Tour Talk

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

That sucks but if your not out there to screw up, then the goods wont catch up with you either.

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.

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).

Man thats rich. Alone and for the last time. I got to remember that.

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

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

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

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.

Dude you are so freakin Texas it aint even funny.

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.

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

Alls well that ends well James. I've not seen you around the forum. Are you new? If so welcome. If not, my bad.

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!"?