Decking the Halls w/o Decking One Another

The holiday season is crazy busy for a good cover band. This is the time of year every company, city, club and group of friends throw a holiday celebration, and they're looking for a good cover band to entertain the gang. Luckily for me, my band's pretty good - and I've made such great friends who're also great contacts over the years, and they consistently come to me for entertainment (THANKS everybody!) - that our holiday time is pretty busy.

Of course, the downside to this (and I'm sure it applies to any group- not just a band) is spending TOO MUCH time with the same people for about six weeks. When you factor in added pressure (a cover band has to REALLY be on its game for the holidays) with fatigue (I work 50+ hours a week in addition to running the band) with the sort of contempt that familiarity brings (four guys with four opinions seeing one another more often than any other time of year) you come up with a tasty holiday treat (aka toxic brew) called Band Tension.

And that's the irony of playing gigs at this particular time of year. I mean, the holidays are supposed to invite peace, love, patience and goodwill towards one another, right? Not always - at least not on a bandstand. One player gets pissed at another for playing too slow or too fast. Meanwhile, the slow/fast player is pissed at the complainer because he keeps screwing up the same changes in the same songs over and over. Meanwhile, another guy's pissed at the first guy because the transitions aren't quick enough, and the first guy's pissed at THAT guy because that guy pushes the transitions only when it's convenient for him. Meanwhile, EVERYBODY'S pissed at another guy who's being a bit too spontaneous with changes, and that guy's pissed at everybody else because they sound sloppy or are bitching about random things.

Granted, that last paragraph's chock full of gobbledegook, and is a (mostly) fictional account of a band's holiday dynamic, but believe me when I say those grumblings, gripes and cold-dagger stares are multiplied to the nth degree this time of year. I know I'VE been pissed off, and I'm sure the guys in my band have been pissed at me and with one another (it's like getting little ice slivers shot at my shoulder blades). Anyway, I'm kind of basing this theory on empirical evidence, mind you - just what I see with my eyes, hear with my ears and feel with my body.

So, what to do? Just grind through it, man. Do the work. Be professional. Give the client the best you have, no questions asked. Eventually, it all shakes out anyway - December passes and a new year begins with new challenges, new sounds/flavors and new vibes and personalities. It's all good.