i haven't even had one yet anyway. Only been playing for 10 months. But I'm hoping to start up a band sometime and play some clubs. I was just wonderin whether a first gig is a good thing or if it's ****e.

:)

Well, my first ever gig saw me playing an out of tune, rusted, 30 year old bass that I had to run around like a **** all day to borrow through a pratice amp in a hall holding about 400 people. We played one song, which I had to learn in the dressing room before we went on. It was one of those godawful talent contest things, and we came in behind the tangoing 5 year olds. But it was a great experience, and a good learning experience.

Really, your first gig should be quite an enjoyable experience, playing in front of an audience (hopefully!) for the first time. It would have to be pretty awful to sour your opinions of playing.

It's always a good thing bnut in hindsight it's usually pretty humorous.

Mine was playing a drug party. Some guys had rented a local sportsman's club and we were supposed to get $150 for playing so we rented a small PA. The pianist who lined up the gig never showed, we not only didn't get paid but got charged admission (!!!).

The audience was all high, drinking, smoking weed and snorting coke. At one point in the evening a couple started having sex right in front of the bandstand. A friend of ours who no longer owned a guitar (he had hocked it to buy coke) sat in and played "Johnny B. Goode" for about half an hour at 200 bpm (the drummer actually got up and left in the middle of the song and the guitarists didn't even seem to notice).

After that, I knew stardom and riches were not far away (ha ha ha)

My first gig was about 2 months ago at a house party. We played 9 songs and it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It's great when you can get the crowd into it and things get crazy.

I got home from work and had a message on my machine from a friend of mine (drums) saying he landed some gig, I should bring my gear, and drive down to the bar/restaurant. So, I'm not doing anything, so I figure, okay, why not? I get there just after my friend, and the other guys haven't shown up yet. Apparently he ran into this guitar player on campus and he just landed a gig that night by talking to him. So me and my friend don't know what to expect. These two guys show up. One played rhythm guitar and sang, the other was lead. The guy playing lead plopped down a CASIO SONGSTAR karaoke machine. IT WAS HIS AMPLIFIER! We were mortified. So I asked the singer if he had charts. He said no, and we could just wing it. He said he would face me when he was playing so I could see the chords. As soon as the first song began he turned his back to me and started playing. The lead guitarist soloed throughout the entire song, for every song, in the key of C. Every single song we played, whether it was in C or not, he soloed in C. 5 people were in the audience.

It's a TERRIFFIC thing!!!!!!! And I bet yours will be as well, even though you probably won't be paid and it may be in a garage. Another TalkBass poster in Iceland mentioned he had just had his first gig at a supermarket and he was moved when a little kid told him he was, "the greatest bass player ever."

Even though mine involved playing basslines to "Outer Limits," "Money (That's What I Want)," and "The Theme from Peter Gunn," (a poplular `60's TV show), on a Silvertone guitar through a Sivertone 8", at our grade school talent show, it was great for four reasons -

1. The nun in charge of the show was my choir teacher and playing "rock" was sort of like revenge for all that Gregorian chant crap.

2. Our band was saved for last because we were considered the "highlight."

3. For the next few days after the show, several of my female classmates asked, "Do you like me?." (Budding groupies in parochial school uniforms. That was some hot action!).

4. While just the act of playing music is wonderful, the combined effect of doing something you love, AND, finding out it gives others pleasure, is intoxicating.

My first gig was a long time ago at a juvenile detention facility. We had two drummers, three singers, two sax players, a guitar and me on bass. The audience of juveniles were very appreciative and clapped after every one of our five songs. We did not have a PA so the singers had to really shout to be heard above the drums. I had a Silvertone bass that I bought used from Sears along with a Supro amp. It was fun because it was my first time in front of a group of people while I played bass. I think one of our songs was "Little Latin Lupe Lu."

I was a nervous wreck, so i kicked the drummer in the balls til i felt better.

That depends. WHICH first gig? =)

Which first gig!!?? Actually my "beginnings" were a bit like that - at University there were always opportunities to get up and play and as you were all drunk and the audience though large, didn't seem intimidating as it was all people you knew and it was mostly messing about.

I suppose though it's not like the "real world" and it was only when I got back to my home town of Brighton and thought about starting a band that it was like a proper "first gig" with an audience that wasn't entirely students.

I met up with a band though a guitarist friend and after many auditions and complications we finalised the line-up and set about writing enough songs for a set. We wrote 10 -12 original songs in about 3 weeks, from ideas we had - I contributed a lot that were based on the bassline. The singer had been to acting school and had been in plays and was very good at coming up with masses of lyrics to fit - we only discovered later that a lot were just lifted from lines in those plays!

We phoned up a local "pub" that put on bands and got the gig. It all went very well apart from the fact that I had to drag my guitarist friend out of the toilets just before we were due to go on - he was so nervous! But I didn't feel nervous at all and it went pretty well - each band member had invited friends (relatives!) so somebody always started the applause and although it wasn't overwhelming nobody booed or told us to get off.

Unfortunately, the singer had a huge ego and argued inecessantly - a few days after our successful first gig, he fell out big time with both guitarists and it all disintegrated. I went with the two guitarists and we struggled to get a decent drummer for ages!! But that's another story. ;)

Originally posted by mikemulcahy
I was a nervous wreck, so i kicked the drummer in the balls til i felt better.

I laughed out loud when I read that. Funniest thing since SNL Sturday Night.

"Dick Cheney said it would be like a fishin' contest..."

...but seriously, folks.

My first real gig was the second time my band played together. The very first time, it was one of those battle-of the bands thing, in which we played an original composition (called United Kingdom of the Universe, one of our signature songs for years to come) and won the second place. We'd have won first place, but one guy didn't appreciate the fact that the song was in English (did I mention I was living in Brazil at the time?). Still, second place was pretty good for a first time, especially since out drummer was only 13.

Our first real gig was at some beauty pageant sponsored by a school or something. During one song, the singer forgot the lyrics and started winging it. Nowadays, I'd walk up to the singer and yell the lyrics to him/her, but at the time, I was feeling totally inadequate. We played for about two hours (with intermission!) and managed to keep a decent audience going until the end. Not bad for a start, I suppose.

Will C.:cool:

I ask WHICH first gig, because I have firsts in a few different contexts. Really just three, I guess. There's my first orchestra "gig", my first Stage Band "gig" (last week... hehe), and my first "real" (read: paying) improv jazz quartet gig.

I'll assume y'all wanna know about the last one. It was pretty cool. Real small audience, though, so it was pretty much zero pressure. Not that I'm subject to stage fright, anyway. I seem to be pretty good at tuning that stuff out. It was just a Saturday night gig in a Starbucks that paid about $10, a cut of the tips, and free coffee the whole night (that was the best part, naturally). I was really off, since I've never really done any major jazz improv back-up playing before. Still, it went pretty smoothly.

More generally, I think that the "first gig" experience is gonna vary depending on YOU. As long as you don't take it too seriously and don't mind if you SUCK, then you'll be fine. And trust me, you'll probably suck the first time. Everyone does. ;)

my first gig was at a school talent show
we played Green Day's "longview"
it was fun because we were all jumping and playing and kickin ass
the kids liked it but unfortunatly we didnt appeal to the judges

oh well

We invited 2 stoned guys to come over who were neighbors of our drummer. They were stoned at the time that is, very stoned. So they sat down, and we started playing and they seemed to appreciate it, although they kept howling or catcalling or something during the songs. It was a good gesture, just a very bad noise. One of them asked if a song was over even though the other was clapping and we were obviously done playing. Oh well...still fun.

Our first real one was at our drummer's church. We played an original, and were really saved by our guitarist who did his solo great and impressed like usual. We were all supposed to wear white undershirts with an open vest or shirt over it...they all wore flannel open shirts, I wore a Hawaiian shirt...Oh well, I was the singer, I'm supposed to stand out and be better than everyone anyways :)

My first gig?

Played at a lock-in that a local church was having.

Of course, I had been playing in church for about 2 years, so I had a little experience.

Cover songs(Stryper) and original melodic metal with Christian influenced lyrics.

Load of fun, I still have the video somewhere.

Afterwards, one of our drummer's so called friends told us 'I'm just telling you this because I'm your friend, you guys really sucked up there.'

And furtim is right, you will suck your first time. I think it is some kind of law of nature or something.

[Edited by embellisher on 12-19-2000 at 08:30 PM]

My first gig in front of humans who were'nt related to somebody in the band was at the mall. You can imagine the acoustics there. Fortunately, we rented a feedback locater and sounded decent.

All must have gone fairly well from the audience's point of view, because our next gig was 5 originals opening for Petra. (My 15 minutes of fame.)

Going blind under the spotlight caught me completely by surprise!

My first gig was last year. It was for the school talent show, after the competitors had done their stuff, a bunch of "showcase" type bands played, ours included. We played four songs, two originals, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls. I loved that last one, cause I got to do a solo. Impressed the hell out of a lot of the chicks. To bad I'm seeing someone.;)

Rock on
Eric

My first gig (if you can call it that..) was in the beginning of March at a school concert. We played three songs: My Generation (The Who), Wonderwall (Oasis) and What's My Age Again (Blink182 - who I hate by the way...:p)

What's My Age Again was set up by some of my friends and they needed a bassist. The other two songs were played by my band and me.

So anyway... In the hours up to the concert we were out getting a few beers when I tripped and fell on the pavement. I sprained my wrist and it hurt like hell!! But what truely bugged me was that I had to play at the school concert in a few hours. Not only that, My Generation includes a BASS SOLO.
I played that night without too many mistakes :D but my hand hurt like never before...

It was my first performance on stage and it's one I think I'll remember for quite a while...

~Loxley~ (An Englishman in Copenhagen ;))

, i had been playing for only 3 months, the band hadent even gotten together at all, me and the singer hadent even met the drummer, and the guitarist says hes got us a gig..........i about just loaded my freakin pants write there and then. we had 2 months to make up 5 songs to open for this band. somehow me and the guitarist wrote 5 songs and played them, after we opened, the other band started playing to hollers of "CHAIN REACTION!" (OUR BAND). After about 4 of there songs they let us come on agin, but we had no songs, so we just played 1 twice in a row. that was awsome, knowing that people liked us better than the band we opened for.crrrrrrazzzzy.

My first gig was at a small rock club named Sir Morgans Cove in my hometown Worcester Massachusetts. I was in a hardcore punk quartet named Rut. There were about nine people there, band included. Got paid with Beer :)


I wasn't overly nervous but I wasn't exactly loose either.

My first gig was 25 years ago, at a biker bar in Houston, and I mean a BAD-ASS biker bar. Me and a guitar player, and I was playing the FLUTE. We played rock and roll all night, and they went nuts over it. None of them had ever heard a flute player doing George Thorogood songs before. We had a great time. Bandidos make for a great audience, but we played for tips and made about 7 bucks. Oh well.
Doc

My first 'real' gig was in early '70s. Our 'manager' told us that we landed a gig some 200 miles away. We packed everything into a rented van and took off. We were prepared, having composed some 20 originals, plus we had some good covers too, all rock stuff.

We arrived to a large hall, entered, and almost died on the spot! The place was packed with 2,000 punkers, and us, with long hair and Black Sabbath jackets really stood out! We found out that we were actually entered into a Punk Band Competition. We never LISTENED to punk, let alone played it!

Anyway, we quickly took off our jackets, got some scissors and cut our hair (no kidding!), and 'composed' 3 songs on the spot. Played them half an hour later, and actually WON the competition! It was a lot of fun, except for me blowing up 2 Marshall stacks with my souped-up Ric...

Later on we found out that we beat 3 bands that had record deals and records in the shops. Our next 'gig' was similar, except when we got there we found out it was a 'Jazz Night'.

my first gig was very odd. we had been auditioning singers and we finally found one we liked that seemed to like us. after the audition he suggested we go to this open mike night at a blues club called cantares in Cambridge mass. he wanted to make sure that we could play in front of a audience. we went to the place and were the only white boys in the place, before getting there i was nervous because it would be my first gig in a club, usually i was just playing parties at that point. so i am nervous because its my first gig in a club, nervous because the club is in a dark alley, and nervous because i am in the minority. we all go to the men’s room and decide which songs we all know. we get on stage and i am to use the bass amp on stage, it has 2 15-inch speakers one is ripped to shreds and the other is falling out, no clean tone available but it sounded ok.
the stage was small and in front of the stage was a long narrow dance floor with seats on either side. ok sorry to ramble, we start playing and the seats fill up with the largest men i have ever seen, all wearing overcoats. the first song didn't go all that well because we were all shaking in our boots. we kick into room to move by john mayall, about 4 bars into it all the guys stand up and put their hands into their over coats, i turn and look at the drummer who has the same expression on his face as me, you know the oh crap we are going to get shot face, i turn trying to groove, waiting to duck and the guys whip there hands out of their over coats and they are all holding tambourines. we all started grooving harder and it was a great night. we told the singer about the shock we had been in and he said "they always do that, its there way of letting the new bands know that they like them" would have been nice to know that before hand. the story may seem far-fetched but if you have ever been to cantares in Cambridge you know its true.

My first gig was at my sisters wedding. In between the service, and the reception we had a big luncheon at our house and my mom said my band could play. If you were in Ohio last July 24th you would know that was not a good day to be playing outside. I learned several good lessons that day. One of which is never agree to play on top of a small hill in the middle of the sun. Another is never try to run, a keyboard, three amps, eight small fans, and three big fans for the tent next to you, on the same circuit. For the first thirty minutes we blew the fuse some eight times. Finally we took our plug(We had all of our stuff plugged into one extension cord.) and plugged into the neighbors outer wall. Everything went well from then on. Until after the concert I looked at my hardshell case and saw that it had been severely warped. But the one good thing that happened wa after the wedding my sister come up to me and thanked me for playing. We also sold a twenty CD's that day!!!

my first gig was a volunteer gig to raise money so that some Bosnian refugee family could move into out town. we only played two songs (machine head by bush and nothing else matters by metallica) it was a fun, but humiliating experience, but it really didn't matter b/c we had just graduated 9th grade. i had been playing for a year (with out any lesson though), the guitarist had been playing for about 6 months, and the drummer had been playing for 3 months.
-besides that, we didn't have a singer for our band yet
-i had to borrow my school's keyboard amp, the drummer had to borrow our school's drum set, and our guitarist had to borrow the drummer's brother's amp.
-30 seconds into machine head, kevin (the guiatarist) dropped his guitar b/c his strap broke, and he chipped his guitar
-the drummer didn't use the bass drum at all
-during the beginning of nothing else matters, some lady in the croud rudely said that we should have tuned before we got on (which we had, it was the song)
but besides all of those mishaps, it was a fun experience, and we all learned from it.

The first time I played live, man, I wish it had been at least the third time I played live. My band somehow hit the jackpot and was asked to play at a festival in St. Louis. We were told not a big crowd, no money in it, possibility of free recording time....
We practiced solidly for the two months prior to the show. The songs were as tight as they could get on the crap we were playing on in my garage. The only problem was that, while only myself and the guitarist were first timers, the guitarist was totally freaking about it.
Everyone drew straws for what time slot they played in. Well, luck was with us again, and again I say I wish we would have played some live shows before that. We pulled the best staw and received the time slot right before the headlining band at the show. As we were sitting around waiting for our time to come along, the building started filling up. The little festival started with maybe 200 people, but around the time we were to play, it probibly had more like 2000.
Well, our nervous little guitarist sat there and tuned his guitar, which he had tuned before he left and had fastened the stringlocks before he left to go to the gig. We got our little five minute warning and so we all went outside to make sure we were tuned up. Well, the guitarist opened his gig bag and to all of our horror, his guitar was broken at the headstock. Somehow he had managed to put weird tension on the stings, then I guess bumped the neck on something and it simply snapped. So we ran around like idiots for the remaining minutes before the show looking for a guitar to borrow. We found one, and then after all the **** had happened, we got up on stage. We were allowed a 7 minute set up time, or supposedly. I was watching my watch and I know they killed the lights three minutes earily. So we had an audience of 2000 people, ready for a show to start, and we were not even in tune because the guitar he borrowed also had string locks and was two steps to high. Our first song blew flying monkies, but after that we sorta let out and it was a decent show. Also, at the end everyone cheered for us regardless of the fact that we sucked, because before the show I had bought about 4 pounds of assorted candy and on our last song called "Don't Take Candy from Strangers" the singer threw candy all over the place and then at the end I dumped the rest of it in the crowd. It was a bad experience at the time, but looking back on it, I learned a lot from it. I also want to play live again as soon as I can because I enjoyed it a lot.
I also had an insteresting comment from someone. I guess because of all the people, and the fact that it was my first time playing live, plus the stress of all the bull in dealing with the guitar situation, I went a little crazy. A guy from a band called 6 Gauge found me in the crowd after the show and said I looked like a bass playing Angus Young.

Later!

My first gig was playing at a Pizza Parlor. We set up our equipment against one of the walls in a walkway connecting the actual dining area and the restrooms and jukebox in the back. We face a wall and the crowd couldn't really even see us. I stood there like a scared duck the whole time and playing was terrible. One thing that makes me laugh still is our drummers spur of the moment drum solo which I know must have made someone choke on their food.

My first gig (if you can call it that) was playing at my school's Halloween Dance (yeah .. I'm 14). We just had me at bass, and my 2 friends at guitar and drums (no vocals), and we just played about 10 cover songs.

Maybe someday I'll play with a vocalist.

My first "gig" was a school talent show. We had to bring our gear to the stage about a week before tryouts because the teachers wanted to make sure everyone was serious about being in it. So for the next week at lunch me, the guitarist and the drummer and the drummers friend (also a guitarist) just sat there and played little mini jams. The drummer (Alex) sucked so bad, he could play on pattern (on the snare, highhat, and bass drum!). The only song the drummer's friend (Brian) knew was "Carousel" by Blink 182. So he just played that while me and the only good guitarist (David) jammed with the drummer. Ok, we started to draw crouds, and they all wanted to play our instruments and such, so you know, to be popular...

Ok, so then we had tryouts, and got to get outa class! Me and David were in the same class, so when the announcement came on to go to the gym, we went. But Alex and Brian were nowhere to be seen! So 1 minute before we were supposed to go on stage, they appear. The stupid retard Brian forgot his guitar and amp (a 10w to be specific), so we're like, "Get the F*** out here retard". So he ran away. Then when we started, our set was a Blink 182 song (I forget which one), "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer, and "Hey" by Suicide Machines. We didn't have a vocalist, so it was pretty much instruments (duh...). So about 10 seconds into the song, the drummer just gets up and goes "Man I suck! You guys just go on without me!". We're stunned! I promptly kicked his kneecap into the wall, almost breaking it, then David pushed him off the stage, luckily the teachers thought he fell :o). So, just me (bass) and David (guitar) went on without them. To make matters worse, this really hot girl was in the "audience", and I kept having a staring problem.

Ok so then gameday. It started at 7 PM friday.Me and David were schuedualed to go on 3rd to last act, right before a guitarist and singer do "If I saw you in heaven" by Clapton. So we started to set up at 6:30, we had our amps there and all, and we started to put them up on the stage when the leader of the show said "Hey guys, I need you to set up on the gym floor because there'll be no room for the other acts who need to use the stage. We're like "F*** you" but she made us anyway. Ok, so we're sitting in the stands watching the other acts, and I'm nervous, and I let my bros and b!***** know it. So my guitarist started smoking weed in the bathroom to get over his nervousness.

We went on.

We were like, 3 feet, literally, from the crowd. Luckily, it was our own classmates, so they didn't throw stuff at us. I think I killed one of them with my amp! But we went through it, then when "Hey" came around David yells "DROP IT" and everyone gets up and started moshing! It was great! Needless to say, we won! Then at the party afterwards, I got surrounded by girls! It was great.

My first real gig was at a promo for a shoe store. The owner thought it would be "neat" to have a little band there for a big sale day. He had us set up inside the store - for about 15 minutes - when it dawned on him that none of his customers could move, or talk to anyone. He hustled outside, and we set up (again) on the sidewalk. Now, he could do business, once people walked through us to get to the front door. It was a GREAT day! We did our best to woo the crowd with stuff like:
"All Right Now"
"Do What You Like"
"Morning Dew" (ala Jeff Beck - and it's the one song I always remember)
"Stone Cold Fever".

No matter what, the first gig is always the coolest!