Last Night's Gig, continued...

[bitflipper]

I long ago made my peace with the nuttiness of musicians. It comes with the wiring.

When I visited Vienna, I got excited the first time I saw a brass plaque on a building announcing that Beethoven had lived there. However, every subsequent brass plaque making the same claim was a little less exciting. There were many. Turns out that guy had been kicked out of many dwellings in his life, mainly just for being too weird for the neighbors.

So yeh, musicians have had odd wiring since forever.

Even my tolerance for quirkiness has its limits, though. Like the depressed, meth-addicted drummer who kept a loaded gun under his kick drum on stage. We parted company after two weeks. He then filed a grievance with the union, saying I'd quit without notice. They fined me $100. Fortunately, the US Supreme Court had just ruled that no one could be forced to join a labor union. So I parted company with the musicians' union as well. Sent them my union card with explicit instructions for its disposition.

[Notes_Norton]

19 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

I was approached not long ago to join a band . I looked at the practical side of it for me: At least once or twice a week to a practice 40 miles away AFTER my day job. <...snip...>

Sounds like you need to give up your day job

I've been making a living doing music and nothing but music for most of my life.

There would have been more money in my pocket if I had pursued the electronics career I was also trained for, but two short-lived day jobs doing that cured me of ever wanting to be normal. On the other hand, I've made enough money to pay off the mortgage, keep the refrigerator full, buy new cars but drive them until they are undependable, and taken nice vacations every year as close as the US and as far as Australia and China. I'm not the richest cat in the neighborhood, but I have more than I need.

Yes it takes an unusual person to make a living playing music. But I don't know any of us who regret becoming a career musician. Those who weren't right for this life have long dropped out, taken a day job, and perhaps became a weekend warrior.

I don't suppose anyone will put a bronze plaque on my house saying "Notes Norton Lived Here" after I'm gone, but I'm sure those plaques mean nothing to Beethoven or Liszt. When you're gone, you're gone and whether they remember my name or not isn't as important as my enjoying my time on this side of the sod.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

 

[Notes_Norton]

11 hours ago, bitflipper said:

<...snip...>

When I visited Vienna, I got excited the first time I saw a brass plaque on a building announcing that Beethoven had lived there. However, every subsequent brass plaque making the same claim was a little less exciting. <...>

When in Vienna the highlights for me were

• Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert
• Seeing/hearing Dvorak's opera Rusalka
• I'm not usually a church attender, but they had an orchestra, pipe organ and full chorus - the priest did some entertaining in the German language while the musicians were on break

Oh, and the food was very good. The people were pleasant and the public transportation was good and efficient.

I don't care where Beethoven lived, but I really like his symphonies #3, #4 and #7 plus a lot of his shorter works.

Notes ♫

[RobertWS]

18 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

 

I don't suppose anyone will put a bronze plaque on my house saying "Notes Norton Lived Here" after I'm gone,

 

 

Well...it's something!

Edited November 3, 2021 by RobertWS

[paulo]

1 hour ago, Notes_Norton said:

I don't suppose anyone will put a bronze plaque on my house saying "Notes Norton Lived Here" after I'm gone

Easily solved.....put your own plaque up now.

[bitflipper]

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Oh, and the food was very good.

Amen, brother.

Austria, Northern Italy, Southern Germany and Switzerland are wonderful places for those who enjoy eating. Unless you're a vegetarian.

[Shane_B.]

59 minutes ago, paulo said:

Easily solved.....put your own plaque up now.

He can't afford to, he's a musician.

[Bapu]

I could join the band virtually. IOW I'll phone in my performances and while I'm sober I still may not do as good as him drunk.

 

Sorry to hear you're going through this Dave. Life should not be this hard at our age.

[Grem]

29 minutes ago, Bapu said:

Life should not be this hard at our age.

Damn straight.

[Shane_B.]

1 hour ago, Bapu said:

Sorry to hear you're going through this Dave. Life should not be this hard at our age.

 

1 hour ago, Grem said:

Damn straight

You guys. Sheesh. I'm a hard 50 and I feel great. Excuse me. Time now for my afternoon nap now.

[Gswitz]

Sorry to read this,  Dave.

I have kinda two circles.  I have one bunch of musician friends on the wagon... and the bunch that isn't. 

I could see where the fact that they don't mix that well could be a bummer. 

I hope this proves an opportunity to upgrade. 

✌ 

[Notes_Norton]

21 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Amen, brother.

Austria, Northern Italy, Southern Germany and Switzerland are wonderful places for those who enjoy eating. Unless you're a vegetarian.

I'd add Mid-Italy (Florence to Amalfi), Spain, Czech Republic, and Quebec Canada to that list.

I've not been to France yet, but cooking in Quebec is supposedly fairly close. The food in China was very interesting, some of it fantastic, others, just not for me,

I'm not a vegetarian. I have the teeth of an omnivore, I have the digestive enzymes of an omnivore, the acidity of my stomach is that of an omnivore, and the length of my alimentary canal is that of an omnivore. Plus, there are 7 essential nutrients that vegans need to supplement. So I figure I should honor my body and be an omnivore.

I have some vegan friends who tell me that the only vegetarians are vegans, and that others are vegetarian wanna-be people. They conclude with, "What plant does cheese grow on? What plant does an egg grow on? What plant does a fish grow on?" That makes sense to me.

Plant matter is very hard to digest. I look at herbivore animals and I see things like; 7 stomachs (I only have one), extremely long digestive tracts (mine is moderate), and animals eating their own feces to run it through a second time (I'm DEFINITELY not going to do that), and I think that I'm just not built to be a vegetarian.

But I'm OK with others being vegans, as long as they aren't preaching to me about killing poor defenseless animals. Everybody has to eat what they like and hopefully what is best for them. There is more than one right way to go through life.

Notes ♫

[bitflipper]

14 hours ago, Gswitz said:

I have kinda two circles.  I have one bunch of musician friends on the wagon... and the bunch that isn't. 

How could it be otherwise? Despite the years I thought of myself as a "professional musician", I was actually a liquor salesman. When you play in a bar, don't fool yourself - you are not the product, only  the inducement.

Lucky for me, I often felt really awful when I drank, due to an undiagnosed metabolic condition. You could say I was saved by diabetes. 

[bitflipper]

1 hour ago, Notes_Norton said:

I'm not a vegetarian. I have the teeth of an omnivore, I have the digestive enzymes of an omnivore, the acidity of my stomach is that of an omnivore, and the length of my alimentary canal is that of an omnivore. Plus, there are 7 essential nutrients that vegans need to supplement. So I figure I should honor my body and be an omnivore.

Ditto. Still trying to figure out how evolution justifies nature's chocolate imperative, though.

Which is also something they do particularly well in the Alpine regions.

[craigb]

"Weird, this guy said he was a vegan, but he still tastes like chicken!" ?

~ Some cannibal probably...

?

[Sheens]

Edited November 5, 2021 by Sheens

[Grem]

20 hours ago, bitflipper said:

When you play in a bar, don't fool yourself - you are not the product, only  the inducement.

Exactly.

 

20 hours ago, bitflipper said:

I was actually a liquor salesman

Never thought of myself that way. But you may be on to something!!

[craigb]

Yeah, good luck in getting a gig if your band name is "$100 Cover!"  You know that a band name like "$1 Shots" will get on their marquis way before you.  ?

 

(I believe this is how Bare Naked Ladies got their name.)

[Notes_Norton]

21 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Ditto. Still trying to figure out how evolution justifies nature's chocolate imperative, though.

Which is also something they do particularly well in the Alpine regions.

Chocolate is one of the 4 basic food groups. In order:

1. Coffee (or Tea) because life begins with a nice hot stimulant
2. Chocolate (and White Chocolate doesn't count)
3. Pizza
4. Everything else that is edible

***

I wanted to name a band, "They're Back By Popular Demand" figuring when that ad hit the Friday section of the newspaper, it would draw people. The rest of the band didn't like it.

***

I started out being a liquor salesman in bars, but I moved on to the Yacht Club, Country Club, Private Party, Retirement Community and Condominium end of the business. Now I'm anywhere from entertainment to sonic wallpaper, depending on the gig.

But it pays as well as the bars, but with half the amount of nights, it's usually only 3 hours per night, and there is never a Thursday night in the bar where a couple of traveling salesmen would rather watch the TV.

We do have a once-per-week 'in public' late lunch gig at a restaurant with a full bar. So I guess on that gig I'm a food and drink salesman.

When we gig, we work for the house and/or the person who is throwing the party. Our job is to predict what they want from the band, and deliver that.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Starise]

I get it. Inside job during the day. No one around the house any more other than the grand children?

 I would probably do a similar thing. I did the Irish music in bars for awhile and the door is always open for me to return. No money to be made though.

Decent people many of whom are great players. I discovered it ain't really my scene. It was like an environment I could live in for a short time and do ok.

During COVID there were a few gigs in homes and I went to a few of them. The Irish call em' sessions. At one of those the person who owned the house was sure to tell us the session would end at promptly 7pm. It was about 10 after 7 so I reminded the guy what he had said.  He told me that if I didn't want to play I could go the f home.

There were a few nervous laughs. I decided I didn't really like playing with him any more. Crazy Irish. 

My path was planned not by me. Control over our destiny is really overrated. Apparently it didn't lead in the gig direction but I get along with and have played with plenty of those guys who I greatly admire. I mean , what would this world be like without the likes of Notes_Norten and weekend warriors like bitflipper?

As I have mentioned I am a church musician on a fairly regular basis. Yeah I know Notes, that one doesn't conjure scenes of joy for you  And prolly one reason I'm like a square peg in a round hole here. I played the prelude last week on piano in front of maybe 200 people and streamed to many more via a stream. The church just did a major upgrade to their streaming system. Now I don't play to see how many people I can play in front of, but compared to a bar band. Well I'll just say God Himself was listening ? That's about the only one that matters to me anyways. I actually prefer smaller groups. One thing I like about this church though is they play both classical music and some of the more modern stuff. It's a good mix there. Some seriously talented people on the teams,  and I like that I am not obligated every week since we have teams that rotate. I am also a tenor in the choir and I work the live stream at least once a month.

The really nice thing about it from a set up perspective is they have sound techs to set up and work the sound. Both FOH and a crew for cameras and a dedicated streaming board. The equipment never goes anywhere and I always go to the same place. I feel spoiled in that regard. At my age and the way i am wired I feel like it's probably the best all around thing I could do.