Oi Vey! Bad band experiences!
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Printed Date: February 16 2025 at 16:48
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Topic: Oi Vey! Bad band experiences!
Posted By: topofsm
Subject: Oi Vey! Bad band experiences!
Date Posted: August 19 2009 at 21:22
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I can't stand trying to be in a band with one of my friends! For one, his knowledge of music is EXTREMELY limited, to the point where he doesn't know chords and the names of them! He can only play power chords in drop D and do quick alternate pickings on a single string. Another thing is that he never tunes his guitar! He is in a metal band and the other guitarist and the bassist just tune to each other. He sent me a tape so I could play keyboards along with him in his band, and all the songs were in the same key! (Bb minor if you must know). After I had practiced them all over the weekend I came to school the next day, all his songs were suddenly in C minor, after my muscle memory had all set in. I tried being in a band with him the other day, and I said we should make a parody song of children's music with blasts of metal, and all he could do was simple minor key arpeggios on the top string. Not a major chord was played that day! Then I told him to blast into an extreme metal riff, and he goes into simple metalcore breakdown chugging. From the lack of theory knowledge to his clueless songwriting methods, I've decided there's nobody in the school I want to be in a band with.
Does anybody else have any atrocious stories? Egotistical guitar players? Drummers with no sense of tempo? Musicians who can't sing in the right key? Share!
(sorry if it's too negative for some people, this seemed like the right spot for this kind of rant) ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Epignosis
Date Posted: August 19 2009 at 22:37
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I'm not sure I got half of what you said there, but how about a story regarding a bad crowd? I had the flu not too long ago when I played lead guitar in a country / pop band full of middle aged folks still trying to make it big playing covers note for note in seedy bars. This one particular bar was in the back of a liquor store. It was that bad. Over midway through the four hour set, a Hispanic guy, drunk as ever, staggered on stage and grabbed the mic and began singing a Capella in Spanish (or what I assume was Spanish) and slobbering. A pasty 500 pound woman could not keep her hooters out of view. The drummer and keyboardist kept demanding my amp be louder while the singer kept demanding my amp be quieter. Good money though.  ------------- https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays" rel="nofollow - https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays |
Posted By: GoldenSpiral
Date Posted: August 20 2009 at 10:32
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My biggest pet peeve when playing with other musicians is, well... people who don't know how to play with other musicians.
I've played with a lot of really great guitar players who learned by playing alone in their room, and as a consequence they don't have a clue how to react and be flexible in a band situation. They expect being in a band to be like playing along with a CD. ------------- http://www.myspace.com/altaic" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/altaic ALTAIC "Oceans Down You'll Lie" coming soon |
Posted By: Fieldofsorrow
Date Posted: August 20 2009 at 10:48
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I used to work with a drummer who didn't seem too familiar with the term 'groove' or 'steady pulse'. He overpowered the rest of the band with ease, utilising one chaotic, incoherent, senseless and indulgent fill after the next. I don't think that I've ever heard that guy play at an even tempo, and time signatures really didn't enter the equation at all. Oh well, he decided in the end that we weren't moving in the 'same direction'. Too right we weren't. ------------- Groovy teenage rock with mild prog tendencies: http://www.myspace.com/omniabsenceband |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 04:30
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I was actually in the world's first punk band in 1973!
Well, it wasn't intentional but none of us could play our instruments at the time and so that's all we could come up with. Sounds quite authentic, I still have some recordings we made with a casette machine.
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Posted By: UMUR
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 05:01
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http://www.myspace.com/Lastabide -
Well as you can probably hear from the myspace demo tracks that I´ve uploaded the band that I was playing with in the years 1993 - 1995 called Last Abide was of a dubious quality when it came to technical skill. Our drummer could not remember the songs for the life of him and he smoked way too much weed which made him forget even more. I loved his energy level though and his good nature. The rest of us weren´t that skilled either but listen to our bassist. He had been playing for only half a year at this point. Such a talented guy.
http://www.myspace.com/Lastabide ------------- http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/" rel="nofollow - Metal Music Archives https://rateyourmusic.com/~UMUR" rel="nofollow - UMUR on RYM |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 05:43
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My only live gig experience was way back in the early 70s - we only played one song, which we rehearsed for some time before the performance - Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man" - and in rehearsals it sounded okay with the singer doing a fair rendition of an English Dylan, complete with nasal intonation. Come the gig he decides to sing it falceto like a comic parody of the Byrds in a key and tempo of his own devising. I looked across to the drummer who was close to tears (I think of laughter) as he tried to match the singer's tempo, while I tried to keep up strumming along in the only key I knew. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Diaby
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 06:55
These growls are awesome! ------------- yeah |
UMUR wrote:Posted By: UMUR
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 07:21
 I actually still play with that guy. He doesn´t sing( ) anymore though. Plays the synth.------------- http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/" rel="nofollow - Metal Music Archives https://rateyourmusic.com/~UMUR" rel="nofollow - UMUR on RYM |
Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 14:40
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That's some pretty heavy sh*t UMUR! Why am i not surprised. ------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart" "Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN |
Posted By: WalterDigsTunes
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 14:49
See, now, that's something I wanna hear! |
Posted By: Negoba
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 14:59
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I have had several terrible moments on stage where I was just stuck up there out of tune. Trying to retune in the middle of a song, bend the strings into tune, play power chords on the remain in tune strings. Back in the day of floating tremolos and before I had an electronic tuner and spares readily available, yuck.... Always have doubles of everything important: batteries, strings, cables, picks, straps. ------------- You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all. |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 15:01
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^ guitars... ------------- What? |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 15:14
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Yep, tried to play with a drummer who were constantly out of the simple 4/4 beat. It was like he played in 31/32 or 17/16 without even knowing it. And then he accused me for playing off-beat  |
Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 17:18
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Yeah I have one... Used to be in a cover-rock banf with my best friends, the biggest mistake I've ever done... Used to be lead singer, until the rythm guitarist took my place and they didn't even tell me because they were afraid I was gonna get angry... lol, I got angrier because I got informed by other friends that the band was still going without me... The most ilogical thing that happened was that the other 2 guys from the band which were friends of mine got quite seperated from me, while the rythm guitarist who took my place, is even a "bigger" friend of mine than he was before.... Still have some anger to him, unfortunately, but he's still one of my most dearest friends... |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 19:09
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^I was in a band where that happened too. Sucks, don't it? -------------
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Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 19:13
^hell yeah 
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Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: August 21 2009 at 19:55
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I was in an extreme metal band with some of the "popular kids" at my school, and that was one hell of a mistake. The drummer was excellent, and as a matter of fact so were the other 3 members. My one friend asked me since he knew I was a huge music fan, so I said why not. It worked out really well... until I told them that my best instrument is keyboards. I'm a self-taught guitarist and I know the bare minimum on that instrument. I was also the lead singer. I have a pretty good death growl, and a decent voice. They made me play the guitar, which was fine, but it just got worse. I'm a fairly decent songwriter, but I got a whole ton of crap for writing 15 minute songs with not enough heavy parts, and it became clear I wasn't liking this band. So after spending day after day writing music for them, I just figured I'd quit because it wasn't for me. Currently I'm in a much better jazz fusion improv band with me on keys and guitar, my friend on sax, another friend on drums, and some kid who never talks on bass (but he can sure rip!). I use most of the music from the short-lived metal project on my solo instrumental concept album, that I hope to get on PA when it's done. And I also play Zeppelin and Beatles tunes with my best friend for fun. I've had quite the musical experience for a teenager! ------------- 
Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: August 22 2009 at 12:28
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I was the bad experience in every band I played with. I played in a thrash-metal band and was sacked four months later for I had a bad sense of rhythm. Listening to our demo, it's still the drums part which disturbs me. Oh, and I was asked to play triolets out of time... Go figure. I played in an electro-rock band and left them two months after, but for extra-musical reasons. The guitarist couldn't play and look to the leader of said band (she was in love and all that stupidity, so she claimed she couldn't concentrate on her guitar...) |
Posted By: Bear
Date Posted: August 26 2009 at 13:46
| topofsm, I know exactly what you're saying. I've had a very similar experience. The problem with those people is that they're oblivious to their lack of knowing anything about music. Keys are non-existent, timing and rhythm are nowhere to be found... It's weird that people like that all play metal... Or think that they do. |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: August 26 2009 at 14:19
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That's funny. I just play with myself (no laughing no laughing). I do guitar and keyboards and don't know chords for sh*t. Still I have fun, but I would never fit in with a band. I am pretty good at arpeggios when I am in the right spirit/mood. By the way, if you're trying to make a living off of music, you have my sympathy. ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: Zebedee
Date Posted: August 26 2009 at 18:04
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I used to play in a band with a bassist who somehow couldn't resist playing funky bass lines all the time while also (though they are related) being obsessed with slap bass. He basically ruined all my piano solos/intros (especially the slow, melancholic ones) . Then there's the guitarist in another band I used to play in: didn't allow anyone to improve/alter his (mediocre) compositions. Even the slightest suggestion was out of the question. It's just impossible to work with someone like that. I've also never been able to agree on the musical direction within a band, but that might just be because of my own stubbornness. After all these disappointments I decided to just focus on solo piano/synth and guitar, purely as a hobbyist. I may join another band again but not for a year at least... ------------- 
Friendship is like wetting your pants: everyone can see it, but only you can feel its warmth. |
Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: August 27 2009 at 18:46
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This one was bad on purpose. Some friends of mine were in a couple fairly well-known post punk bands, Lydia Lunch and also The Gun Club, so, as a prank, we decided to utilize their new-found drawing power and we put together this one off show that we figured would get some attention and a crowd, besides we were following a fairly popular band that had also drawn a lot of people.
The place was packed when we unleashed about a 20 minute version of Strangers in the Night with improved free jazz and surf whatever montages. The 'lead singer' was this guy I knew who wasn't in any bands, but had a decent voice and a very confrontational and antaganizing personality, he craved negative attention. The place went nuts, the beer cans and bottles were flying, I have a recording of it on cassette and you can actually hear constant smacking and crashing sounds. You can also hear a friend of mine tell the club owner "I know the keyboard player(me), you'll never get him to quit." Finally all electricity was cut, but some of us were able to continue acoustically. |
Posted By: The Pessimist
Date Posted: August 28 2009 at 04:52
Oh snap. Well, not quite. Basically the guy coming on stage and f**king up our set bit happened to me as well. You see, a big mistake by the bar is that they had us playing in one half and karaoke in the other, and lo and behold, a guy from karaoke predictably thought it would be a wise idea to come into the live music room, hop on my piano stool right next to me, and playing his own little piano accompaniment part to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Lovely. And of course, the crowd started booing US because they were so pissed up that they couldn't distinguish the drunken fool from the band and thought he was part of the act. It all ended up in an good old fashioned English pub brawl. We didn't get paid that night because we were blamed for damage and were told we provoked the fight. Bad times. ------------- "Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value." Arnold Schoenberg |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: August 28 2009 at 16:46
I would pay to hear that. No joking. Actually, that's the kind of idea I always had for a band: to create something unbearable by everyone. I still have this idea of a performance based on the destruction of bottles (filled, of course) on stage while the musicians would play something between grindcore, industrial noise, free jazz à la Brötzmann and stuff like that. |
Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: August 28 2009 at 22:49
| ^ there had to be a set up to get lots of people in the place, it helped that my friends were in trendy bands, we knew that if we put together this fake 'all-star' band all these trendy types would show up in the 'place to be' for some 'entertainment'. Instead they got sucker punched with confrontation. A friend of mine said people were buying beers just to throw at us. A rare moment where everything clicked, it would be hard to duplicate. |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: August 29 2009 at 14:11
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^That sounds awesome. I'd love to have the popularity/guts to do that. -------------
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Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: August 29 2009 at 14:49
| ^ I don't know about brave or popular, I think we were just young jerks, ha ha. Anyway, I don't mean to milk this, I'm suprised anyone was interested. I feel like an old man telling war stories, ha ha. |
Posted By: himtroy
Date Posted: August 29 2009 at 16:49
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Okay, I only really have one bad story worth telling. To start off, since I've never talked about my band on this site before I'll give a little background. It's me and my two friends. Usually the set up is me on guitar, friend on bass, friend on drums. Sometimes I'm on organ and synth, and if other musicians are around I'll play harmonica. We never got into the whole "song" thing, so we usually end up jamming extensively (but all of us are pretty well educated in theory and have been for years, so it doesn't sound like endless noodling and soloing).
So to the story, we're back in early highschool, probably 9th or 10th grade. We're playing in front of people for the first time ever, and since we knew being nervous would hinder our in the moment improv abilities we found out a few transistions to remember this time. And all of these transistions consisted of key changes and tempo changes (Why did we make it so complex if we were already nervous!!!). So it's goin pretty good, then in the middle of playing I que a change, the bass player leans over to me and says "oh ****, I don't remember the next part at all", so since we were noobs we started panicking like crazy, this was followed by equipment failure. People said it was good, but I know the truth...
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: September 01 2009 at 23:41
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In 1978 I was playing with a band in a crazy rock club. A guy walked right up to the stage and squeezed and broke a glass in his hand. We ended the song and blood was all over my guitar. In 1983 I was playing at THE TALLY HO in Delaware? Our singer who always wore a blond wig, tried dancing close to me while I played a solo. Her wig became tangled around my tuning pegs. I tried to un-tangle the wig with my picking hand but it wasn't working. Every slight move that I made caused the wig to unfold from her head. There were 3 agents and 2 managers at the front table and they just laughed through the whole thing.In 1981 I played celebrity clubs. We were sleeping in Holiday Inn's. I woke up the next morning after the gig and the band lifted me out of bed and carried me down to a swimming pool in below zero weather and tossed me in. In 1983 I played in a travelling band which had 3 girls for the frontline. Myself and the drummer had to go out and buy their meals and basically play daddy the whole time we were on the road, because every club we played guys in the audience would hound these girls relentlessly. In 1983 we played Birdland by Weather Report to a drunk and dancing crowd in Wildwood, N.J. The crowd gaves the most outstanding ovation. The club owner told us that if we ever played a song like that again he would blackball us for good. In 1984 we were on stage playing Asia. The female vocalist had been in the parking lot smoking pot, during our last break. She stared into space and repeated the chours 10 times too many until the drummer screamed Willlll you stop! |
Posted By: Lionheart
Date Posted: September 04 2009 at 09:12
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Any bad band I have ever been in has suffered from the same types of problems that you have stated. However, I think if a guitar player doesn't tune his/her guitar before playing, then that's probably a good sign that you should find someone else. Also, a drummer that can't keep time falls into the same category. Also, if you know your scales, you should have been able to transpose the songs that suddenly appeared in a different key than what you learned - so be careful about criticizing someone else's lack of Music Theory knowledge. These are *musician* issues, more than *band* issues.
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Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: September 04 2009 at 09:44
I'm a big fan of The Gun Club, my brother's an even bigger fan. ------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: September 04 2009 at 10:55
| ^ then you might remember when Jim Duckworth joined them on guitar. |
Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: September 04 2009 at 12:12
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^ I didn't get to see The Gun Club until about 1990 when Kid Congo was on guitar but I found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t3FncCgwuU - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t3FncCgwuU . Is that Jim? Love the guitar solo!
------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: September 04 2009 at 12:48
yeah, that's Jim, he's a jazz guitar player in memphis now. |
Posted By: JD
Date Posted: September 05 2009 at 09:52
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As a sound engineer I've never worked on stage with multiple musicians but here's a story for you... I was mixing for a Heart type cover band. Chick singer with four backing musicians. She was a bit of a pill popping Jack Daniels swigging gal trying to revive a career that was long over, The keyboard player was an ex Metro Toronto cop who had been fired for totalling too many cruisers. The guitar player was a space cadet from the east coast, the bass player was a skinny glam kid, but it was the drummer that was the real treat. he used to do acid at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and he hated the singer because he thought she was a bitch. So one night, after he and she had had some words, the band was on stage playing and during a cymbal shot (front centre crash) he let his stick fly. Sailed right past her head. It didn't hit her but he let her know he was back there. That was on a Saturday night (tear down night). The next day we discovered that he had gotten up early in the morning, broken into the truck, taken all his gear and a sum of cash from the gig and flew back to Ontario (we were in Alberta at the time). I left the band a week later. Probably the best thing I ever did. Road stories...there's a million of them, and they're all great stories. I should do a book. ------------- Thank you for supporting independently produced music |
Posted By: The Runaway
Date Posted: September 05 2009 at 10:07
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A year ago, I played with my band which is currently on hiatus, and we decided we wanted to do a cover of "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles for a gig our school asked us to play. We arrange and finally manage to get a practice session at the last moment for 2 hours, and when we come in, the place is a mess. There is no guitar amp, so we had to bring an extremely lame one, and the keyboards were old Yamahas. Anyway, we then find out no one has even tried to learn the song, so we try to learn it. Alone. With no tabs. And no song. After one hour and 45 minutes we decide to play our favorite song by us, and that's what happens, we spend hours and cash for nothing. Nothing. ------------- http://www.formspring.me/Aragorn224" rel="nofollow - Trendsetter win! The search for nonexistent perfection. |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: September 06 2009 at 06:42
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Not a band but in high school I was sent to some competitions for group singing. Well, the rehearsals went fine but in the actual performance, everybody sang in the wrong key. I was painfully aware of this but it's a group so I couldn't very well sing correctly and followed suit! Small wonder we lost!
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Posted By: cobb2
Date Posted: September 06 2009 at 07:51
Very pompous!! Guitar problem described involves tremolo problems- some have a tendency to go out of tune when used. I thought he did well to have enough 'knowledge' of his sh*te to keep it together with 5th chords. The scales bit describes nothing but a first gig and the power of nervous tension to turn your brain to mash.
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: September 17 2009 at 14:45
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In the early 80's I joined a hard rock band and played dives. We were playing a biker bar and a group of bikers called the Pegans took residence there. Our booking agent insisted that we play Beat It by Michael Jackson. We refused and he threatened to cancel all future dates. So we had to play Beat It to a club full of bikers.They would rush the stage and scream BEAT THIS! They were for a time swinging chains and getting rather close to us. I was lucky to get out of there. In 1978 I was travelling with a band that covered prog. We performed Watcher Of the Skies, a variety of Jethro Tull songs etc; We played some interesting places and Happy The Man were on the circuit at this time. Our agent basically told us straight up one night that the new CARS song was on our agenda. Some people in the band refused to play this style of music but it was the end of an era so I could now see that my future was at hand. Happy The Man disappeared and Renaissance carried on playing small venues. In 81' I came in touch with this club circuit again. Steve Hackett was booked one week ahead of us. We opened for Dixie Dregs, Ian Hunter, The Doc Severson Band, Rosington Collins band etc; So mainstream acts and prog acts were playing the same venues. A bit like the old days when ELP headlined Cal. Jam except these artists were considered by the industry at large as has beens. Steve Hackett retreated back to England and prog became less and less popular to a point where audiences began to loose interest. To witness most of this in a hands on fashion was the worst experience I ever had. This experience was worse than any band's bad experience on the road or whatever. |