3 bassists in a band

[Oomo]

At Jazz Re:Fest up in London today, and think this is the first time I've seen a band with 3 bassist and no guitars.

 

Not sure I recognise what they were playing (all 5 strings though).

 

Great band, though not convinced three were needed...

[asingardenof]

It's been done before

[Maude]

Freebass. Peter Hook, Andy Rourke & Mani (Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths & Stone Roses (among others)). 

[tony_m]

Evil Blizzard, just the four bassists here (three fours and one fiver)...

 

(line-up has changed slightly since, now down to just the three basses, plus one guitar and various random noises)

 

 

 

[Mykesbass]

Mike & the Mechanics have three bass players when they play live. Fortunately not all at the same time!

[Baloney Balderdash]

 

Also I used to play bass in a hardcore and noise rock influenced math rock band that consisted of a guitarist/vocalist, 2 bass players and a drummer, me having the role as sort of a lead bass player, using a brighter tone and alternating between playing melodic parts, noise parts, counter parts to both the other bass and the guitar, or playing unison with either the guitarist, just one octave lower obviously, or the other bass player, depending, whereas the other bass player filled out the more traditional, consistently supportive, role of a bass player.

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Hellzero]

Mildje!: My project almost 20 years ago with 3 basses and 1 drummer and a single track of 45 minutes named Stuyvenbergh (which means mountain of dust in ancient Dutch) and subtitled Arhythmic Deconstruction... It says enough.

 

6 months of rehearsal for a unique concert that was sold out...

[casapete]

What about Spinal Tap’s appearance at the ‘Live Earth’ benefit gig in 2007, which featured them 

playing ‘Big Bottom’ with ‘every bass player in the known universe’. Brilliant. 

[TheGreek]

Don't forget Mass Mental at LBGS 2016 - Trujillo, Mark King and Armand Sabal-Lecco

[ahpook]

There was a band called Rothko who had three bassists.

[ahpook]

On 30/07/2023 at 15:47, ahpook said:

There was a band called Rothko who had three bassists.

 

And here they are

 

 

[TeresaFR]

I wouldn't want to share a stage with even one other bassist, not while we're both playing bass anyway.

[Dan Dare]

I suppose multiple bass players in one band keeps some of the terrible bassists out of other bands. Silver linings and all that.

[ahpook]

20 minutes ago, TeresaFR said:

I wouldn't want to share a stage with even one other bassist, not while we're both playing bass anyway.

 

I think arrangement is the key. The band Tortoise used to play with two drummers and two bassists - their interlocking parts were fantastic to listen to.

 

I played in a improv band (with a BC member - sorry, names escape me) with two basses on the go. You just have to think in a different way to that which usually would.

Edited August 1, 2023 by ahpook

[Baloney Balderdash]

53 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

I suppose multiple bass players in one band keeps some of the terrible bassists out of other bands. Silver linings and all that.

 

Such as these?:

On 29/07/2023 at 23:57, Baloney Balderdash said:

[Supernaut]

Loads of bands exist with two bass players but for some reason, one of them is called 'rhythm guitar'. 

[Dan Dare]

5 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

Such as these?:

 

You know, I don't think they actually play in a band together. A one-show get together, featuring a few prominent players isn't really what one would call a band. More a bassists' wankfest.  Any further examples for us?

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

 

You know, I don't think they actually play in a band together. A one-show get together, featuring a few prominent players isn't really what one would call a band. More a bassists' wankfest.  Any further examples for us?

Well, it wasn't just a one off show, they toured like that and made an album together as well.

 

Victor Wooten also have a project together with Steve Bailey called Bass Extremes with several shows and a couple albums behind them, where they invite and cooperate with other bass players making bass centered music as well, their latest album for instance features a track that they composed and recorded together with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor.

 

Probably nothing you wouldn't call a wankfest though, even if that doesn't automatically make it so.

 

It's easy to write off everything that explores new territory and push progress forward, hence falling out of the norm, and that you therefor refuse or even right out fail to understand, as wan k or nonsense, but in the end that is your loss really.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Lozz196]

I was in a band where 2 of us played bass, I took the more traditional bass role, the other bassist took a more Hooky approach. We also had drums,  3 guitars, keyboards and 2 singers so quite a lot going on.

[ahpook]

13 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

It's easy to write off everything that explores new territory and push progress forward, hence falling out of the norm, and that you therefor refuse or even right out fail to understand, as wan k or nonsense, but in the end that is your loss really.

 

 

It's a matter of personal taste as to whether one thinks something has artistic merit, or any form of merit at all

 

To say someone who doesn't like something is merely as not liking it because it is 'outside the norm' or is 'failing to understand' it is ignoring the essentially subjective nature of taste. It absolutely implies that you have a privileged viewpoint, and IMHO not an opinion anyone engaged in an artistic pursuit should hold.

 

As an example - I don't have a great deal of time for representative visual art, but I don't regard anyone who likes it as missing any point or being unable to appreciate alternatives.

 

It's just their taste, and they're perfectly entitled to it

 

YMMV, of course

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by ahpook

[Dazed]

Pah! Three bassists….. why so few, you really need four bassists!
Everyone, meet Evil Blizzard

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Dazed

[Dazed]

On 29/07/2023 at 21:06, tony_m said:

Evil Blizzard, just the four bassists here (three fours and one fiver)...

 

(line-up has changed slightly since, now down to just the three basses, plus one guitar and various random noises)

 

 

 

Damn I missed your post! 😄 ah well a band with 4 bass players needs all the exposure they can get. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, ahpook said:

 

It's a matter of personal taste as to whether one thinks something has artistic merit, or any form of merit at all

 

To say someone who doesn't like something is merely as not liking it because it is 'outside the norm' or is 'failing to understand' it is ignoring the essentially subjective nature of taste. It absolutely implies that you have a privileged viewpoint, and IMHO not an opinion anyone engaged in an artistic pursuit should hold.

 

As an example - I don't have a great deal of time for representative visual art, but I don't regard anyone who likes it as missing any point or being unable to appreciate alternatives.

 

It's just their taste, and they're perfectly entitled to it

 

YMMV, of course

 

 

You are missing the context of which my reply was written, as it very much seems as the person I was replying to was talking in absolutes themself.

 

There's a considerably difference between something not being to once personal taste, and then to not recognizing it as being a valid artistic impression, the latter would indeed be narrowminded, which is exactly what my reply addresses and should be see as a comment on (Please look at the whole conversation this was part of, and comments from said person).

 

Context please.

 

If I had written what you quote me for out of context as a general reply to the topic, sure you would be right in just about everything you say, but that is not actually the case, it was very much a reply to a specific reply, or rather a couple of specific replies from a specific person (which ought to be clear from the quotes included in the post you quote me for. Please look at the whole conversation this was part of, and comments from said person).

 

22 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

I suppose multiple bass players in one band keeps some of the terrible bassists out of other bands. Silver linings and all that.

15 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

You know, I don't think they actually play in a band together. A one-show get together, featuring a few prominent players isn't really what one would call a band. More a bassists' wankfest.  Any further examples for us?

Edited August 2, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[ahpook]

11 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

You are missing the context of which my reply was written, as it very much seems as the person I was replying to was talking in absolutes themself.

 

There's a considerably difference between something not being to once personal taste, and then to not recognizing it as being a valid artistic impression, the latter would indeed be narrowminded, which is what my reply addresses and should be see as a comment on.

 

Context please.

 

If I had written what you quote me for out of context as a general reply to the topic, sure you would be right in just about everything you say, but that is not actually the case, it was very much a reply to a specific reply, or rather a couple of specific replies from a specific person (which ought to be clear from the quotes included in the post you quote me for).

 

 

I stand by my reply. I do not agree with your comments and I don't believe the context (of which I was aware) of your reply changes the tenet of what you wrote, nor the validity of my comments.

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

21 minutes ago, ahpook said:

 

I stand by my reply. I do not agree with your comments and I don't believe the context (of which I was aware) of your reply changes the tenet of what you wrote, nor the validity of my comments.

 

 

So context don't matter now?

 

It was a reply meant to a specific couple of comments by a specific person, not a general statement on the overall topic.

 

That is meant as a comment on the fact of not recognizing it as a valid artistic expression, rather than it simply not being of ones personal taste.

 

I'd say there is a significant difference.

 

As said, if that had not been the case I would actually have agreed with you on this, as is in the context however I 100% stand by my comment.

 

You can't just take a sentence out it's context and put in a completely different new one, or well you can of course, but then you are in fact commenting on a hypothetical situation rather than an actual real one that actually happened, not really making it valid.

 

1 hour ago, ahpook said:

To say someone who doesn't like something is merely as not liking it because it is 'outside the norm' or is 'failing to understand' it is ignoring the essentially subjective nature of taste.

Yeah, see I never actually did that.

 

As I have pointed out several times by now there a considerably difference between something simply not being to ones personal taste, liking, and then discrediting something as not being an artistically valid expression.

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash