Re: Had a tryout last night.

I don't mean this in critical way at all or as any sort of disparagement of
original music, but where do you see an original band of 40 something guys
going in this day and age?

It seems like your options are:

1) Hit the road on weekends and play every shithole in a 4 state area for
free, eventually pooling your Xmas bonus checks to cut a CD.

2) Play any local coffeehouse/original club/Park and Rec "summer bandshell
series" you can

3) Be a "studio" band (at YOUR studio, most likely), and constantly post
clips on Myspace.


At least with a commercial gig, there's $$$ to tie everyone together. And
when you're young and stupid, driving from one Great Lake to another for a
gig is no big deal. Seriously, I'm just wondering what the endgame is for
all concerned.


PS: Saw a used Alesis HD at GC today. It looked like it had been dragged
behind a pickup truck,; NO HDs or adaptors, and one flip door was broken
off. They wanted $1499 for it. ugh.

For that kind of money, I'm really thinking about going Apogee ADC and some
nice pres into a lean and mean DAW, something like Ardor. For the money I'd
be shelling out on a dedicated system, It seems like a deal. Of course,
that's a ways down the road...

Oh and yeah, the Mini Brute kicks ass for what it does. Good solid punch and
lots of headroom. I'm still too much in in "puppy love" with the Markbass to
remember any specifics...


"coreybenson" <coreybenson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:103d947d-80d2-4d4c-9df2-67a22e453904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've been gigging a bit more over the past year or so, and it's been
making me itchy. Itchy to the point I can't put off my need to play by
buying more gear... so, I answered a Craig's List ad. After a LONG
conversation via email, last night was the big night to get together.

The band is an all-original band made up of guys over the age of 40.
Since I'm rapidly approaching 40 (as in less than 75 days), it fit
better than a group of youngsters. Specifically, their ad mentioned
only getting together once per week or so. Their "current" bass
guitarist is a cousin of one of the guys who lives more than a couple
hundred miles away, and who only comes up once a month or so.

Loaded up my two basses and my MiniBrute II (thanks again for the
heads up on this little monster, JS!), and made the run up there.

It had to be one of the more interesting try-outs I've ever done, at
least from an original band perspective.

They gave me charts. In a notebook. And just called songs, one after
the other. Only one of them gave me fits... and of course, that was
the one they said "Love what you did on that, dude!" Uh... stepped
all over my d...? never mind. I think we ran about a dozen tunes.

Anyway, most of the tunes were interesting... but in a good way. Their
vocals leave a bit to be desired... but that's one area I can probably
really shine with them. The drummer was, well... good enough. He was a
nice guy, he had decent rhythm, but his definition of "good drum
sound" was... let's just say diametrically opposed to mine. He really
seemed to be leaning towards the 1970's Eagles cardboard sound. Which
is fine, I just hate it.

Nice guys. Seems like we're all on the same page from an ego/desires
concept, so we'll see what they decide. They tried a guy out just
before me, and have another fella coming in tomorrow.

I was really surprised at how well we clicked, but I guess I won't be
heartbroken if I don't get the gig. It was nice to be able to just
walk in cold and "site read" their charts.

Whoda thunkit? An original band with charts? LOL

Corey


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