starting agin at 67 1/2 again

[BeenDown139]

since this spring i've had 4 band tryouts - #1 died on the vine, #2 blew up on the launch pad, #4 gave me a real technical set list to learn and then went off the grid for 3 weeks.  thought they'd gone dark on me when i get an email outta the blue saying we're still on for an audition.  sometime soon.

so that leaves band #3:   had our 2nd tryout yesterday.  the singer/frontman is 72.  he says he's still got the juice. he actually could be right, but i'm not 100% convinced so far.  in the meantime a guit@r player version of me shows up:  impecabbly equipped, tone and chops right on the button, his band of 22 years just broke up and he is a well-worn veteran of the small time music scene here.  got a 50-ish sax player (the baby of the band) who can get just about anything outta his horn and  the drummer's another  burnout like me.  the singer calls out "brick house" and we freaking rocked it.  ya coulda knocked me over with a feather - i first learned that song when it was on the top 40.  same with a couple of other old chestnuts of the same ilk. (btw, the mighty MKDeluxe is just the ticket for that kinda music.  and the band agreed.)

so here's where it's at:  i told the singer that i like  the situation but i'm not gonna get up on stage and sound like i'm in  the backing band for methuselah, especially after 5 or 6 songs in a row.  so he comes back at me with a 15-song set to learn by next sunday.  it's gonna be no cheat sheets,  no oxygen tanks, all the way thru the set no stopping no train wrecks and by the way keep smiling the whole time.

gonna be an interesting week.  this will be the 5th full set of songs that i'll have learned since this adventure started.  i was kinda getting in a musical rut anyways, so it's all good.  the basses are getting lotsa playing time.  hands are holding up.  kinda feel like i'm going into a geriatric cage match this round.  we'll see who leaves upright.

[edwardofhuncote]

Kick a mudhole in it, then stomp it dry.  😁

[pauldo]

I ‘m not sure what Gregory said…


But you got this!  The challenge makes it fun - go show them what the guy with an Olympic can do!

[cozmik_cowboy]

What Greg said!  (I understood it, Paul - must be a hill-folk thing....)

And to put the setlist thing in perspective, Been - on the circuit I worked as a young man, there was a band that did themes; they played out once a month, and every month it was completely different list.  At least you'll only have to do this until one clicks.

Peter (who does, in fact, realize the irony of that coming from a guy who has to relearn songs he's been doing for 30 years if he lets them go for a month or two)

[lbpesq]

67.5?  Hell, you’re still a kid!

hehehehe

Bill, tgo (who himself is 68.5)

[gtrguy]

Welcome to the Wayne's World of aging cover bands.

[BeenDown139]

so the first thing i learned from the guit@r player after i commented on the sound he got outta his briefcase-sized fender reverb amp was the older the player, the smaller the amp.

having showed up with my medium-sized amp setup (featuring both clarity and thump) that fits in my clown car along with 2 basses, a whatnot bag and hopefully a groupie someday, i had to concur.  i kinda like this guy already.

[dannobasso]

Hope you get a great deal of fun and pleasure making music for the masses. It is a great thing to be able to do what you have a passion for with instruments that share that passion. May you continue in good health and joy for many years to come.

[BeenDown139]

so it just keeps getting better.  the guit@r player had it out with the singer over covering for instruments that we don't have so we're gonna cast our lots together and see what shakes out.  apparently he's set up an elderly has-been east denver musician get-together sunday so i'm gonna drag the MKDeluxe and the mighty fretless essence along and see how many people i can get to mis-pronounce "alembic".

too bad my DS-5 is integrated into the home rig.  else-wise i could bring along the "good" basses and really cause a stir.  or not.

this is my 4th band launch failure since the spring.  maybe it's me?

[BeenDown139]

prospective band #5 tryout yesterday. refugee guit@r palyer and sax guy from band #4 (don't ask).  drummer just got out of a springsteen cover band where he had to learn a ton o'songs just to have it blow up on the launch pad.  practice is in the basment of the drmmer's  multi-megabuck east denver pop-top that the guit@rist architected for him a couple of miles from the house.  kinda gives ya an idea ofthe makeup of the band members.  looks like we're all on the same page musically.  now all we need is a singer.  since i'm the bass player somehow i got nominated to beat the bushes of the small-time denver music scene for someone who wants to front a band full of old duffers.  it never ends.

so just as that all shook out i get another bite on my bandmix ad (worth the $ btw.  craigslist is a wasteland these days.  here's my profile fyi:  https://www.bandmix.com/tim1719030/ ) from a heavy-hitting jazz band looking for someone to fill their standup bass chair.  they saw my fretless in my picture and gave me a call.  might be outta my depth on that one.  negotiations ongoing

[BeenDown139]

been little slow around here.  so here's the skinny from castle BeenDown:  we decided we'd be better off as a backing band for a front person so we're gonna host a cattle call auditions for singers tomorrow at the drummer's house.  stop on by.  gonna be interesting.  so far we've had one cancellation as there's no parking in that neighborhood for 27' mobile homes. i had another young lady answer the call, sends me her repertoire and lo and behold one of the songs on her list is "possum kingdom".  i hadda learn that song for my last band.  wtf? for a semi-cool obscure song outta the 90's  that song sure seems to be in heavy rotation here in the pale white underbelly of the denver music scene.  can't wait to back up some sweet young thang while she belts out "DO YUO WANNA DIE?" at the toppa her lungs.  whoooo!

[gtrguy]

I never let singers pick the songs, unless they are pretty well established and can draw a crowd.. It gives them the idea that they run the band.
They always want to sing songs by Maroon 5 or ABBA or crooner stuff that makes me want to toss my cookies. Thank gawd Led Z didn't go with Rod Stewart or they would have been playing 'Do you think I'm sexy'! Ha ha!

[BeenDown139]

I never let singers pick the songs, unless they are pretty well established and can draw a crowd.. It gives them the idea that they run the band.

we took a slightly different tack - as a band, we've got over 200 years of chops between the 4 of us but we realize nobody wants to see a bunch of over-the-hill has-beens play "fly-by-night" note-for-note at the local dew drop inn.  so we decided we'd make a pretty smokin' backup band for the right front person.  as far as i'm concerned, as long as he/she can get their best performance out of the song and it's something that people will come to hear us play then i'll play just about whatever.  although i think i reached   my limit with "hash pipe" in my last band.

looks like we have hte core of the band settled.  we're thinking we need to get a second instrument/vocalist at some point.  got an interesting compliment from the guit@r player about my playing.  he said " i can tell you've played in a lotta 3-piece bands by the way you cover the bottom when i solo".  must be my lucky day!

[pauldo]

Nice compliment!

[BeenDown139]

my other thread veered way afield (not that there's anything wrong with that), be interesting to see where this one goes.

so we snagged an attractive young yoga instructor amazon to front our band.  it's been an interesting process.  kinda like getting drug thru a keg of nails.  i like this girl.  here's the set list for our first rehersal tomorrow:

white rabbit
possum kingdom
fever (the peggy lee version)
bad moon rising
dreams
brown-eyed-gril
kryptonite

white rabbit is one of the few jack cassidy bass lines i can do with any confidence.  kinda glad she did'nt pick somebody to love.  fever and dreams i do on the fretless.  so it's gonna be a  alembic mono bass showdown at the hoe-down at the drummers underground tomorrow.  if this keeps up, might hafta round up a DS-5 of some kind and bring the stereo sisters.  yay!