Performance Assholes-ness

[vhollund]

I think B is more likely à pianist

[JonR]

Originally Posted by vhollund

I think B is more likely à pianist

Oh well, in that case...


Somehow there's always something wrong with a pianist wearing a leather jacket... it's like those idiot synths some keyboard players wear round their neck in a dumb attempt to pose like guitarists...
You never see really cool keyboard players doing that.

(Now I get the feeling someone's going to post a pic of an undeniably cool keyboard player doing just that...)

[vhollund]

You never see really cool keyboard players doing that.

Well...

Except maybe for George Duke, Chick Corea and Herbie Hankock ... (?!)






And this girl

[GovernorSilver]

Wow. Never thought I'd see a keytar thread on TGP.

[ex-beerdrinker]

Originally Posted by Guitarchitecture

Here's a gig nightmare story. It's a little long but it may offer another perspective:

I DID lose hearing on that gig (my ears were ringing 3 days later) and the guy had no clue about sound, but I was out of line and acted poorly in yelling at him.

.

You had every right to tell him off and should have told of anyone else in charge of that nightmare gig. He caused you permanent hearing damage. The sad truth about this biz is sometimes you have to be an asshole to make some of these people get their job done because they are anything but professional, many times bottom of the barrel work ethics so to speak, and they won't understand anything less than you yelling in their face.

Perhaps if you are well known musician they might try a little harder for you, but the average Joe might have to push a bit to get the same results. In hind sight it's natural to feel bad about it, but at the time it happens it's probably the right thing to do.

[JonR]

Originally Posted by vhollund

Well...

Except maybe for George Duke, Chick Corea and Herbie Hankock ... (?!)






And this girl

OK you win! (Esp the Chick Corea pic, leather jacket AND posey synth!!)

The chick (as opposed to Chick), of course, may be cool for other reasons. (I somehow suspect she may not be able to play that thing...)

[Michael_V]

Originally Posted by GovernorSilver

Highly skilled guitarists that I have seen (or even met) who are not assholes:

Allan Holdsworth

Pat Metheny (PA went south on him during his Orchestrion show, he smiled and kept playing, then briefly got out of the way when his personal army of assistants set up 4 Bose PSAs around him)

David Torn

Preston Reed (friendliest guitarist I met at the NAMM show)

Nels Cline

Michael Chapman

Max Ochs

Jennifer Batten

I saw Phil Keaggy live years ago. Something went wrong with the sound but rather than fretting over it, he just grabbed his acoustic guitar, sat on a stool, and started playing unplugged. After a few minutes of absolutely virtuoso playing to a completely silent room, he stopped, smiled, and good naturedly asked the now awed audience, "well, what would you do?"

Everyone laughed and the show went on.

That was professionalism, baby.

[JonR]

Originally Posted by Michael_V

I saw Phil Keaggy live years ago. Something went wrong with the sound but rather than fretting over it, he just grabbed his acoustic guitar, sat on a stool, and started playing unplugged. After a few minutes of absolutely virtuoso playing to a completely silent room, he stopped, smiled, and good naturedly asked the now awed audience, "well, what would you do?"

Everyone laughed and the show went on.

That was professionalism, baby.

I saw Stephane Grappelly do the same thing in the 1970s (with Martin Taylor on guitar). He was playing in a big hall, and the PA kept playing up. Eventually he picked up the mic stand and flung it aside, and the band played totally acoustic for the rest of the night.
It's the kind of thing that makes a good gig really memorable, because you pay even more careful attention than you normally would. It's like a barrier is removed between you and the artist; there's a real intimacy, as well as total purity of sound.

[mignano]

It can be frustrating having a bad sound guy, but after you play many many shows night after night, you begin to realize that 95% of sound guys are piss poor, or just do not care.

You also begin to realize that live music is an imperfect situation. Every live show you play will present new challenges, whether its a bad monitor mix, bad acoustics, broken equipment, lame audience, noisy wiring/lights in the venue, or if you're outside you have to account for weather, wind, too hot, too cold, etc etc etc.

Once you realize this inherently imperfect situation, you stop expecting everything to be perfect and you learn to play your best no matter what the environment throws at you.

You may also remember that music is a gift, and should be enjoyed, celebrated, and not taken too seriously. Thats what its for.

[PRSman25]

Originally Posted by sixesandsevens

Now that is sigworthy.

I am SO stealing this.