I couldn’t make it due to a missed client appointment that my wife had while we were in SC for the funeral of my mother (a few of you here knew this). The client rescheduled for the evening of band rehearsal (Friday).
Eddie (guitarist) and I are fairly close, and he told me a while ago that he has been unhappy for a while due to the ego issue between he and Chris (bassist). Ironically, those two played in another band together so it’s not like their personalities should have been a surprise to either one. But when he called me on Wednesday to tell me he thinks he’s exiting, I told him to let me know on Friday morning with his final answer. His email Friday basically said, “don’t try to find a babysitter because I’m going to pack up my stuff.”
Connie, the vocalist, is crushed because she started being asked by friends’ bands to guest sing here and there and finally got the bug big-time. In spite of the egos, we sounded quite good together, and she said, “it’s pathetic that we never played out.”
Since I’m not really involved in this, I can give my assessment of the situation: Eddie has a bit of an ego, but he has the goods to back it up in spades. The guy is a phenomenal player, and in spite of the fact that he knows it he is still lighthearted and a great guy. However, he can’t be told when he plays something wrong. I’ve kept my mouth shut on a number of occasions when he’s made some glaring mistakes on key riffs that are identified with the song (e.g. the end of the intro to Steely Dan’s Josie or the bridge chords in Kid Charlemagne).
Chris, I sense, is heavily passive-aggressive and has control issues. His actions speak very loudly that he feels the band is his band so everything has to be approved by him. I had been putting songs up on Bandcamp until Chris heard one song that he disapproved of and caused such a big stink that I pulled all of them to spare everyone of the drama. (Some of you may have noticed.) Unfortunately, Chris is also fairly critical of the band’s sound, but he (and Roy, with whom he is in cahoots) also make the most mistakes (IMO) of anyone in the band during rehearsals, which is a shame because this is due to a lack of preparation and not because of a lack of talent in any way.
Don’t confuse this with my feelings toward them as people. I think they are all great people. But the cohesiveness of the band suffered because too many people thought they knew what was best and was critical of everyone else instead of just trusting in one another to play things well. In the end, you (as a band) have to keep foremost in your mind that each of the members wouldn’t have been invited to join if they didn’t have the chops, so why would you waste your energy trying to direct everyone instead of just letting them do what they do best? I don’t get it.
As far as the equipment that I had there, it was minimal: a keyboard stand, some cables, and 2 guitar stands. My real stuff stays with me at all times because I don’t have a backup rig to practice on.