quicksand

the more you fight it ... the more you sink.

i'm fascinated that i still fall victim to this. it was nothing major, just a bad gig from a buncha little stuff that went wrong. i truely believe that playing gigs is usually the **** goes wrong show, and how well i can play thru it ... the better the show is. i just couldnt play thru it tonite.

because another band dropped the ball ... we had to open. thanx for showin up on time fu**ers.

my guitar player is having some problems and decided to quit drinking so he smoked some stuff instead ... woulda been ok if we didnt go on first, right after he went and did that. first song, one he's been playing for 2 years? destroyed it. i dont know what song he was playing.

when he finally got on board with the second half of that song ... i broke my d string ... on my kahler bass ... and that song is all chords in d. i just faked my way thru the last chorus and verse and dumped the outtro.

grabbed my other bass to get the next song out, and that went ok, but i needed to get a string on my kahler bass because the divebomb is the highlight in the 3rd song. i told dominic to talk to the crowd for a few minutes ... he choked. thank god after he realized he was sounding half retarded, he went into a guitar solo ... good thing he keeps that in his back pocket.

next song went ok.

then my drummer just started ... slowing .... down. i'm like, "aaaaaaaaah!" as were slowly loosing the crowd and dying up there. i started looking at him and banging my head to speed him up, but he was just looking down and not paying attention. wtf! i started kicking the side of his kick drum to the beat to get him to speed up the tempo.

then dom started playing another song again! "what are you doing!?!?!"

so, lets make sure we're all good and ready to play the last song and kick its butt so we can at least end this on a big plus. ..................................... the sound guy turns the pa music on. i went up to the mic and started dealing on him. temper got the best of me ... i lost my cool.

then the last song dragged too.

i drug all my gear off the stage and threw it in the back of my car and went home.

i spoke to the guys. we all agreed that that sucked. i asked them what we need to do to make it better. nobody had any bright ideas. do we need to practice more? i dunno.

that gig was horrible. that was not the good time and positive influence i want to put forth as 40wattsun. i know theres gonna be bad gigs ... but i feel like i failed. i mean, except for the broken string, my crap sounded good! i still feel like i failed. i was dying up there.

it was just a gig ... meh.

the saving grace? ... we will have the opportunity to do it again.

That which does not kill you only makes you stronger.

MadMike, I feel your pain. Lord knows I've been there/done that more times than I care to remember. One way of looking at it is that you'll be able to reflect back on the experience, and laugh about it one day.

I'm not sure if you need, or even want my advice, but here it is for what it's worth. You've already done an excellent job of re-capping the gig, and where things went wrong. Plus, you also have the perspective to know why things went sour. So write it down. Make a list. With the entire band. And together, go over that list, and come up with the solutions. Here's my take on all of it, and you can do what you will with my words, even if that means ignoring them.

The other band dropping the ball? You can't control that at all. All you can do is prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

Your guitar player needs to either "do his thing" sooner, or not at all. Yeah, I can get pretty ripped during shows, but I don't drop the ball. Not that I think I'm special or superhuman, but I do have enough live recordings of gigs to know that I'm htting the marks, even when buzzy. Of course, the best answer is to simply stay sober.

Breaking strings....hmmm....that's one that I do on a regular basis! But one thing I do to keep from doing so when performing is to put on a new set for every gig. Yeah, it gets a little pricey, but it's worth it to me.

Your drummer needs to be able to do his job, and I'm not sure of a tactful way of saying that. In Alien Probe, we have an ethic that everyone be able to "bring it". Yeah, it's great that we're all technicians, but we also know how to do our jobs.

The guy running the PA, you had every right to deal on him. I've met more than a few PA techs that thought they were God's gift, so my attitude quickly became one of, again, being able to "bring it". The guy needs to know his job, and when to keep his hands off the play button for the club's background music.

At the end of the day, don't let it get the best of you, Bro. You're better than that, and it's just a gig. Odds are that the next one will be better.

after that debockle ... the next one cant be anything but better.

That's the spirit!

actually ... the guys called me today.

neither of them were ok with the gig last night and wanna rip everything apart and put it back together again beat by beat.

i'm glad ... because i thought i was being dictator - ish with my expectations being too high. i had to wonder if i needed to just lighten up. obviously this isnt the case.

this is good, because its an indicator that we need to work on it more ... its just hard to tell where, so ... we'll work on everything.

That's so cool that you guys all see eye-to-eye about the situation. Let us know how stuff works out.

Indeed!

that does suck, but your lucky that you never had to deal with my situation ( like Eric...countless times )

everytime we were playing a show out of town, I would get stuck with our alcoholic singer...every time we were done, we would go back to the hotel room and he would sit for hours crying about how he f'ed it all up with his drunkness and we should fire him -- EVERY TIME.

when I finally said ok, your fired, he has not talked to me since -- 8 years ago now....

and that show we did Friday night?
the other band's guitarplayer had an amp meltdown, and he had to use the guitarplayers amp from the 3rd band coming on stage after them..what a delay, what an embarassment, but --the show went on even though they had to cut 4 songs out of their time thanks to the amp that blew up. ( the PA picked up the self destruction and MAN I never saw an amp do that....either they work or they don't ..this one started squeeling like a bad tube ( SS amp ), and the PA guy was going crazy trying to figure out what mic was feedinbg back.

i prefer when other peoples amps melt and catch to a slow smodery fire while going "bzzbzbzbbzttzbzgttzbzbttz bzbzbzttzbbzbzzttzzzzzztttzzzzzzzz ... pow!"

makes for a much more interesting show.

i'm suprised dominic's 1988 marshall head hasnt done this yet. workhorse. loves the abuse he lays on it. makes it sound better!

yes, drunkeness causing one to f**k up is grounds for dismissal in our band. funny how many lead singers we've had show up for an audition drunk. we have practice and do gigs like its work ... we're there because we have a job to do. if you cant do that ... then you need to go find another band.

but thanx ... lets me know i'm not the only one out there trying to get the show on the road.

madmike wrote:

i prefer when other peoples amps melt and catch to a slow smodery fire while going "bzzbzbzbbzttzbzgttzbzbttz bzbzbzttzbbzbzzttzzzzzztttzzzzzzzz ... pow!"

makes for a much more interesting show.

I agree....since it happened to me once. I would have rather it happened to someone else!