Sometimes, as a sideman, there’s nothing better than having your ass kicked.
It’s a very satisfying feeling knowing that you can survive, even flourish, in an environment where you have no comfort zone. Your senses must stay sharp, your reactions are constantly being tested. There is no opportunity to drift off…
‘what’s for dinner?…look at that cute girl in the audience…..after the gig what time will’ – BLAM!
You just missed a hit. Not good.
Last night I played in La Note Bleue in Monte Carlo. It was with the Rom D Collective featuring:
Rom D: Drums
Gianluca Corona: Guitar
Me: Bass
Roberto Manzin: Alto Sax
Yannick Soccal: Tenor Sax
Michael Mwenso: Trombone, Vocals, Vibe
Now, I left Michael to the end of the list, because I saved the best till last. This boy is monster. A bad cat. Seriously – think Samuel L. Jackson’s wallet in Pulp Fiction, plus Mc Lovin, plus that 80’s Michael Jackson album, plus Leroy Brown. This dude can play, sing, dance and most of all – he engages a crowd like no one that I’ve ever played with. Audience participation is part of the show. Sitting down and watching is not an option. He speaks to the audience to get them excited about the band, he introduces the musicians, he encourages applause, he plays games with the audience, makes them sing, makes them dance. He makes them love the band.
He roasts the band too – he calls solos, whether you want them or not. He hits stops with a dance move and you damn sure better follow him. He calls tunes I don’t know and trusts me to get it together because he very quickly figures the level of the musicians he works with and then keeps us all on our upper edge.
This guy went to school playing in James Brown’s band, and it shows.
Some musicians panic in these settings – I should be realistic here – this is a hard gig if you are a nervous type of person. If you are an inexperienced or inarticulate musician, you may well crumble. You don’t need to be able to play fast, but you certainly need to hear fast.
It has been an incredible priviledge for me to work with some awesome front people in the last year. Rick Parfitt Jr. runs his rock band into the ground on every show. We literally come offstage bathed in sweat, because he goes mad – a hyper-kenetic ball of blistering rock energy and we have to get our performance up there with him. I have songs in the set where I really think my head is going to explode – I’m playing all downstrokes with a pick, standing on top of a speaker stack with my bass around my knees, running off, jumping around the stage and singing my lungs out… at some moments it all becomes too much and I feel like I’m going to collapse, but it’s an incredible, Euphoric feeling.
I started gigging recently with Laura Welsh (as a member of Laura and the Tears). I cannot begin to explain the responses that we got. We’re playing new music – songs that people have never heard before. From small club venues in London to huge festival stages, she engages every audience member and they connect immediately to what she does in a pure and visceral way. It’s real. And it sounds awesome.
These situations present an interesting fork in our musical road.
When you have someone in the band that is simply stunning, one of two things can happen to the other members. Some will sit back and say ‘that guy/girl is taking care of business, I’m in for an easy ride here. Just gotta do the bare minimum, keep my head down, play the set and then hit the beers.’ This is more common than you might imagine. It makes for crap gigs and ultimately disappointing shows and is one of the main reasons why great artists can struggle when they attempt to break through.
The other option (and this is the one that I go for every time) is to say ‘this motherfucker is on fire!!! I gotta get up to this!!!’ Now that may mean me playing my ass off on a jazz gig, busting out my chops, taking mad solos and really stretching my playing to the edge of what I can do. Or it could mean stretching my musicianship, and that is a totally different thing.
With Michael M. how funky can I give it to him? How easy can I make it for the crowd to want to dance? I need to make his job easier and my groove is a make or break ingredient. Will I catch all of his hits? Can I play that song onstage immediately in a different key to suit his range with no prep?
On the Rick Parfitt gig, how solid can my 8th note playing be? How consistent? Where can I get the biggest rock sound that still cuts through? When can I best drop that sub-octave pedal into the mix to pin everyone to the back wall?
For Laura, how can I best support her voice, bringing space and intimacy to soft moments and power to the big, smashing final chorus? If I’m only going to play one fill in a song, what notes will I choose? Where is the perfect moment, when it will have the most impact? Which bass sounds the best for this gig, but also, which one looks right onstage?
What about performance?
Where should I be standing onstage? Is there some shit I can climb on top of and rock out? (I love getting on top of the drum riser and speaker stacks ☺) When the guitar player goes for a solo, should I run over and give him some vibe? Lean back to back? Kneel behind him so that he can bend over backwards when he takes that solo? (The interesting challenge in all of this stuff, is that no matter what I decide, the playing has to stay rock solid, and that is hard.)
Musicians care a lot about the notes. Which scale fits with this chord? What note comes next? Should I use Lydian Dominant? It’s amazing how much ground you can cover with the minor pentatonic scale and a whole heap of musicality.
Get into bands with people who intimidate you. Try and rise to their level. Rejoice in the roast – if you survive it, it will make you better. Slowly, you become comfortable in a roast situation and your comfort zone expands. You become a player that people call because they know that you are the bad MF and they wanna play with you to get there level up.
Become the ass kicker.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
So true!!
love it
I think that just hit Home. I do have a tendentencie to relax and just get by. But I would like to learn how to play with Conviction!!!! To expand my abilities.
awesome one! this is so true and experienced already many time. thanks for the inspiration!
So true… I learned the hard way. I was playing in a band where the basslines weren’t particularly interesting – they were pretty boring to be fair… and I wrote them!
Thinking it was easy enough to let the frontmen take care of business and feeling safe in the fact that the drummer was pretty good too I thought no-one was listening to the bass.
I drifted off, hit a few duff notes, didn’t even care as I thought no-one had noticed. When we came offstage an audience member complemented my on my bass but then pointed out “You need to stop dropping off – you were completely in a different zone to the rest of the guys, out of time and you hit at least 6 duff notes in one song alone”. I didn’t know what to say, after all – he was right!
It was an embarrassing and painful lesson – now even when I’m pumping out 8th’s on the root I’m listening all the time to ensure I’m on beat and on note. I may be playing the world’s easiest and most boring bassline – but I’m playing it well!