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My first time playing live was a nightmare!!

PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 4:21 am
by Guitarbill609
A friend of mine who played in a popular cover band back in the early 80's was so impressed by my solo on van halen's "you really got me" he conviced me to go up at a college gig(like f**k 500 people, and I only was playing guitar for like a year) and play, well everything went ok until I hit the distortion pedal and it f**k died!!!!! and then I died! I was so embarssed I didn't play in a band for a couple of years, to make it worse they had it on video.


Bill

PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 4:12 pm
by gbheil
That sucks but if your not out there to screw up, then the goods wont catch up with you either.

PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:05 pm
by gtZip
My first gig i broke a string on a floating trem with no replacement handy.
And my solid state marshall was picking up a radio station for the whole set. Everytime I stopped playing you could hear some a.m. radio guy.
They wanted us to play a second set for some reason, so we took a break and had some budies run to get a different amp for me to borrow. Well, they never showed back up. We eventually went out to track them down - they had blown a tire on the way back.
So... never played that second set.
Good times! :)

I think I was back out there two weeks later playing though.

PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:27 am
by Andragon
Mine went pretty well. At first, I was like "woah.. all eyes on me and my mouth.. that's scareh!" .. then I gave a huge rock shout to get the crowd of roughly 100 people going. And they bought it.
I loved it and that's another reason I love (making) music.
Don't worry, Bill. It happens. Just imagine you're playing alone and for the last time in your life (I hope not).

PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 11:49 pm
by gbheil
Man thats rich. Alone and for the last time. I got to remember that.

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 12:47 am
by Andragon
sanshouheil wrote:Man thats rich. Alone and for the last time. I got to remember that.


Someone else's advice of gold. It seemed to work for me a coupla times =D

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:46 pm
by gigdoggy
my first gig was pretty embarrassing aswell :)
was singer in the most disorganized band ever, and i absolutely did not know how to sing. We were doing cover songs of deep purple, selpultura, iron maiden :) :) that kind of stuff

Well without realizing it my mic stopped being amplified like after half the set, something like that, maybe a bit more, dont remember cause it was a long time ago. And so i did the rest of the concert singing like a mad man in my mic, screaming my guts out thinking that i was in the zone.
hahaha

I didnt realize something was wrong cause it was a festival of sorts and the sound was pretty crappy.

Still, good times :)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:59 am
by official_denial
One of my first performances with a band was in a country bar (we were a modern alt rock band)

We were up there performing for a charity.

I thought we were going to be stoned to death on that stage. most of the people just gawked at us like they were the children of the corn or something. Then we started playing a few covers, and people started to get up and dance.

The one thing I noticed was way in the back there was an old lady with white hair, probably 90, who just kept head banging all the way through the show. I almost couldn't play I was laughing so hard!

-Goth

PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:41 am
by The Hunter
My first gig was at my house in front of my grandparents and my parents. Me and my guitar teacher Jorge (Whom I still jam with) played Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue on Black".

It was flawless.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:31 am
by gbheil
Dude you are so freakin Texas it aint even funny. :D

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:12 am
by fisherman bob
Never really had a nightmare gig. First gig (Pappy's Roadhouse in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey 1980) to last gig (Kansas Wide Open disc golf tournament party a few weeks ago). Had one semi-bad moment at a gig when a Hell's Angel pushed me away from a urinal while I was peeing (he had to go worse than me). After the gig he gave me a courtesy card which made it all worthwhile. The thing to do is always be prepared and play good gigs and MAKE SURE YOU GET PAID FOR YOUR TIME.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:24 am
by thunder_sticks
First gig I was 17 and had been playing for three years but had never been on stage. A local country rock act's drummer smashed his hand hooking up his snowmobile trailer 2 days before their New Years gig. I had a "rehearsal" with the band that went South about 1/2hr in because they were all too drunk to remember the sets.......

I left with a song list and did my best to chart out what I could before the gig. I survived that gig, and actually ended up staying with the band for three years.

Rock on,
James

PostPosted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:15 pm
by gbheil
Alls well that ends well James. I've not seen you around the forum. Are you new? If so welcome. If not, my bad.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:39 am
by gtZip
The Hunter wrote:My first gig was at my house in front of my grandparents and my parents. Me and my guitar teacher Jorge (Whom I still jam with) played Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue on Black".

It was flawless.


If you're just playing for your parents and grandparents of course it's going to be flawless.
What, is your grandma gonna say "You suck sonny! Now go cut me a switch!"?