Open Mike Jam Session

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 11 Dec 2003 10:56 pm

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 01:21 AM.]

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 12 Dec 2003 1:55 am

Yeah Buddie...

My Favorite Tele Player/Band Leader for a couple years was playing the ONE week I wasn't with them at the local truck stop in October of this year. I couldn't go out of town with them and they were trying a keyboard player.. I was to be there though with them on the rest of their dates there.

Anyhow, the new drummer was a tweaker with a squirrely temper. I'd told them that they'd better get rid of him the previous week when he tweaked on them.

Anyhow, on the second night of the gig the drummer was frying and after the Leader told him to straighten up on the way up onto the bandstand, Tony took a swing at him. ANyhow the kid tackled him before he connected, the whole works went through the drum set and ended up off the riser with my buddy's Twin ontop of them while he choked the drummer out.

Well, they got 86ed for GOOD. Lucky, I guess I wasn't there. I kept playing with the other bands I work with. Just another one I've seen come and go...

He just wouldn't listen to Old Uncle Eric.

No wonder I used to bring a gun to these gigs..

Now I usually dont..

You never know for sure though...

EJL

PS I damn sure duct tape my chords to the legs after my Pod xt and run L shaped GLs in the amps with the chords taped to the amp and looped around a foot once so nobody can trip on them and pull the amp over and break the circuit board. Just another bush league tip from Old Uncle Eric

[This message was edited by Eric West on 12 December 2003 at 01:56 AM.]

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 12 Dec 2003 5:53 am

Been there and had similar experiences but the one I remember best was the time that a bass player set a glass of beer on my Fender Bandmaster and then turned it over with his bass cord when he stepped up to the mike to sing. The beer all spilled into the dark places inside my amp where the sun never shines.

I never was able to clean all the sticky goo out of my amp that caused misc hums and noise and finally had to get rid of it.

My preventive measures to keep that from happening ever again, has been to ALWAYS lean my amp against something at an angle so no one can set anything on it when I'm not looking!

Fred, I sure hope that beautiful blue guitar doesn't have any "road-rash" on it!

"edited"to correctly spell "bass"!
www.genejones.com [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 12 December 2003 at 09:33 AM.]

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 12 Dec 2003 6:17 am

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 01:22 AM.]

Tommy Minniear · Post by **Tommy Minniear** » 12 Dec 2003 9:57 am

Jam sessions went to hell after karoke became a fad. I have found that you end up with a semi truck load of "singers?", and very few players. They have no idea how to work with musicians or conduct themselves onstage. Most are just plain bad and rude! No jam sessions, thank you!

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Tommy Minniear
www.ntsga.com

[This message was edited by Tommy M on 12 December 2003 at 09:59 AM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 12 Dec 2003 10:01 am

Fred I am in full sympathy with you.
Some of these things can really be the pits.

I did one a few weeks ago as one of the jammers on bass, had a great 1st couple of numbers and then a POOR drummer got up...

with a woman who had been playing keys for a month...

Oh my! She played more or less in C... but we were in G, and the guitarist was a nul... but at least in G but no help rythmically
I was just doing a VERY square Chuck Berry bass line till it was over, and walked.

Yep utter trainwreck and with two trains, and a plane load of toxic waste crashed into it shortly after that.

But the house bands rotate at this place and they are all quite good. This band was very good.

So this week I brought Rosebud and the new amp and staked out a terrain in back with no one walking near me, behind the keyboard players.

The house band had me start out with them and I played all night except for a truely lame rap blues... when I got a beer.

I had a blast and am meeting good players, not idiots, though they are around of course.
Every 3rd song break there was someone asking about the steel. Looks of total amazement on their faces.

In general most of these jams are pretty lame, but I think I am lucky with this place for the time being. I just wish it weren't an hours drive away.

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 12 Dec 2003 10:40 am

Fred
My Sympathy.
I thought I had worked for ALL the Bad singers in this world then I discovered Open Mic Nite and Karaoke. What a new and wonderful world of of Opportunities it has presented me, like running the risk of having Several Thousand Dollars worth of equipment damaged or destroyed.

What have we done to these people. I know I don't go into the Golden Arches and cook hamburgers and infringe on their job, so whay should they do the same to me or you, or any other pro picker.

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<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_7_3.gif' border=0></a><a target='_blank' href='http://www.mymailsignature.com'>
<img src='http://www.mymailsignature.com/fwpdata/ ... CFAsig.png' border=0></a>[This message was edited by John Floyd on 13 December 2003 at 07:50 AM.]

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 12 Dec 2003 11:14 am

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 01:22 AM.]

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 12 Dec 2003 12:06 pm

Oh yeah.. then there's "Getting Sued"..

About three NYE's ago this plumper that had been careening around the dance floor which WAS the stage FINALLY managed to fall into the band like she'd been trying to do all night, and I couldn't deflect her with the two handed push that we ALL know, she cracked her head on my pedal rack. Started bleeding, as scalp wounds do though not buckets or anything cause it was a very slight scratch,, and since it was the end of the night I made sure I got the "weapon" cleaned up and got the hell out of there before some genius figured out they could sue somebody.

One of those instances where having a Stage Name might save a guy a few hundred grand..

Deflection is the better part of valor in almost every case though it's tempting to pull them over your guitar and choke them out with a .068 sometimes...

UE

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 12 Dec 2003 1:13 pm

......as I said in another post, I got a telephone call today from some organization named "Senior Citizens Help Line" wanting to know if they could do anything for me.

What on earth would they be calling me for, I am ONLY 72! Boy, what a reality check! It makes me think that it is way past time for me to sell my steel and my Harley and stop jogging to stay in condition and settle into a lawn chair in my back yard! Why keep trying....society says that I am old and treats me the same and expects me to act like it! Why keep trying?

www.genejones.com [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 12 December 2003 at 01:15 PM.]

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 12 Dec 2003 2:34 pm

Eric's post reminds me of a place we played called the "Black Angus", which was just the kind of joint that the name implies.

One night a drunk kept hanging over the rail that separated the band from the "patrons", while yelling profanities at the band because we didn't play some obscure song that was his wife's favorite but that we didn't know and had never heard of it.

Our drummer,usually a quiet guy who kept a reasonably consistent tempo, listened to this for awhile and then carefully laid his sticks on his snare, got up and walked to the rail and with a hail-mary roundhouse sent our detractor half way across the dance floor sliding on his butt!

That was something that I had always wanted to do but was always too cowardly to do because I sat too close to the front of the bandstand, so I enjoyed it immensly as a spectator.

www.genejones.com

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 12 Dec 2003 3:00 pm

Gene, maybe the Senior Citizens Helpline can send you a 64 year old
to kick start your Harley if the battery goes dead!

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 12 Dec 2003 3:49 pm

One day this summer I had the Harley on the driveway removing bugs and detailing it when a kid (teenager) came by stenciling house numbers on the curbs in the neighborhood.

He stood there and talked awhile admiring the bike, but lost a sale to me after he remarked: "I sure wish my grandpa would clean up my bike for me!"

www.genejones.com

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 13 Dec 2003 10:18 am

LMAO Gene !