Musicians are Babies

Okay, since Missy says that I just rant about being a poor musician, I figure I should write at least one rant about the music business. Musicians are not only babies, but jerks too. Of course this doesn't apply to all musicians... certainly not to myself or any other musicians who might be reading this... yeah... ahem. Anyway, I played a couple of gigs this past weekend which made me lose a lot of faith in my colleagues. On one, the band was full of excellent players, the pay was good... no, very good for this type of gig, the music was top-notch, and the audience was receptive. All this, yet half the band whined at every chance they got, begrudgingly followed any requests from the very patient bandleader, and even tried (almost forcibly) to end the gig early when the crowd of partygoers was getting thin. I have a great deal of respect for everyone that was on that stage with me, yet I had never been so offended by the lack of professionalism. On the other gig, it was quite the opposite... the bandleader had dragged a group of mostly eager musicians into playing a gig that paid about one fourth what it should. He then proceeded to run the whole affair by a combination of volume and condescending attitude, yelling throughout the night about how this or that should be done, and how we were basically doing everything wrong. Just when I thought I was simply having a bad weekend, and surely other musical situations were better, I talk to my best friend... who had just played a gig out of town which featured it's own example of extremely childish behavior. Ah well.... Do I have any great insights here? Nope. I just hope that twenty years from now someone else won't be writing about my lousy attitude. I enjoy what I'm doing too much for that now, and if that ever goes... I need to quit.

Moving beyond all that, tonight was good. Played a free gig, which usually only gets you more free gigs, but tonight I got some smiles, gained some inspiration, and even grabbed a spoon. Not too bad... and so, I leave you with a little humor:

A young boy is talking with his mom and says, "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a musician."

The boy's mom replies, "Oh, now son... I've told you before... you can do one, or you can do the other... but you can't do both."