All My Bands Died Near Simultaneously

[Iconoclast]

I'm not a full timer, I have a great day job that allows me (usually) the flexibility to play in multiple bands, doing usually 2-4 gigs a Month, so over the last few  years I've really been band-whoring it. As I'm also a very credible guitar player and good background singer I usually have no problem finding gigs.  I had 4 gigs last month and then...

Band 1: Bass players dad has been very unhealthy and passed away. BL singers wonderful girlfriend is suddenly fighting breast cancer, drummer is building a house and is way involved, over scheduled, can't find subs etc. Currently nothing booked and no real desire to push forward until everyone is back on their feet.

Band 2: Neil Diamond Tribute that has been extremely successful over the years but typically only plays in Snowbird season. BL Neil Diamond impersonator has recently re-married and seems to have completely lost interest. Did the last gig of the season last month, and he has nothing on the books for next season yet...even though he's usually excellent at booking well in advance. I'm sensing that he's just done.

Band 3: Young original music artist has decided that he needs to just do solo shows (more money in his pocket...although I really never cared if he even paid me) and work in the studio.  Did a lot of gigs with him in the last year but he hasn't called us (the backup band) in a couple months. Quite honestly, all his backup players were old guys like me. He needs to find younger dudes but there's just none available with the skill and schedule.

Band 4: A comedy of serious injuries and sickness and lineup changes...re changes.  West Nile Virus, Cancer, emergency appendectomy, hernia surgery. We've been practicing the same setlist for 9 months with no gigs because they want to wait until they get everything down before they gig. Nothing booked. Great dudes and solid musicians, but I really don't think they'll ever over this hump and actually transition to a consistently booking act.

Band 5: A Clapton tribute that replaced me because quite honestly, only a few months ago I was too busy for them to rely on. My fault, no hard feelings, but they got their old keyboard player to come back and it's been working out for them.

I have ZERO gigs booked. It's the weirdest feeling. I really don't know what to do with myself. It happened SO suddenly.

[Docbop]

Why you always have to be on the hussle never know if and when things will change.   

[KuruPrionz]

Bands change, come and go, just like people... hmmm...

Currently worrking on my own solo act. I plan to have guest performers and am open to putting a small combo together with potentially rotating chairs. 

I'm also available for on the spot sitting in, played 2 gigs like that last week. No practice, just play the gig. I turn down gigs if I don't think I can just play them. 

 

I've got a humble but effective home recording studio and quite a backlog of my own songs that need recording. It doesn't follow that those will all be useful for gigging, there is quite a variety of styles and subject matter. I don't care, I wrote them and I want to record them. Mostly an Army of One for that endeavor. 

 

One can try to nail talcum powder to the wall or push jelly up a hill with a rope. Mostly, one will fail until reality rears it's ugly head. 

We get to play music when we play music, sometimes we get to play with other musicians, I love that. Sometimes we have to play music just as we are, I love that too. 

In fact, I did that last night. No $$$ but I ate freshly wild caught scallops, shrimp and ling cod - one of the joys of living on the northern coast of Washington. 

[Delaware Dave]

Sh%t happens....

[Stokely]

I've been lucky, same band now for 10 years and we have gigs most weekends (sometimes 2 or even 3).  Is it perfect?  No band is.    Weekend warrior bands like ours are tough because you want professional players and attitudes but everyone has day jobs and that is hard to reconcile.   I feel very fortunate that I get a lot of what I'm looking for in a stable situation.   But things can change quickly as we've had to scramble with members a few times.

One thing that caught my eye, because I went through this with no less than five bands before I found this one:  If you are practicing for a month or two with no gigs on the books, chances are you'll never play out.  Every single one of those was trying to get everything perfect before booking gigs and every one lost steam and fell apart.  Booking gigs is hard and thankless and someone in the band has to be dedicated to it.   The other thing I realized with the current band that didn't happen with the previous five:   if everyone actually puts in time at home, you can build a set list very quickly.  Amazing how that works!

[Iconoclast]

4 minutes ago, Stokely said:

One thing that caught my eye, because I went through this with no less than five bands before I found this one:  If you are practicing for a month or two with no gigs on the books, chances are you'll never play out. 

Couldn't agree more, and this band is the perfect example.  I really like the dudes and they are all qualified musicians and veterans of the local scene, so you'd think they'd get that too. I've only stuck around with them because they're fun to be around and super cool. But you're right, it's becoming more of a practice club than an actual band.

[KuruPrionz]

34 minutes ago, Iconoclast said:

Couldn't agree more, and this band is the perfect example.  I really like the dudes and they are all qualified musicians and veterans of the local scene, so you'd think they'd get that too. I've only stuck around with them because they're fun to be around and super cool. But you're right, it's becoming more of a practice club than an actual band.

The Three P's = Paid Pracitce Program.

Get gigs, play music, get better. 

 

It was probably a LOT of work but the keyboardist in the Motown Band I was in gave me a binder with a set of charts in the order that the band played them. 

10 days after the audition, I was playing a gig with them and that was "practice". I scoped out each song for signature licks, the keyboards already had some of those covered. 

We gigged for around 2 more years before I resigned and I think we only practiced 2 or 3 times in that period. 

 

I was in a Top 40 Country band for 9 months that had a steady gig every Friday and Saturday at the same club. I left my amp on stage for 9 months, nice. 

They had a band practice every Tuesday and all band members were supposed to learn two songs that were assigned at the previous week's practice, one for the male singer and one for the female singer. We'd run through the songs a couple of times, get our assignments and go home. Brief and constructive. If you are gonna do it, that's a good way to go about it. 

 

On the other hand, I've spent 16 years in 2 different bands and after a couple of practices we just started playing out. Neither BL/Lead Singer/Strummer ever had a set list anwyay, they both knew hundreds of songs and just did what they thought that audience would respond to, pretty much "do or die" but you get good at it quickly and realize that you don't really need to know how THE song goes if you know how SONGS go. If people dance (and they did), you are winning. From the club's perspective, you are there to sell beer. 

[funkyhammond]

22 hours ago, Iconoclast said:

Band 4: A comedy of serious injuries and sickness and lineup changes...re changes.  West Nile Virus, Cancer, emergency appendectomy, hernia surgery. We've been practicing the same setlist for 9 months with no gigs because they want to wait until they get everything down before they gig. Nothing booked. Great dudes and solid musicians, but I really don't think they'll ever over this hump and actually transition to a consistently booking act.
 

 

I also have a separate career and play music and gig on the side. I've come across this. As @Stokely mentioned above, maybe it's just about hustling for gigs. Sometimes people simply are avoiding doing that when it's a "for fun" project. If you like the music and like the guys, maybe you can take the lead on that now that you have more time on your hands. Just a thought. I hate looking for gigs, so I'm one to talk. Anyway, in my experience, if someone is getting the gigs, the rest of the band is usually happy to play them.

 

[ProfD]

Few musicians want to deal with hassle of booking gigs. That's why managers exist.

 

Put a great band together. Hire someone else to hustle for gigs. Be willing to pay a fee for their services. 😎

[synthizen2]

On 5/30/2022 at 5:39 PM, ProfD said:

Few musicians want to deal with hassle of booking gigs. That's why managers exist.

 

Put a great band together. Hire someone else to hustle for gigs. Be willing to pay a fee for their services. 😎

 

One of the bands I'm in is trying out Gigsalad (an online gig-finding service with a fee) to land some gigs... Funny thing is, we still get all our gigs the old fashioned way. Even though Gigsalad did pull through for us a few times, we had to turn them down due to scheduling conflicts etc.

 

OP: I feel bad for ya, losing 5 bands in less than a week. Bummer.

 

I have done the "be the go-to keyboard player for my entire locality" type of thing in the past... and I found it doesn't work out well for me. True... finding the ideal band(s) where you get along well and everything works out nicely is rare. But spreading yourself too thin can be dicey as well. Best to find 1 or 2 really good bands that are stable and you enjoy being in... instead of 4 or 5 different bands that you are "OK" with, but aren't really passionate about.

 

I remember seeing local bands in my younger years, where something like 5 different bands I'd seen in the last week ALL HAD THE SAME BASS PLAYER. "Oh no, not that guy again", I thought to myself. I really don't want to be that person.

[HammondDave]

Bands are like lovers... more than one gets very complicated... 5?...  Well....

 

Seriously, I have no patience for bands that rehearse and rehearse and rarely play out. When someone calls me to see if I am interested in joining their band, my first question is: "What gigs do you have on the books?"  I do not waste my time with garage bands that play just for themselves.  I need to play for people... And I really don't care how much they pay me, I will play for the pleasure of playing. This philosophy has kept me pretty busy in the Southern California area for the last 23 years.

[Morrissey]

1 hour ago, HammondDave said:

Bands are like lovers... more than one gets very complicated... 5?...  Well....

 

I often explain to my non-musician friends that being in just ONE band has the potential for drama equivalent to dating everyone in the band simultaneously.  Multiply that by a couple bands... well, gotta make sure you've got a lot of low maintenance "dates"

 

1 hour ago, HammondDave said:

Seriously, I have no patience for bands that rehearse and rehearse and rarely play out. When someone calls me to see if I am interested in joining their band, my first question is: "What gigs do you have on the books?"   I need to play for people... And I really don't care how much they pay me, I will play for the pleasure of playing.

 

This resonates with me so much.      

[NewImprov]

I’ve played with a Bob Marley tribute band for the last 10 years, usually a 10-12 piece band with horn section and backing vocal trio, etc. it’s been a fun and pretty successful band, pre-pandemic we’d play 4-5 times a year and always brought out a great crowd. Band members are all good people and players, always had parts together for rehearsals, very little drama, etc. 

 

we played 1 show last year, a summer outdoor concert series at a local winery, and it was really fun, and we got paid well, good money and a case of wine each. This year, the same series contacted us about doing it again, and no one seems to be interested, there’s just a load of apathy about doing it. The band leaders, the lead singer and lead guitarist seem to have lost all interest in the band. It seems like the band has just fizzled out, which I’m finding kinda frustrating. 

[HammondDave]

11 minutes ago, NewImprov said:

This year, the same series contacted us about doing it again, and no one seems to be interested, there’s just a load of apathy about doing it. The band leaders, the lead singer and lead guitarist seem to have lost all interest in the band. It seems like the band has just fizzled out, which I’m finding kinda frustrating. 

 

Like I said...  "Bands are like lovers..."  

[KuruPrionz]

45 minutes ago, NewImprov said:

I’ve played with a Bob Marley tribute band for the last 10 years, usually a 10-12 piece band with horn section and backing vocal trio, etc. it’s been a fun and pretty successful band, pre-pandemic we’d play 4-5 times a year and always brought out a great crowd. Band members are all good people and players, always had parts together for rehearsals, very little drama, etc. 

 

we played 1 show last year, a summer outdoor concert series at a local winery, and it was really fun, and we got paid well, good money and a case of wine each. This year, the same series contacted us about doing it again, and no one seems to be interested, there’s just a load of apathy about doing it. The band leaders, the lead singer and lead guitarist seem to have lost all interest in the band. It seems like the band has just fizzled out, which I’m finding kinda frustrating. 

We all have our shifts in perspective. I've gone on haitus recently to re-invent my musical self. 

I'm eternally tired of playing loud, don't want to do that anymore. 

I'm weary of other aspects, no need to go into it here. Let's just say that I'm finding 4 or more pieces less compelling for a variety of reasons and need to try something new. 

A recently purchased 8 string baritone guitar is calling to me. Maybe a percussionist and a vocalist, I have some options there. 3 pieces, reasonable volume and a new sound. Maybe, we'll see...

 

It could well be that your former band members are feeling like a change of some sort as well. Maybe your Bob Marley tribute has run it's course, sounds like you had a great go at it. 

On to the next!!!! 😇