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Feeling my age


Craig S

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A quick cool car story...

A friend (and fellow Hamer owner) asked me to follow him when he was moving his drag car from one place to another. At a traffic light there was a woman in a mini-van rolling her eyes and laughing at the hot rod in front of them. Her husband was agreeing with her how ridiculous the car was. I called my friend using our cell phones and told him to put on a show for the whipped guy driving the mini-van. The drag car instantaneously went through the intersection when the light turned green. The woman laughed. The guy was trying to agree with her, but I could see the jealousy and sadness in his face.

NEVER STOP ROCKING!!!

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Wow, this really brings up some stuff for me as another old guy trying to go back to a past band situation and finding it seriously lacking. There is a local 80's metal cover band doing all that stuff with a great deal of skill, too (Hairball is their name) and they are doing quite well for themselves it would appear. The key is, I believe, not taking yourself too seriously. It is just a cover gig, after all, right? If you invest your self-worth as a musician in how "genuine" the feelings are about the cover tunes you play, stop playing covers or find a bunch of songs about old guys playing young folks' music. Do what you like, see if the crowd reacts positively, and toss out ANY judgement about how you might be visually perceived as a measure of your success. If people dig it, you rock, no matter how old you are. And most of the "haters" are just jealous that they aren't the ones getting the young boobies flashed in their faces. Rock on, old-timer! Z

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I hate the dregs who walk around downtown after 3AM zombie-like on crack. Loading out and driving through that shit sucks. There's a salavation army and arch house in downtown austin so those geniuses are everywhere after 2AM since they missed getting into those places before they lock the doors. There's also what I call "comedy of the bizarre" meaning drunken fights, cops beating the crap outta drunks who actually try and keep fighting, wacked-out fux in the bars, general rampaging morons everywhere. I wouldn't play out if I didn't get paid to do it. Subjecting myself to that bs w/o getting paid isn't worth it to me. So yeah, I guess I feel my age as most of that stuff wouldn't be so annoying to me in my early twenties.

100% of the full-time "pro" musicians I know are older than me (37)...but hey, those guys get to sleep until 1 or 2 or later everyday so they're at their prime at showtime and after.

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I think if you are good at what it is you play people will listen.

Hell I'm in my 40's and I shred. Its what I like to do. I just can't play stuff that bores me or that I don't like.

And wherever I go people like to listen - especially the 20 year old kids who like to listen to the stuff and are into good guitar music.

I just saw Ronnie James Dio with Sabbath last year and they still kick ass and the place was full.

But there is also the fine line of the bald guy singing about banging the chick in a car.... some things just don't sit well.

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We still get flashed occasionally, but I think that's because the hotties dig EL's classic Rock & Roll hair...

:P

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I hate the dregs who walk around downtown after 3AM zombie-like on crack. Loading out and driving through that shit sucks. There's a salavation army and arch house in downtown austin so those geniuses are everywhere after 2AM since they missed getting into those places before they lock the doors. There's also what I call "comedy of the bizarre" meaning drunken fights, cops beating the crap outta drunks who actually try and keep fighting, wacked-out fux in the bars, general rampaging morons everywhere. I wouldn't play out if I didn't get paid to do it. Subjecting myself to that bs w/o getting paid isn't worth it to me. So yeah, I guess I feel my age as most of that stuff wouldn't be so annoying to me in my early twenties.

I choose not to play at those places.

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I choose not to play at those places.

Would be nice but alotta the bigger bars ($$) are either downtown or near downtown..no other choice unfortunately. There are other places on the outskirts and in surrounding cities but we know where we make our money right now and it's always a sure thing. We play a couple of other places NOT in the downtown area and it really makes life easier after shows.

Edit to add: No, we don't play t he salvation army or arch of TX. Our "houseband" gig ended at those places last month!ha

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It hit me like a ton of bricks one night when I was singing "Youth Gone Wild" with my cover band - at 34 I was neither youthful or particularly wild. It was promptly dropped from the set list.

34 sure is youthful from where I sit!

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I think if you're having fun, still believe in the songs you're doing, and can present it with some credibility, you should keep playing whatever it is you want to play.

For the most part, I don't feel right about playing songs about teen angst anymore. But that's me. Everyone has their own threshold. Some have the persona to pull it off. I don't. I still like listening to those songs though.

-FunkyE9th

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You know you're starting to get old when you start thinking about getting a nose hair trimmer.

You know you ARE old, when you've got one and think it's pretty cool.

My nose hair trimmer works awesome on ear hair too! Fantastic!! :P

This whole age / relevancy / playlist question has been going on with me and my compadres since we started playing out again in the late 90's. What we've figured out so far is we're unwilling to quit playing because of our age (40s), real or perceived; and therefore it gets down to picking our playlist and gigs carefully.

We do not go out of our way to play the clubs full of 20 somethings that put 30 minutes of hiphop on the PA in between your sets. Occasionally when we find ourselves in one as we did a couple weeks back, we do our thing, have a good time, take our money, and head on down the road. If they ask us back, great. If not, that's okay too...

The thing is, there is definitely a market for classic /variety / good time rock...look at the age of most of the corporate party planners, big lawn party throwers, and country clubbers these days -- they grew up with the same music we are talking about, and the gigs pay better. Do you have to play some shmotz for some of these gigs? Absolutely. With tongue in cheek, waiting for the next good tune to come up on the setlist. Mix some cherries in with the brown eyes, everybody stays happy. One of the things that has helped us the most I believe is that we appear to be having a great time, because we are. And crowds tend to feed off that, kids and younger adults included.

So, we try to do bar or club gigs pretty selectively, usually where we know the place and have a good shot at going over -- nobody needs the hundred bucks bad enough to go in and play a place where the crowd's not into it, it's not fun. I think the angst and stress over this issue is at its worst when bands are frustrated that they don't fit in with all the hot clubs of the moment. Well, that's the way it is. There are still plenty of other places to enjoy playing out, which is the whole idea imho...

My nickel's worth...

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What we've figured out so far is we're unwilling to quit playing because of our age (40s), real or perceived; and therefore it gets down to picking our playlist and gigs carefully.

yep! bobs is exactly right in his view and attitude on this matter, imho.

We do not go out of our way to play the clubs full of 20 somethings that put 30 minutes of hiphop on the PA in between your sets.

dave & i have enough classic rawk and newer stuff (sublime, snoop dogg, jack johnson) to taylor the set to the crowd.

Do you have to play some shmotz for some of these gigs? Absolutely. With tongue in cheek, waiting for the next good tune to come up on the setlist. One of the things that has helped us the most I believe is that we appear to be having a great time, because we are. And crowds tend to feed off that, kids and younger adults included.

yep. hell, there's tunes we do in the original band that i don't wanna play!

I think the angst and stress over this issue is at its worst when bands are frustrated that they don't fit in with all the hot clubs of the moment. Well, that's the way it is. There are still plenty of other places to enjoy playing out, which is the whole idea imho...

yep. my point earlier was that *I* would feel awkward at my age playing hard rawk gigs (unless the tounge is set firmly in cheek). i have seen older guys posturing as young rawkers at their gigs, to me its funny in a sad kinda way, but if *YOU* don't feel goofy 20 years & 20 pounds too late being onstage wearing leather and singing about teen angst, be my guest.

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We just added a rockin' version of Hit Me Baby One More Time to our set. The band debuts October 1st, but my singer and I tried it with our acoustic duo last weekend and the reaction was phenominal. Totally tongue in cheek and fun, but I'm actually liking the song!

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I strongly disagree with some of the comments here. I ONLY want to see hard rock performed by seasoned, grizzled rock vetrans in their 50s and 60s. I don't want to see some green kids on stage who think that Fall Out Boy is classic rock.

I've seen some of you guys at Jaxx and you kicked ass. I want to see the lines on your face, the hard luck and disappointment written all over it. That's my form of rock and roll.

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