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First gig woes...

B

beardohutson

Jan 11, 2014
2
0
Arkansas
#1
I've played in church for about 5 years. Just last year I was asked to join a local band that was in need of a bassist so I excitedly took the offer. Practiced for a week then it was time for our first gig (kinda short notice but I've known the band for a while beforehand. I was a little nervous, even though it was a small venue and I had played much larger places with our worship band, I couldn't help but be a little shakey. . Ya know?

Set up was awesome, rig sounded great, and I was ready to go. Drummer kicks off first song and two notes in my A string breaks!

I'm beet red but finish the song with minimal damage. Then I get to use the headliner's bass (American made Fender.. yesss!) The rest of the show went great and the night goes down in my book as an almost disaster that I will tell my kids about when they are older. .

Anybody else have a memorable first gig experience?
 
#2
Not a first gig story but I also broke a key string too. Man, that gets you on your toes fast and reveals how well you know your neck. Gotta find all the same lines on different spots on the neck using different fingerings all in real time.

Congrats for making it thru that. It doesn't get too much more challenging than that (other than maybe finding out that you've tuned your bass a half step low and having to change keys on the fly)
 
#3
My first gig with a band some 20 years ago. I was at the BL's house a day earlier to audition and we never even played a note. Apparently he spoke to a guitar player I played with before and the BL deemed it unnecessary. Yay me.

So I grab their set list and figure I have several weeks to get the tunes down. He calls me a day later saying they need me to play that night at a gig as their bass current player was in a car wreck. I told him I didn't learn anything yet. They were hosting an open mic for bands and we could review stuff, you'll be fine, etc.

Why not? I show up, set up, all good. We did a couple standards. The what I didn't expect. Hours of just guitarists who showed up and expected me and the drummer to know their tunes. I was winging it all night long. I was still young so I was a bit panicked but it was mostly blues type guys so the structures were easy to follow.

I actually had fun with it and received a ton of compliments. Not ideal but a cool memory.
 

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