That's It! NO MORE BANDS! Rant - Long
Had to share the stage with a band tonight. Everything was topsy turvy.
First of all, when I was initially hired, there was no mention of a band. I meet with the couple and badda bing! Suddenly there's an Italian band, a 7 piece band, and I am the odd man out "because I'm only the DJ."
The band was doing the intro's but I was to play the Bride & Groom entrance song. No problem, although the band MC completely stepped on the cue, which was the real reason the couple chose the song in the first place.
The Band introduces the Priest for the blessing, but had no idea where he was sitting, so he calls out a couple of times "Where's Reverend Murphy? Where's Murphy?" (Yeah, just the last name, no Reverend.)
So "Murphy" does the blessing using their wireless (kept popping and was very staticy (sp?). Best Man toast is ok, no problem. Band plays the first set of dinner music. I quietly sit in a chair off to the side and wait my turn.
Band plays the Cake Cutting song, then it's time for the Parents Dances, which I was supposed to play. During the song, the Band MC decides that a minute is long enough and motions for me to cut the song and actually says on the mic "John, that's long enough."
They finish their set and I take over. I ask the band if they're playing Lazy Mary, and when they said no, I asked if they'd mind if I did. No problem, and it's a good transition from their style to mine. A couple of uptempo dance tunes to placate the younger crowd, then back to traditional dinner music (Sinatra, JT, etc.)
My set is great! Lots of uptempo dance music, mostly disco era an the place is rocking! Near the end of my closing song (Jive Bunny "Swing The Mood" I have a talkup that encourages the dancers to really put out for the final minute of the song. Well, the band is back on stage behind me and they are tinking and plunking on the guitars and drums and basically drowning out my talkup and the end of the song. Ok, stuff happens.
Their set was again, a good one but near the end, when I was supposed to come back to finish the night, a relative of the groom who sings at every wedding joins the band onstage. She was supposed to sing 1 song. She sang 4. Suddenly, they have cut into my final hour by a full 20 minutes.
I do my best to play as many of the bride's requests as possible, leading up to the Final Dance. Here is where things get screwy.
During their Final Song (Sinatra - The Way You Look Tonight), suddenly, Mr. Band MC turns their mic back on and heads out tot he middle of the dance floor, motioning for me to fade the music down so he could talk. WTF??
He has the guests form a long chute for the couple to leave through, and is talking all over the Sinatra song. The couple at first is perplexed, but figures what the hell, and goes alon with it.
From on the dance floor, he says "John, play another song." Wanna fry an egg? Just crack one on my forehead at this point.
The reception ends (not on the note that the couple and I had discussed, but on the note HE wanted it to end on) and then the proverbial feces hits the proverbal rotating mechanical cooling device.
I ask him "what the hell was that?" He assures me that the couple wanted it that way and I just fire off on the guy. We had discussed everything prior to starting and not once did he mention that ending, although we reviewed a couple of times the complexities of our interchanging responsibilities.
I lit into him. "Listen, I know that you usually work with your nephew as the DJ, and you have basically treated me with disrespect all night long, as though I was YOUR DJ, and not a separate professional hired by the couple."
He denies it, but then I rattle off the laundry list of things that I told him were not the mark of a true professional, and how I contrasted his behavior with my own supportive and cooperative behavior....up until that point.
Suddenly, one of his 3 sons (fellow band musicians) is in my face, quickly joined by the other 2, basically trying to taunt me into a fight. Damn Italian hotheads...giving us normal Italians a bad name! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]
One of the sons says that I was unprofessional and this band has over 120 years of combined experience, to which I replied "all the more reason for you to not to behave like you did tonight!"
When we were both breaking down, one of the sons said "Nice working with you, hope to do it again" in a snotty voice. I replied that his wish would not be possible, for I would never again work with them, should the occasion arise. "What makes you think WE would ever work with YOU?" was the snotty reply.
Then, as they were out front yacking it up, one of them said to the MC, "Our next gig is when?" to which he replied, "End of next month."
Some professional wedding band they are...a month in between gigs during the busy months of May-June.
Well, the lesson learned is that, I will no longer share the stage with any band, as a result of this experience. The only exception I will make is if the band is sharing it with me, such as an ethnic band doing a short set of specialty music.
I will never again turn over my MC duties to someone else and plan to figure out the wording for my contract so as to convey this policy in a nice manner.
The thing is that this band was very good onstage. They were very good at keepin the crowd motivated with a good mix of Italian music, oompa oompa-sounding waltzes and otherwise halfway decent musical ability.
They were just complete a-holes to deal with on a professional level.
That's it, thanks for reading if you got this far and I have learned a painful lesson the hard way.
__________________
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