Tribute Show Hijinx (or, when the all-guitar ensemble hires a keyboard player)

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I thought the forum would enjoy this adventure. This is the story of how sometimes you think you'll be the least prepared person in the room, and then you realize you're used to working at a certain level that not everyone else is used to.

 

My wife and I were asked to take part in a Tom Petty tribute show later this month. It's a collection of musicians we are familiar with, but haven't really worked with before; they did a version of this show with a slightly different lineup (no keyboards, some other different players) over the summer, and were asked by a club in Rochester to reprise the show for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, guaranteeing a sold-out house and a good payday for everyone. I always love to connect with and work with new musicians, and Benmont Tench is one of my top influences, so I jumped at the chance to learn two hours of Petty tunes.

 

Given the number of busy people involved and the proximity to the holidays, there were only two rehearsals on the schedule, one of which was last night. I knew from the time that we were hired that, given the 20-plus-song set list (along with the call for "hey, do any of the folks who didn't do this show last time want to request some new tunes to do?"), the first rehearsal would be a "finding my way through" situation. I know a lot of these songs by heart (though there were a good chunk that were new to me), and Tom Petty's music doesn't tend to have a lot of complicated changes, but I just didn't have the time to learn the specific parts for every tune on the list. I just made sure I had chord charts for all the tunes, and told myself that while I'd be a little underprepared, I'd make my way through with the ensemble and then iron out the details over the following week.

 

Well, not only were a lot of the other people involved in my boat, but my wife and I wound up feeling MUCH more prepared than most of the other people. There was a lot of "oh yeah we do this in a different key” and “oh wait where does that section go?” and a few instances of “oh yeah we might not have told you we added this song." I wasn't phased by it, just amused -- everyone was absolutely delightful, but the people I've worked with doing tribute shows in the past are usually operating at a certain level of organization and expectation, and this was just ... different!

 

My wife came to the early part of rehearsal to run her two tunes, both of which were in the original keys without any arrangement changes from the record, and she found herself teaching people how to count through the form correctly, just because there are little bars of 2 or uneven numbers of measures between verses. Things you might not notice if you didn’t study the recording, because Tom Petty was a master of invisible songcraft.

 

So I was also recognized as "a counting guy" pretty early on into the rehearsal: “how would YOU count that section? You’re a Counting Guy!” (Shouldn't we all be Counting Guys, though...?) But honestly, it was a little bit of an ego boost to go from The New Guy to The Guy Who Makes Things Happen within the first hour. When they called "You Got Lucky," which was NOT on the set list I was sent, the singer also said “hmmm maybe this is a little high for me.” So I tried not to look too self-satisfied while the whole room reacted to me, in the span of about thirty seconds, 1) figuring out a really solid approximation of the signature keyboard lick to a song I didn’t know we would be playing and 2) transposing it on the fly.

 

The drummer is someone I've known for years but never actually played with, and he and I were grinning ear to ear at each other when we'd each catch the "oh yes that's THAT thing from the record" parts. "You and I HAVE to be next to each other onstage," he said to me after a few tunes. The bass player is also a monster who I'm psyched to play with, but he was coming directly from a trip out of state with an "I have not been able to do my homework yet but I will" disclaimer (him winging it was pretty damn good, it's just that these songs have such specific parts a lot of the time). 

 

So yeah, a situation I'm sure many of us have found ourselves in -- not having quite the same standards for running things musically as guitar players. 😉 

 

But the show is definitely going to be a lot of fun, even if it's rough around the edges. People love Tom Petty, and hey, it's not MY rodeo. I will bring what I have to offer to it, and then it will be what it will be (as will the paycheck). I also get to sing a few deep cuts, and I may have to break out the accordion for the slow, folky arrangement of "Yer So Bad" (again, in a new key)... so I will absolutely be making the most of it.

 

Now it's just a question of if the keyboard rig I *want* to use for this show will fit on the club's stage...

[timwat]

Great story, and thanks for sharing it with us. Preparation is professionalism - it's good to hear you handle the unexpected in stride. 

 

Interesting to me that folks calling a tribute show wouldn't have done the real homework, but hey, the difference between those who get it done and those who talk about someday getting it done.

[b3plyr]

Very relevant to all of us. And I agree with timwat - great story and I will add well written.

 

Thanks for your insight!

[wineandkeyz]

11 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

There was a lot of "oh yeah we do this in a different key” and “oh wait where does that section go?” and a few instances of “oh yeah we might not have told you we added this song."

 

Sounds like a fun gig! Please report back after the next rehearsal and show.

 

Your experience reminds me of mine about 6-7 years ago when I was asked to sub for an Eric Clapton tribute on a number of gigs. I had 2-3 weeks to prepare, but we weren't going to be able to do a full-band rehearsal. So the two guitar players said they could get together with me the week of the first show. They gave me their complete song list and I set about learning their show. When we got together to practice, they interrupted nearly every song with, "Oh, we don't do that version. We do the [obscure] live version from [insert one of Clapton's many live albums or some Youtube video here]." I thought, "Gee, that would have been really helpful to know -- a few weeks ago!"

[KuruPrionz]

It's never simple. Most recordings have lots of overdubs, just for one. Strings, horns, choirs, 3 guitars, 2 organs and 2 pianos, claves, tamborine, xylophone etc.

 

I was the guitarist in a Motown cover band - bass, drums, keyboards/vocals and me, guitar and backup vocals. We had 2 male frontmen/lead singers, total of 6 pieces.

The singers did not want to cover any of the classic Motown that has female lead vocalists (The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, etc.). There went half the repertoire.

Keyboardist had 2 boards and could do a decent job of covering strings and horns. We were thin on the ground for choirs and choruses. 

 

We didn't call ourselves a tribute band.

What I learned is that nearly 100% of the audience (we played local casinos for 2 years) want a beat they can dance to and a chorus they can sing along with, then they are happy on the dance floor. There are signature licks that cannot be ignored - the lead-in to My Girl by the Temptations has an iconic guitar lick and a bass lick that needs to be there or you'll miss it. I Want You Back by the Jackson Five requires an octave on guitar up high playing "dit dah dit, dit dit dah dit" or it falls flat. 

 

A Motown Tribute band would require 20-30 musicians and lots of rehearsal. Not practical unless you have a high paying world tour booked. We didn't. We did OK, it was fun and those are classic tunes. Just my 2 cents and worth what you paid for it. 😇

[Josh Paxton]

Well handled. I used to do more of those kinds of shows than I do now, largely because I got tired of being the most prepared person in the room. The only ones I say yes to these days are those where I know everyone involved, and I know they're all going to pull their weight. 

[stoken6]

4 hours ago, Josh Paxton said:

I got tired of being the most prepared person in the room

So true.

 

I did a pickup gig with a 9-piece, and I was guy checking in with the guitar player ("what part are you picking up vs what I should play"), the trumpet player ("you know that line in the chorus is you?"), the drummer ("are you counting me in for song xyz?") and so on. Most of the other musos simply had the charts downloaded from the agency website and were planning on winging it on the night. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Leroy C]

On 11/14/2023 at 9:27 AM, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I was also recognized as "a counting guy" pretty early on into the rehearsal: “how would YOU count that section? You’re a Counting Guy!” (Shouldn't we all be Counting Guys, though...?)

Yeah, man.  I mean, usually I just count to three of four, but sometimes if I'm feeling crazy, I count to five or six.  And don't even ask me about the one time I had to count to seven ...

[Stokely]

That kind of thing would probably drive me nuts.

I'm far from a top-notch musician, I can't read music but I do like to be prepared on songs.  I'm that annoying (or so I guess) band member that puts "charts" (just lyrics with chords and some notes on how long breaks are etc) up in google docs, shares to the band, and later finds out nobody even tried to access them.

The "counting guy", really....

Also the phrase "guitar ensemble" makes parts of me start twitching and not in a good way.  I've played with a max of two at a time, several times, and that was at least one too many.   Sure, it *could* work (just watch the Eagles live in '77) but that takes restraint and cooperation....

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 hour ago, Leroy C said:

Yeah, man.  I mean, usually I just count to three of four, but sometimes if I'm feeling crazy, I count to five or six.  And don't even ask me about the one time I had to count to seven ...

I've been playing a lot with a drummer who can navigate mixed meter more fluidly than maybe any musician I've ever met. If you get him talking about it, he just says "listen, the trick is just that everything breaks down to 2s and 3s." Simple! I'll keep writing in alternating 4/4 and 5/8, I guess. 🤣

 

28 minutes ago, Stokely said:

Also the phrase "guitar ensemble" makes parts of me start twitching and not in a good way.  I've played with a max of two at a time, several times, and that was at least one too many.   Sure, it *could* work (just watch the Eagles live in '77) but that takes restraint and cooperation....

Since we're doing Heartbreakers and Traveling Wilburys tunes, I didn't bat an eye thinking about there being three, maybe four guitars at a time onstage. The keyboards are generally the sauce on these tunes, whereas the interlocking guitar parts are the main dish. But the trick there is that the parts are very meticulously worked out so that every layer has a purpose, and these guys were still in the "what are the chords to that part" stage -- there were honestly moments where I was wanting more guitar, because the one guy who kept going for the leads didn't have anyone harmonizing with him or playing the fat riffs underneath the solo. I've played in CSNY and Eagles tribute shows with three guitars, and it was awesome, but there was a lot of dedication to the three players working together to find their place in the arrangement -- we'll see if this pans out that way!

[MathOfInsects]

Nice one, Sam!

It's no-win in a way. If you ever showed up to a "tribute" gig without knowing the parts, you'd be considered unprepared by any measure. But on the flip side, "knowing all the parts" is usually way more than people expect or even know.  Their ears are used to either the most first-order riffs or lines, or whatever their last keyboard player played. A lot of times they don't even realize a particular part is keyboards and are already playing it on guitar. 

I have love-hate with tributes. Sometimes I'm really grateful for the chance to dig in to a particular player or parts. Benmont T is definitely one of those. But the exactness that's required is exhausting and I really have to be sure I love the band or player or music or other musicians before I'm willing to dive so deep anymore. I used to love (in isolation) the satisfaction of really nailing a sound or a part, or figuring out how to pull off multiple parts at once and the like. Now I have to have other skin in the game to take all that on. 

[MAJUSCULE]

That's what we call "heads-up hockey" round these parts. 🤠

 

Too bad it's on a tribute show, though. Much rather be running the plays as drawn up.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

On 11/14/2023 at 12:27 PM, KuruPrionz said:

It's never simple. Most recordings have lots of overdubs, just for one. Strings, horns, choirs, 3 guitars, 2 organs and 2 pianos, claves, tamborine, xylophone etc.

. . . 

A Motown Tribute band would require 20-30 musicians and lots of rehearsal. Not practical unless you have a high paying world tour booked. We didn't. We did OK, it was fun and those are classic tunes. Just my 2 cents and worth what you paid for it. 😇

Absolutely, and I'm not talking about "the arrangements this group is playing don't sound exactly like the recorded version, and I'm annoyed." Mostly I was surprised and had to realign my expectations, because I assumed that the people in charge of this show would know the basic forms and chord progressions of these songs, including some that were new to me, and instead I found myself doing a lot of teaching and asking about riffs and sections that we were skipping over. You know, being the "counting guy."

 

I'm also 100% on board with some of the reimagined arrangements in different keys. I just would have preferred to have been told about those changes in advance, before I tried to cram for nailing parts that were no longer necessary to learn. But again, my reaction to this is mostly amusement and the adjustment of my expectations to reality, not offense at things not being Up to My Standards (because when it comes down to it, who cares about MY standards when I'm just a hired gun?).

[MathOfInsects]

The flip-side can happen too, where there's some tiny moment buried deep in the mix, ghosted onto the tape from some previous or unused take, and for whatever reason the guitar player has latched onto that as The Most Important Part Ever Played, and looks over at you every time the moment approaches, and now you have to learn not only the real parts that were actually played, but also some parts that aren't really in there at all!

[KuruPrionz]

23 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Absolutely, and I'm not talking about "the arrangements this group is playing don't sound exactly like the recorded version, and I'm annoyed." Mostly I was surprised and had to realign my expectations, because I assumed that the people in charge of this show would know the basic forms and chord progressions of these songs, including some that were new to me, and instead I found myself doing a lot of teaching and asking about riffs and sections that we were skipping over. You know, being the "counting guy."

 

I'm also 100% on board with some of the reimagined arrangements in different keys. I just would have preferred to have been told about those changes in advance, before I tried to cram for nailing parts that were no longer necessary to learn. But again, my reaction to this is mostly amusement and the adjustment of my expectations to reality, not offense at things not being Up to My Standards (because when it comes down to it, who cares about MY standards when I'm just a hired gun?).

We were lucky in that one of the two lead singers could hit all the high notes in the original keys. We did I Want You Back by the Jackson Five and Milt nailed Michael's part, spot on. That's way up there! Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson - a piece of cake. Better yet, once I passed the audition (one of 8 who tried out), the keyboard player gave me a set of simple and correct chord charts. Signature licks from the 60's Motown songs were more about supporting the song in a melodic way, shredding was not part of the sound. In many cases, I was allowed to create my own solos, by then the crowd was dancing and they didn't care about those sorts of details. Signature licks like the one in My Girl are a piece of cake. 

[Mills Dude]

I've had this same thing happen to me many times in the past.  For a while, until I self retired, I seemed to get tagged as a go-to player for these kind of one-off gigs.  Someone organizes and puts together a set list which are usually just song titles and schedules a single rehearsal some time before the gig.  I gather up my charts, confirm the keys, download the tunes, listen to them while driving around in the car, learn my parts, try to note anything out of the ordinary like breaks, time changes --  i.e. what seems like the normal prep for any gig.

 

Sure enough that single rehearsal typically turns me into MD because most of the other players didn't prepare and just listened to the tunes on the way to rehearsal thinking they can wing it. I used to get roped into a lot of these things by a guy who is a great muso, better KB player than me, excellent drummer and world class bass player.  He was big on the NY wedding band circuit where players just show up and play the gig, so that was the mindset.  However the quality of players recruited were never of that caliber.  So there I would be copying out charts, helping backup singers pick out their parts, defining grooves for drummers and bassists.

 

It can be easy to get resentful but it is what it is, I just wanted to have a good gig. IDK, it always seems like the person in the KB chair ends up in that role, at least in my experience.  Not to continually knock on the self taught guitarists and drummers but having some basic theory knowledge is crucial to be able to step into a gig like this.  Maybe because most of us KB'ers started with formal lessons that, certainly in my case, gave a decent grounding in theory.

 

Yeah I've worked with plenty of well rounded musos but seems that these 'special' gigs tend to gather a lot more amateurs who may have not gigged that much.  So things like key changes to accommodate a vocalist, throwing in extra sections for a player to noodle over, how to end a tune that fades out on the recording or just basic arrangement modifications aren't in their wheelhouse.

 

Of course there's always the one singer who comes to rehearsal and says they really want to do a tune that was never discussed and asks can we make that happen.  Inevitably those people don't even know what a chart is.   So add learning a new tune, charting it out and teaching it to everyone in 15 minutes or less to that task list.  Those kinds of gigs never paid enough if at all 😜

[stoken6]

12 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

The flip-side can happen too, where there's some tiny moment buried deep in the mix, ghosted onto the tape from some previous or unused take, and for whatever reason the guitar player has latched onto that as The Most Important Part Ever Played, and looks over at you every time the moment approaches, and now you have to learn not only the real parts that were actually played, but also some parts that aren't really in there at all!

I've experienced that and tbh I much prefer it to the alternative. It shows commitment and care, at least. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Just wanted to give everyone a post-show update. All told, it went fine. We got through the 26-song set (which we never got all the way through in rehearsal once; we had to cut one or two big ones like I Won't Back Down for lack of time), it was well-attended, and the audience was very, very enthusiastic, despite it being -- and I say this with all sincerity as someone who plays in multiple projects and has done more than a handful of one-off tribute shows -- the sloppiest gig I've been a part of in years.

 

Absolutely never want to work with that bass player again, though. What a disappointment from someone whose past work I've really admired. Aside from hacking his way through a bunch of the tunes, he kept wandering off between songs at the second rehearsal, adding even more time to how inefficiently we were getting through the music. My wife only sang two songs, so she left that rehearsal a lot sooner than I did, and when I got home I was fuming. We had this exchange:

 

Me: <Bass player> is driving me insane.
My wife: Was he randomly leaving the room when you were trying to start the next song the whole night, or just when I was there?
Me: The whole night!
My wife: Honey, he has a drug problem.
Me: 😮

 

What can I say, I guess I can still be something of an innocent at times... my wife later added "I don't CARE that he has a drug problem, just don't waste everyone ELSE's time with it!"

 

I thought he might get it together for the show, but he was a mess. He was drunk, he kept getting on (someone else's) mic to ramble at the audience, he was clearly using his (very developed) ear and chops to figure out how parts of the tunes went on the bandstand. Come on, man, use those powers for GOOD, not evil! I was giving him the Michael Scott "I'll kill you" look more than once over the course of the evening -- especially during Free Fallin', which is the same damn thing over and over and he just. Hadn't. Learned it. Absolutely unacceptable.

 

Still, I made the most of it, squeezing a two-board rig onto the tiny stage (Yamaha CP88 for piano and Wurli, Nord Electro 4D for Hammond, synth pads, Mellotron strings, and also Wurli for the couple of songs when it's played in tandem with acoustic piano). I even brought my accordion along -- what the hell, everyone else was figuring shit out on the fly -- and had a lot of fun adding that texture to some of the quieter numbers, like Walls, Yer So Bad, and a gorgeous acoustic duet of Insider by the bandleader and the primary female vocalist.

 

The bandleader (and several others) thanked me multiple times for my professionalism, said he hoped we could work together again, and invited me to play keys on the sessions for his original band's upcoming record in January.

 

He then Venmo'ed me ... $80.

 

Ah, the life of a gigging musician. 🤣

[wineandkeyz]

23 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

He then Venmo'ed me ... $80.

 

Ah, the life of a gigging musician. 🤣

 

Oof... Been there, done that. Didn't have enough left over after the bar tab to get the t-shirt, though.

[Michael Wright]

$80.00??  Party time! 😃

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 hour ago, wineandkeyz said:

 

Oof... Been there, done that. Didn't have enough left over after the bar tab to get the t-shirt, though.

Between this and the $40 check I got for the out-of-town club gig I played with my trio earlier this month, I'll have enough saved up to invest in a more lucrative hobby, like setting dollar bills on fire.

[Joe Muscara]

Reading this whole thread at once, I took Sam's OP to mean, "it's all good, I was better prepared than most of them, but I think they'll get it together and be great to work with." I thought   

 

I'm disappointed for him and his wife that it turned out to be… 

 

6 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

the sloppiest gig I've been a part of in years

 

Sorry, Sam. I'm glad you were able to make the best of it and made some money for lottery tickets.

[Stokely]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:20 PM, MathOfInsects said:

The flip-side can happen too, where there's some tiny moment buried deep in the mix, ghosted onto the tape from some previous or unused take, and for whatever reason the guitar player has latched onto that as The Most Important Part Ever Played, and looks over at you every time the moment approaches, and now you have to learn not only the real parts that were actually played, but also some parts that aren't really in there at all!

Our old drummer was prone to that.  He complain about someone missing some "integral" part, and have use run back the album recording during practice.  Sometimes I still couldn't hear whatever it was he was going on about.   As he wasn't the band leader (and frankly it probably wouldn't have mattered) I just moved on and tuned him out.   Not going to get bogged down with minutia playing in a small-time cover band.