Had one of those nights!

rappa29 · #1 01-25-2010, 06:40 AM

Had a gig this past Saturday with our original Alt Rock\Pop trio.

Was all hyped up for it the entire week prior. Friends were coming out. We were playing with another band whom we are friends with. The whole vibe leading up the gig was good. We practiced hard and had our set pretty tight.

Then the stage lights came on. Over the course of our 45 minute set...

I was misfretting, playing on the wrong string (I play a 5 in this band), amp was clipping, singing back up vox out of tune, preamp in my bass crapped out in the middle of a bass breakdown\solo of a song and I was just playing tight all night. Tight as in tense not tight as in locked in with the drummer.

I couldn't get off stage fast enough, load out and go hide!

Despite all that, people from the audience, random and my friends said they had a great time and we sounded good! The other band echoed the same and expressed enthusiasm about hooking up again for future gigs. I even got a few compliments about "being in the pocket" by a fellow bass player! I guess playing in the pocket trumps playing wrong notes! LOL!

Mind you, this is hardly my first gig. I've been playing music since HS. I'm 38 now. I've played more gigs than I can count, playing keys and\or bass. However, this is my first trio. So I get a little nervous about being so exposed and having to 'carry the load'. Maybe it was the fact we had so many friends out there listening. I don't know.

Haven't had one of these nights in a LONG TIME!! Felt like crap pretty much the rest of the weekend. But our singer\guitarist send us some video of a couple of tunes from the set and they actually sounded pretty dang good, if I say so myself!

So I guess it's one of those things, as players\performers, we perceive our performance in a more critical way than the audience. No matter how long I've been doing this, I'm still not safe from having "one of those nights"! And no matter how prepared we think we are, we never are 100% foolproof!

Just thought I'd share since I know we've all had 'one of those nights"!

jgroh · #2 01-25-2010, 06:46 AM

Sorry to hear that man. I had one of those nights a couple of weeks ago. We were working with a new sound guy in an average sized bar. Well this guy brings WAY too much stuff and took 2.5 hours to set up (and wasnt really finished but we had to go on) On his advice (

) I left my amp at home and ran direct. Well I couldnt hear the bass or anything else in my monitor. Neither could the rest of the band. Well, except the squeals and feedback.

I was so embarrassed I almost left in the middle of the first set. I missed two little bass solo parts that I always nail. It was bad. Luckily, the sound guy got it figured out by the second set, at least enough that it wasnt a trainwreck, but, sometimes it just happens. Im 38 too and have been playing for 25 years. The crowd didnt seem to notice either at our gig. So I guess if having an off gig is all I have to worry about, Im ahead of the game.

ysand · #3 01-25-2010, 07:25 AM

If the audience is happy -> you should be happy

Lazylion · #4 01-25-2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rappa29

...as players\performers, we perceive our performance in a more critical way than the audience. No matter how long I've been doing this, I'm still not safe from having "one of those nights"! And no matter how prepared we think we are, we never are 100% foolproof!

Yep, that's the nature of it. You can make yourself crazy dwelling on the negative. Just gotta learn what you can from it, then let it go, and get ready for the next one. It's a survival skill.

morrisonhendrix · #5 01-25-2010, 08:17 AM

I had the exact same night a few weeks ago, I mean exact. Luckily, it turned out exactly the way your story did. For a minute, I thought someone had stole my thoughts!

Regards,

Glenn

retsamaksrepus · #6 01-25-2010, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rappa29

So I guess it's one of those things, as players\performers, we perceive our performance in a more critical way than the audience.

+1, I always think I sound like **** (which for the most part I do) but I always feel better after watching videos etc.. If I felt like I played perfectly I would have no drive to improve my playing.

rappa29 · #7 01-25-2010, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retsamaksrepus

If I felt like I played perfectly I would have no drive to improve my playing.

Absolutely!

NationwideBass · #8 01-25-2010, 12:26 PM

The lesson here is, the audience never notices every little thing that you do. Just keep smiling and act like it's all a part of the show folks, all a part of the show!

retsamaksrepus · #9 01-25-2010, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NationwideBass

The lesson here is, the audience never notices every little thing that you do.

Or even the big things! First time playing a song live after having finished writing it the day before (bad idea) we missed transitions, breaks etc.. but the audience had no idea..

Munjibunga · #10 01-25-2010, 12:34 PM

So let's say you muffed fully 20 percent (one in five) of your notes. That means you were 80 percent great, which is the part the audience heard.

FrankGravis · #11 01-25-2010, 12:49 PM

This goes back to something I talk to students about all the time. It's easy to get so mired in your own world with regard to your instrument and your part that you lose sight of the big picture, which is what the audience sees and hears. I am not saying to not strive to play your best. I am saying that what you might think of as a gig-ruining performance may not be as severe as all that once you consider what the audience is experiencing when everyone else is playing.

Shake it off and continue down the path. Remember that a wrong note or two is much like passing gas in a hurricane. Negligible.

Blueszilla · #12 01-25-2010, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrankGravis

Shake it off and continue down the path. Remember that a wrong note or two is much like passing gas in a hurricane. Negligible.

Sage advice.

You played last week, you'll play next week, this gig was just one of many iterations of the performance. Take what you can learn from it and move on. I understand you were pumped, but in the end it's not worth expending too much energy worrying about it.

Like Munji said, you played most of it right.

busmandan · #13 01-25-2010, 01:20 PM

It's not the mistakes that matter - it's how you get out of them.

I remember a couple of decades ago when my band at the time had a gig at the local rock palace. The set was recorded, and I remember making a huge mistake in the middle of a song. I was dreading the playback of the recording at the next practice. I'm already starting to cringe when we approach the spot in the song, when...

The bad note comes out - but I caught it quick enough that I followed it with a little run to get back to where I was supposed to be. Frankly, what I played getting out of the screwup sounded better than what the regular line was supposed to be.

After that, I never worried too much about making mistakes live.

TIMD · #14 01-25-2010, 01:35 PM

I had a similar experience. We played this bar that had these ridiculously bright stage, you couldn’t see anything except white light. The stage was a weird shape so I couldn’t set up next to the drummer, at the time we had a lot of visual cues for breaks, (after this show I stopped relying on visual cues) and we missed a couple breaks and I thought I ruined the whole set. After the show I packed up and took off and was pissed the whole weekend. While I was loading up people kept coming up and saying how much they loved our set so I watched the video footage later that week and we sounded great. Most the guys in the band didn’t even notice the mistakes much less the audience. I find myself laughing at things like this now and just try to enjoy the experience of playing live.

rappa29 · #15 01-25-2010, 01:57 PM

Great replies!

No doubt, just add another notch on my strap and keep on groovin'!

jcphockey16 · #16 01-25-2010, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NationwideBass

The lesson here is, the audience never notices every little thing that you do. Just keep smiling and act like it's all a part of the show folks, all a part of the show!

So true. I play reggae and my singer/guitarist got a little to messed up before the show and couldn't remember words or chords to the songs. It was a disaster and I was ready to get off stage immediately but the crowd didn't even notice.

dmusic148 · #17 01-25-2010, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rappa29

I even got a few compliments about "being in the pocket" by a fellow bass player! I guess playing in the pocket trumps playing wrong notes! LOL!

Victor Wooten, among others, has actually said as much. Timing is everything.
Bad night? We all have 'em!

kcole4001 · #18 01-25-2010, 02:50 PM

Happens to everybody, the best players included.
I stopped expecting a 'perfect' night long ago.

And as mentioned, sometimes those mistakes can open the door to some new things.

It is strange how little the audience notices, with the obvious exception of other players who may be present, but usually they're polite.

skidrawk · #19 01-25-2010, 03:10 PM

Yea when you make a mistake the professional thing to do is grin it off. The audience won't hate you.

plankspanker13 · #20 01-25-2010, 03:11 PM

If I have one of those nights, I may feel it for the rest of the night, but let it go the next day. Of course, I have been gigging frequently, and I suppose that I might really be bothered if I had to wait a long time between gigs. The fact that a next gig has to be prepared for makes my approach like that of a football player during the regular season; a loss feels bad, but you use it to fuel your prep for the next game.