Observations of a Bass Player
I was reminded of the power of good vs. bad parenting when I read this week’s installment of News From The Trenches. NFTT is the weekly rant, rave, howl and preach from Steve Hashimoto, one of Chicago’s busiest, opinionated and articulate jobbing bass players. We also happen to be blessed that he is our bass player with “Teddi and Fred Koch with The Lil’ Cow Band.”
If you are a performing artist out there, let me know if any of this sounds familiar…
“One of my fondest memories in life was a Lil’ Cow Band gig at The Copernicus Theater (Chicago); it was one of our biggest gigs, I think Fred said there were like 1,100 kids at the concert, and they were literally bouncing off the walls. It reminded me of the movie theater scene in the film Gremlins, but in a cool, sweet, funny way.
Every once in a while we’ll play for a bunch of suburban kids who have already been emotionally beaten down by their parents into not being able to have any fun, and you really hate to see that. Sorry to have to put it in this kind of way but we never have those problems when we play for city kids; they’re not afraid to scream out answers to questions, or to dance and sing. Sure, you’ll always have a couple who are afraid of not looking cool, but if the majority of the crowd is having fun, the holdouts can usually be coerced into joining in.
But when the parents are present and they’re sitting on their hands, or even worse, talking on cell phones and completely ignoring the performance, it sends a not-very-subliminal message to the kids that it’s ok to be rude or constricted, since every kid, no matter how rebellious, really wants to be like mom or dad (I’m talking ages 3 to 9 here, not so much about young adolescents).
So parents, if you’re intent on being a drag, just drop your kid off at his next musical event and let them have some fun.”
Amen!
Photo citation: robin_van_dalen’s photos / Flickr