Sink or swim - would you cope?

[TheGreek]

The ‘Impossible’ Gig

 

You want to headline a festival this Saturday night with Nicky Bomba?” my drummer buddy Jason asked me.

“Hold on a second - Nicky Bomba? As in the guy who played for John Butler?”, I asked.

“That’s the one, brother!”

Holy crap…

I knew who Nicky Bomba was. He played on the very first album I bought with my own money:
 

14-year-old me was super into this album Nicky played drums on
 

As far as I was concerned, Nicky Bomba was heckin’ famous.

What I didn’t know was that he also played guitar and sang with his own reggae and ska band.

And now I had the opportunity to play a ton of that stuff with THE Nicky Bomba himself.

“Absolutely I’ll play the gig. What are we playing? Is he sending us charts or recordings or anything?” I asked.

“Nope - we’re just showing up and jamming on the night,” said Jason.

Woah.

No recordings to catch the vibe of the songs (not even a list of songs to check out), no charts, no rehearsal, plus I’ll be playing with a guy I’ll meet minutes before we go onstage.

This was an impossible gig.

My only thought was, “This is either going to end really well...or really badly…”

 

The Night Of The “Impossible” Gig

 

As far as festival stages go, this is among my favorites

 

30 minutes before we were scheduled to start playing, Nicky arrived backstage.

But before I even got the chance to fan-boy over him, he was giving me a big, warm smile and introducing himself to me and Jason.

But then Nicky did something unexpected.

He started introducing himself to all the other musicians who were hanging around backstage.

I thought he was just being polite, but after a while, it dawned on me; all these other musicians will be playing with us as well!

I had thought this was just going to be a trio thing - me playing bass, Jason playing drums and Nicky singing and playing guitar.
 

I was wrong...
 

Nicky gathered us all around in a band huddle and explained that he’d start off the show playing a 1-2- minute drum solo, and after he was done, he’d switch to playing guitar and singing, and that’s when we’d come onstage and start playing with him.

As far as what we’d actually be playing, Nicky was very vague… There were rumblings of phrases like, “Just follow me” and “Go out there and have a good time”

But before anyone had the chance to ask any questions, Nicky leapt from sidestage to face the crowd and start his drum solo, leaving the rest of us watching and waiting for his cue.
 

So put yourself in this position:

Imagine you’re:
 

Playing a headlining festival slot (high stakes as it is…)

For a ravenous crowd (who you don’t want to disappoint…)

With four musicians you’ve literally just met (who’ll need your support …)

Backing an artist you have tons of respect for (even higher stakes…)

Playing songs you’ve never played - or even heard before (tons of ‘unknowns’...)

 

Sure thing Gordon...
 

And to top it all off, my mum had made the trip down with me because she wanted to check out the gig. She was in the crowd filming the whole thing.

Any mistakes or trainwrecks would be immortalized for all time in high definition.

 

If you could only have ONE skill in your arsenal at that moment, what would it be?
 

Don’t worry if you don’t think it’s possible for you right now. That’s OK.

But imagine you could wave a magic wand and be given ONE skill to use for the next 60 minutes, what would you pick?

Reply to this email and let me know what you’d want to be able to do.

Cheers,
 

P.S. On Wednesday, I’ll tell you the skill I tried to rely on and I’ll let you be the judge of whether it worked or not. I’ll dig some of the old footage that my mum took from the actual gig so you can see for yourself.

P.P.S. This isn’t something I’d recommend you do unless you’re confident in your ability to hold your own and you trust the people you’re playing with can do the same. There’s something to be said for putting yourself in challenging positions in order to grow, but there’s a fine line between that and setting yourself up for failure.

[Newfoundfreedom]

I'd rely on my skill of walking away. 

[Lozz196]

8 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I'd rely on my skill of walking away. 

I think I’d rely on that too, and maybe my skill in suggesting someone else.

[Dad3353]

Recognise the key and tempo being played, and get stuck in. What could possibly go wrong..? Timid, me..? Nah... 

[Doctor J]

I'd drown him out with thunderous slapping and popping and learn him, learn him real good.

[Waddo Soqable]

Pretty much what @Dad3353 said, and the ability to "wing it" which I've pretty much done many times anyway .. Plus if its a reggae gig, you're going to be using a deep deep bassy bass tone, so you're going to be able to get away with murder there too.. 😁

[nilorius]

24 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I'd rely on my skill of walking away. 

Me too !!!

[Steve Browning]

You're the goalkeeper in a penalty shoot-out. You can't lose. Go out there and give it your best. Just keep smiling and everyone will think any mistake is someone else.

 

Hope the back stage catering was good!!

Edited July 10, 2023 by Steve Browning

[Graham56]

Listening

[Jason Karloff]

That sounds the most frightening scenario imaginable. 

Rather rent out my boxers to a wolf spider. 

[asingardenof]

I would definitely not cope. I would rather sandpaper my eyeballs than try that.

[Franticsmurf]

Skill - as @Graham56 said, listening.

 

In reality, bladder control, calming techniques, self confidence mantras. 😄

 

It's the kind of thing I'd love to be offered. In all honesty my first reaction would probably be 'Me? No way.' But that would be wrong. I think with four other musicians, I'd start off playing sparingly and build up as my confidence grew.

 

Edit: I've mentioned elsewhere that for many years I played in a band in which the singer/guitarist would 'wing it' through a number of songs whether or not we'd rehearsed them. He'd spring new songs on the band, resurrect old ones that we hadn't played for ages or inflict chaos on the ones we knew. It was awful and we eventually left him to it. But I have to admit it made me a better musician as I had to up my improvisational game and it gave me a bit more self confidence having to cope with his random arrangements 'on the fly'. Hence my listening comment above. I would also add watching, as sometimes the only way I knew what he was playing was by identifying the chord shapes he was using. 😄

Edited July 11, 2023 by Franticsmurf

[BigRedX]

If it was a genre of music I was familiar with and if I was a fan of the artist in question, then I would most definitely know (and hopefully be able to play) their style of music, I would like to think I would acquit myself reasonably well as a supporting musician.

[fretmeister]

I would give it a try.

 

If it went horribly wrong I would remind myself that the person who asked me was clearly an appalling judge of talent.

 

 

[JoeEvans]

I would definitely give it a go, but they wouldn't be getting a whole load of chord structures... But there are bass lines (eg Respect Yourself) that contain a bit of harmonic movement in a form that would give the others some room without throwing them off 

[Buddster]

The skill of keeping clean underwear! 

[msb]

Go for it.

 

 

[TimR]

Knowing your chord progressions!

 

Sounds like fun, and if you manage it looking confident and with no drama he may call you again.

[meterman]

I’ve been dropped into similar trouser-browning situations musically, and always chose to give them my best shot. Sometimes you die on your ârśè in front of thousands of punters, but sometimes you have an absolutely brilliant unpredictable whale of a time. Always give it a go, otherwise how are you gonna know?

[Waddo Soqable]

Of course if its primarily a "jam" the thing to do is to jump in first, immediately start knocking out some bass lines, naturally the drummer will join in, then the rest have got to follow you.. Sorted

[chris_b]

I have no idea who Nicky Bomba is, or what kind of music he plays, if I was asked I'd say yes.

[Raslee]

I’d get stoned and think I’m at a Funkadelic gig. 

[Richard R]

I would like a magic wand to be able to follow/predict/ recognise chord progressions. Which I am crap at as I always use chord charts.

Given that, or chord charts in advance, I would give it a go and see what happens. Without that, walk away and not screw up the artist's set.

[police squad]

On 10/07/2023 at 15:52, Steve Browning said:

You're the goalkeeper in a penalty shoot-out. You can't lose. Go out there and give it your best. Just keep smiling and everyone will think any mistake is someone else.

 

Hope the back stage catering was good!!

absolutely

[police squad]

I joined an established duo, 1989. I didn't know most of the set. I had to wing it. I listened very closely to the first verse in each song, knew the key. There could only be a few notes in the progression.

I worked it out as I went along. I became quite good at busking and have done many gigs like this. (but not for a while now)