Hey youtubers, my (insane) friend Roland got an invite from Roaring Records to perform at North Beach and thought ANGRY Laughter needed a bass player, drummer and lead singer and since my son has a bass he asked me to play it. It didn't seem to bother him much that I never picked up a bass before and I'd only have like a week to learn the instrument and songs for an entire show. :) It was actually worse than that. Most of the songs were originals with no bass music so I had to dream up some bass parts for all but one song. For this song, Something, at least I found a TAB online...but had to rewrite 25% of it. :( Plus, having some music wasn't that comforting. It meant ppl could easily tell if I hacked it up. Like it couldn't get more complicated and I couldn't have less time. Wrong. I got strep and was laid flat for 3 days, there was no lead singer prospects and the drummer was a no-show, a band member was on vacation so we could only practice this together an hr before the gig AND, come to find out, they were charging $12 at the door and there was $1,000 riding on the gig. We just saw a band that was awesome and only had a $10 cover so, yeah, yikes, a little pressure to say the least.
The whole idea was totally ludicrous but I thought it'd just be fun to try. At the time I listened to this youtuber/singer/songwriter/comedian/actor/etc. who said "you know what, youtube's meant for embarrassment" and "you should record yourself singing an embarrassing song or something even if you're not a good singer." So, that was in my head when Roland asked me the favor and I said what the heck. I thought it'd be hard to be less good than never having played the bass before so this was a good match for the youtuber's challenge! Roland didn't put a mic in front of me so he's a hair shy of being absolutely certifiably insane lol so you'll have to wait on my little youtube singing debut however lol.
And I thought I was nearly as mentally whacked as Roland to agree to even try a live gig w/o knowing the instrument but I liked the challenge and it was actually a blast and I'd do it again in a blink. If you never tried, you should.
If you aren't a bass player, you prolly don't have an ear to tune into the bass part on this youtube. AND, If you are a bass player, you'll prolly hammer this first attempt at a famous song with a pretty demanding bass part. But, oh well. I did better in practice and screwed up at least a few times on stage--where I couldn't see the music--so no need to cmt on that of which I am well aware of haha.
"We were doing this for fun so if it's not wonderful, I'm sorry." :) And, my apologies in advance to the Beatles. :)
Maybe I was too stupid to be nervous. My main concern was potentially wrecking the band's chances of being asked back. But, the promoter asked us to perform at his next gig so somehow we pulled this off and the saga (and the blisters on my fingertips) continue lol.
My apologies also in advance for the video. Turns out leaving a video camera in an ice cold Chicago truck all night is not great for video quality. Apparently bringing ice cold gear inside triggers condensation on the write heads and the result is huuuuge smeary flares from anything that catches the strong stage lights. Having to take the stage, there was no time to find a fix. But, I tried some tricks in my little video studio to downplay the flares in post but that resulted in an obviously darker video than I'd like. I'm still posting it cuz A) we are only doing this for fun--not to go Platinum--and the audio survived OK and B) our friend Bob photographed the gig so I tacked on a bunch of his shots that turned out a lot better than my video cam shots. Those are after the credits and show what you can't make out in the video. Special thanks to Bob for all his hard work on those wonderful shots!
Something (The Beatles)
Performed by ANGRY Laughter (Cover)
13-JAN-2008
Hosted by Roaring Records
North Beach Venue
Downers Grove, IL
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FiHa - Angry (official video)by Fihaband56,148 views
You go Sam!!! I always loved this song too.
winjunk 4 years ago 2
your lead singer sounds much like Eric Clapton, anyway, nice job, the bass didnt sound bad by the way, good job on short notice.
BassGuy555 4 years ago 3