Your first gig


acapella
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acapella
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05/08/2006 7:33 pm
Pretty straight forward, tell the story of your first "real" gig. We might *crosses fingers* have our first one in August with a band from Teulon, and I want to hear all the horror stories so I can be prepared, all the good stories so I have hope, and all the funny stories because that's funny.
You go outside and practice screaming. We'll play music while you're gone.
# 1
guitarfreak141
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guitarfreak141
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05/08/2006 11:46 pm
well I don't know if my sixth grade talent show counts as a "real" gig, but it was my first performance in front of many people. Anyways, it went horrible, first of all I wasn't very good then, I was playing with a basist and a drummer, so we get on stage, we're ready to start, adn than BAM!, I completely blanked out on this easy thing I was supposed to play, completely forgot it, so they closed the curtain, we had to start from another part, than about half way therough the basist's amp stopped working and we had to close the curtain again, it was a terrible experience overall, though nothing compared to some crazy stories I've heard
If there's one thing I've learned, it's that life is one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead.

Rock stars ... is there anything they don't know?
# 2
suicidalmoose
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suicidalmoose
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05/09/2006 1:05 pm
the important thing is that you were in the sixth grade :P if you had guitars an amps in the sixth grade good on you, a lot more advanced then me! i think the most i had was technic lego and a bed.
# 3
lifeis@song
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lifeis@song
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05/09/2006 1:19 pm
the first "gig" i did was with my friends in a ymca gymnasium for some battle thing. i dont know if you know this or not but gyms have terrible acoustics, every noise you make reverberates off of everything else. so most of the songs we played were unintelligable, everthing we sang sounded like we were the tachers off of charlie brown, but it was loads of fun. i started off by playing the nbc chime jingle thingy, that was pretty funny. on one song, people started dancing and that was pretty cool, but i think that it was because it was so simple. my lyrics at that time were really repetative so some even started singing along. i have no idea why it was so fun even though we knew we sounded like caca.
# 4
Tele Master
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Tele Master
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05/09/2006 11:18 pm
4 ( maybe 5 ) years ago at the Ottawa Exhibition. Our singer was had written 10 songs to perform by herself when her mom suggested to put a band together. So she gathered a bassist and drummer from her school and me from across the street. I wasn't all the comfortable with my playing then and the other 3 members all went to a music school so I had no idea what they were talking about half of the time.

So we had to learn the 10 songs in 2 months, I barely got through that. The night of the show wasn't bad though. No technical difficulties and I only forgot a couple things. But now I'm getting more and more comfortable on stage, I'm a way better player, and besides the singer I'm the only other original member. Haha, feels fun to say that. Like I've been somewhere or something. Good luck man.
Electric Guitars are the inspiration for cries of "Turn that damn thing down"-Gibson website
# 5
MFerguson
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MFerguson
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05/11/2006 11:32 am
Our first "real" gig was in a room with horrible acoustics. We had played a couple of practice gigs in a large hall in front of friends and family, that went pretty well-got us used to looking at the audience and interacting with them.
We had always practiced with our monitor mix being the same as the house mix. 2 days before the "real gig" the bass player said we need someone to mix the sound. They came and gave us a separate monitor mix-worked great in practice. At the gig, with the poor acoustics, the amps were turned down so low that the guitar on the left could not hear the bass amp on the right (everything was mic'd) The monitor mix was altered to accomodate. All we could hear was a thick bass mess (no defination of notes) and the singers loudest notes. We could not hear anything (that we needed to hear-like harmonies) and thought we sounded like s**t. I guess the house mix was good, because everyone thought we were great, and have been following us around ever since. My advice-practice like you are going to play. If the other band is in charge of the sound mix, practice with their system-on stage if you can, before hand so you can get comfortable with how it is going to sound on your big night. You will be nervous enough without any surprises in your sound on stage. Good luck.
# 6
Kevin Taylor
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Kevin Taylor
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05/11/2006 1:22 pm
My first gig was at a public school. I wasn't officially in the band yet so I took over as bass player. I didn't have a bass guitar though so I tuned my guitar down. We royally sucked. I think we only knew Smoke on the Water , Rocky Mountain Way and Takin Care of Business. And our drummer got so drunk he fell off the back of his drum stool and passed out so we had to continue without him.
The band's name was "Face in Stagnant Water" and I had a Westinghouse Amplifier that I had to share with the guitar player.
# 7
DAMAGED ONE
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DAMAGED ONE
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05/17/2006 5:50 pm
My first gig? mmmmmm! We played a birthday party with a really cheap PA. No moniters so I couldnt hear a thing I was playin Oh I was playin the guitar and singin and some guy said he could sing better than me so I told him to come and try If you ever saw Americian Idols William Hung you get the ideal!
Man fell on the floor laughin my butt off. I quit that band after the show because we were awful. (You can not hear youself on stage) :eek:
The Mind Is A Terrible Think To Waste.
# 8
Julian Vickers
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Julian Vickers
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05/18/2006 9:08 am
My first gig was when I was 17 a few years ago, at a local music concert for teens and we played an original song called "Pee when you Want To". I can leave you to guess the lyrics.
The song went well over all apart from my guitar solo which I screwed up real bad. When you're nervous your fingers get wall sweaty like.
Miracle Blade 4: Gibs on touch.
# 9
force_of_shred
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force_of_shred
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05/31/2006 3:07 am
If youve read the musician's life forum on this site within the last few weeks you may have noticed my post on me having to play "Oh Canada" at my grad exercises. And i told you that i would post on how it went seeing as it was my first "Gig". Anyway no horror story really but i forgot how to play the song once i picked up the guitar on stage.But lucky I had parcticed it soooo much and as closely as i was intending to play it my fingers did it all on thier own completely from muscle memory, which I found to be a good thing for that meant i didn't mess it up. It can be frightening to watch your hands doing somthing that you mentally did not remember how to do. It was like I was in the audiance sort of an out-of-body experience.

I did come even closer to complete falure in two other aspects though.Fist when i was setting up before and plugging in my guitar i turned the mute on on my ns-2 noise surpressor so no "pop" sound would go though the P.A. and i forgot to turn off the pedal till like 5 min before having to up on stage. if i hadn't remembered then i dout i would have on stage seeing as i forgot how to play the song as was.

the song itself did go well though and despite my parents concerns and mine the old people loved the distortion and wah as much as the kids.
it's a funny thing because I played it clean right though rehersals so nobody knew or would believe me when i said i was going to add a bunch of effects.
So my classmates were as surprised as the rest of the audience.

anyway I did get it on two diffrent video recordings and once i see both i will post the better one for you guys to watch me panic on stage.

(oh yeah near the end of the song I tried to reach for my whammy bar only to notice that i had forggoten to put it in ) I would never imagined being so forgetful on the acount of nervousness, I am just so glad its done and that went for doing it my way( not prissy clean) and I do it again in a second) :cool:
" "this tone ain't workin for me" is the first thing a guitar player says when he hasn't done his homework"- Bob Rock
# 10
pure
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pure
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05/31/2006 3:15 am
my first gig was playing the star spangled banner for my 8th grade school's sports teams. i never screwed up but it bored me. i had just picked up guitar like 4 months ago too. but it got me some rep around the school.
Originally Posted by: schmangeugly fat chicks
# 11
acapella
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acapella
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06/01/2006 3:52 pm
We were thinking of doing a free show at the garage. Nobody would come anyway, but it would be fun, and practice.
You go outside and practice screaming. We'll play music while you're gone.
# 12
jakej
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jakej
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06/03/2006 7:24 pm
Wow my first gig....Picture this October 1969 our high school dance. We had a local band booked (high School kids from another town) but they only new a few songs and by the first break they had all ready played all there songs. We had formed a small group (5 of us)out of our high school band. We new about half a dozen songs also so our high school band teacher told us to get our gear and get up there and help out. So there we were no notice, we played Wipe Out, Pipeline, In the year 2525, Proud Mary and a couple of others I can't remember now.
After that we hooked up with the other band and had a battle of the bands at these high school dances. We played a couple of times a month and it was great, played through 1969 and 1970 till I graduated and then had to go in to the Air Force or get drafted, the war you know. Still have most of my gear from those days. An old Tiesco electric guitar and Tiesco Bass and a univox 30 watt amp. Head and 2X12 Cab. Still have every thing but the 2X12 cab, my girl friend at the time didn't like me messing around with this other girl and kicked the front out of the 2X12 cab right after we graduated in 1970. So that was pretty much the end of my playing till a couple of years ago and I'm trying to relearn everything again and believe me it's not like riding a bike you can't just go and pick it up again.
That was some of the best time I ever had, being able to live in the 60's and play in a band it just didn't get any better than that. Well thats my story lets hear some more.... :)
# 13
arska007
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arska007
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06/04/2006 9:52 am
i ahve my first gig sometime in the next month, i'm so freakd out about it because i have newer played in public and i's quite ****ing big festival where is one of the most popular finnish band
"I am the lizard king, i can do anything!"-The Doors
# 14
jiujitsu_jesus
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jiujitsu_jesus
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06/04/2006 10:16 am
Originally Posted by: arska007i ahve my first gig sometime in the next month, i'm so freakd out about it because i have newer played in public and i's quite ****ing big festival where is one of the most popular finnish band


Sounds cool. Your band must be pretty damn good to be playing at the same show as one of the biggest groups in the country :cool:.
"It's all folk music... I ain't never heard no horse sing!"
- Attributed variously to Leadbelly and Louis Armstrong

If at first you don't succeed, you are obviously not Chuck Norris.

l337iZmz r@wk o.K!!!??>
# 15
arska007
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arska007
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06/04/2006 3:44 pm
i haven't got a clue how they got us in there but i don't mind
"I am the lizard king, i can do anything!"-The Doors
# 16
Fenderalltheway
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Fenderalltheway
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06/28/2006 6:58 pm
Originally Posted by: arska007i ahve my first gig sometime in the next month, i'm so freakd out about it because i have newer played in public and i's quite ****ing big festival where is one of the most popular finnish band


Hey! Are you talking about Sigur Ros? Or do you know who they are?

Well anyway, my first gig was at this little theater were a bunch of other bands were going to play, and it was just a cool little thing to go and here all these like punk bands. So we get on stage, and everything goes well, until we get to our last song. We finish it, and we get the biggest aplause so far, and the organizer asks me if we can play another song. And I say that we havn't really practiced another one, but she insists. So we end up playing a song we hadn't practiced in about 7 months, and it was fine, except for me forgetting some words, and missing two notes on the solo.
"When you want to rock hard children, lean of F#."
# 17

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