Story Time II - A Lesson

Ok, so for quite some time now a friend of mine and I have been participating in a band known as Destined to Fester. Names for the convenience of the story are Dodd, Josh, and Tim. Since we'd initially joined the band we've been working on writing material since we had a show coming up on the 11th, which was yesterday. So we've been working on the material for quite some time, which wasn't going as well as it could have been since we didn't have a friendly enough time schedules to get together as much as was needed and unlike me, Tim, the other guitarist, has a life which kinda ate up some of the time we could've had for writing, so we ended up finishing all the writing yesterday... which also happened to be the first time we were able to practice as an entire band. Most of the time it was just the other guitarist and myself doing what we could with what was already recorded and since Dodd and Josh, the vocalists, don't live close enough for regular visits we pretty much winged it the whole time.

So we arrived with all of our gear and practiced, then ate, then practiced more, then the other vocalist showed up, then we practiced as an entire band, then we prepared a set list just before we went out to the show. Now, this process didn't go as smoothly as it's written. Tim and I showed up at Dodd's around 2:00, which was about an hour later than we wanted, but since the show wasn't starting until 9:00, we weren't worried. So we'd run through the songs a bit and discussed some things about what we were planning on doing, we'd shown Dodd the material we had written and we collectively finished what we had left to write then went off to get some pizza to satisfy our demands for our digestive needs. Now, it was about 4:00 by this point and we'd spoken with Josh who was supposed to show up at 12:00 just before we left and he explained that he forgot his laptop when he left so he had to go back and get it because we can't play the show if we don't have something to play the drum tracks. So when we got back after 5:00 he still hadn't shown up. So we practiced a bit more while we waited as a couple more hours passed. Come 7:00 he showed up and explained that he forgot his flash drive which we'd needed to move the drum tracks from Dodd's computer to his laptop and had to go back and get that as well. So we'd practiced and felt relatively comfortable with how things were going, so we prepared our set list and headed to the show at about 8:30.

We arrived with plenty of time to move our gear inside since the show was apparantly running behind schedule since the new PA system they had was still being set up a bit. So we settled down and waited with good excitement since we were expecting the show to be pretty good. The show was supposed to be four bands that played from 9:00ish to whenever followed by enough DJs to drag it on to 4:00 in the morning. The very first band had cancelled, so it was right on to the next band.

The next band was a 2 man group that played programmed music. One vocalist apparantly rapped while the other growled and shrieked. Well, that was all I saw anyway, since they cut their set short. So short that they stopped after the first song. The setup wasn't doing it for their system and they had no volume control what so ever and things were coming out really quiet. I figured they could've pulled it off all the same, but they'd decided against it and we were immediately in the position to perform and had an incredibly short amount of time to prepare.

So we all start setting our gear up and low and behold, the speakers I was using wouldn't even work, so I ended up having to borrow someone else's. Tim didn't even have anything to begin with so he was pulling strings to borrow gear from the get go as well. I'd ended up going through a phase in the preperation where none of my equipment was even getting any power, but that ended up getting solved. At the same time one of the Dodd was dealing with people rushing so he basically said **** it to the set list, set everything up in a playlist and hit play... which sucked since we didn't know which song was coming next unless we hovered around the laptop. It also resulted in all the songs that weren't supposed to have guitars being played in bundles so we were standing around for a good chunk of the time. Anyway, so the show started with these circumstances. If it'd stopped there then that would be fine, but nooooo... Some of the DJs were preparing for their set while we were playing ours so one of them came over and asked us to turn our set down so they could hear what they were doing. Dodd replied with a simple "**** you" and was done with it. So the DJ went and took the liberty of turning the PA system down for us so no one could hear the drums or the vocals. So in order for Dodd and Josh to hear the drums so they knew what they were doing we had to turn our guitars down. Normally we'd have just started over until we could do it the way we wanted, but at the time we figured we'd just hurry up and get it out of the way since things were already running behind. So in the end, if you were on one side of the set, you could hear drums and vocals, on the other side of the set you could hear guitars, but I don't think anyone ever heard them both at the same time. Really, we'd played a relatively solid set and did well, just the people behind the PA were being pricks so it was kind of hard to have fun at the same time. Of course there were a number of **** ups, but it wasn't too bad. So we finished our set then left the area so the next group could prepare.

The next band wasn't running anything through the PA system so they completely avoided that problem and they played a good set. We'd recorded both our set and theirs, though I get the feeling that theirs will be funner to watch.

After that it was DJville for the rest of the way, so we bailed after that. We'd probably have been there until it was over, but the day was getting worser and worser and none of us wanted to stick around for any more of it, so we ended the day as soon as we could and we'd already stayed for everyone that was helping us rather than screwing us over. Besides, Tim and I were running on fumes since we were up until after 4:00 the night before driving back and forth from his place to where his girlfriend was because she was basically scared and didn't want to be alone. And being up before 10:00, and having an evening that was looking to be the same, we said **** it and left... back to his girlfriend's because it was closer than either of our places and wanted to end the day asap. So we pretty much showed up and went to sleep as soon as we got there. Today came up and I came home and really wish the show was better. It was ok, I guess, but we had a hard time enjoying ourselves.

Anyway, the lesson that I speak of us this. All these experiences combined with a conversation involving the guy that had set this up (who wasn't pleased because of how things were going) kinda made me think. He had to stay there until after 4:00 to clean everything up and then he had to come back the next day and take care of some unfinished business before he left for a two week tour. After all of these things I began thinking about just how hard this lifestyle is going to be and being one that's hoping for a career in the field I'm getting an eye opener at just how ruthless it can be. Anyway, I think I can handle the lifestyle. I'm willing to go for it all the same with what I know now. I just hope our next show doesn't suck. We've got one more show in April, but we're not going to do anymore until our CD is released, which should be before April.

There you go. No vomit stories in this one. Oh yeah, did I mention I was sick the entire time? Anyone ever play live with pink eye?