Where The Streets Have A Giant Mistake

A friend of mine saw U2 a couple weeks ago in San Francisco.

Seeing U2 is a big deal if you’re the type of person who goes to see U2.

Its a big show with big songs. Some of the biggest songs.

(First of all, regardless of political leanings, homeboy can still deliver a speech.)

Probably the biggest of those songs is Where The Streets Have No Name.

When that guitar riff comes in over the synth pad, heaven opens for a brief moment in time.

Then after the synth and the guitar riff do their thing for a while, it’s Adam Clayton’s turn on bass to thump those eighth notes.

My pal sent me the video he took of this song.

This is THE moment. The full band comes in and it’s everything you love about music and life.

But when the bass came in…he was in the wrong key.  The waaaaay wrong key.

And it didn’t get fixed quickly, it took a while.  On the video I could see Adam and the Edge walk to the middle of the stage trying to figure it out.  And eventually they did, but man it was painful.

The biggest band with the biggest show during the biggest moment of the biggest song.   Probably the biggest mistake Adam Clayton could conceivably make.

I just thought this was worth passing along.

p.s.  My friend said the show was absolutely amazing.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Smartest Reviewer

How come we think the smartest, most correct review is the one that talks about us negatively? 

We believe they’re the ones who see the truth, who see through us, so we hold onto it…because most of us believe about ourselves what the negative review is saying.

The thumbs down, the one star, the negative feedback, the snarky comment…

The truth is you’re the one who has put something out into the world, and it just so happens it’s being “reviewed” on any number of websites in any number of ways.

An overtly negative, hot-headed review doesn’t take courage to write. Digital courage is not real courage.

All this review really tells you is that you’ve put something out that has the potency to hit people hard and elicit a reaction.

So if you’re the type to concern yourself with reviews…the one star and the five star are both great reviews.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Renting Out An Arena

That’s what the big mamma-jamma pros do to get their show ready.  It’s not to learn the songs, or argue about arrangements or even come up with the bulk of the show ideas. All this is done beforehand.

They rent the arena to implement and tweak, for the artist and the team to get used to the transitions and the flow.  To hit the banter while walking the catwalk, hit the lighting cues, the guitar switches, hear how the in-ears react to the room.

It’s getting the show so focused and on-purpose that the spirit just might start showing up to see what’s going on…and sprinkle a little fairy dust on the whole thing night after night.

If you’re playing arenas you probably have the money to rent one out for rehearsals.

If you’re playing dive bars, rent out your mom’s basement.  Whatever applies to you.

But not for rehearsal as you usually think of it.  Not to rehearse the songs…but to rehearse the SHOW in which you will play those songs.

Do this.

If all we want to do is hear your songs, we’ll fire up Spotify.

But we want to get out of our house and experience something “you had to be there for”.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

To Be Known For It

It’s amazing how hard you have to stress your point, how many times you must share your message, how consistent you must live your story in order for people to even start picking up on it.

For the common person to think Lady GaGa is weird and artsy, she had to be weird and artsy a million times.

For Bono to have the flippant title of a do-gooder political activist, he had to actively to a lot of good and meet with lots of politicians.

For Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to ever start becoming known as the toxic twins, they had to do a lot of drugs and get it a lot of fights.

You rarely, if ever, become known for something you did once, an isolated expression.

Your only hope to become known as anything specific requires a long term message, always consistent, paired with action, genuine to the artist, with the clincher being found in the music.

If you don’t feel like you’re beating your message like a dead horse, you haven’t displayed it enough yet.

We want to know the thing you’re all about. But we’re dumb. You need to tell us (usually by not actually telling us) over and over and over and over.

p.s.  Yes, first things first, in order to push a message you have to have a message.  Yes, it will be helpful to know what your message is in order to push it.  Yes, even if you don’t know what your message is, you’re already pushing it, just not as effectively.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

If They Would Just...

You’ve said it many times before haven’t you? Haven’t we all…

If the agent would just…

If the manager would just…

If the audience would just…

If the drummer would just…

But rather than filling your mind with what other people “just” need to do for you… 

Who is saying that about YOU? And what do they just need YOU to do?

Better to focus on that rather than be the one saying it.

p.s. If you do find yourself saying “If so-and-so would just…”, graciously and tactfully do something about it.  If you’re not willing to act, it’s not worth griping about at all.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Music Money Mystery

Of the mysteries in the music business, one of the ones most often talked about, complained about, envied about…is the ever bewildering money mystery.

You know exactly what it looks like but here’s a refresher…

-struggling artist doesn’t have a side job
-songwriter without a pub deal (or hits) constantly going on “writer retreats”
-young producer has the nicest studio in town
-new band has all of the best gear known to man
-a 23 year old manager “owns” a condo downtown

You sit back and wonder how in the world are they doing this?? It’s a true money mystery!!!  
There’s always an answer and it’s never far away.

The answer to the mystery isn’t that they have writing credit on a Lady Gaga’s hit that they’ve been secretly collecting on all this time…

The answer is exactly what you think it is: They have someone giving/loaning them money!!  A parent, a trust, a rich dumb investor, a credit card, doesn’t matter…yes, they’re getting money, they’re not making it on their own.

It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting joy, fulfillment, respect, power, credibility or wisdom…but the money and what it buys can usually trick you into giving them prestige.

The answer to “HOW IN THE WORLD DID THEY GET…”, is someone gave it to them.

Mystery solved. Get over it. Onto more important things.

p.s.  The other, much much more rare answer to the money mystery is that they actually paid for it.  It took time, they worked hard, saved up, invested well, budgeted well, partnered with smart people and now they’re able to do whatever it is they want.  

Not so mysterious…and certainly attainable.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com