Played my first wedding gig

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
This is wierd...I mainly play blues based music and one of the bands I'm in got hired to play a wedding. A blues band at a wedding. I just think that is so odd. No we didn't have to do Daddys little girl and all the other wedding schtick, thank God. The original plan was to play 75 minutes, then a 15 minute break, then do another 90 minutes. We ended up playing a total of eighteen songs, as somebody was always using the PA for different wedding announcements and stuff. Cool! It was an easy gig, I just felt a little out of place. It worked out that we each made over $22.00 per song, per man. Yea! The people actually danced. We played Politician by Cream. I did Hootchie Kootchie Man. At a wedding. Not the most danceable tunes here folks....Bizarre.
One thing bugged me though....the guitar player....great guy....killer player, love playing with this cat, he was noodling around on his guitar before we went on...I'm thinking, Geez this is somebody's wedding, STFU! But he played for like 5 minutes, just wanking around, moderately loud....If I did that I would have had rice thrown at me....I just don't get guitar players... And I hate it when you have to break down your drum set around their precious guitars that they don't have the common courtesy to get out of the way. I'm so scared I'm going to knock my good friends 61 Telecaster over..You would think that when they see me gingerly stepping around their precariously perched guitars, with an arm full of floor toms, that something inside them would make them think...Gee, maybe I should get my baby out of harms way....But no. So there's no real point to this except to share a gig story with like minded people.
 
Sounds great, Larry! Obviously the couple wanted to enjoy themselves instead of being deathly dull traditional about it. Good for them. Plus you were well-paid, well fed and well watered. Win win.

As for guitar players, most that I've played with have a screw loose, sometimes more than one. Our current guitarist appears to be sane so he must be a secret axe murderer or something.
 
freebirdgdw said:
You mean you didn't have a good 10 minute warm up/solo like the guitarist at this wedding. I think you need to start taking your playing more seriously :p
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Ha ha, if I take my playing any more seriously, I think I'll turn into a grumpy old codger....I never warm up in the venue. Even at bars or parties. I warm my hands up en route to the gig on my steering wheel, doing fast singles mainly, while steering with my knee. I do fine tune the drums at the gig, but I tap so lightly near the tension rods that no one even knows. I just think it's very unprofessional to wank around on any instrument before the show starts. Most guitarists I play with have no concept of this, even though they are great guys. I don't see anything wrong with the guitarists warming their fingers up, but geez does the amp have to be on for that? I tried expressing this "no wanking before the show starts" concept once to one of the guitar players and I was told to lighten up. OK I can do that.
 
Congrats on the gig. Weddings are so fun. So many attractive women drinking and dancing and thinking about love. I love weddings. Once, we played one, and we were hired for three hours, but the girls kept asking us to play more, so we ended up playing 5 or 6 hours...it was the most fun ever.

As far as the guitarist, I dunno why, but for me, that's always the bass player. Go figure.
 
that makes me want to play a wedding! i've never played a wedding, but the last wedding i went to had a blues band playing and everyone seemed to like them a lot. and no, it wasn't a biker wedding!

as far as pre show noodling goes, that's pet peeve of mine. i avoid it and i don't like it when other guys in my band do it. you never see the players in a well known band noodling like that. i especially hate it when the guitarist plays the first couple bars of the song they're about to play just before we play it. i think that gives it away to the audience.
 
dairyairman said:
that makes me want to play a wedding! i've never played a wedding, but the last wedding i went to had a blues band playing and everyone seemed to like them a lot. and no, it wasn't a biker wedding!

as far as pre show noodling goes, that's pet peeve of mine. i avoid it and i don't like it when other guys in my band do it. you never see the players in a well known band noodling like that. i especially hate it when the guitarist plays the first couple bars of the song they're about to play just before we play it. i think that gives it away to the audience.
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I hate when the guitarist plays a lick to a song the band doesn't play. It gets everyone excited for that song, then we don't play it, sometimes bumming the audience out, and often getting a request for the song the guitarist teased. It looks stupid saying, "We don't know it" when they just heard the main lick get played.
 
dairyairman said:
i especially hate it when the guitarist plays the first couple bars of the song they're about to play just before we play it. i think that gives it away to the audience.
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I'm right with you brother. I tied mentioning this once to the same guitarist I mentioned previous. His reply? Lighten up!

mrchattr said:
I hate when the guitarist plays a lick to a song the band doesn't play. It gets everyone excited for that song, then we don't play it, sometimes bumming the audience out, and often getting a request for the song the guitarist teased. It looks stupid saying, "We don't know it" when they just heard the main lick get played.
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Right? So true. Like bait and switch, it's like fibbing. Why am I so concerned with minutia like this? That really bothers me too. If I was the leader of a band, I would run a really tight ship. I'd be cool about it, not like Buddy Rich, but there would be definite do's and don'ts.
 
Wow.... yeah that's really not cool to be warming up throught the amp like that... i mean I would take a practice pad to gigs and warm up on that in the car before the show or off to the side of the stage / backstage or whatever... You're totally right that he could have just unplugged or turned off the amp for that.
Good job on the wedding though... what's your band's name, do you have a website? I'm from Harrisburg and wouldn't mind hearing some recordings. Also if you ever play out this way you should definately let me know.. I'd come check you guys out.
 
dairyairman said:
i especially hate it when the guitarist plays the first couple bars of the song they're about to play just before we play it. i think that gives it away to the audience.
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Yes, it takes away some of the magic. It's not a big deal to me, but it's better if one minute there's just the sound of talk and then next the air is filled with sweet music. When a band is "on" it's the best thing.
 
Pollyanna said:
Yes, it takes away some of the magic. It's not a big deal to me, but it's better if one minute there's just the sound of talk and then next the air is filled with sweet music. When a band is "on" it's the best thing.
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exactly! stuff like that kills the magic and anticipation of the show! when was the last time you saw the guitarist for a major act goof around for several minutes before the first song starts, or play a lick from some song they don't play? it's rare! a tight act knows better!

that goes for drumming too. i don't think the audience is too keen on hearing random goofing from the drummer in between songs. to me that's unprofessional.
 
Good stuff. it's good to be professional when playing gigs, especially at things like weddings. When we have done weddings, everyone is quiet until we start. it's just more professional. we all warm up before hand, but the guitarists are unplugged and id be on a practice pad. It is more of in an impact when everyone comes in with in a bang, instead of some noodling before hand. It infuriates me when players on any instrument, start playing through parts of the song before we actually play it. At weddings, its worth working on segues between the songs to keep the audience on the dance floor. It might also be worth recomending to your guitarist that he gets a guitar stand. Our guitarists drop their guitars in the stands and keep them out of the way.
 
Really, guitarists sometimes have no clue. Like when you're doing a song, everybody's dancing, the song ends, and the guitar player has to make tweaks to his amp, which nobody else can hear anyway, and I'm thinking....You're missing the big picture here, quick start another song, don't lose the momentum....people start walking off the dance floor and the guitarist is oblivious of the opportunity (to let the guests have a good time dancing) that is slipping away. Or they play a song that you can't dance to right when everyone is primed to shake it. To me, the MAIN reason I drum is to get the girls out on the floor shaking what they got, because that's what drives the universe. The guys get to be guys and get next to the ones they want, the girls just love to show off their sexiness, it's fun and exciting and very visual, everyone gets hot and thirsty and turned on, so they order more drinks, the bar owner is happy, and the band can do no wrong. Yea, turning your treble up is more important than that, the guests can wait. And they down us drummers. I for one have had it with that imbalance.
 
oh yeah! and then when they turn up the treble with their guitar facing the amp that triggers an ear splitting shriek of feedback that sends everyone running and holding their ears!
 
This is morphing into a guitarist bashing thread. Gee I think I'm enjoying this ha ha.
Really they think they are the center of the universe and that people are there to see firsthand how great they are. No, people don't want to come out to bars to get close to the opposite sex, and get a buzz going, they want to bask in the greatness that is The Guitarist.
The big picture is it's our job to facilitate the intermingling of the patrons. Not to be adored for playing well. If you think about it, in a bar type situation, all senses are stimulated, Chicks are dancing and just move so fine, they smell great, they look great, you eat jello shots from their belly buttons, they bump and grind on the dance floor, sexual energy flows, the music is all around and people are altering their consciousness with various substances. It's good to make sure that just flows right along smoothly.
How come most guitarists don't see that? I see it plain as day.
 
when people ask me to play weddings I always at least double the price. Everybody thinks its a real great idea when they are drunk at a gig to get this cool band for your wedding, and then they try to haggle the price. It's a freakin saturday night! no we won't play for half price.

Also they think they want a rock band and how cool their wedding will be but as soon as grandma shows up they are sweating bullets and want a bunch of ballads and dinner music.

as far as the dance floor goes, as a drummer make sure your song list has some sure fire dance tunes that you start with a drum intro. I have about 5 or 6 of these songs and once the dance floor gets going I can keep it going until the dancers are begging for a slow song. alot of times my band mates thank me for breaking into songs because they are usually blanking on what song to play next. The set list goes out the window too when there is hot chicks on the dance floor, I will play brown eyed girl if I have to.

guitarists: I hate when they warm up with their amp on it's so stupid, it's not like they have to deal with any of the variables that drummers do as far as the room sound and tuning their instrument is a breeze compared to what we deal with. I play at alot of bars and pubs were people are eating dinner and I don't even like to do soundcheck if I don't have to. I have a pad and I warm up on that so i'm ready to go, but I don't like to noodle around.

another guitarist pet peeve is when we play festival sets or shows with multiple bands they don't tune their guitars until they plug in their pedal board and waste like 10 minutes tuning. I am always set up and ready to go and the guitar is always the last to be ready.
 
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