I've been in & out of bands since the mid 70's. I've fronted them, sidemanned them,got'em started and probably broken a few up.
In every successful endeavor,there's always been 1 person with final say.Sometimes one of the members,sometimes the producer, sometimes the road manager.
Managing a band,group, or even an open mic or jam session isn't all that hard. What's hard is managing the egos( as Cpt. Jim pointed out).Anyone that plays in front of people has a pretty strong ego in my experience.Some ,like yourself, have learned to keep that ego in it's place.Others aren't quite that lucky.
Everyone in a group needs to have input, unless they were hired to perform a specific duty.If you guys went into this w/everyone equal,
then majority should rule ,albeit w/1person selected by the whole to settle ties.
I was in a group in the 80's that had 7 members. We all earned our cut. One of the rules we had, was the person that booked the gig had the final say.It worked pretty well until the bass player ran off w/the drummers wife
. Kidding. The bass player and drummer changed their musical direction.
If you dread going to rehearsal( I rehearse w/the group,and practice alone), IMHO it's time to split. I don't know for sure if 8/9 songs is too few or too many, but the ratio seems about the same.If $150 is a raise, and you guys are playing every 4-6 wks, leave off a Coke a day and pay for that axe. In the meantime keep your ears open for another gig.
My $0.02 worth.
Steve
