There’s been a shift in the dynamic of the new band, and I think it’ll be a positive thing. It makes me feel a lot better about the band, and my participation in it. I know that for sure. Long story short, we asked one of the guys to leave the band. I triggered it, though I didn’t mean to. I just couldn’t imagine playing in a band with this guy. He was belligerent from Day One, dismissive of everyone else’s opinions, and generally rude and abusive. It weighed heavily on me all day on Sunday. I kept thinking about all the times I’ve been miserable in bands and how it’s always been because of one asshole or another. This guy was definitely one of the most highly concentrated stockpiles of refined assholishness I’ve ever come across. I’ve never met anyone quite like him.
Anyway, it weighed on my mind Sunday to a point where I was having a panic attack. I couldn’t imagine playing in a band with another asshole. Life is too short and I just don’t need the aggravation. I wasn’t about to suggest that we get rid of the guy, though, so I decided to opt out. I wrote the other two guys in the band and told them that i had been a pleasure, but I just couldn’t see myself playing in a band with that asshole. Much to my surprise, the guys called me and decided to get rid of the asshole instead. They had the same reservations and discomfort about him that I did. So we were all sort of thinking the same thing.
Well, the asshole is gone and I’m still in the band. With this one guy gone, I now find myself very excited about the band again. I really like Doug, the drummer, and J.C., the guitar player. We all seem to have a lot in common, and we’re all on the same page as to what we want out of the band.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a band with friends, and I really feel like I can be friends, and not just band-mates, with Doug and J.C. That camaraderie is something I’ve missed, and it’s something I already feel in this band. I mean, they might turn on me and rip me to proverbial shreds at some point, but I doubt it. We all have too much potential together. Now that the asshole is gone, I look forward to seeing where this might go. And I genuinely feel that it could really be something good.
