Band's first gig this weekend. We're not ready.

[kernowthumper]

I had a similar experience just over a week ago. Bands first ever gig and a two hour set! We were nowhere near ready. Some songs I think we were actually playing different versions at the same time. Fortunately our singer is a very experienced front man and he got the crowd on side right from the start which made it easy to relax and go with the flow. Its all about the atmosphere and as several people have said already the crowd probably won't notice the mistakes! Turns out we've been booked for another gig at the same venue!

Good Luck!

 

[basslayer]

Practice the intros and endings of your songs in the set before you practice the full set. Record everything and note the rough spots afterward.

 

[eldorado2001]

Five Hour Energy before you start.

 

[Slpbass81]

So i quasi-auditioned for a top 40 country cover band a little over a month ago and got the gig. This band was fairly established in their area and had been together 5 or so years. Three days after I got the part, the band leader says we're booked for the headlining spot of a Fourth of July festival with a two hour slot in front of approximately 3000 people. He also booked us a 15 minute slot at a battle of the bands on July 10th. I think it was kind of hurried but he said they weren't wanting to start gigging again so I went with it. We've been practicing 3-5 hours once a week. We've got about 20-25 songs lined up. We made some major progress the first 3 practices but for various reasons we seemed to have regressed this past weekend. We've got some songs down really tight but there are a few others that are kinda rough. We know our parts but it's mostly the beginnings and ends that are the problem. We're all off work friday so we've got one last practice. I think we're only about 80% to the point I'd hoped we would be at before the gig but at this point it is what it is. I don't expect to be perfect but I'm a little worried. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I would actually say don't practice with the band. If beginnings and ends are the problem put one practice together where the drummer shows everyone how he will end songs. Basically he can use the same type of fill followed by a 1, 2 or 3 hit end to change it up. For intro he can send out an email saying how many hits he will give before the band comes in. Besides that when you cover a song just tell the band to learn it exactly like the record and if the singer needs the key changed to communicate that to the band. Every band I play in now doesn't practice. Everyone learns the song exactly how it goes and it sounds great the first time we play it. Go with this plan and your band will do great.

 

[Felix1776]

Unbelievable advice everyone. I'll report back after practice on Friday.

 

[DougParkinson]

Is a Saturday morning refresher on bad parts not something that can happen? Even just talking through the "rough" areas before performing and communicating on stage about what to remember on each song will be a huge help. Try not to make it obvious but this is a normal thing for fill in players.

 

[macteacher]

My advice is one word: Charts.

Some guys are uptight about using them, but audiences and bookers are more uptight about things falling apart onstage musically...

I just worked as a last minute replacement for a two set gig as well as a separate video shoot, all original music along with singing backup vocals with lyrics and some odd time signatures.

One rehearsal.

Charted it all out and used them discretely.

Feedback from the band?

"Killed it!"

Feedback from the venue?

The band was rebooked.

 

[aprod]

I didn't read the entire thread and was wondering why after 5 years they don't have their set down? If you are the new member than I could understand only 80% of the material being under your belt. But the rest of the band?

 

[s0c9]

I didn't read the entire thread and was wondering why after 5 years they don't have their set down? If you are the new member than I could understand only 80% of the material being under your belt. But the rest of the band?

yeah.. that was my first thought too... unless they're "starting over".. the new guy (OP) should be the one catching up.. they should have their entire set nailed !!

 

[Corbin]

ONLY work on the beginnings and endings. Get them all nailed and take notes on your final decisions.

 

[DwaynieAD]

So i quasi-auditioned for a top 40 country cover band a little over a month ago and got the gig. This band was fairly established in their area and had been together 5 or so years. Three days after I got the part, the band leader says we're booked for the headlining spot of a Fourth of July festival with a two hour slot in front of approximately 3000 people. He also booked us a 15 minute slot at a battle of the bands on July 10th. I think it was kind of hurried but he said they weren't wanting to start gigging again so I went with it. We've been practicing 3-5 hours once a week. We've got about 20-25 songs lined up. We made some major progress the first 3 practices but for various reasons we seemed to have regressed this past weekend. We've got some songs down really tight but there are a few others that are kinda rough. We know our parts but it's mostly the beginnings and ends that are the problem. We're all off work friday so we've got one last practice. I think we're only about 80% to the point I'd hoped we would be at before the gig but at this point it is what it is. I don't expect to be perfect but I'm a little worried. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Just play the gig and have a good time. As long ad you're okay no one on the audience will be the wiser. Tb will generally have you practicing in the garage until ur a virtuoso and never actually get to the gig.

 

[DirtDog]

One thing that's worked for me is prioritizing the rough spots. I'll sit down with the set list and classify each song as to the confidence I have playing it end to end with relative ease - e.g, 100% confident, 90% confident and so on. If I'm 80% confident, that's usually more than enough. This approach can also be used with the band's collective confidence in playing any tune.

Anything below 80% gets a lot of attention in at-home practice and I try to influence band rehearsals in that way as well.

Nothing wrong with running through a tune a half dozen times to work through it and bring the confidence level up. Sometimes it's not even necessary to work through the whole song again and again - usually just some sticky transitions and or specific parts of the arrangement.

 

[jmverdugo]

easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, to start a song ask your drummer to count to 4 and boom song started. To finish a song ask your singer to count to 4 on the mic and boom song finished. That's $150 - thank you.

 

[lfmn16]

My advice is one word: Charts.

Some guys are uptight about using them, but audiences and bookers are more uptight about things falling apart onstage musically...

I just worked as a last minute replacement for a two set gig as well as a separate video shoot, all original music along with singing backup vocals with lyrics and some odd time signatures.

One rehearsal.

Charted it all out and used them discretely.

Feedback from the band?

"Killed it!"

Feedback from the venue?

The band was rebooked.

This gets argued frequently on TB, but in 40+ years I've never heard a word (negative or positive) about a discretely placed music stand other than a hand full of whiners on TB.

 

[Eric Garland]

Lots of great comments here, and I'm not sure whether this has been already said, but here are my 0.17 euros (.30 after the Grexit.)

Prepare to suck. Mentally get yourself ready for the distinct possibility that you may STINK THE JOINT UP!

Oh! Ack! Oh noes! Egads! YOU MIGHT FAIL! Aaaaaaah!

Ahem.

Now, go even deeper - what will then happen? You'll spend all night wincing about when you were supposed to play Baby Got Back but accidentally started playing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, which happens all the time. Or you'll actually get in a fight with the drummer - he throws a stick, you throw your amp head, and the audience begins flinging beer bottles like that scene in The Blues Brothers. And then, all of the sexually attractive people will march to the front of the stage and declare loudly, "We will be sleeping with none of you - but especially not that bassist."

Now envision what will come after that. You'll put your bass forlornly in its case, too depressed to wipe the strings. You may get fired. You'll drive home to the tool shed in which you live.

The next day, you'll pick your bass back up. Motown will come on the radio and you will hum along with Jamerson. You will think about how you maybe need a compressor pedal.

You'll still be a bassist, and probably will never change that identity.

I've played more than 1000 gigs. Some have been awe-inspiring jams where we rocked the roof off the joint, everybody got laid twice, and nobody had a hangover. The vast majority have had problems ranging from trivial to catastrophic, sonic to psychiatric.

The most memorable salsa gig of my life was one of the first times I ever sat in with a legit Afro-Cuban band in Washington DC. I was so green, I kept crossing the clave up, playing the wrong chord on the wrong bars. The dancers actually stopped, turned, and looked directly at the big Gringo who was clearly the problem. I flushed red. I recognized at that moment what it meant to play for a crowd of real dancers.

I played a gig at the Smithsonian and forgot to bring the peg for my Baby Bass. I had to play sitting down and looked uncomfortable and silly. I learned about making checklists.

I played with a folk ensemble based around a married couple that was having severe relationship problems. During the set, the singer became enraged by a passing quip from an audience member and began shouting frank, terrifying abuse at the man. I learned about stage presence, marriage, and the need for mood stabilizers.

I played at an Afghan wedding with a salsa band. Four Puertoricans (including the groom who hired us) three white people and 104 Afghans. They have their own amazing traditional music. The bride's family hated us. Nobody moved. Old women scowled at us. We heard nasty comments in the parking lot. We then got very drunk and laughed.

I played countless gigs with people showing a need to rein in substance usage. Some fell off drum kits. Some fell into guitar amps. Some told the audience that they were a bunch of ignorance products of incest. I learned about choosing bands with which to play, and yet again about stage presence.

I enjoyed the triumphs. They are few. I general enjoy the struggle, which gets easier as skill and experience increases; there's a great pleasure from playing with real pros and the music just flows.

But I learned the most from the train wrecks, the embarrassments, and the clear demonstrations of how much I have left to learn. In fact, I never would have tried to get all that much better were it not for the pain.

Have a good gig. See you on the other side. There will be another, and hopefully another, and another.

 

[rtslinger]

Work on beginnings and endings. As long as they are tight, you can get through it.

yup +1000 on this responds

 

[DavC]

you are the only new member in a 5 yr band ..??!? hopefully , they know their stuff ..!! I'd follow who ever seems to know best ..!

 

[Keithwah]

I've stepped into two higher profile regional country acts in the past 20 years. My 1st was in the mid 90's with a band that was together for about 4 years and were the kings of the WI country music scene. We were the first to truly bring the 80's hair band production and show to the local country scene, and the people ate it up. But once I joined, it was pulling teeth to get them to rehearse and demand to be as "tight" as any rock act I've had. So we'd go out and play in front of 30,000-40,000 people each weekend during the summers, and nobody gave a damn that we were sloppy and at times almost musically comical. But RCA still wanted us, ***? My second country venture was about 6 years back I took the gig with what I could say was the "next gen" country, guys all 10 years younger and who were inspired by my previous 90's country act. And these guys were just as bad about rehearsing and getting stuff together. But in both cases at some point, both of these bands had to have worked their asses off to get the following and the vocal blends and the shows together. But it was really tough to be able to shift from the mindset of we have to be so rehearsed because we could never live if somebody saw us make a mistake. The record companies sure didn't give a crap, they just saw drunk people reacting and having a great time and throwing money around. I'd say enjoy the ride while it lasts. That's what I did, no regrets.

 

[kenneffdupriest]

90% of the mistakes you make in the middle of a song will not be noticed by the public. Even your band members might not notice.

The other 10% are your intros and endings and everyone notices.

 

[Mystic Michael]

We've been practicing 3-5 hours once a week. We've got about 20-25 songs lined up. We made some major progress the first 3 practices but for various reasons we seemed to have regressed this past weekend. We've got some songs down really tight but there are a few others that are kinda rough. We know our parts but it's mostly the beginnings and ends that are the problem. We're all off work friday so we've got one last practice. I think we're only about 80% to the point I'd hoped we would be at before the gig but at this point it is what it is. I don't expect to be perfect but I'm a little worried. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm not going to read through >100 posts just to find out, but has anyone else here noted that this is a little strange? A band that's been together for five years, and has been rehearsing together for the past several weeks...yet still is shaky on some of the material? Even if every one of the tunes is new and the band has never played them together before, one would think that the collective learning curve would be a lot more efficient than this by now - even with the new guy in the band.

As to preparation for the gig, it's hard to assess such a thing remotely, having never actually heard the band, even virtually and online. Multiple factors at play here, and ultimately it's the leader's call about how to proceed. If you guys are indeed within scoring range, then by all means step it up a couple of notches, and nail it on the last rehearsal. The leader should know whether the band is capable of this, and is ultimately responsible for how it does down at the gig.

I will say that there are times when the expedient thing is to bail out. A couple of weeks ago, I was gearing up for a pro-bono performance at a local arts festival. The material was technically challenging - jazz/rock fusion - and the keyboards player had just dropped out due to a prior commitment he'd forgotten. The guitarist then bailed. Drummer and I had to find replacements - fast - or scrap the gig.

Fortunately I found both a new keyboards player and a new guitarist to sub on short notice. First - and only - rehearsal was set for three days before the gig. Everyone had tunes in hand, and MP3s from which to learn them, about a week in advance of the rehearsal.

Unfortunately, both the subs showed up to rehearsal unprepared, neither one having learned his parts, or at least very well. We floundered and flopped around for about 90 minutes, by which time it had become clear that this wasn't going to work. I informed everyone, right on the spot, that I was pulling the plug on the gig. The two subs actually seemed surprised - amazingly enough. I had to explain to them that since we weren't even close to having learned the parts, actual rehearsal - i.e. collective drilling and on-the-fly arranging - would be set back indefinitely: there was no point to drilling on material that they hadn't even learned yet.

This isn't the way it was supposed to work. Everyone had six days to learn six tunes. There was no more time left to squeeze in a second rehearsal. And besides, given how unprepared the subs were for the first (and only) rehearsal, I had no reason to believe they would show up for the second rehearsal any better prepared. Even if everything came together perfectly at the second rehearsal, we'd literally be pulling it all together at the very last minute. Ridiculous. There was no way I was going to go out there and fall on my face in front of an audience with these guys.

MM