But, get this, a drummer and a bassist agreed to form some kind of group if everything with summer works smoothly. Even agreed on a name

Been a while since I've been this ecstatic about anything, just thought I'd share.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Be generous in listening to suggestions and I don't see why you can't at least have some fun with it.
Bands fail because of selfishness more than anything else. People being selfish about their agenda for the band. If you can balance ideas between the three of you and make it work, you'll be fine.

All the best with it. It's the only reason to play guitar as far as I'm concerned.

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No no and no

We're willing to take all advice necessary. Basically, we want to jump into the DC punk scene, and maybe expand from there to NOVA and MD.

We plan on using the name 'The Deadbeats' although it might be taken ;-;

You, being someone who has done this for years, you could probably give amazing advice.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Good luck Buxom. Do this for fun and don't expect too much out of it except for the experience. I'm one of the 0.01% that actually made a living from gigging, and I would never do it again. lol

Now if I could hang out and practice/jam with some others, that would be my style like here a few years ago. I'm the one on the right with the American Standard.

That was fun.

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Gary

I never expected to make much money or even any at all. Punk band, money? You're quite the joker

Anyways, seems like a great time. That looks like an old shipping warehouse, is it??

I'll probably be stuck in my friend's basement though.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

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Gary

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Have fun James, play on Bro, keep us in the loop!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

You'll be ok mate as long as you go out with the right attitude. You won't make money, if you get some success you'll enjoy trips away where you don't make a loss.
Rules of the Punk scene.

1 Be ready for everything to mess up right at the last minute.
2 Be prepared to be abused by other bands. All the "working class" ethics lauded by bands don't mean anything. We had very bad experiences. After driving 300 miles to support them we're told by them "you can't use the dressing room, it's ours. You have to go on after us. We are the band, you do as we say!".
It's not nice to be treated like that, especially when the headline act are crap and couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. I ended up scrapping the lead singer of that band in the carpark.
3 Be exceptionally vigilant about your gear. (There is no scene spirit when your carting round half decent gear and someone takes a shine to it or some smackhead decides he could get plenty of horse for your amplifier).
Consequently other bands that you expect to be bad to get along with are awesome. Conflict and Crass, I thought "here we go a load of political veggies are going to preach at us about how we shouldn't be a beery, fun band". They were a load of fun, I had a great time with em. Same with Xeptics. Which brings me on to my next point.
4 Make friends. With other bands. With audience members. When things get to you, cos the punk scene is very fickle. Then at least you'll have made some friends to see you through till your flavour of the month again.
5 Decide what your going to do and stick by it. We're a three chord, somewhat melodic, mid paced band. We tried to do a hardcore album some time ago. We had no problem playing the stuff. I grew up playing thrash, the drummer was lightning too. It wasn't bad at all but confused a lot of people. We didn't please the hardcore crowd and baffled our fans too.

You ought check SBLS's band Mr Solarcaster. I'm dying to buy something off em. Is Chicago far from you, they're well worth checking out. Brads band The Unlucky 8s are fantastic too. Very 79-84 Blondie meets Costello meets The Cars.

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No no and no

#1 always seems to happen. I'll be prepared. (Pickup thing is a great example of that)
#2 I've always assumed that most people are generally a bunch of asses, check.
#3 YES, while playing? Because I don't think the average druggie has the arm strength to lift about 200lbs of pressed wood and different kinds of metals, especially during playing. between sets, correct?
#4 Question, do the older bands play pranks on or haze the noobs?
#5 this might be the toughest thing of all. We have complete opposites. The bassist is from a mariachi band and the drummer has been playing metal forever. I'm just kind of in the middle for tempo, but have enough room to slow down or speed up. Is having double bass a good or bad idea?

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I'm trying to schedule a jam session with the drummer, but his dad won't budge.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Expect nothing... and you won't be disappointed!

I've been playing in bands for 3/4 of my life now (about 48 years behind my guitar) and I love it, can't stop and don't want to. Along the way I have met hundreds of musicians who were into it for the money (or the fame, good luck with that) and wondered why they couldn't seem to get rich at it. I learned long ago that even if your advice is good and well intentioned, most other people (and especially musicians) DO NOT want to hear it! So here I am again...

Truth is, if you are halfway good at what you do AND you can have FUN doing it, the rest will take care of itself - if you have fun, your audience will have fun. I have made a lot of money playing and singing, though I spent most of it on more guitars, more amps, more PA, etc. Today I am doing most of my singing and playing out in a duo (no more drunken drummers or lackadaisical bass players) and I am having a ball.

Still buying more guitars with that gig money, too!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

+1, Dennis!

And the "robots" always keep the tempo, are always in tune, and never have any "girlfriend issues".



Rawk on!

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY