[Yippee]

I recently attended a wedding rehearsal dinner which featured a live rock band of three young musicians. The event was outdoors (in August), and was located at an exclusive and expensive B&B, with the guests in dressy casual garb, befitting the special occasion.

There were several things I noticed about the band immediately. Their attire was dirty jeans, limp t-shirts, old sneakers. OK, maybe that’s the “image” they desired to project…though certainly nowhere remotely near the attire of the dinner guests.

All three band members made a bee-line for the bar as soon as their setup was complete and started ordering beers. Ummm…well, it was hot…but they continued to do this during their many breaks.

The dinner buffet was brought out, the guests filled their plates and sat at their tables, as did the band members, sitting at a table near the stage, that only had a few guests seated at it. After a bit of time passed, the father of the groom (who was paying for the shindig) got up to the microphone and asked, “Has anyone seen the band?” An uncomfortable intermittent laughter flickered across the tent. He followed that up with, “Can anyone play guitar?” with a muffled mention along the lines of ‘that hasn’t been drinking’.

The band immediately arose and got back to the business of playing. For the remainder of the evening, the band breaks were not as frequent and their path towards the bar, though still included some beer, also included some water and soda. They did redeem their reputation a bit, later as they finally did start “rocking” the tent and got the guests to dancing. They really could play pretty well…but some may say the guests were feeling pretty good by then (I wouldn’t want the father of the groom’s bar bill for this event).

The lead singer did say at one point, close to the microphone, hence most heard it, “I need a @#$%ing beer, is there an open beer?”

I heard since that the band was an acquaintance of the groom, so I do not know the arrangements of how this gig was setup. Ultimately though, out of the 125 or so guests attending the event, plus staff, the overall impression for this young band was their lack of professionalism.

You can only hope that they will see the faux pas of their evening and move forward.

Anyone have a band story on what not to do?

[Will_Wood]

Yes, it does sound quite stupid. It's sad that so many bands are emphasizing such a negative thing in their life.

[randomorwhat]

I have been pissed before going on stage; ended up cutting my finger open on one of my guitar strings and bleeding on my old LP. Never doing that again

[okiejohn]

While doing a bit of roadie work back in the stone age, I learned to make sure the bar maid wasn't the girlfriend of the owner of the club before trying to get in her britches, and another thing...remember to load all the equipment so you won't be breaking back into a club at daylight to retrieve the reel-to-reel that you left behind.

That's all I can think of...oh no, just thought of another deal. Do not get the drummer too stoned before a gig.

Now I think I'm done here.

[dadfad]

First, the band shouldn't have just assumed they should have anything from the party to eat or drink unless they were given permission. And I don't mean from their buddy the groom either, he might have been the person being "honored" at the reception (along with his bride) but the affair itself belongs to the person paying for it (and paying them) which I assume was the father of the bride. (If the groom has any sense of what's right and wrong, and any bawlz at all he should insist on paying for that band, if they were paid.

If they played free (which they may have), it's a totally different story. They were merely rude guests.

Bands like this haven't gotten to the point where they take their business seriously (although I'm sure they insist "Fukk yoo, dood. We live/breathe/excrete music... blah-blah-blah...") or understand that there is a business-aspect to it. And business is business, if they ever expect to be taken seriously and get out of the garage they have to get a grip on a bit of professionalism. They sound caught up in the "Ain't I just the the most in-your-face fukk-propriety irresponsible rock-dood you ever saw" mode. A band that chooses to play for pay should alway be capable of meeting that obligation (as in being sober enough to play well, play their sets on time, and dress appropriately for the venue, whatever that venue might be). Sounds like they have a long way to go before they get out of the garage, if they ever do. They should have had more respect for the gig. And for their buddy.

[halfmoonbay]

A band that chooses to play for pay should alway be capable of meeting that obligation

Agreed. To add to that: Not every gig is right for every band. You shouldn't just take something on simply for the sake of playing a gig, any gig, if realisically it's going to be outside of your capabilities (be that in terms of ability, musical style or attitude). Playing the wrong music to the wrong audience doesn't help your reputation - if you're an originals band playing some obscure genre of music then it really doesn't matter how good you are at that if what you're really being booked to do is play well-known covers at a family wedding. If the band is unwilling or unable to play to that audience then they probably shouldn't have taken on the gig in the first place. It pays to be intelligent about the kind of gigs you pursue, although unfortunately with the amount of competition out there or lack of opportunities then sometimes you do have to compromise a bit.

Mind you, if you do enough gigs then it's almost inevitable that at some point you will unwittingly get booked into a gig that turns out to be in front of the wrong crowd, wrong place, wrong time. Maybe you'll be able to carry on doing what you'd planned to do and it'll be fine, maybe you can quickly adapt your set list and scrape by, maybe you'll flop, or maybe you'll get bottled/heckled off stage. Is all part of the learning curve (and can give you some great stories once you've got survived the initial trauma).