Last night for some reason I remembered a conversation that Mitch and I agreed on; The Bassist is the coolest guy in the band. There is just something about the bass player and how he stands there, head bobbing to the beat, confident, and for some reason just plain sexy.
I know when most people go to a concert they are staring at the lead singer; not me, i'm a bassist girl Well at least I am now - in the 80's not so much. Sebastian Bach ruled my world. How many posters could one girl have of him in her bedroom... Him, Kip Winger, Axel Rose... oh the 80's.
I don't know much about being in a band outside of my Rock Band sessions over that M & K's house; but i can't imagine that it's easy playing a completely different section of music than the rest of the guys. Not to mention, you are out there in front jamming for the entire world to see and for the most part you are being ignored. The lead singer and the guitarist are back to back belting out the chorus and swapping sweat, and there you stand, by yourself doing your part.
After the 80's and realizing what good music consists of I switched my focus to the dummer. How do you even keep track of what you are doing? You are using every freaking limb to make music; incredible! Mitch's wife agrees here... she seems to have a thing for Drummers (and for Brian's but that's a whole different blog) But, you are behind a kit and out of public eye. You could be wearing a Moo Moo or assless leather chaps for all we know... But while the drummer is back there pounding away and working up a sweat; my sweet bassist is just grooving along to his own version of the song not bothering anyone. He's like the hot kid in Junior High School that isn't popular. All of the cool girls want to ask him out but because he's not part of "their" crowd they won't even consider it. They will always keep him in the corner of their eye while swooning and flirting with the captain of the football team.
I made my decision about the bassist at the Bela Fleck / Umphrey's McGee show last year. Umphrey's McGee opened the show and there he stood, the bassist. He was stage right and we were stage left; but my eye was immediately drawn to him. He was wearing this really cool hat, probably 6 feet tall, but he wasn't trying to attrack attention, he was just there. That was the best part; he was just there. Why was this concert the one that took me over to the bassist side?It was Mitch's wife. She looked at me (and as i mentioned before, she's a drummer girl) and said "damn, that bassist is the man." Coming from the wife of a drummer, i was stunned! We both sat their in awe watching him. After Umphrey's McGee was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and with Bela comes Victor Wooten. Do I need to say more? When you discover the mystery and awe of one bassist and then it's followed up by the performance of Victor Wooten... You're sold. From then on, the bassist became my focus.
So, Good Bye Tommy Lee, Neil Pert, Steven Adler and Stewart Copeland.
Hello Ryan Stasik, P-nut, and Stefan Lessard. Wait, isn't Sting the bassist for The Police... maybe I've been a bassist girl a lot longer than I thought!
