Thursday, October 16, 2014

Looking for a frontman? Good luck

A FRUSTRATED LOCAL musician recently posted this message on Facebook.

"This just blows my mind!! We have a KILLER band with awesome musicians, a kick-ass setlist and NO ONE in this area wants to step up and be a frontman/singer??? C'MON, REALLY???"

Really. 

I'm sure these guys are good. I hope they find somebody. It ain't easy, doing the weekend warrior rock and roll thing. Best of luck. They sound like good guys and if they find their man, I'll go see them play if they are in Quincy. I hope they keep the attitude positive.

Of course there are a bunch of comments, most from frustrated musicians who want to play in bands but aren't in bands. Quincy's music scene is dead, nobody wants to listen to great kick-ass music, bars and venues won't pay bands what they are worth, blah blah blah.

Particularly grating was a comment that bands don't want to work and won't change set lists.

I play in several bands. Pepper Spray is just for fun and gets together for a paid gig every now and then. The Cheeseburgers play a lot. If we wanted to, we could play three of every four weekends within a 100-mile radius around Quincy. A few years ago, we played almost 40 gigs in a calendar year.

A band from LA played in Quincy! They Rocked.
There are local musicians who are jealous and don't like us, and that's fine. We don't apologize for what we are or what we do. We play good-time party music and we have a lot of fun.

We have a rock solid drummer and bass player. We have a lead guy who lets it rip. We have a keyboard/sax/singer/guitarist who plays everything and is an incredible musician. And we have me, a goofy front man who just likes to sing and strum have a good time.

I got really lucky 4 1/2 years ago when I was asked to join The Cheeseburgers. They were already established.

The guys have jobs and families and other stuff. That comes first. After our show Saturday at One Restaurant in Quincy, we are off for a while and we only have a few other shows scheduled this year. And it's all good.

If you want to play in a band around here, don't bitch about the horrible music scene and how you can't get gigs. Work on your craft. Talk to the venue owners. Go see other bands and find out what works and what doesn't. If you are really good, you can do the original music thing like Fielder or Seth "Freight" Wade or Cheeks McGee.

Double the double reed Oboe.
Whatever your style of music is, stick to it and believe in yourself, and don't blame everybody else for a lack of opportunity. Maybe you need to move out of the small-town music scene and broaden your horizons, since you have such great kick-ass music to play. St. Louis is two hours south, Chicago is a train ride away and Kansas City, MO a 3 1/2 hour drive.

And if you think it's easy, if you think all you gotta do is show up and play and get paid, and if you think it's everybody else's fault that you can't get it together, well ....

You are sadly mistaken.

No comments:

Post a Comment