There's times in this life when you have to take charge of your destiny. People with gumption and goals are put off by those who stand in the way and either can't or won't see the bigger picture.
In the live music scene, the level of delusional ego is unsurpassed. For example, I've met 100's of karaoke "singers" who thought they could sing with the band. "Everyone says I'm GREAT!" they say.
Of course they do. No one is going to tell you how bad you really are. "No but I'M REALLY GOOD" they insist.
Then they realize there is no screen with the lyrics and the highlighted place keeper. The karaoke machine plays the song in a different key from the band and not only is the karaoke singer lost lyrically, they can't find the melody, flat on the high notes, sharp on the low notes yet someone will think they are being polite when they enthusiastically tell them, "Oh! You were GREAT, what a wonderful voice!" then turn around and tell me how bad that person sucked.
Some people! Yet the karaoke singer' delusional ego is boosted anyhow, to disgusting levels of pretentiousness as they walk away, patting themselves on the back.
It's called "blowing' smoke up somebody's ass". I've had so much smoke blown up my ass I'm surprised I don't have lung cancer in the colon.
Sane people know to take compliments with a grain of salt but there aren't many sane people these days.
It's hard enough to get two people to get along and agree on all the things that the band is going to be. It grows exponentially more difficult with each member added to a band.
All the different personalities and demons...
Cut to the chase, in '20 I had congestive heart failure and occlusions (blockages) in my left leg. Then Covid hit and the music scene was devastated.
As I was getting back on my feet health-wise, all of us local musicians were scrambling for gigs which made for a lot of strange pairings and sharing of the few gigs available..
One of those gigs is a Friday night at a premier restaurant and bar. The Friday night duo that had been there for years split up.
My regular drummer was still laying low because of the Covid so...
My bass player and I agreed to play with the drummer from the duo. The duo didn't get paid what I need to get paid so the bar agreed to a raise.
My show is fairly unique with a lot of "great songs" that not many people hear every day so the drummer was understandably "lost" on most of my material.
I couldn't use my band name because we couldn't play enough of the songs that my following expects so we didn't have a name as far as I was concerned and I certainly wasn't going to put my name on a sub-standard version of my band.
For a little over a year we muddled through Friday nights. I had offered the duo drummer a position in my band but he wanted to keep his "duo" gigs even though he no longer had a steady partner. I took that as a sign that he wasn't interested in doing the "Luke Sommer Glenn Band" show.
My regular drummer uses a metronome or "click" to keep time while we perform. The Friday night guy played like someone who isn't interested in the material/songs and certainly didn't have the desire to try to learn or even be bothered to bring his "click" to help with his focus on the beat. "I don't know the tempo of the songs" was the excuse. I guess tempo is too hard to learn.
After a year goes by the nerves are getting raw between the drummer and especially my bass player then BAM! My fucking heart goes all out of whack again and I spend 4 long months waiting for a procedure to get my heart to, hopefully, stay in rhythm. Still searching for a vascular doctor to deal with the painful occlusions in my left leg again but that's a story for another day..
Needless to say things quickly boiled over between the drummer and my bass player. The drummer chose to "dismiss" my bass player.
The drummer and his "new" band aren't very tight and there is a lot of "dead air" between songs. The bottom line is an unrehearsed band doesn't hold a crowd as well as a tight band moving song to song without "dead air" between songs.
Now, I have no choice other than getting back to work and of course Friday night is a problem. The management has asked me back and the drama has begun.
The drummer feels entitled to the Friday night because he has been doing it for years. He asked if I would be willing to dump my band to play with him who doesn't know or like my material just for the one night a week.
The previous year the songs would speed up and slow down sometimes so bad it would clear the dance floor. "Never saw that happen" the drummer exclaims. "Because you were too busy staring at the ground and frowning to notice", I retort. Yet he thinks I am lying to him. "Everyone says I'm GREAT!" he says defensively. (Rolling my eyes) Looong sigh...
He isn't thinking about the fact that he isn't making as much money for the bar or the staff that depend on the band to hold the crowd and keep the party and the tips rocking.
So I'm the asshole for "stealing" the gig? How about it's just business and the better DRAW is the logical choice for a bar looking to make money especially during the slowest time of the year, peak hurricane season.
BESIDES, I'm on borrowed time as it is and I'll be lucky if I'm still able to do this at all in a few more years... I don't have time to "play" nice, sometimes you have to be the asshole.
Peace and Love!
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