...we suck, we suck hard. Even if we didn't suck at playing the songs, the songs themselves still suck. They are poorly written (not by me) kinda mod/pop songs. We have our first show next Wed and we are ill prepared. I've known the singer for a while and I'd hate to bail on him and I really want to get back into playing...but I'm almost embarassed to.

what do you guys think I should do.

oh, tough call. do you think you'll get better? can you cancel the show?

Get drunk and insult the audience. If all else fails make a spectacle of yourself. They may not remember the crappy music, but they'll remember your band if they have stories to tell all their friends.

...this was my first instinct as I'm usually not the quitting type.

fog machine!!!

Just be as good as you can be. Even if the band sucks and is going nowhere, you can meet other folks at shows. You could be that one redeeming factor in the suckiness and someone could draft you into a better project.

Two words, Dave:

full.

frontal.

Sucking never stopped Yo La Tengo. Just have fun with it.

Stage Dive

i say play as awful as you can, then as you walk off insult the audiences taste in music. that oughta do it.

Awesome, this sounds intriguing. Myspace/mp3s?

Rads never fails to come through with a shot at someone's favorite band.

Ehhh, play one show. If you're uncomfortable, drink more than usual. And if (when) it sucks, then maybe ween yourself out of the band gently.

what do you play? 'Cause if it's bass or something you could just leave and no one would notice...

I bailed on being the singer for a band in 1985. Since I couldn't play an instrument or read music I thought I'd be in over my head.

Last I knew the bass player still had that band going in Georgia some 22 years later.

Don't know how many gigs they get, but that's a long time to still be going at it.

My advice, albeit not knowing what I'm talking about, would be
to play the best you can and find ways to influence the songwriting without being hideous about it.

I've worked in radio formats I can't stand most of my life, but always look to find something about the process to like.

Maybe bands have to be the same way? It's a job doing something you like, even if the songs suck?

Graphic artists and creative writers would probably have similar advice.

i would never play in a band that i didn't think were awesome.

So you suck. Big fucking deal.

It's rock n roll, have fun, dress sharp, and if you want to keep playing with them, it'll get better and if it doesn't then quit.

If you don't like them as people, bail after the gig.

if you don't like the songs, write better ones.

If they won't play your superior songs, start your own band.

Can you breath fire on stage? If not, can you learn by the time the gig rolls around?

http://people.howstuffworks.com/fire-breathing.htm

Phil gave me this advice a few years ago (and then drummed and bassed behind my suck) and I never regretted doing it.

Actually I do know how to breathe and swallow fire...

Well, after practice today I mentioned that we obviously sound like garbage and we don't play together well...they absolutely don't want to cancel the show and they took the attitude of "if we suck, we suck." Oh well, I'm only gonna play these two shows coming up and then I'm out...I can't take the time commitment anyways since the other two don't have jobs.

obviously you should ignore the music altogethor and turn it into weird performance art type stuff. If you can, emmulate the Butthole Surfers early shows where they had sex on stage with weird medical tapes playing in the background. If you can't do that then just get fucked up and try and start fights with the audience or other band members and throw stuff at people and dress stupid, that way no matter how much you suck it's still a good show.

The Stooges Method, no?

i sound like a douche bag.
i think the point i was trying to make is i would never be in a band that wasn't really fun because graphic design is such a pain in the ass.

Still can't suck as much as the band I was in a few years back. I was fired for expressing my disgust at the idea of doing Dashboard Confessional covers.

Well, I played my first and last show with this band, I told the singer I did not have the time to properly commit to playing, he was cool with it. Either way, I forgot all the songs about 2 hours before playing so I started getting sauced. I had a nice buzz on when I got on stage so I just had fun with it, we played loud and we played hard. There is even a splattering of my blood on that stage (played so hard the nail on my thumb came off partially and sprayed a little blood. Awesome!

Anyways, the crowd kinda got into it and they were cheering pretty loud, despite the fact that I probably played everything wrong.