Team Demon/Dingus: January 2004

Monday, January 26, 2004

Quote of the Day

Dingus: "Whats a blog???"

Friday, January 23, 2004

Kev's Guide to Gig Etiquette

(Lee asked me to post this a few days ago, and my first attempt got wiped out by an errant push of a button, so I'll try again. Though this is gleaned from my years and years of gigdom [haha], it's by no means comprehensive, and I'm likely to come back and update it from time to time.)

1) To be early is to be on time; to be on time is to be late. This may sound trite, but it's true. Bandleaders will often hire a lesser player who's reliable over a greater player who's not (because the reliable guy has a better chance of improving as a player than the unreliable guy does of becoming reliable).

2) Show up overprepared for the gig. Brass players, bring every mute imaginable. Saxes, bring all the doubles you can play (OK, maybe you can leave the oboe at home). Guitarists/bassists, bring extra strings and cables. It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

3) Be discreet on breaks. I'm not saying you have to completely disappear from sight during these times (though there was a wedding reception gig I played once where the band was explicitly told not to speak to the guests); you can be friendly to guests, but remember that, in a way, you're a glorified version of "the help." It's someone else's party; if you're lucky, you'll be treated like guests, but you have to smile and bear it no matter what.

Also, if you must smoke on breaks, try to do so in a designated area and not just wherever you feel like it. It wouldn't hurt if some guests were smoking also.

3b) Do not hit on the guests!...unless they start it, maybe (haha).

4) The white zone is for loading and unloading only. Even though it's a pain, try to drop your gear off at the front (or service entrance) before the gig and then move your vehicle to the back if possible, saving the nice parking places up front for the bride's Great Aunt Tillie or whatever.

5) Dress for success. If you enter through the front, and guests are already there when you are to arrive, show up dressed for the gig if at all possible; it just looks better (concessions made, perhaps, for 100-degree heat, but it's better in that case to come in some sort of service entrance).

6) A Diminished Fifth. If you can hold your liquor, it might be OK to have a drink or two on a gig, but be conservative. I personally rarely drink on gigs, since I want to stay sharp for any possible new charts (and I also don't want to have to leave the bandstand to go to the bathroom!). If you can't hold it, it's best to stay away; I'll post the drunk drummer story eventually.

6b) However, there's a converse to the above: If a customer buys a round of something for the band, it's best not to refuse it unless you're a) under 21, b) a recovering alcoholic, or c) morally/religiously opposed to alcohol consumption of any kind. Otherwise, the customer might think you're dissing them. This only happened to me once, but the Kamikaze shot did loosen me up quite a bit before I had to sightread a big set of changes.

7) No solicitation. It's bad practice to hand out your business card at a gig if you're not the bandleader. Even if it's an innocent situation like someone looking for lessons, the leader may think you're trying to muscle in on his territory. I had a good friend get fired from a band in his younger days for doing this.

8) Be polite but noncommittal on requests. I used to play bari all the time on dance gigs. Sitting on the end, I'd be the one the chatty old ladies would come up to and request songs from the 30's that I'd never heard of. My stock answer would be "I'll see what we can do, but we might not have that one in our book." Then I'd pass the request along to the bandleader, who might not have known the song any better than I did, but at least he could make the call, and I hadn't promised something we couldn't deliver.

9) Leave the fan club at home. Your wife/girlfriend/mistress/relative/best friend can come to your gig if it's a club date or coffeehouse gig, but leave them at home if it's a private party unless you've been explicitly told you can bring someone. Jazz musicians don't, as a rule, need a "roadie" or a "posse," and it just looks unprofessional, as if your hanger-on is a party-crasher.

10) Play nice. Be the kind of person whom other musicians will want to be around. When it gets down to it, the band sounds better when everyone enjoys playing together.

(More later, I'm sure...)

Monday, January 19, 2004

"Someday We'll Find It...The Rainbow Connection..."

Now that Team Demon/Dingus is well off the ground (or as Dingus put it,"like a bat out of hell") its time everyone decided on a color scheme. Or possibly an entirely new template. (Zack this is where you come in) So, leave your comments and/or votes on the comment sheet.

Peace :>
Matt
Keeper of the Demon Flame

(Two) Pennies from Kevin

OK, I'm chiming in too. This whole thing was the brainchild (or lack-of-brainchild) of Demon Matt and Dingus and myself (thus the title), conceived while playing air hockey last night...the source of many a good idea, no doubt.

I'm not sure where this will go; it'll probably be more topical, less personal than our own individual blogs, and perhaps less mutually insulting than our Haloscan comments. All I can say is, if non-team members don't get their fill of us between those two things and this, they probably need to hang with us in person or something.

Kev out.

This is interesting...

No, wait...this is more awesome than interesting...

Already this team blog has been posted on 3 times. Very cool...Hopefully we'll get this thing set up for comments, add alot of links to stuff the team likes, and get a custom template going on...

for now, just keep posting and we'll see where this goes

Peace :>

the blog of the team
what excitement lay ahead?
picking boogers rocks.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Alright...here it is...a public blog accessable to the whole group...what have we done???

haha

Peace :>

An energetic, somewhat quirky jazz combo of three horns and rhythm, based in the greater Dallas area. This blog contains notices of our upcoming gigs, thoughtful reflections upon said gigs, and whatever else musical we might want to talk about.

: Name: Kev; Location: Garland, Texas, United States

I'm a jazz musician, music educator and college professor who plays the saxophone. I also teach a ton of private students, play in a cool jazz combo, and write and arrange a little bit.

View my complete profile

Friday, October 6: Kevin McNerney and Friends (featuring Kevin, Steven and Colin of TD/D) at the Broadway Bistro, 1101 S. Broadway, Carrollton, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Our next "official" gig will be announced shortly. In the meantime, need a six-piece jazz combo for your special event? Email kmcnerney [at] comcast [dot] net.