't generally going to turn ugly.
The other problem is that if you do it for one, you can open the floodgates, suffer this stuff all night long and that doesn't do much for your reputation either.
_________________________
Roland RD-700GX, Yamaha Motif XS7
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#1940707 - 05/11/08 01:07 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Aidan]
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Eric Iverson
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Registered: 08/03/05
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Loc: Jackson Heights, NY
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Well, if you KNOW the "special guest" and know that they are a good singer and/or player it's one thing.. a total stranger, especially one who has imbibed too freely, is something else!
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#1940715 - 05/11/08 01:24 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Eric Iverson]
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Moonglow
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Registered: 03/15/03
Posts: 947
Loc: Northwest Indiana
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I tend to agree with the usual train wreck outcomes of having vocalists (I'm using this term loosely) sit in. Once however, we were playing a club gig at this dive bar in Indiana and this highly overweight female singer requested to sit in for "Barracuda" by Heart. Difficult song to sing, but we let her.....and she absolutely smoked it! Even sang it better than our chick (of course, for which we gave her hell....). Definitely the exception to the rule.......
_________________________
"Music is the breath of God speaking to man's soul, so we musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear His voice, we read His lips..... That is why musicians are honorable." - Beethoven
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#1940717 - 05/11/08 01:28 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Moonglow]
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kanker.
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Registered: 08/05/05
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Once however, we were playing a club gig at this dive bar in Indiana and this highly overweight female singer requested to sit in for "Barracuda" by Heart. Difficult song to sing, but we let her.....and she absolutely smoked it! 
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I am an enemy of the Pats. A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable. web spacemyspace
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#1940721 - 05/11/08 02:12 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: Moonglow]
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NoahZark
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Registered: 11/06/05
Posts: 1514
Loc: Maryland, USA
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I tend to agree with the usual train wreck outcomes of having vocalists (I'm using this term loosely) sit in. Once however, we were playing a club gig at this dive bar in Indiana and this highly overweight female singer requested to sit in for "Barracuda" by Heart. Difficult song to sing, but we let her.....and she absolutely smoked it! Even sang it better than our chick (of course, for which we gave her hell....). Definitely the exception to the rule.......
Ironically, despite my preference for "no guest vocalists," this story is similar to how we ended up finding the female vocalist for the wedding band I played in in high school. We were playing a neighborhood gig, and this teenage girl asked if she could sing "Flashdance" with us. (Hey, it was the 80s. Give a guy a break.  ) Anyway, this girl simply wowed us, simply crushing our then-regular female vocalist.
Long story short: Old female vocalist out of the band. New female vocalist into the band. And that band, with that new female vocalist (but without me, because I left for college) goes on to become perhaps the most popular (and most expensive) wedding/mitzvah band in the D.C. Metropolitan area (and that girl still sings with that band to this day, more than 20 years later).
So, I guess it sometimes it pays to have an open mind about these things . . . .
Noah
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#1940724 - 05/11/08 02:38 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: NoahZark]
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mcgoo
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Registered: 11/03/07
Posts: 66
Loc: Indianapolis
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One of the most fun bands I was ever in was a live "kareoke" rock'n roll band. You get a 4 piece band of players that have played in a dozen or so bar bands over the years, & chances are you're gonna be able to pull off just about any AC/DC, Zeppelin, Stones or "whatever" request that comes along. It was actually a lot of fun, but then again, we were totally prepared to have a decent percentage of awful singers sit in. One night a guy got up & asked us if we could do "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson. I was embarrased to admit I was playing it in a band when it was current, as was our drummer. The singer totally nailed it. If I only have to play that song once every 20 or so years, it's actually a blast. 
Anyway, keep things in perspective. If it's an art, let it be what it is, don't worry about the money & cater to self expression. If it's a business, do what it takes to make it more profitable. If it's both.... well, let me know if you ever figure out how to make it work! 
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#1940751 - 05/11/08 04:10 PM
Re: You're not a singer (in a rock and roll band)
[Re: NoahZark]
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Calumet
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Registered: 09/26/02
Posts: 496
Loc: Omaha
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I used to be in an 8 piece R&B horn band. One night, while playing to a crowd of about 15 in a very large country bar (our singer also booked the band...not the best at finding appropriate venues), someone from the back of the bar yelled out, "Play Unchained Melody!!" Our bass player, already somewhat irritated at being there in the first place, responded, "You sing it, we'll play it!" The dude replied, "All right!" and started making his way to the stage.
I turned to our bass player and said, "Do you know this one?" He sheepishly said no. Fortunately, it was a bit of a distance between where the guy was sitting and the stage. I turned my volume down and figured out it by the time he got there.
We kicked into it...and the guy actually delivered a half-way decent performance! Far better than we expected anyway.
After we finished, we applauded him off the stage. As he was walking off, another guy yelled, "I wanna sing that one!!" Our bass player replied, "Come on up!!"
So, we played it again with the new singer...though this time, just to be impish, I told the guys to play it a fourth higher.
The poor guy never had a chance.
Mitch
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