my first audition, what was yours like?

sniper · May 17, 2008, 10:08:18 PM

continued from a post in Gibson as the post took off in a direction i didn't intend.

http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=591.msg8114#new

The tear isn't for the guitar although it should be worth a chunk in 30 years. It is for the memory it evokes, a jam with my black EB-3 (refinned it myself) and my new GK setup. We were thinking of starting a band called "Blue Mourning". Location Joplin, Mo.

Steve Walker was on guitar, Tom Cuthmell (sp?) on drums, Bill Harris on Hammond organ and Fender Rhoads, me on bass and Steve's friend Steve Gaines visiting from Miami on second guitar had got invited to stand in. It was spring of 1974. Tom's wife was in the kitchen along with Cassie. Steve, Steve and I got it together but Tom and I couldn't quite get it. We were jamming on 'All Tore Down' and I couldn't get the volume right for Tom without drowning him out because I couldn't concentrate. If I got it right for him, then I was drowning out the guitars. I ended up going too deep into the mud and not enough volume. My eyes, ears, thoughts and attention were all on Cassie. She stole my heart the first and only time I saw her.

Tom was the more or less leader of the group and I didn't get chosen to become the bass player. I think I played circles around the guy they did choose, but the other bassman owned a PA system and I didn't.

As I remember they didn't end up going anywhere with the group as it formed. They played the Roadhouse under a different name without Steve Gaines. Yes it was near Jasper, MO but it was west just over the Kansas line south of Pittsburg and a long time before Swayze did his movie thing. The place burnt down not long after.

The rest is history and I never seen Cassie or Steve G again. I sold my equipment, bought an Alvarez 5044 acoustic and 32 years later bought that SGRI.

What was your first audition like?

gweimer · May 17, 2008, 10:14:27 PM

I don't think anyone is going to top that story for a first audition. My first "audition" was my high school friends handing me a bass, and telling me that I was to be the bass player for the band they were putting together. Good thing I had always wanted to play! Within months, they were handing me Black Sabbath, Grand Funk, Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin, Mountain and Cactus songs to learn. I was learning from the masters in a hurry.
Of course, it came out later (after a year of stories and lies by our drummer), that his cousin really was a famous guitarist. We had always doubted him, since the cousin mysteriously failed to show on several occasions at our practice sessions.

One day, the cousin showed up. Weird ass long-haired dude playing a Gibson Byrdland. He taught me my first blues progression in my bedroom when I was 16 years old, after we showed him our best Grand Funk Railroad impression.

nofi · May 18, 2008, 06:42:12 AM

was the mystery cousin uncle ted?

Tim Armstrong · May 18, 2008, 07:23:40 AM

All I remember about my first audition was that I, well, sucked!

Didn't get in the band, either!

Tim

SKATE RAT · May 18, 2008, 07:34:05 AM

i've never "auditioned" every band i have ever played in,i was always the one to get everyone together.(i'm also the guy who books practice,gigs,make flyers,t-shirt art,books recording sessions and does record covers,inserts,etc)

ramone57 · May 18, 2008, 07:34:17 PM

my first band was a bunch of high school buddies, there were no auditions. second band, I filled in for my best friend when he decided to work at the beach for the summer. he never got his slot back, but that's partly because he went away to college after that summer. next band, I went to a halloween party and the band didn't have a bass player, so I started talking to them and ending up joining them a few weeks later. I've been lucky enough to be able to play with friends ever since and auditions were not even considered.

Barklessdog · May 19, 2008, 06:31:58 AM

My first bands I was in were a situation with friends so there was no "audition".

I do remember a horrible audition where they drummer told me I did not need to read music (i started out reading, but got away from it)

I get there and the guitarist is an egomaniac, an Al Dimeola clone. I get my stuff in and they put charts in front of me and I could not read them. I looked at the drummer, he just shrugged. I tried to play, but they were not happy as I was not reading the parts. I god a migraine headache & left. Worse experience ever.

Another time I answered a keyboardists add to audition. I come over to the house and it turns out to be a kid who lives with his mom still. I think he was still in high school, and had this organ in his basement. After that I learned to find out more before I would go out an audition.

gweimer · May 19, 2008, 04:09:40 PM

Quote from: nofi on May 18, 2008, 06:42:12 AM
was the mystery cousin uncle ted?

Cousin Ted, indeed. And after holding his Byrd, he's a lot better player than people know. If you even breath on the neck, the strings can make contact. Whatever he does, it's done very intentionally. No room for slop on his guitars.

godofthunder · May 26, 2008, 04:21:24 PM

My first audition consisted of running into a "old" friend of mine from grade school over the summer when I was 11. I asked him what was new, he said he got a electric guitar for his b-day, I said cool I got a bass for mine thus a band was formed. We barley knew how to play but we learned real fast. My brother had got a set of drums so the three of us were a core until about the age of 18. My brother Rick was the best drummer I ever player with and Craig a natural on guitar, I wish they both still played.