Bluewine

As you know I have a lot of opinions on auditions. Before any of us should audition; 1. Have clear understanding of what your looking for in a band. 2. Do your homework, look for recent videos of the band. 3. Make sure the personal line up is what you think it is. 4. Ask questions, anything that's important to you ask about it. Most bad audition can be avoided if you do your homework. Avoid " I Have To Be In A Band" syndrome. Blue

Ok, no matter how much I practice I'm never going to be the guy with the fast fancy riffs and high technical ability. Blue

The Harley Davidson 115th Anniversary Bash was ok. We opened for Beatalica. Great weather and nice crowd, but adapting to any big stage is always a challenge for us. Blue

Cool Musicbassman, Thanks for your comment Our Vista King Cruise is really a big drink-athon. We lucked out selling out to a supportive engaged crowd. Blue

Very cool, We've been playing the Vista King for the last 5 years. Cons 1. Load in/out is a real challenge. 2. You play 2 hours straight for the evening. No breaks. Pros 1. Excellent pay if you sell out you get 50% of the take. Selling out is 120 ttickets at $22.99 a pop. 2. It's a mere 2 hour gig. That's great for those of usual that play 4 hour bar shows. Blue

Hi Pete, Then I won't complain about the $10.00 I had to pay for parking for that cruise gig Saturday night. Are these little cruise gigs popular in the UK? Blue

Another weakness, I rely a little too much on my pedals and on top of that I could be a lot better at tweaking them. All I really need is a little sustain and dirt. Ivfinally have good settings dialed in on my MRX Bass Distortion pedal which should help. Blue

My kind of weekend Pete. Nice! Blue

Thursday 8/30/2018 Wisconsin Harley-Davidson 115th Anniversary Bash 1280 Blue Ribbon Dr, Oconomowoc 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Another good pay day and we only play for 2 hours. Hope the energy from Saturday Nights boat cruise follows us. Blue

I see deps mostly in pro, functions, wedding, and corporate bands. Blue

Depends, there are bands that won't use deps. We'd cancel before using a dep. We're not a professional band, I think pros use deps. Blue

I'm too old school for my own good. I don't slap, solo or play 5ers either. None are necessary in my band. Blue

We can't control the behaviors of others. Blue

Unbelievable how hard our job is when we have to work with weak drummers. Blue

I like to think my strength is knowing how to be in a band as well as understanding my role in a band. I've been playing in bands since 1966. I have good basic understanding of chords ,what notes are in all the chords and how to make sense of it all. The ability to play bass lines that make musical sense and provide a solid foundation for any song. I'm certainly not the guy with the fancy riffs and a lot of technical ability. I'm not a complainer, I can't control others members behaviors or ideas. I sign on to play gigs , play bass and sing background vocals. I don't care about material choice, it's not why I'm in the band. My weakness, age. Playing 4 hour gigs is becoming increasingly difficult for me. Blue

Excellent selling points in my opinion. Blue

Depping is quite different than the guy trying to be a member of 2 busy gigging bands, right? Blue

You've seen all the YouTube clips of 2 years old with incredible technical ability and unbelievable chops. Fact, no matter how much most of practice and study we're never going to play at that level. Have you identified what you are good at, your strengths and where you fall short, your weaknesses. Please comment Blue

The Rolling Stones are the greatest Rock & Roll band in the world. Blue

Yes to that, if you don't sing you'll definitely limit your opportunities. Blue

A lot of our local toilets have closed and for good reason. Unfortunately many of the decent places that provided live local bands have also closed. Not many of the local bands can draw crowds that can make the nights economics. Blue

That's great advice. Just because you write songs doesn't mean you know how to arrange, record or produce a record. Agreed, if your serious about recording hire a good producer Blue

In my neighborhood it was the Mom's that were wonderful. Blue

Sad Blue

Well I was loading my gear into someone's parents car. Parents would drop us off and pick us up. Mostly school dances, church sponsored events for teens, YMCA stuff like that. Usually about $20.00 a man which as you can imagine was a lot of money for a 12 year old in 1966. Blue