No room for the bass player

[Newfoundfreedom]

22 minutes ago, odysseus said:

I've played in a different room before.... 

Now that's getting a bit extreme. 

I think if that were me, the room I'd be playing in is my living room at home. 

[Huge Hands]

I play in a concert band (brass/woodwind).  Lovely people, but regularly wind me up.

If a gig has restricted parking, the flute or sax players will park right up against the venue doors with no access near or through cars for me, drums or percussion with the heavy gear.  One local event every year we get allocated 3 spaces near to where we play for bass, drums and percussion, but every year I get there and someone else in the band has blagged the three spaces.

If I'm one of the last ones there, they will have set up in their semicircles on stage with no access through the chairs/music stands/mutes/spit rags etc for me to get my gear through to the back.  They just look at you blankly when it is obvious you need to get through and your arms are about to burst having carried it all half a mile from the nearest available parking space.

They also regularly forget to tell the event organisers that I need electricity, or when there is some the band won't move in a bandstand so I'm exposed when the rain starts.

I find bluntness, shouting, and ramming fingers and toes with my gear tends to work well....... 

 

[Newfoundfreedom]

5 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

I play in a concert band (brass/woodwind).  Lovely people, but regularly wind me up.

If a gig has restricted parking, the flute or sax players will park right up against the venue doors with no access near or through cars for me, drums or percussion with the heavy gear.  One local event every year we get allocated 3 spaces near to where we play for bass, drums and percussion, but every year I get there and someone else in the band has blagged the three spaces.

If I'm one of the last ones there, they will have set up in their semicircles on stage with no access through the chairs/music stands/mutes/spit rags etc for me to get my gear through to the back.  They just look at you blankly when it is obvious you need to get through and your arms are about to burst having carried it all half a mile from the nearest available parking space.

They also regularly forget to tell the event organisers that I need electricity, or when there is some the band won't move in a bandstand so I'm exposed when the rain starts.

I find bluntness, shouting, and ramming fingers and toes with my gear tends to work well....... 

 

I think turning around and leaving would work even better. 

[musicbassman]

13 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I think turning around and leaving would work even better. 

I find all these posters who are taliking about similar attitudes from other members of their bands quite unbelievable.

Are you the bass player? - yes.

Is this the band you play in ? - yes.

Give or take the odd weirdly shaped stage or playing area, do you always put your amp in roughly the same place? - yes

So, the rest of the band know where you go and roughly how much space you need for your amp - so what's with this crazy attitude?

It must get the night off to a really bad start if this is happening.

Some people need to b****y well grow up. You're supposed to be making music together, not having ego wars.

 

 

 

[Huge Hands]

3 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I think turning around and leaving would work even better. 

Funnily enough, the "Fine, I don't have to play, I can happily go home" is usually my ace card, and is often brought out as a last resort to get a reaction/results.

However, I much prefer stomping about and "accidentally" squashing a few toes on the way through.

They are actually all very lovely people, I just don't think their brains allow them to consider that the parking space might be more useful for the drummer with a load of heavy kit than them with their little trumpet or flute in its case. 

[Marvin]

Happened all the time in the last band. It was a 5 piece. We had 3 up front with different instruments all over the place. I got stuck in a bay window once it was so cramped.

[odysseus]

8 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Now that's getting a bit extreme. 

I think if that were me, the room I'd be playing in is my living room at home. 

I didn't mind TBH... it was the pool room right next to the tiny stage.  I leapt in and out occasionally to keep myself amused... 🙂

[Sibob]

On 27/07/2019 at 20:21, artisan said:

Why is it always thus ?

Why do you allow it?

Si

[Combed20]

9 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

I play in a concert band (brass/woodwind).  Lovely people, but regularly wind me up.

If a gig has restricted parking, the flute or sax players will park right up against the venue doors with no access near or through cars for me, drums or percussion with the heavy gear.  One local event every year we get allocated 3 spaces near to where we play for bass, drums and percussion, but every year I get there and someone else in the band has blagged the three spaces.

If I'm one of the last ones there, they will have set up in their semicircles on stage with no access through the chairs/music stands/mutes/spit rags etc for me to get my gear through to the back.  They just look at you blankly when it is obvious you need to get through and your arms are about to burst having carried it all half a mile from the nearest available parking space.

They also regularly forget to tell the event organisers that I need electricity, or when there is some the band won't move in a bandstand so I'm exposed when the rain starts.

I find bluntness, shouting, and ramming fingers and toes with my gear tends to work well....... 

 

If you selfishly block my path with your car, you can either move it, get some lovely new dents in your car or find a new bass player.

[Les]

I’m definitely with geek99

kill them. I wouldn’t spit in them after though, that would be rude. 

 

Led

[Stub Mandrel]

This is the way to do it. Stick yer guitarist behind the PA where they belong 🙂

[artisan]

Lol thanks for the replies chaps,much appreciated & made me laugh.

Actually ended been a cracking night.

My method was to ask in a rather harsh manner " where the f#$k am I supposed to go then,the f@cking car park" (yes I can be quite blunt)

Suddenly in a flurry of movement several items where moved & hey presto I had some space 😁

They are great guys though

[jazzmanb]

That's why I ditched pedals etc and keep it simple 

its more venues than band members ,most pubs are tight ,some very..The guitar side is also Pa and lights control .Singer likes to swing his mic around so I found my spot and stick there 

[Les]

3 hours ago, artisan said:

 

They are great guys though

 

Ok. Let them live. This time. 

[Monkey Steve]

While I've had my fair share of cramped stages, I've only ever had one band member, surprise surprise the lead guitarist, who made a point of marking out his territory with no regard for the rest of the band, usually me.  Happened at every rehearsal and gig, he'd set up his pedalboard in front of my amp while I was sorting out the amp, then would set up his amp as I scratched my head at how retarded he must be to have put his board in front of my amp and where am I going to put mine?

Didn't seem to be anything personal against me or the bass in particular, just that he was a massive c#nt who thought that he should be given extra room because he was special.

Usually I'd just kick his pedal board back where it should be.  Solved it permanently by turning up so loud at one practice that all he could hear was the bass, and he had a massive strop about not coming to rehearsals to listen to other people play before storming out.  I p#ssed myself laughing, as did the rest of the band when I told him that if he'd actually let me stand in front of my amp then I wouldn't have to turn it up so loud and that perhaps if he actually stood in front of his amp he could hear it better.  The next week he announced that he was going to set up in a different spot in the rehearsal room so that the rhythm guitarist could hear him better and could follow what he was playing...yeah, right mate.  And at gigs made the rhythm guitarist set up on the same side as me - funnily enough we never had a problem.

[DJpullchord]

On 27/07/2019 at 21:42, stingrayPete1977 said:

Time to go in ears, ampless and no monitor wedges, you'll love it! 

What’s a price sensitive way of doing less?

I’m sick of lugging stuff.

[leschirons]

Yes, I'm usually stuck out in the stage suburbs. The band always puts carpets down which are promptly occupied by the drummer, guitarist and singer.

It doesn't usually bother me tbh but what DOES, is when every bugger uses my rig as a coffee table,  sunglasses, drinks glasses, handbag, cups of coffee, car keys, spare batteries and bottles of water. 

Does my brain in.

[martin8708]

Standard gig set up protocol is drummer goes in first to set up kit at back of stage while PA is set up in front .

Next the guitarist sets up with huge pedal board and stereo amp rig , and the vocalist claims her space with mic stands and pedals .

Last is bass , as it takes me 1 minute to set up , normally in the corner littered with gig bags / left over lead bags / general junk / coats that the band can't be arsed to take back to their cars . The last gig we did they dumped a monitor speaker in the exact space I was supposed to stand . Yes , it's infuriating , but I'm just too meek and mild to say anything . ( until I tell them they need to find themselves a new bass player that is more suitable to their gigging requirements  )

The only time I have been given space and shown consideration as to stage layout is when I play in duos with an acoustic guitarist .

 

 

[radiophonic]

On 29/07/2019 at 01:30, Bluewine said:

Yeah, when space is tight it seems like it's always us that gets the short end of the stick 

Here's how I handle it;

 

" There's not enough room for your amp, you'll have to DI through the PA."

Me;

"No , I'm playing through my amp"

Blue

Although I agree 100%, this did massively backfire on me on one occasion. The guy before me, who sucked it up and used the DI box, set it to -20dB for his modern active bass. I rock up with an amp, DI it for FOH and with no soundcheck, proceed to obliterate the mix for the entire opening number.

[HazBeen]

I TAKE the room I need, and the band(s) knows it. So fortunately not really an issue for me.

[Dan Dare]

On ‎27‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 20:21, artisan said:

Why is it always thus ?

Because you put up with it. Time to put the kit back in the car and say byeee.

[machinehead]

One singer/guitarist that I play with occasionally has apologised to me because I'm at the back and he has his back to me.

Unlikely as it sounds, this is actually true. 😊

Frank.

[Newfoundfreedom]

As I'm the only member of the band that's fully wireless and don't need to be neer a pedal board or tethered to an amp or PA, I don't have a problem if they don't leave me any room. I'll just stand in front of the lot of em. 

[steantval]

The moral of the story is to arrive at the gig first and set your gear up, no issues then.

[paul_c2]

We always pre-visit the venue to determine how much space there will be, then the rehearsal before the gig we will do a mock setting up in the given area. Then when everyone arrives at the gig, at various times, it is smooth.

I am glad we did this - on a few occasions, its been 20-30 mins of messing around at the rehearsal rearranging things before everyone was on the same page.