OT: The Ice Storm, Open letter to the Band

[tarkus]

Nasty Ice storm in the northeast yesterday.

 

It took me 3.5 hours to get home when it normally takes 1 hr 20.

 

It was SRO on the Ferry. I rode "outside" for the duration of the boat ride - thank God for high tech winter jacket.

 

The tugboat that served as an Ice breaker almost got stuck. Ice sheets about as big and thich as a refrigerator door were floating and packing dangerously close to the ferry.

 

When I got to my car, it was entirely encased in a 1" thick shield of ice.

 

After punching at the door handle and the door seam, I was able to get in and start my car.

 

While I let the car warm up - I help a few other stranded commuters.

 

After 20 minutes or so, I returned to find the Ice shield on my car unrelenting.

 

I pounded at the windshield and chipped away in order to facilitate the plastic ice scraper. Useless.

 

The handle of the ice scraper - the only thing that didn't break, was used like a pick axe. I eventually busted through enough ice to have an unimpaired driving view.

 

Prior to this nonsense - my wife had called - my home had no power or heat, she was heading to my sister's.

 

On my way home - thank God for 4-wheel drive, I was able to dodge and swerve around fallen power lines and several fallen trees and limbs.

 

Roads were closed - not by the PD, but by natures wrath.

 

I eventually returned home - checked the furnace, water, and electric - as well as the alarm system.

 

I contacted my "band-mates" starting with the singer - a boyhood friend that no doubt experienced the brunt of this storm.

 

He agreed - cancel practice thursday night, we'll reschedule for next week. No reason taken a chance on an icy highway for a gig two weeks away.

 

Next - I contact my guitarist - he too agreed, foul weather no reason to risk.

 

I contact my wife - she in turn contacted the Power company - I will be without full power for 2 or three days, however they may trickle power in for limited intervals until the grid is repaired.

 

Finally - I contact the drummer - I retell my story and reflect that the others say the same: cancel practice - reschedule for next week.....

 

"Well hold on! We got a gig coming up, you can't just cancel practice with 1 days notice! This storm is over. I'M GONNA LOSE MY $25 DEPOSIT ON THE SPACE..."

 

... yes he was serious, he continues to tell me that the band sounds horrible (it does not - we are a bit rusty, but a little more home practice usually helps... something our beloved drummer does not do...) He went on and on about how I lack quality control and the folks (the drunk patrons) at the gig will no doubt walk out on the gig... basically my fault.

 

After I told him to go F himself, I gave him the ultimatum - if you continue this rant at me I'll either hire a new drummer or he can find a new bass player. Drummers are a dime a dozen, bass players... different story in our neck of the woods.

 

Fed up with his rantings I told him I had to go.

 

I'm simmering. The power has come back on, I slept at my sister's house which was so hot I could bake a clay pot in the room - needless to say, I couldn't sleep. Top it all off, I had to scramble to get to work today.

 

How I get home today is still in question.

 

Rant Over.

[Joe Muscara]

$25???

 

 

Drummers. Geez.

[ITGITC]

$25???

 

 

Drummers. Geez.

 

:grin:

 

I don't know what he's complaining about. $25? He can make that up in no time through his pizza delivery job.

[latchmo]

Hahaha - I was living in Brooklyn during the "Blizzard of '96" and was supposed to fill in for someone at a gig in midtown. I remember it snowing 2-3 days and this gig was in the middle of it all. Everything was closed down and it was actually illegal to be driving around NYC unless it was an emergency. At the time I had a Jeep Cherokee, and I'm from the Adirondacks - a couple of feet of snow is kid's stuff! But there was no way in hell I was going to be driving around NYC in those conditions with all my gear in the back. If I got stranded or blocked in, I wouldn't be able to just abandon the Jeep.

 

Assuming the gig was cancelled, I called the band leader who lived in NJ and he told me the gig was still on. I told him I wasn't going to be there. He read me the riot act! I told him he was out of his mind and hung up. About 20 minutes later, this guy's DAD calls me and reads me the riot act!!!! I told HIM he was out of his mind and hung up. To this day I still don't understand why his Dad called me, this guy was well into his 30's.

 

I heard later from the drummer that they played to an empty house (without keyboards) and got shafted on the money. hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

 

Thankfully, they never called me again for a gig.

[BluesKeys]

What is it with drummers... I can tell a tail of drummer blues myself. Come on $25... take it out of the gig money... or fire him may be the best solution. If a drummer thinks the music sucks he better look in the mirror. It's the drums and bass that lay the foundation and when the music sucks it starts there.

 

Tarkus, hope you get your heat back on and you have no frozen pipes and that sort of mess. We get ice storms like that every few years in the Carolina's and they can suck.

[tarkus]

I was/am furious. Here is parts of the conversation I left out - with what I was thinking, but refrained from saying in parenthesis:

 

I told him I would pick up the penalty - lets reschedule same place next week - no biggie.

 

"It's not the money."

 

(then why did you bring it up?)

 

"We need the practice, we sound terrible."

 

(No pal, you need the practice, and you need to put the 'peace-pipe' down as well - another peeve of mine)

 

"What happened to the quality control in this band?"

 

(don't get me started on quality - I have two other drummers that would step in your shoes in a heartbeat - but I'll let you rant)

 

"We need at least a four hour practice now - I don't know how we'll manage!"

 

(enough drama about "the band" - an extra hour vs three hours won't make any difference - take some drum lessons that'll help)

 

"We went from being on the ball to this! What do you think people will say when they hear us?"

 

My resonse: "They'll say: Wow! I've never heard a bar band play this stuff and play it well!"

 

"No they won't! They'll hear how bad we sound and leave..."

 

My response: "Basta Cosi! I've had it! I spoke with the others: they agree. You are pushing this too far so I'm hanging up, but I want you to think before you speak next time!"

 

... I've yet to hear from the others, it should be an interesting day - however, if this continues, I'm out.

 

 

 

[ITGITC]

Mr. Tarkus:

 

My theory is simple - February sucks. Everybody is on everybody else's last nerve - whether you're in NYC or FL.

 

Don't make any rash decisions. Chill out (sorry). Read a book. Practice your music. But don't make any phone calls.

 

It's a stressful time.

 

Let it go.

 

Everything will work out for the best.

 

And don't start throwing things at me. I'm just calling it as I see it.

 

 

 

 

 

[tarkus]

No harm gas! It's all part of the rant (as perfected by Marino).

 

 

[lachesis]

Wow, that's some really sucky weather. I thought I had it bad when I lost power for a week and a day in the hottest part of last summer (also, no power=no play keyboard), but you've got me beat.

 

[retrokeys]

Hey at least you have a drummer that (1) will put up some cash, however modest, to assure a practice space and (2) even cares about what you sound like on the gig. I have to deal with one who shows up when he pleases (his job is all consuming doncha know), sometimes doesn't even set up because he is "tired or bored" when he does show and expects to have a say in what the band learns and, of course wants a full gig paycheck. I'll trade you.

[b3keys]

You could hire a drum machine!

[kanker.]

You could hire a drum machine!

Yeah, that Roland guy's one hell of a drummer.

 

Stories like this illustrate to me why I don't do bands and prefer to only work with full time pro's. I don't have time for that kind of BS.

[stepay]

Band votes. Cancel practice. I'd want any reason to get rid of him for smoking pot anyway. Pot and music don't have to go together. Is he smoking pot at practice and gigs? I wouldn't have any of that at all.

[stepay]

You could hire a drum machine!

Yeah, that Roland guy's one hell of a drummer.

 

Stories like this illustrate to me why I don't do bands and prefer to only work with full time pro's. I don't have time for that kind of BS.

 

Wish I were good enough to ONLY work with full-time pros!

[mate stubb]

Saga of the last band I tried to put together -

 

I met the drummer first. He is likeable and had very similar musical tastes to mine, so I went and rehearsed with them. Sounded good. Good guitarist, good female lead vocalist (drummer's girlfriend), decent bassist with a bit of rust. The drummer plays well but is kind of light.

 

We continued to rehearse in a rental storage unit (summertime), and slowly built our set list up to about 20 songs. At this point, the bass player and I are ready to hit the stage. Yeah we don't have 4 sets worth of material, but we could play shorter gigs, get an opening band, whatever. Drummer refuses.

 

Months go by. At this point it is winter and we are rehearsing in my basement. I start to notice a pattern - the drummer is anal about details. He will stop a song and correct the singer if she doesn't come in at the exact same time as on the original recording. He has decided the bass player's time is shite and is bummed about that. To me, even though the bass player is younger than the rest of us, he is on the ball in terms of wanting to go out and book gigs and get playing.

 

The guitar player just enjoys screwing around in the basement, and doesn't seem to care if we ever get out. He has another band that plays out live occasionally and that seems to be enough.

 

We have some conflicts about material too, with the tunes that the bass player brings in being generally vetoed by the drummer, who thinks he is the leader even though the band power structure was never spelled out at the beginning. I just want to get the @#$% out of the basement and on stage. Meanwhile the singer is the only one with a good voice, and we need to spell her with some tasty instrumentals. But the guitar player doesn't want to step up and do instrumentals, even though he is a tasty player and perfectly capable.

 

Finally we crept up on 30 songs. By this point, I hated everything on the setlist because we have rehearsed the life out of it. The bass player and I forced the issue and demanded that we gig. At this point we discover that the drummer doesn't want to play in smokey bars. WTF????? Just where did he think we were going to play in a college town anyway??? There are only one or two places for a rock band to play in town in the first place.

 

Long argument short, we booked and played the gig on a weekday night with the guitar player's other band opening for us. (Remember, we still don't have enough material to do an entire gig, and the drummer was horrified at the idea of actually repeating material).

 

And don't even get me started on the arguments about the band name.

 

As predicted, the singer's voice barely makes it thru 2 sets, but we smoke the audience and I'm finally gratified. During the night however, the bass player finally gets sick of the drummer's digs at him, and announces he is quitting. Marvelous.

 

We try to audition other bass players, but the only one who actually showed up came an hour late because he forgot. We gave him the gig anyway, but at the next rehearsal he showed up an hour late again, with a busted bass. So I spent 30 minutes with his guitar on my bench rewiring it so he could make noise.

 

By this point, we are 8 months into this project. We know less than 30 songs (subtracting the few that the bass player sang), and we have a doofus bass player who can't show up, a drummer who hates to play in the only venues available, a guitar player who apparently just likes to rehearse, a singer who bless her heart is a saint to put up with the drummer, and me, a fuming keyboard player who never in his life rehearsed a band longer than 2 weeks before hitting the road.

 

I quit.

[tarkus]

Hey at least you have a drummer that (1) will put up some cash, however modest, to assure a practice space and (2) even cares about what you sound like on the gig. I have to deal with one who shows up when he pleases (his job is all consuming doncha know), sometimes doesn't even set up because he is "tired or bored" when he does show and expects to have a say in what the band learns and, of course wants a full gig paycheck. I'll trade you.

 

Rather than call the "other guys", my herbally inspired drummer decided to lay into me. Not cool.

 

BTW - we sound great - thats what HE told me after the last session, and the recording (we record all our practices) sounded good to me as well...

 

Suddenly - in his mind, we went from "great" to "terrible" in a matter of days with no practice in-between. Paranoid and manipulative.

 

He pulled this crap before on our singer (actually said stuff behind his back to me and guitar guy) and tried to get another singer while my pal was "on the fence".

 

He can get a bit nervy - and strange when it comes to his priorities. Espescially gigs. I won't go down that road, it sticks in my craw from years back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tarkus]

mate stubb, been there, seen it, done it.

 

another reason why I took up bass in college. No one was good enough, but I at least dedicated the time and lessons to play well.

 

I recently dumped out of another "fun band" based on your similar experience.

 

As far as songs I want to play, whether they feature keyboards or not, they usually take a back seat to the drummer who plays nothing but Zepp - the guitarist is a phenom.

 

We play YYZ or Hocus Pocus for a warm-up, drummer can't play it and gets upset. We wind up not doing any stuff beyond Led Zep.

 

It took me 4 or 5 years of suggesting Ezy Rider by Hendrix before the drummer even bothered to listen to the CD I lent him.

 

Now he loves the song. (Gee, if you'd listened to it 4 years ago ya think you'd a loved it then? ) Same thing with Imaginary Western - except -

We were doing a gig, drummer takes a P-break, Singer is shot between set two and three. I look at the guitarist and say follow me in this key...

 

I establish a drum pattern and tempo out of the Triton stock, cue the sound guy to be ready.

 

Me and the guitar player do "theme Imaginary Western" not perfect, but well enough to get the crowd fired up and hooting. Lots of applause and kudos from the singer and the sound man - I sang it.

 

The drummer comes running back - almost tripping over the stage waving his arms "cut! Cut! WTF!?!"

 

"I thought I'd give singer a break."

 

"That was terrible! Don't do that again - we never practiced that and I wasn't ready..."

 

"No shite - butt head."

 

This goes on in practice too.

 

I have a Triton Extreme - I program a sequence of what I want to play - enter the studio and voila!

 

Two weeks ago I sequenced 4 songs - 3 we play and 1 I want to play.

 

Naturally, he says: "the drum parts are wrong..."

 

I show the band an "adaptation" of Waiting for the Sun - the doors -

 

"That's not how the song goes - the beat is all wrong... we ain't playing this like that..."

 

The singer says: "do that again" nails the vocals!

 

The guitar player - never played doors stuff is pumped.

 

Drummer vetoes - why? "Let's not add anymore songs to our list, we're not ready with the stuff we know."

 

Speaking of canned percussion, we do Funk #49 - I decided to add percussion to the middle part via Triton.

 

"That sounds terrible - let the singer beat the tambourine and you play bass when its your turn - I'll handle the drums..."

 

We listen to the recording of our version: "kinda neat, can you pull up timbales?" asks the singer.

 

The bulk of our material, I play bass. we paired our keyboard songs to 4 from 6.

 

The drummer sometimes chooses to do the keyboard songs last in practice - which means: "Times up! we'll do it next week"

 

I get to lug all this stuff back home for my health.

 

Thanks for letting me vent!

 

 

[kanker.]

Fire him. Now.

[ProfD]

Sounds like an addendum to gigs from hell.

 

These are the pains of dealing with a group/band. The funny thing is, bands tear it up onstage in front of audiences totally oblivious to their inner turmoil.

 

Like kanker, I find it far more convenient to deal with like-minded cats with the same objective, have fun musically and get paid.

 

Right now, it is taking everything in my power to keep a lid on telling my drummer there are very few folks 30 and up who want to buy t-shirts, posters, stickers and follow a band across the country.

 

The most that particular crowd can do is party when circumstances allow them to get out.

 

At this point, it is about having a unit that sounds great and can book well paying gigs on a regular basis.

 

tarkus, take some time to let the dust settle. Hopefully your drummer will not smoke it.

 

 

[Blue JC]

Fire him. Now.

 

+1

[Finale]

Here we had two feet of snow (probably the same huge storm, but with colder winds). I've just shoveled for three and a half hours so I can get out of the house without snowshoes. :grin:

[The Real MC]

You soooooo need to replace this drummer. He is holding you back.

 

I fought 20 inches of snow and nasty wind chills. Cleared my driveway twice yesterday, and again this morning because the wind sent snow drifts on my driveway. My hands and fingers are sore and I cancelled practice.

[ProfD]

You soooooo need to replace this drummer. He is holding you back.

 

I fought 20 inches of snow and nasty wind chills. Cleared my driveway twice yesterday, and again this morning because the wind sent snow drifts on my driveway. My hands and fingers are sore and I cancelled practice.

\

 

Real, if your drummer's phone # shows on the caller ID, be prepared for a lecture.

[ITGITC]

Now I TOLD ya that it's February and everybody's crabby.

 

I TOLD ya.

 

Just wanted to remind everybody.

 

I TOLD ya.

 

:grin:

 

 

 

 

[Joe Muscara]

Another vote to punt the drummer. I seriously don't know why you've put up with his antics for so long.

 

I'm lucky, my band plays for fun. Maybe at some point we'll do some gigs (sorry, Kanker ) but we made an effort to find people whose approach to playing was the same. We had a drummer who is a good guy, but his approach was completely different, and we mutually decided to part ways. Among other things, we were afraid he'd do what you described and stop us in the middle of a gig because we weren't doing something just right. He did it all the time during the jams. He was very stuck on doing covers just like the original, and the rest of us don't care about that, we care about the feel.

[Edgar Summers]

You soooooo need to replace this drummer. He is holding you back.

 

I fought 20 inches of snow and nasty wind chills. Cleared my driveway twice yesterday, and again this morning because the wind sent snow drifts on my driveway. My hands and fingers are sore and I cancelled practice.

 

It's 72 degrees here today. You guys make me glad I live here.

 

Of course it sucks in July when it's 120.

 

I sequence my drums on my Fantom...better personality!

[Bridog6996]

It sounds like this is the latest in a laundry list of complaints about this guy. It seems like he's way more trouble than he's worth. +1 for finding another drummer.

[WWW]

I agree with Eric--

February sucks in the N.E..

Let it pass.

 

[Dave Horne]

If the $25 were a real issue, I would just deduct that from the next job.

 

... back to the weather ...

 

My wife buys a spray solution for those times when we have a coat of ice on the windshield. We haven't used it many times this winter (it's actually warm out) but it really speeds things along. We don't have a garage and our car is always outside.

 

 

[Griffinator]

If no one minds, I'll offer my reference frame for empathy's sake (short version: been there, done that...)

 

Feb '06, I decide to take a stab at something I've been wanting to do for some time - start up a prog metal band. Went through an enormous amount of lineup change over the next few months, spinning our wheels, but finally, in January this year, we're ready for our first gig....

 

Show up at the gig. First problem: person other guitarist had lined up to do door (can't trust the bar people around here) flaked out. We had discussed singer's g/f as a backup several times at practice. Singer seems to have no recollection of these conversations. He proceeds to throw a tantrum right there in the bar about the idea of her doing door. Other guitarist, meanwhile, is making calls, and manages to get a replacement, but she's an hour away, which means we needed someone to cover door for like 40 minutes once the show started. This isn't good enough for him. He's raising hell about it. My g/f (bassist) talks to a bouncer who is a friend of hers, and he says he'll be glad to cover for us the whole night if she wants. Singer doesn't want him to do it, but he's continuing to bitch about his g/f having to do it. My g/f finally looks at him and says "look, I've got someone who's willing, if you don't want to take that option, then you need to STFU about it." - first time since she joined this band that she ever stepped up. He shuts up, his g/f later says, when the relief comes in, "I actually like taking money"

 

Show's over, we had a great performance, except the singer was sharp all night long, and I had feedback problems with one of my axes. We had a second band with us, and during their set I got up and sang harmonies with them on a couple tracks that needed them, which was well received by them and the (50 or so) people that showed up. Everyone had a rollicking good time except the singer, who told me I was embarassing the band by getting up on stage drunk and interfering with the other band's set.

 

Two nights later...

 

Our second show, this time with two other bands. Singer got the bright idea to buy these PA speakers he found on E-Bay for $20 apiece (plus $50 each shipping) - talks about how great the specs are, 1KW power handling, 99dB SPL, blah-blah, I tell him he's an idiot for buying $20 PA speakers. He doesn't like that much. He insists on us using them for this show, when I was more than happy to rent a pair of good ones. Fortunately, one of the other bands brought their own monitors, at least, because...

 

First band gets on - somehow or another I got nominated to run the board all night (except when we were playing, at which time NO ONE ran the board) - Right off the bat, no one can hear the vocals in the crowd. Monitors are pumping away merrily one one amp, other amp is working its arse off, mixer is peaking out, but those lovely bargain main speakers are barely making any noise at all. Everyone starts looking to me to do something about it. I start turning up. Here we go clip-de-clip. Still can't hear the vox. Vocals are now seriously overdriving the preamps on the mixer. People still yelling at me to turn up. I'm getting concerned about blowing a channel. Thankfully for me, and unfortunately for the gig, the cheap mains took care of the problem for me. Voice coils start smoking. One of them is very nearly on fire. Singer freaks out. I (probably not the best choice I ever made) tell him "I told you not to buy this cheap shit". We finish the show using one of the two monitors as the only FOH speaker (thank God it was a very small club) and a good time was had by all.

 

Until...

 

Following night, I get a rip-roaring ranting-and-raving e-mail from the singer informing me that I don't know anything about audio, and it was my fault these speakers blew because I put a smaller amp on them than I did the monitors, and if I had used the smaller amp on "the cheap-ass ($800 apiece Yamaha) monitors they brought" then his speakers wouldn't have blown. He declares that he will not tolerate an alcoholic getting drunk at shows and making an ass of himself and the rest of the band (mind you, at both shows, I didn't start drinking until we were done playing) He also mentioned, as an aside, that he went to the speaker company's website (after he bought them?!) and found out they recommended a minimum 500wpc amplifier to avoid damaging the speakers - which I didn't have anyway.

 

So..... I shot back (another poor decision, I'm sure)

 

I told him that if he had bothered collecting that info before he bought the speakers that I would have told him they were garbage, because I've never, ever heard of a pair of pro-grade speakers that needed that much power in order to run properly. I told him that he was not my mother, and I did not behave in an inapropriate manner, nor was my performance in any way compromised by me enjoying a few brews after our set was over. I told him he was a whiny bitch at both shows, and that he needed to get over himself.

 

He threatened to quit, then went off on the rest of the band complaining about how he was doing all the work and no one was appreciating his efforts.

 

We fired him.

 

Two months later, we're still dealing with the fallout. He went on a stalking campaign, signing my girlfriend (whom he perceived, I suppose, to be the biggest threat) up for everything from Payday loans to Readers Digest subscriptions to free samples of Pampers online.

 

We finally filed reports with the local PD. Hoping that shuts him up.

 

Never, ever, in my life have I seen such stupidity out of someone who purports to be a professional musician....

 

(edit)

 

Neglected to mention, drummer ended up quitting over the whole drama that unfolded.