Tell your first time...

JaneBass1 · #1 08-31-2008, 08:21 AM

And I mean gig!

I would like to hear anybody else's first time in a gig ever.

My first time I had 2 beers, had to pee in the middle of the gig, played very lightly when I thought I was messing up. I was sober, drunk, and hangover in only 1 hour and with 2 beers.

What did u do to calm the nerves, or shakes or whatever is it that you get.

Please tell your experience.

Mr Grady · #2 08-31-2008, 08:59 AM

hi, first gig was yesterday (30th)

didnt have any nerves, which surprised me.
worst part was during 20th century boy, my hand went into a cramp spasam, and my index finger wouldnt move!

i managed to keep going, but it came back during the encore, with the last song we played, thankfully there was a lot of open string playing, so i could keep going and try and stretch my hand behind my back, but it must have looked funny!

ive not been in front of an audiance for at least 20 years +, unless you count a performance at covent garden helping an escape artist!!!

overall, it was a fantastic experience........i cant wait for the next gig, which is an open mic night in two weeks time.

ive done a few "hobbies" over the years, but nothing beats rock n roll...esp. playing it!

SelenaBassGirl · #3 08-31-2008, 06:37 PM

I haven't played with a band yet, but been playing at the club on karaoke nights. My friend (fellow bass player) plays dj music too on those nights.
I only did it three times thus far. First night, I was talking to a friend of my bass playing friend, and we got talking that I play bass. He hollars to Jay (my friend) and tells him that I was ready to play bass. Jay brings his bass to me and asks me what song. I didn't shake like I thought I was gonna do. I was also buzzed. I played only 2 songs.

2nd time, my knees knocked. I played on the dance floor-walking around to prevent this. Jay told me to stand on the stage. I did and no knee knocking no shaking. I loved the way the vibration felt up there! I did like 6 songs. I got paid $12 gas money from friends...

3rd night Jay sings karaoke and I play. He plays guitar. It wasn't the "real" music that I normally play along with, but I did good I think! He sang three songs while I played. This girl walks up, hands him money and he hands it to me..couple bucks "tip" lol! Also gained two beers, a band offer, an offer to go to an open mic thing with a band (if they liked me, I'd be offered a fill in job) and a cool cowboy hat...my hands trembled some that night.

This Wed. I might go if I am able to...we'll see what happens!!

Congratulations on your first! I can't wait until I get to play with a band!

Busker · #4 08-31-2008, 07:03 PM

My first gig I was nervous as could be, had 1/2 a beer just to calm my nerves a bit. However, the singer got totally trashed on beer, plus he was smoking dope on every break we took. By the third set he couldn't sing at all (well, he couldn't sing that well to begin with, but after getting totally trashed it was much worse). Slurring words, timing & pitch was off, forgetting lyrics... couldn't have been worse.

We actually had a heckler who yelled "you suck!" twice, then the singer told the heckler, right over the PA so everyone in the bar could hear, to go down the street to another bar if he didn't like the music. I remember the bar manager glaring at us as she paid us. I quit that band soon after, and I'm sure they were never invited back to that bar. But they are still playing.

EclecticElectrk · #5 08-31-2008, 07:08 PM

high school battle of the bands. maybe not a gig gig, but our stage was huge and there was like 200 people there. it was so awesome

rodl2005 · #6 08-31-2008, 07:08 PM

Jingies!!! I can't remember me 1st gig properly!! I DO remember I was nervous as all get out!!! IIRC we did a few 'sort of gigs' at parties etc... B4... Oh I DO remember- was at "Cooleys Hotel" Nthrn suburbs of my City!! -we must've done OK as we got a regular Sat. nite out of it. Well for a month or so anyway IIRC. We were a 3 piece band & we all LOVED Led Zep(who at that point were probly making their last studio LP-'In thru the out door' . So -naturally- I played bass guitar & keyboards(with bass pedals) just like JPJ did!! :-) We made more $$$$ is that band than I think I did EVER!! We played EVERYWHERE-school dances, pubs, resorts.. & I was only 14-17 y.o. Great times & experiece!

Johnny Crab · #7 08-31-2008, 07:15 PM

Hmmmm.

Simulated a gig in my Mom & Dad's living room with my brother at about 8 years old(IIRC) in the 60's with Dad spinning Beatle records and us "playing" violins as bass/guitar and another neighborhood kid on a drum(inverted cookie can with a kitchen towel on it)...all in front of almost every kid who could fit into our living room. Next real one was high school rock music club in front of the school in East Jefferson High School's auditorium(Jefferson Parish, suburb on New Orleans).

It goes on almost 40 years after that too....

BTW, the 1st gig may have been foreshadowing as my brother and I were in numerous bands together and are even now. AND we're still on the same side of the "stage" as that "1st" living room show.

Nerves?
Just look at your hands and remind yourself how many hours, days, weeks, years, decades they've done just fine for you.

**BluesyCat** · #8 08-31-2008, 07:17 PM

at work in the company conference room. LOL! The company has a holiday (Xmas time) shutdown party every year and some of us decided to get together and hide away in the conference room. We had 2 guitarists, myself on bass and a drummer. It was pretty good fun. Yeah, I was nervous because I had never played in a "band" setting. I did fine though. It was the coolest thing ever. Some people found us and sat and listened and even the company owner watched for a bit.

The Golden Boy · #9 09-03-2008, 04:08 PM

I don't remember much- it was a Halloween party at this dude's house. We played in his living room- and I remember the 1970's etched mirror panes behind us.

My first "bar gig" was an all ages show- I don't remember much about playing- but I still have the flyer from the show- and we played with Chicago's Life Sentence. That was cool. Someone had a video of the show, and I'd seen it probably around 15 years ago- I still don't remember much about it.

Joel S. · #10 09-03-2008, 04:12 PM

It was a great relief when it was over, like a load was taken off. Felt kinda dirty, little hot and sweaty.

Was an outside gig.

BobWestbrook · #11 09-03-2008, 08:21 PM

My first "gig" was in 1975. I played bass guitar in the high school marching band. The band director made a cart carrying a fairly large combo amp, which was somehow powered by a car battery (don't remember the specifics). During a parade, someone marched with me to push the cart. During the interim between songs in the parade, when the drum line would do their repetitive ditty, I played a bass line.

Robybass · #12 09-03-2008, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EclecticElectrk

high school battle of the bands. maybe not a gig gig, but our stage was huge and there was like 200 people there. it was so awesome

+1.
That time we had a lot of fun.
It was a battle with the academy of music, against senior high (us). We won!, so many girls lol... those days will never come back.

tlwaps · #13 09-03-2008, 09:57 PM

My first gig was at a hole in the wall barn made into a concert venue for local bands. The band I was playing for was headlining the show and the way I calmed my nerves, if you wanna call it me calming them, was by getting hit on by some hot chick, watching her make out with her girl friend and then having both of them show me their tits. An interesting first gig, I have to say watching 2 chicks make out will probably calm anybodies nerves. However, I was popping more wood than the petrified rain forest the rest of the night. Other than that the show went ok. Nobody in the band moved cause it was everybodies first show, but we still had a good response from the crowd and had a pit going. Now if you wanna talk about the best gig ever played that's an entire different story.

crimson_basser · #14 09-03-2008, 09:58 PM

high school variety show
went alright by our standards at the time
i was 15
first REAL show, at a club was with a bunch of punk/ska bands (we played poppy "emo" songs (i guess you can call it that, again i was 15)

we got made fun of hard
it was awesome hahaha

heavyfunkmachin · #15 09-04-2008, 04:57 AM

my first concert was in the street!

cultural/hype get-toghether--- a couple of experimental movies, documentaries, performances an what-not.

we were the last "show", and by the time we got to play everybody was drunk and expecting a "great concert" (some versions, african percusion...). i was nervous as hell, meanwhile my pals were drunk and confident, i felt like the only one aware of what we were going to do: play for a drunk crow withouT rehearsing much and with only 5 SONGS IN OUR SETLIST!!!!

for make things worst, i was playing a "el-cheapo" fretless for the first time (2 weeks practice... ), my knees turned into jelly, dry mouth, wet hands and later one i saw some pictures of me: i l looked like a cross-over of a serial killer and someone anoyed by small-sized shoes

)

anyway, as we are drunk/nervous we increased the songs speed and in a matter of minutes we were aproaching our last song.... just as people were starting to enjoy and let themselves out... "LUCKLY" enough, it was late and we were loud, and police cut out electricity (we were pluged in a nearby bar)... we looked cool and "ilegal" and the legend went on... bigger than us (we were pretty small, i must say

)

the thing i remember the most is not being confident in my playing, therefore not enjoying so much... just being TENSE LIKE A PIANO STRING) and my flat mate, i remember her, speaking over to a friend in the middel of a song... she said out loud how "uncool" the song was (some bowie cover) and that she was looking forward to the next one....
"vaya puta mierda de cancion, a ver si acaban ya."

anyway, great experience!

sevenyearsdown · #16 09-04-2008, 06:38 AM

I was 18 or 19, in a band with guys who were already seasoned guys around the local scene. They setup our first show with a solid local lineup, and a good indie band headlining. I was the singer and bassist, and was so nervous that I didn't eat hardly at all that day. There ended up being at least around 100 people there, in an average sized bar (in other words in was pretty packed). Needless to say, I was pretty nervous. By the time I hit the pocket in the first tune I was hooked - and nerves turned to adreneline. It was babtism by fire a little, but my drummer who was sort of the band leader always did a great job of pumping me up and making feel like I was better than I actually was. Confidence can get you by at that age when you don't have the best chops.

Bluesy Soul · #17 09-04-2008, 04:37 PM

My first gig was in the late autumn of 1964. I was a 15-year-old sophomore in high school. I'd been playing bass for less than a year, but I'd had formal music lessons since I was 7 and had played about a half dozen different instruments in school bands.

I grew up in a town of 85,000 people in the middle of the agricultural Midwest. If your band wanted to work regularly, even on the weekends, it used an agent to book you into one of the countless ballrooms, roadhouses, Elks/Eagles/Moose lodges, VFW halls, armories or gymnasiums that offered dancing in the surrounding communities. I was playing with a couple of older, high school musician friends (drums and rhythm guitar) and an "older guy" of 25, Jimmy (lead guitar), who'd been in the Army and seemed to know every song Chuck Berry, Little Richard and The Ventures recorded. To this day, I think only Paul McCartney and Little Richard himself sing "Long Tall Sally" better than Jimmy did. We were known as the "Screamers".

We played a bar in the small town of Highmore in southeastern South Dakota. It was an older, smaller and dirtier version of the bar in the movie "Roadhouse". We had to drive about 200 miles each way to get there, which meant we rented a U-Haul 5'x8' trailer and towed it wilth Jimmy's old Ford, a practice we would repeat countless times in the future.

We were paid $125 for the gig. After reimbursing the U-Haul rent, paying for gas and buying a 6-pack of beer to split on the long ride home, each of us cleared just under $20.00 apiece.

We had to drive slower on our trip home because an early season snow storm reduced visibility and severely tested the heater and defroster in Jimmy's old car. I was cold and tired when Jimmy dropped me at my house and the early rays of dawn were just beginning to creep over the eastern horizon. I was also exhilarated and ecstatic and still can't get enough of it!

Bluesy Soul

Jamasaurus · #18 09-04-2008, 04:39 PM

I had only been with the band for a few weeks, barely knew the songs and wore ridiculously oversized sunglasses in order to somewhat hide/ somewhat look cool to those in the crowd.

biohazed · #19 09-04-2008, 04:41 PM

My first gig was at a small bar call Dreams in Philadelphia and we made $4 a person ...

BigOldHarry · #20 09-04-2008, 04:58 PM

My first gig was an accordion recital when I was 5 years old in 1966... But you want my first BASS gig, I'll bet...

1977. A house party at a country house that sat just up the road from a bar called "The Jolly Jug" in Santee, CA. I was 16. The band was called "Stonehenge" and we were all VERY young. 2 Guitars, drums and me. I had a brand-new 1976 fender J bass that weighted a ton... We all wore matching black angles-flight pants and shiny nylon ***** - except the drummer who wore a long green silk kimono his father got in the war...

We played such fine songs as "Fool for the City", "Communication Breakdown", "You really got me", "Paranoid"... Oh, it was simply terrible. Folks seemed to dig it. Go figure.

I had never been drunk and folks were snorting coke in front of us, shooting smack in the bathroom. After we finished, I was led to the keg... When in Rome, right? So I had my first gig, my first drunk AND my first drunken puke all in one night! Looking back, I'm shocked me gear survived...