1ST marathon(for me) Gig.

[louelou]

I played my first gig with a bar/cover band last night. Holy Crap my feet are killing me. 4 hours of booty shaking. Does it get easier or should I get a Steinberger, or a chair ala Anthony Jackson.

[maxgrant]

Check out your shoes. Maybe you need a better pair.

[modulusman]

Kids now days. Back in the early 80s I use to play in Alaska. Six sets, 10pm-4am, six nights a week.

[hbarcat]

Back in my day we used to play at least 10 sets that each had to go the full hour or we didn't get paid our three dollars and fifty cents. And we didn't have luxuries like stools to sit on or pitchers of water to quench our unbearable thirst. You kids have it soft with barmaids bringing you beer to drink! Sometimes the heat from the stage lights would be so strong it would warp our instruments so they would play out of tune and we would have to try to play in tune when we were delirious with heat stroke. That was when we were lucky enough to even have electricity on stage at all.


Kids, nowadays.

[Rick Auricchio]

- Good shoes; comfort over fashion.

- If it's a concrete floor, bring rubber pads to stand on. A hunk of carpet is better than nothing.

- Sit down during your break; don't keep standing.

[Rudreax]

I wish I could play a gig like that...

[WalterBush]

It gets easier. I'm getting ready to leave for my 4-hour booty-shake, myself. I do it three nights a week, looking to add more.

Buy very comfortable shoes. Also, I own a Steinberger, and it makes no difference whether I bring it or not, my dogs are barkin' at the end of the night

[Craig_S]

Originally Posted by modulusman

Kids now days. Back in the early 80s I use to play in Alaska. Six sets, 10pm-4am, six nights a week.

And I thought five sets six nights was a lot. Six years solid of doing that nearly ruined me. I didn't want to see another club for about two years after that.

[coolrunner989]

I always wonder what kind of gigs play from 10-4am?!?!

[Silaxian]

I used to gig in chest high snow, walking uphill ... barefoot.

[louelou]

Thanks, it's not the shoes, I just bounce around like a fool when I play. I'm only used to playing originals for 45 min to an hour. The bar/cover band thing is new to me. I know I know, Kids today!

[winstonthecat]

I wouldn't quite define a 4-hour bar gig as a marathon, but it is a long evening, especially when you're not used to it.

I'm just getting into gigging the last 6 months, and I'm usually an early-to-bed, early-to-rise guy, so I'm also pretty tired by the end of the night.

[sobie18]

Shoot, that's a "normal" gig...

Please don't resort to a stool...

[musocat]

Oh, I thought you meant a gig at a marathon :-)

I did one down in San Diego - we started at 7am and played 'til around 10am.

San Diego's a 2 hour schlep from LA, so we just stayed up the night before and headed down there around 3.

Normally I can't even tune my bass before noon, so that was a pretty tough gig. Once we started it was alright, though. It was fun watching the runners - I guess they had it worse than we did :-)

Once in a while I do a 9p-1a gig at a place about three hours north of here - that's a marathon. We head up there around 4:30pm and get back around 5am.

Invest in a wide, soft strap, some comfy shoes, and definitely find a barstool between sets :-)

[Eddz]

Pffft!
In my day, there was no floor to stand on.
Ever.

[Eddz]

...kids these days...