The Bassman Cometh?
Dan and I auditioned another bass player on Tuesday night without my dad as to not waste his time if this guy sucked. Dan and I don't mind wasting our time because we're not half as busy as my dad is, plus he lives in Dearborn which is a bit of a hike to end up wasting your time. So when Nick, the bass player, showed up he had a six pack with him. He scored points right there. All the other bass players just show up and drink the free beer we offer them. This guy actually brings the beer to us. Nice.
The audition proved to be a challenge given the lack of a drummer to keep time but, after a couple hiccups, we managed to do fine. Overall, I'd have to say I was impressed with Nick. I didn't know how many of the eight or so songs I gave him he actually learned and I didn't know what to expect in terms of what he looked like, his personality, etc. He's 33 but looks like he could pass for 26 or so. He also graduated from MSU, which Dan and I like because we obviously did too, and he was pretty laid back and fun. As for his playing, he pretty much nailed everything. The only two songs he had trouble on were 311 - "Down" and Velvet Revolver - "Slither" because he didn't have much of a chance to practice them. After showing him a couple riffs from each song he was still able to go through them with minimal screw ups. The fact that he knew the song structures well enough and was able to work his way through them impressed me the most. He came in with no crutches/notes, just bass and amp (and beer!) and he got the job done. After some songs he said we (Dan and I) sounded good and I made sure to compliment him when he did things well.
From what I gathered he wasn't blowing smoke up our asses and was genuinely having a good time jamming with us, as were we with him. So the next step is to bring the drummer in and have a full band practice. At that point we expect to get a commitment out of him so that we know we have a bassist secured or we need to keep looking. As far as I can tell at this point, we've found our guy. ROCK!
The audition proved to be a challenge given the lack of a drummer to keep time but, after a couple hiccups, we managed to do fine. Overall, I'd have to say I was impressed with Nick. I didn't know how many of the eight or so songs I gave him he actually learned and I didn't know what to expect in terms of what he looked like, his personality, etc. He's 33 but looks like he could pass for 26 or so. He also graduated from MSU, which Dan and I like because we obviously did too, and he was pretty laid back and fun. As for his playing, he pretty much nailed everything. The only two songs he had trouble on were 311 - "Down" and Velvet Revolver - "Slither" because he didn't have much of a chance to practice them. After showing him a couple riffs from each song he was still able to go through them with minimal screw ups. The fact that he knew the song structures well enough and was able to work his way through them impressed me the most. He came in with no crutches/notes, just bass and amp (and beer!) and he got the job done. After some songs he said we (Dan and I) sounded good and I made sure to compliment him when he did things well.
From what I gathered he wasn't blowing smoke up our asses and was genuinely having a good time jamming with us, as were we with him. So the next step is to bring the drummer in and have a full band practice. At that point we expect to get a commitment out of him so that we know we have a bassist secured or we need to keep looking. As far as I can tell at this point, we've found our guy. ROCK!
posted by Gino at 10:46 AM
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