Bar Bands Rock - n/a

HYPOTHETICAL -- you're a musician, and you're first band (a basement band trite and true) has just broken-up, what do you do?

ANSWER -- join another basement band! Duh!

But when that basement band breaks-up, what do you do then? Join another basement band! Gah! How easy is that! And when that basement band breaks-up (or you're simply compelled to walk-out because the singer is a psychotic ex-police-officer and thought it would be funny to aim a loaded pistol at the bassist . . . hahaha, so funny [note the sarcasm]), well what do you do then?

Therein lies the next musical chapter in my life: n/a. My first official bar band. And just what is a bar band? Well, it's a band that performs at bars. And there are two types of bar bands -- bands that play covers (performing songs written by other bands) and bands that play originals (performing songs written by them).

n/a was the brain-child of an individual known as Kaine, a singer/song-writer/artist who I had met many years prior and even had a brief musical-stint with in a prior basement band. But after I had graduated college, Kaine approached me with the idea of starting up a gothic-rock band with a few other musicians he knew.

"I have a guitarist and bassist," he said, "and we could use another guitarist."

"What about a drummer?" I inquired.

"Well, I'm working on that," he said, "but I imagine we can find one."

"Well, I'm a drummer," I said.

"You are?"

Even though we had played music together for a brief period of time, I don't think I ever mentioned to Kaine that I was indeed a drummer, and had been one for years, nor did he know that I had my own drum-kit. And so, the pieces fit perfectly. A band had formed. And in just a few months we had a couple of songs that were perfect for a demo recording. Yet, unlike our previous attempts in music, we weren't content with the mere status of being a basement band. We wanted more. And so, with a little luck, Kaine was able to set up a few shows for us at some local bars.

I was rather ignorant of the whole bar ordeal. Little did I know that there was no money involved; I mean, we got paid from time to time, but only a small percentage of what was made at the door, and being a small local band with almost no fans, there wasn't a lot of money pouring in. On average, a good night for us was when all of our friends showed up -- truth be told, we had quite the group of friends (long live The Den [that's an insider-thing]) -- but that only added up to enough cash to support our love for whiskey, which we indulged in quite frequently before and after our set.

(On a side note, I will never ever play a set drunk ever again. Only once did I ever perform while intoxicated, and being a rather versatile/active drummer, the end result was nauseating . . . figuratively speaking).

But oh, did we think we were aces! We thought our band was going to be the next big hit. We were original, unique and very talented, and our friends loved us! Unfortunately, no one else did -- for the most part, anyone who was not acquainted with us didn't really seem to take an interest in what were doing. Often times, we recieved a lot of negative criticism. However, I don't think it was because of the music; instead, I'm fairly certain it was the locale and its societal-disinterest for musical pursuits. There has never been a real musical presence in Cincinnati, save for some scream-core and/or punk bands, and most of the bars in the area were so low-key that even the popular bands in the area found difficulty drawing decent crowds. I do believe our biggest show consisted of nothing more than maybe thirty people in the crowd.

But it didn't matter. Like I said, we were aces! The music was so fresh and unique that I had a lot of faith in n/a. I was confident that with the right steps, we would reach higher grounds.

Unfortunately, we began to spiral into the obliterating status of being a basement band, which ultimately led to the dissolvement of n/a.

Shame. I really loved n/a. Still do. To this day, n/a is still one of my all time favorite musical projects. I frequently listen to the demo and live-cuts with as much passion and interest in the music as I had when actually performing with n/a.

Check it out . . .







R.I.P. n/a.