The band didn't die yet. The chaos didn't either, lol. We were scheduled for 2 gigs in a week. Guess what? No permanent guitar player again. Our permanent one decided an emergency eye problem didn't need mentioning for a month. At least not until a few days before slated gigs.
The singer had been developing a younger band before this one to compete in a battle of the bands thing. However she said there was revolution and lack of progress in it and asked if we would take over the competition spot last minute.
Short notice, but we all agreed to.
We decided songs and would work on them alone because of limited availability for the whole band on a short fuse.
She held over 1 guitar player from the young band to be a 2nd for us. He did the 1st practice. The other guitarist couldn't make it. The holdover quit the next day, probably because we're older.
So on a Monday there was our 1st rehearsal with the perm guitarist for competition which was 3 days away on the Thursday.
The perm guitar player on Sunday mentioned, in text confirming the rehearsal date, that his retina might be detached. I asked how long. "About a month." My reply, Dude that's an emergency or you permanently lose vision." We had that Monday practice the next day. He complained that lights in the room were driving him crazy.
Tues he finally agreed to a morning appointment which confirmed detachment and had an emergency surgery slated for Weds, saying he can't play the competition in 2 days nor the Saturday.
Of course he can't play, it's a friggin emergency! But an emergency he sat on for a month without mention.
God speed for a recovery, but he had this issue for a month without mentioning it until a couple of days prior to competing.
Tues we contacted 1 of the guitarists we used once on Halloween who agreed to fill in. Ok, here's 50 minutes of songs we're playing. Be ready for a short practice Weds after work so we can compete that Thurs.
Oh, the singer still had the flu on Tuesday and her voice is still whacked Thurs. What could happen? She brought in an emergency helper singer (with no practice) we all played a sloppy show and still advanced. We won the judges vote and were winning the popular vote, but 1 of the competing bands saw they were overtaken and bought enough of their own votes to advance too. Popular vote was decided by a quantity of $5 votes purchased, no limit.
They're a good band. They're polished and have years of shows behind them. They have originals too, which was a factor. So with their extra bought votes, they won popular vote. We won the judge's, so we both get to advance. That band's drummer let both other competing bands use his kit, which was extra nice of him. It's a nice kit and he's a gentleman. They all are.
We threw together a rough semblance of what we can do with the hope of getting booked at several of the owner's venues. We did better than we expected. The 17 year old guitarist shouldn't have quit. This woulda been good for his resume and experience.
