​What's it like to be in a rock band?

Are you a real musician or weekend warrior?

The first real band that I was in wasn't a rock band. I was the bassist in the school jazz band. It was a legitimate band, because we actually played paying gigs. Outside of high school, I was in several short-term bands. (That means they didn't last very long.) In 1984, I played bass in a rock band that was building a set list to play…of all things, wedding receptions songs. We did play a few rock songs; but we also played pop and dance songs too. I think we were together for about a year. Then for whatever reasons, that I don't recall, we stopped playing, and we never did any gigs.

It wasn't until I moved to Florida that I would meet a lot of musicians and instrumentalists alike, that I finally started to play in more rock bands. Not to sound too pretentious, but there is a significant difference in working in a band with real musicians opposed to playing in a band with people who have actual weekly jobs, and are simply weekend warrior instrumentalists. Real musicians work as real mu…