Your Best Gigging Experience


JoshuaRichard
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Joined: 07/25/17
Posts: 10
JoshuaRichard
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Joined: 07/25/17
Posts: 10
08/04/2017 6:40 pm

Last weekend was one of the best of my life.

My band played a local festival and we came third place in the battle of the bands we were in. We got a lot of pictures, and we made a bunch of new friends. We got to camp on the grounds, and there was a grocery store, McDonald's, gas station, Tim Horton's and liquor store right up the street.

We drank tons of Gatorade, almost (and did) threw up because of the disgusting portapotties, deeply connected with each other, and in my opinion, played the best show we've ever put on - we actually pulled the biggest crowd of any band in the battle, and one of the biggest at the festival.

It started pouring rain, and my bandmate's tent started flooding so I helped them move their stuff into my tent (thank GOD I brought one, or I would have been soaked and totally screwed), and they ended up sleeping in my tent for the weekend. Then my guitarist snapped his tent poles and had to get his girlfriend's dad to bring them a new one. We reunited with friends and fans, and basically had the time of our lives.

What's the best gigging experience you've ever had? This was mine. :)


# 1
maggior
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Joined: 01/27/13
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maggior
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Joined: 01/27/13
Posts: 1,723
08/04/2017 7:12 pm

Sounds like a lot of fun and quite the adventure!! It's great when a gig goes great.

I've been doing this for a relatively short period of time (3 years) so it's hard to choose...so many recent firsts that were very exciting.

I have two that are tied for the best. The first one was one of my earlier times on stage and I was taking a solo and I was taken back to when I was a kid and would play "air guitar" with my guitar pretending I was on stage...and here I was doing it for real. It was like an out of body experience...I felt like a rock star for a moment.

The second one was taking a solo in a bar gig and and having people yell out my name cheering me on as I played.

The most interesting gig was another bar gig and I had just started tearing down. A wedding party came in and the best man aksed if we were done. He was very dissapointed to hear that yes, we were done. He put $100 in our hands and said "can you play 2 more songs?". Sure we can!!! They were hootin' and hollerin' and having a grand old time...beer spilling everywhere (not on my gear thankfully!!). We played four songs. We got done, they left in a whirlwind just like they arrived, and it was back to the quite mundane tear down and the place was empty...with extra cash in my pocket.


# 2
Guitar Tricks Admin
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Guitar Tricks Admin
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Joined: 09/28/05
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08/04/2017 7:21 pm

Hey Joshua,

That sounds like a great time! Where was the festival located, if I may ask? Also, what's the name of your band? Would love to hear something from you guys!

Best,

Billy


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# 3
winryember
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Joined: 02/02/17
Posts: 23
winryember
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Joined: 02/02/17
Posts: 23
09/21/2017 9:37 pm

That sounds like so much fun!! I've only been gigging for about 2 years. I have my first gig with my original band booked for the end of October, which is really exciting.

I played a great couple of shows over the summer with a prog metal video game band that I joined recently. There were lots of artists from all over the world in town for the festival we were playing, and I met so many cool people. Those were the first shows I've ever done that were totally packed out, and our merch booth got slammed after our set.

Those experiences are so surreal. I love meeting new people; it really makes you realize how big and cool of a world we live in!


# 4
Patri_MA_Ruiz
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Joined: 10/27/17
Posts: 10
Patri_MA_Ruiz
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Joined: 10/27/17
Posts: 10
10/27/2017 1:25 pm

Hey there!

I can't decide between two of them. A band I had last year won a little contest to play with a big band here, and we played in front of approx 4000 people (I don't know exactly how many but that's the tickets that were sold!)

The problem was, we were just allowed to play 4 songs so we didn't do much. It was a great experience, though. After the gig I went to see the big band and a lot of people wanted to take pictures with me, it was so fun and great.

The other one was during March this year, when my actual band was invited to play one song in an university party. It's not a big deal but there was even more people! That was so good because we actually got to play together for the first time with this line up, but there were many sound problems. My guitar didn't sound for a lot of time because of the wireless system.

So it's not a really big deal. I can't wait to get a full-lenght gig. :)


# 5

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