I jumped b@lls deep into a band where there genre is very
Diverse, learning new material on a daily basis.
Practice is fun, sometimes we take 2 3 takes on a song
That needs work.
We practice 1 a wk, again my hats off to ya!

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Just wait until you get out on the road. Sleeping in a different fleabag hotel every week. Waking up every afternoon hungover and burned out. Driving for hours in an old school bus. Getting a dose of the clap 3 or 4 times a year. Eating greasy spoon cafe meals every day with coffee made out of dishwater. You live like that for 2 years, 7 months and 4 days until that chick the singer started boinking 3 towns back convinces him he's the leader of the band and deserves to make 50% of the take each night which causes a huge fight and the band breaks up 475 miles from home and there you are without a penny in your jeans, no wheels and no way to get home to scrounge off your parents for the next six months while you find four more guys to play with. Then 20 years later when you're renting a mattress in your ex-girlfriend's basement and your favourite Motley Crue tee shirt has seen better days and you're listening to her moan right above you in rhythm with the bedsprings, that's when you remember your old buddy Eric from 20 years ago who said, "Don't join that group man, come to work with me in the government." You think about his dental plan, his 6 weeks of paid vacation each year and his 4 bedroom split with the Audi in the driveway and the cottage at the lake.

That's when it's really fun.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Epic post BMW!

BMW ,
But in the end, the guy gets the girl in a 747 while he sings
To her using Billy idol's acoustic guitar singing "grow old with
me".
Lol
By the way, no can ever tell you that you didn't try, and
No one can ever take that away.
Really, that would make a great movie.

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

BMW=Eric...
Just to continue that thought. Eric still plays guitar on weekends with his jam band. He has a nice collection of guitars, amps, and some serious effect pedal addictions. He travels but not because he has to and its usually in business class or better. He has every Motley Crue Tshirt from every tour along with pics of the band, backstage passes and ticket stubs. He also takes time to indulge in some semi professional road racing during the spring and summer. Hats off to Eric...

classic thread..I love it

_________________
1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

BMW, nice description my friend.

Now let me give the OP another perspective...

I joined a punk band when I was 14 and we started touring the US and Canada when I was 15 (my Mom is cool and she trusted my older bandmates, besides how else could a young kid ever get as much life experience as traveling in a band?) Note that this was some 30 or so years ago, when being a punk was much less accepted and indeed frowned upon (or worse) in certain locations.

Now playing in a punk band means you don't exactly get first class accommodations. Sleeping on the floor of a crash pad oftentimes means keeping the cockroaches company and being stepped on by one of your bandmates in the middle of the night on his way to the commode.

If we didn't have the benefit of such hoity-toity lodgings, we'd usually sleep in our converted school bus which almost always meant waking up parked next to the dumpster at a Waffle House in the hot burning sun and humidity of the American South in the summer time in a pool of your own sweat (no air conditioning on our bus), hungover (don't tell Mom), with flies buzzing around your head, to the lovely smell of fresh rotting vegetable and animal products.

So then you stumble into the restaurant, past your manager who looks fresh as the driven snow enjoying a nice breakfast of steak and eggs, and past a bunch of local yokels pointing and staring at your torn and smelly punk rockin' gear left over from the night before as you make your way to the toilet to wash your face and pits in the sink next to the stinky urinal before skulking back to the bus because you don't have any money for breakfast.

Needless to say, there were many times on those early tours that I found myself wishing I was back at home, sleeping in my clean bed, eating my Mom's delicious home cooking, not being hungover and having my dog and girlfriend near at hand. But when the tour was over and I was sitting at home, I'd wish I was back on the road, away from my boring day-to-day life, going to cool new places, meeting new people and having all kinds of adventures every day.

Then I'd go on the road and wish I was home. Then I'd go back home and I'd wish I was on the road, etc. Rinse and repeat.

On about the third or fourth tour, I finally looked around and saw how lucky I was to be doing what I was doing and decided to stop thinking the grass was greener on the other side and just make the most of the moment and the people I was with and the place I was at, wherever that might be. As Heraclitus said, you can never step into the same river twice, so you might as well enjoy it while you're there.

This philosophy of making the most of wherever you're at by concentrating on the positive and resisting the urge to whine and complain has served me well through my life, though we don't tour quite as much as we used to.

I've been gigging live since 1964. My first gig-mobile was a 1958 Chevy Brookwood station wagon - room for four guys and all of our gear - no PA back then.



Second band took more than a station wagon - I had the wagon and one of the other guys (the only one with a license as I was the oldest) drove his parents' van.



Played through high school and into college. Drafted and I played in Vietnam.



Came back from Vietnam and bought my first Fender guitar, a 1971 Tele Custom, sold it in 1977 to cover two house payments...

In the 80s and 90s played almost every weekend, 2-3-4 day gigs, everything from biker bars (Watertown, SD) to strip clubs (Wahpeton, ND) and everything in between. Made good money, went through a lot of different band personnel, stayed married, never got drunk, had my son playing bass with me for five great years. Looking back, it was all good and I wouldn't change a thing.

Today I am playing in a duo with a good friend from the 60s - we hooked up again in 2008. We play bars, private parties, holiday gigs, wedding dances and we are still having a great time doing it.



I won't stop until I'm dead... and I'll probably die with a guitar in my hands.

_________________
Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Dennis, thanks for your service!

Ahhh,the life of a musician...every one has a different but similar story...me,40+ years of every roadhouse beer joint imaginable,every kind of gig,good and bad except the big stage or big time....and it's still fun.....
me jammin' with my son's band nowadays.

Wow, thanks for your stories and experienced full
sentiments.
Don't worry, I'm just a weekend warrior and will be gigging
only when I'm not working full-time.
I have an education, and am only playing because I love
to play. I'm nearing 40, and my bandmates all work

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Life on the road is not all that glamorous, but what you learn
about life, is something that isn't taught anywhere else!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

You got that right, Mike!

My son started playing bass in my band when he was 15. We went to some pretty exotic places and we had no trouble getting him into the places I played just so long, I was told, as he stays glued to your hip when you're not on stage...

One of my favorite venues to play was Teddy's in Wahpeton, ND. This was always a wild place to play - for two reasons. First, Wahpeton was home to three very diverse groups of people - an Indian reservation, the white-collar home of 3M and a large sugar beet processing plant - Redskins, white-collars and rednecks! Put those three groups of people in a bar, throw in some area bikers and a bunch of college football-playing bouncers and yee-haw, it was always WILD!

Second reason? This bar was an old theater converted into a bar, but not just a bar, it was also a strip club - you know, pretty girls getting naked. The strip club was on the second floor, in the former theater balcony. There was one set of stairs going up and the owner had partitioned the front of the balcony, floor to ceiling, with heavy Plexi-Glass. From where we (the band) stood on stage, we could see through the glass, but never saw more than the tops of a couple of brass poles and maybe a pair of hands now and then.

One weekend when we were playing there, the drummer and keyboard man decided that my then 16-year-old son needed a bit of education in the subject of female anatomy, so they went up during a break and paid one of the girls to do a "glass dance." We were into the third song of the next set when I glanced over and saw my son playing away, but with his eyes angled up at the glass. When I followed his gaze, what did I see, but a well endowed young woman working her upper body quite rhythmically against the glass... My wife didn't find out about this until many years later. My son says he still remembers the occasion well.

So, yes, playing on the road can be very educational.

_________________
Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Some ( maybe alot) of older guys in their 50's that are in bands may not go home with all the girls ( because they are geezers now) like back in the day or drink all night long.... BUT..... Some older musicians in bands that we would hope would be better adjusted in their maturity are still acting like they are little kids in dealings with other band members as people or friends. Lieing, misrepresenting, going behind ones back, hanging people out to dry , two faced, super ego, control freak, manipulators etc etc etc. Things never really change. Been there in my young days and older (now) days. Flawed people sometimes never change. Plus the music biz can be "cut-throat" , time has no boundaries on that or people who are dowsh backz.

Now come on Stroker!

You have to remember that when all is said and done, we're still talking about...

MUSICIANS!

Sounds like you've had your share of bad experiences with the breed. But other than issues dealing with egos, narcotics, tardiness, drunkenness, alleged Carpal Tunnel, pawning gear the day before a gig or falling down drunk AT a gig, I've had pretty good luck with musicians.

_________________
Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963