HamerHokie Posted April 9, 2005 Posted April 9, 2005 The band has never been better, but the band situation has never been worse, and it's coming to a head.Since October our drummer/lead singer has moved out front and we've had a steady stream of substitute drummers fill in until we find a permanent replacement drummer. This has been great for the business, as we get a much better response with a frontman than with a singing drummer. Audiences just need the guy out front to engage them, but when the lead singer is the drummer it creates sort of an invisible wall between the singer and the audience. We haven't had a bad gig since he moved out front, and a couple of rooms that used to treat us coolly have done a 180.But not having a regular drummer is hard on the band, because we play things differently every time we perform. We've been fortunate to have one semi-regular replacement, but about a third of our shows have to be filled by whomever we can get. No matter who is back there, the audience response is positive. But we bandmembers are getting tripped up by bad tempos, missed cues, etc.We've auditioned about a dozen drummers. Only one was a suitable replacement, but he didn't want to work as often as we do. Two others had great auditions but lousy first gigs. This situation has driven a wedge in our band. Mostly with the keyboardist, who is taking the lack of a regular drummer the hardest. To him it seems more important to have the right drummer than to have a frontman, and he wants Bruce to move back behind the drums. The rest of us see this killing our momentum.Last night we had one of the promising audition-ees attempt a full gig and he displayed a ton of deficiencies he didn't exhibit at the audition. During the audition he was rock solid, aggressive, and responsive. During the gig his tempo wavered, he had trouble establishing the correct tempo from a count, and he wasn't as aware of what was going on. Doubly frustrating, since we thought he was a shoo-in after the audition.One possible outcome: the keyboardist it took a year and a half for us to find is just going to give up and move on without trying to work things out (that's the kind of guy he is) and we'll be back to a trio, losing all the momentum we've established and forcing us to find TWO new members. And we've got a full slate of shows through the fall.No matter how well we've been doing, it's hard not to be negative about the future.
edgar_allan_poe Posted April 9, 2005 Posted April 9, 2005 Any chance that the first gig with the new drummer was just butterflies and rust?Personally, I would give the guy a couple of gigs before releasing him. Sit down and explain the situation to him, and give him two more gigs to work out the issues. You never know...it may work out. If Stoney Kurtis had taken my fist gig with them as a true showing of my talents, I wouldn't have lasted an hour after the gig!! LOL!!!
HamerHokie Posted April 9, 2005 Author Posted April 9, 2005 Any chance that the first gig with the new drummer was just butterflies and rust?Personally, I would give the guy a couple of gigs before releasing him. Sit down and explain the situation to him, and give him two more gigs to work out the issues. You never know...it may work out. If Stoney Kurtis had taken my fist gig with them as a true showing of my talents, I wouldn't have lasted an hour after the gig!! LOL!!! I thought of that last night but it will be a hard sell to the others. I don't know Stoney's work situation when you auditioned but we are nearing the meat of our schedule so we don't have a lot of time to work a new guy in, certainly not during shows. One or two of our substitute drummers were good enough to play our full set list cold, so it's hard to be patient with guys who say they know it all but can't handle their end of the deal during a gig.EDITED TO ADD: Not rust, for sure, as this guy was a fairly busy drummer before he got a full time job.
Miss Charlie Posted April 9, 2005 Posted April 9, 2005 Sounds like if he played well during practice that it had to be nerves. Maybe give him a few gigs. See what happens. I once had a bass player that did the same thing when he first played with me, after he got a few shows under his belt he was excellent.
tafkathundernotes Posted April 9, 2005 Posted April 9, 2005 I once had a bass player that did the same thing when he first played with me, after he got a few shows under his belt he was excellent. I wonder why the poor guy couldn't seem to concentrate.... WOW!
Miss Charlie Posted April 9, 2005 Posted April 9, 2005 hahaha! Yes, I admit... I do make it difficult at times.
HamerHokie Posted April 11, 2005 Author Posted April 11, 2005 I once had a bass player that did the same thing when he first played with me, after he got a few shows under his belt he was excellent. I wonder why the poor guy couldn't seem to concentrate.... WOW! Once again, my thread is hijacked by sex. Anyway, the drummer isn't going to get a second look. It was that bad, I think the audition just wasn't that thorough. We didn't exercise him in enough different styles. Last night, we did a show with our 'regular' substitute drummer and it was probably the best show we ever did. After that kind of experience it just reinforces the idea that we can't settle for anything less than the right guy.
lonote049 Posted April 11, 2005 Posted April 11, 2005 Does your "regular" sub want a steady gig? Is he a jobber or does he have another band? If you asked, at the right time and under the right circumstances, you might be surprised with the answer you get. Our guitar player was a regular sub and when the job opened up, we asked and he said yes, much to our surprise and delight. You never know.
Guest Mike Lee Posted April 11, 2005 Posted April 11, 2005 What the hell is it with Keyboardists anyway? I've never played with one that wasn't off in his own world, moody, and demanding of stupid things. The only ones that are consistently cool are the ones who lug a B3 and Leslie to the gig because MIDI just don't cut it.I can't believe he thinks it's not necessary to have a frontman that connects with the audience. Have you ever seen Cowboy Mouth? They have a drummer as a front man and put his kit right at the front of the stage. He's kind of weird, though. When you see him play you'd think he has a spastic version of down's syndrome.
MCChris Posted April 11, 2005 Posted April 11, 2005 What the hell is it with Keyboardists anyway? I've never played with one that wasn't off in his own world, moody, and demanding of stupid things. Try playing with a MALE keyboardist instead.
HamerHokie Posted April 11, 2005 Author Posted April 11, 2005 Does your "regular" sub want a steady gig? Is he a jobber or does he have another band? If you asked, at the right time and under the right circumstances, you might be surprised with the answer you get. Our guitar player was a regular sub and when the job opened up, we asked and he said yes, much to our surprise and delight. You never know. The regular sub is the drummer for a country show band. The reason we get him is that his country gig doesn't play that often, maybe once a month. The reason we DON'T have him permanently is that he runs a pro sound company and often has to travel to do big shows.
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