Best compliment you got after a gig......

[OldBassman]

A memory popped into my head today. One I wished to share. While this tale has nothing to do with playing bass it is music related and you my bass playing brothers will likely understand and maybe identify with. Best compliment I ever got after a gig: Many years ago Labor Day weekend of 1975 I went to Crescent Beach. My Gainesville Brothers and Sisters will know the place. My then girlfriend and I spent a weekend at a small motel in Crescent Beach Florida. A friend owned the place. Eight or ten small cottages on the beach. We shared our cottage with a group. Such a blast it was lots of tasty adult beverages and other organic intoxicants. I played "at" guitar in those days and had found a religion behind many hours of Exile on Main Street. Learned every song. My girlfriend, Dodie, and I went to a liquor store for a bottle. We scored a bottle of Old Grandad 100 proof bottled in bond. Pretty much everybody at the motel was hanging on the patio enhancing an intense communal buzz. I dragged out my guitar, harp, and one of those neck brace apparatisi one employs to play harp and guitar. I began to recite the poetry that is "Exile on Main Street" fueled by the bourbon and the state of my love life. I poured my heart and soul into those tunes. I left all I had on that patio that night. I didn't see Miss Dodie again for more than thirty years after that night on the patio and only briefly. Oh, I nearly forgot, the best compliment. When I finished a friend said to me: " I never knew you were a blues man".

 

[Spidey2112]

Many moons ago, one of my musically inclined buddies came out to see us play, telling me after the show that my playing 'carried the band'...

...I'll get back there, just not right now.

 

[farshore]

People kept dancing for 10 minutes after we packed up to leave.

 

[Oren Hudson]

I sat in with a classic rock band a couple of years ago. The guitar player's daughter was 28 years old, but looked much younger. Come to find out, she had mental illness along with physical development issues. Anyway, at the first break, she came up to me and said "You're not bad." About the most sincere and memorable comment I've ever gotten in my 52 years of playing. Unforgettable!

 

[And I]

I joined a new to me but established band that had a monthly slot at a cool bar. After our first gig there with me on the bass the bar manager said to me as we were packing up "you make these guys a lot better."

 

[2saddleslab]

A blind friend of my first drummer came to a gig and after the first set he nervously asked his friend what he thought. The blind friends reply was " you got a hell of a bass player". Always been proud of that.

About 10 years ago, while working in Guam, I attended a Sunday fiesta, consisting of a neighborhood get together, everybody bring a dish thing. A couple guys brought out some acoustic guitars and low and behold an electric bass. While sitting around a gazebo someone started Stir It Up and we were off. Over my shoulder I overheard a local say "damn, that bass really adds a lot".

 

[Hotblack]

Not after a gig, but after a rehearsal. I was playing "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper.
"You got that line right. Most guys screw up the verse." - Dennis Dunaway

 

[Salicete]

"Your ass looks great in those jeans."

From a really hot ~out of my league~ woman in the audience.

Decades ago, obviously...

 

[twinjet]

"I'm so ****ing glad you do what you do."

 

[Gluvhand]

Not after a gig but between sets last Saturday night. I come out of the bathroom and one of the guitarists in my band is chatting with a buddy of his. He stops me as I pass and said " I was just telling Bob, and he agrees, that you and Joe just don't make a mistake." He's wrong. I hit a clam here and there. I guess I hide them well. Joe is the drummer, btw. He makes it easy. Great drummer.

 

[Basshappi]

As I was packing up I overheard a person in the audience say to his friend, "Now that is what a real rock band sounds like."

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

"We love what you're trying to do."


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Basshappi]

Ouch!

 

[AztecViking]

"You're the best bass player I've ever heard" said one of the drunken school jocks at an outdoor high school party gig I did at a public park. That was a two band gig and was stopped by police once band #2 started playing. In typical high school style we had simply dragged a huge crowd from the end of a school day, knew of a stray electrical outlet in a nice grassy park and set up with no permission at all from the city. And of course had ( as usual ) scored a huge load of "underaged alcohol"

The guy who commented obviously had not seen a lot of other bass players but it was still a nice compliment to hear.

PS. He had probably never heard a bass player who was playing a lot of AC/DC and Sabbath songs who's bass heroes ( at the time ) were Jeff Berlin and Jaco.

 

[Drzejzi]

1. Drunk old lady after a gig: "Where is this handsome guitarist? I want to take a photo with him." We pointed our guitarist, and she replied: "No, no this one" and pointed at me.
And then when we were taking a photo: "Hug me tight".

2. During the interview in apartment of my vocalist his rommate said: "Whoa, you've got Flea in your room?".

 

[joinercape]

Best compliment I ever get is "Hey good job, I'll call you again soon"...

 

[BigEarl]

Played a gig from hell, outdoors, November, bandshell, wind in our faces, sparse crowd, low pay, you get the idea. Each set got worse, colder, less people, less interest. During the third set a friend of the guitarist showed up sitting at the back (by the heaters btw) he was a heavy-hitter musician in town so I wanted to impress but it was so freakin' cold!

Anyways, we got done with set three (thank God there was no fourth!) and as my routine started to quickly teardown. The guitarist ran out to shmooze the heavy-hitter.

I was loaded up, paid out and ready to split when the guitarist came back to the stage with the heavy-hitter and everybody gushed and rushed to shake his hand and fished for compliments (there were none.) But as he blankly shook my hand and I turned to leave he called out to me and said "oh yeah, dude, dig your hat!"

...It was a nice hat.

 

[Miker27607]

Audience members dancing is the highest compliment to me.

 

[viper4000]

After a gig: First time my dad saw me play live. He told me he was glad I didn't listen to him and give up on music.

 

[Thumb n Fingers]

Audience members dancing is the highest compliment to me.

100% agree. It's always nice to hear compliments from the audience, but the proof is in the pudding. If they're dancing, they're diggin' what yer layin' down. And in this case, the unsaid speaks volumes.