Rehearsal (18/12)
Part of the reason I wanted to start this blog was so that I could talk about band stuff somewhat anonymously. So I thought it was worth mentioning this rehearsal.
We had a gig at Pony, a pretty hip band venue, coming up this Friday. Our drummer recently announced he was leaving the band. The Sydney show a few weeks ago was his last show with us. So tonight's rehearsal was our first with Dave, the new drummer.
Now I am not sure whether Dave thinks he is our new permanent drummer, or whether it's a temporary arrangement. The rest of us, from what I can gather, are viewing it as a more temporary thing.
Firstly, Dave plays for another band that our producer works with, and when he told them he was playing with us it caused a bit of a stir. We got accused of trying to steal him, etc etc, when in reality we had only asked if he was interested. We hadn't even played with the guy yet, for all we knew his feel would be all wrong and it would go no further. Suffice to say Jason, the singer of this other band, is a bit of a drama queen.
Secondly, Dave can be a bit... stubborn. He had already clashed with our manager over his intention to use an "inappropriate" drum kit (a small jazz kit) for our show (a rock show), sending the wrong message about our image. "This is my image, take it or leave it." he said.
Also, on a personal level, Dave has been very openly flirtatious with me in the past. He and I got along well when we first met ages ago, but since then he has said some very suggestive, potentially offensive things. Despite us both having partners, he openly perves on me. It is quite flattering to a point, which is why I haven't completely discouraged his behaviour, but sometimes it goes a bit far. So I wasn't sure how it would go being in a band with him. I had said this to Paris, and her attitude seemed to be that maybe that's what the band needs, a bit of a spark. Hmmm...
Adam had expressed his concern about this a little while ago, and asked if I needed him to say something to Dave. I assured him that I didn't think it would be a problem in a professional setting, and if it was I would tell him it wasn't on.
After all this, this was so not an issue during rehearsal. So much so, that I even forgot that it potentially could have been. And forgot to let Adam know that it was ok. Which caused him to brood over it, thinking there was something I wasn't telling him. There wasn't! I truly forgot. I think what I do is, when something I have been worried about turns out to be fine, I cross it off my list of things to worry about and that's it. Sometimes I forget that other people are still worried about them. That used to happen a lot at work actually, when I was a PA. My boss would be waiting to hear that a crisis was resolved, but because I had resolved it, I forgot that there had been a crisis in the first place. So she was waiting to hear back from me, and I had moved on to the next thing.
The actual playing part of the rehearsal went better than I expected. Which is pretty good, considering we had a gig in under a week. Tom and Will had had a rehearsal with Dave last week, when I was in Brisbane, to teach him the basics. He had done a lot of homework and written out the forms of each song. It was weird playing with a different drummer after nearly four years with Wes, but we managed ok. We were crammed into the smallest possible rehearsal room, so small I had to go behind the door. Not the best for a five-piece band with lots of gear but oh well.
Dave kept apologising for things but I think he had done a pretty good job of learning the songs and I knew the gig would be fine. We had one more rehearsal on Thursday to work out a set and run it a few times, before the show on Friday. Dave would be doing the superman phone booth trick - he had a gig with his other band in Richmond at 10:30, then playing in the city with us at midnight. A tough ask, but he was up for the challenge...
We had a gig at Pony, a pretty hip band venue, coming up this Friday. Our drummer recently announced he was leaving the band. The Sydney show a few weeks ago was his last show with us. So tonight's rehearsal was our first with Dave, the new drummer.
Now I am not sure whether Dave thinks he is our new permanent drummer, or whether it's a temporary arrangement. The rest of us, from what I can gather, are viewing it as a more temporary thing.
Firstly, Dave plays for another band that our producer works with, and when he told them he was playing with us it caused a bit of a stir. We got accused of trying to steal him, etc etc, when in reality we had only asked if he was interested. We hadn't even played with the guy yet, for all we knew his feel would be all wrong and it would go no further. Suffice to say Jason, the singer of this other band, is a bit of a drama queen.
Secondly, Dave can be a bit... stubborn. He had already clashed with our manager over his intention to use an "inappropriate" drum kit (a small jazz kit) for our show (a rock show), sending the wrong message about our image. "This is my image, take it or leave it." he said.
Also, on a personal level, Dave has been very openly flirtatious with me in the past. He and I got along well when we first met ages ago, but since then he has said some very suggestive, potentially offensive things. Despite us both having partners, he openly perves on me. It is quite flattering to a point, which is why I haven't completely discouraged his behaviour, but sometimes it goes a bit far. So I wasn't sure how it would go being in a band with him. I had said this to Paris, and her attitude seemed to be that maybe that's what the band needs, a bit of a spark. Hmmm...
Adam had expressed his concern about this a little while ago, and asked if I needed him to say something to Dave. I assured him that I didn't think it would be a problem in a professional setting, and if it was I would tell him it wasn't on.
After all this, this was so not an issue during rehearsal. So much so, that I even forgot that it potentially could have been. And forgot to let Adam know that it was ok. Which caused him to brood over it, thinking there was something I wasn't telling him. There wasn't! I truly forgot. I think what I do is, when something I have been worried about turns out to be fine, I cross it off my list of things to worry about and that's it. Sometimes I forget that other people are still worried about them. That used to happen a lot at work actually, when I was a PA. My boss would be waiting to hear that a crisis was resolved, but because I had resolved it, I forgot that there had been a crisis in the first place. So she was waiting to hear back from me, and I had moved on to the next thing.
The actual playing part of the rehearsal went better than I expected. Which is pretty good, considering we had a gig in under a week. Tom and Will had had a rehearsal with Dave last week, when I was in Brisbane, to teach him the basics. He had done a lot of homework and written out the forms of each song. It was weird playing with a different drummer after nearly four years with Wes, but we managed ok. We were crammed into the smallest possible rehearsal room, so small I had to go behind the door. Not the best for a five-piece band with lots of gear but oh well.
Dave kept apologising for things but I think he had done a pretty good job of learning the songs and I knew the gig would be fine. We had one more rehearsal on Thursday to work out a set and run it a few times, before the show on Friday. Dave would be doing the superman phone booth trick - he had a gig with his other band in Richmond at 10:30, then playing in the city with us at midnight. A tough ask, but he was up for the challenge...
posted by Aussie Rock Chick at 2:14 AM
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