ST. LOUIS — Shane Worley, the frontman of local punk band Blood Bathtub, reportedly panicked upon introducing the members of his band, hoping that the name of the bassist came to him by the time he finished doing everyone else’s intro.
“I’ll admit, shouting everyone out during the show was a mistake,” said Worley while smoking a cigarette after the show. “After introducing our lead guitarist and our drummer my face tensed into a thoughtful grimace as I tried to remember what our bassist’s name is. I never would have started calling out the band if I knew this would happen, but to be honest, I forgot we even had someone on bass up there with us. His face looks familiar, for sure, he’s been at practices for the last six years, I’ve seen him at our photoshoots, I was the Best Man at his wedding, but his name just eludes me.”
Despite Worley’s best efforts to play off the situation, crowd members reportedly noticed his forgetfulness during the show.
“I could tell something was up,” said show attendee Eryn Mayhew. “When he finally got around to the bass player, the frontman just stammered and stuttered for a full thirty seconds, and then said stuff like ‘you know him, you love, he’s the big dog’ and ‘give it up for the Chief.’ Then he gave the rest of the band three more introductions, clearly stalling for time. There was a solid minute where he was sort of hiding behind some amps looking at his phone and smacking his forehead. But I don’t think he ever figured it out.”
Music executive Brian Terry said that forgetting names is just common practice in the music business.
“You can’t be expected to remember every single person you meet at a show, have a drink with, or perform on stage with every night for nearly a decade,” said Terry. “Before I got into the corporate world I played keyboards in a new wave band and I remember the essential people like our singer Shane, Theo on drums, Mikey on Guitar, Mikey’s girlfriend Sarah who he actually married in 1997 in Cabo, Shane’s two lovely aunts Miriam and Kimberly, Theo’s son Christian who was 7 pounds 3 ounces when we has born, and obviously everyone’s pets, but if you asked me to name our bassist I wouldn’t be able to do it for the life of me.”
At press time, the Blood Bathtub bassist reportedly could not be reached for comment, as nobody in the band had his contact name or number saved.