Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Not counting school concert band (trumpet), my first stage performance on electric bass where I couldn't just hide in the crowd was three songs at an open mic on a stage outside an ice cream shop. I actually have a video of it (no, I'm not sharing it).
For the first four or five measures of the first song I was just lost - everything seemed like I was hitting the wrong notes and I started to panic. Then, it all clicked into place, and I felt like I was grooving, making real music. The other two songs went by so quickly, I wanted to keep playing. But three songs were the limit.
That first song - a slightly sped-up version of "1973" by James Blunt.
For the first four or five measures of the first song I was just lost - everything seemed like I was hitting the wrong notes and I started to panic. Then, it all clicked into place, and I felt like I was grooving, making real music. The other two songs went by so quickly, I wanted to keep playing. But three songs were the limit.
That first song - a slightly sped-up version of "1973" by James Blunt.
LA Woman by the Doors.
First play and lead vocals; Now I Wanna Be Your Dog by Iggy and the Stooges; just last week.
First play and lead vocals; Now I Wanna Be Your Dog by Iggy and the Stooges; just last week.
It's still on YouTube, I came out and played the first few seconds of Anesthesia (pulling teeth) and then the curtains opened to the rest of the band and we went into for whom the bell tolls (both Metallica, if you didn't know). It was the high-school talent show. I played an Epiphone flying V bass and the YouTube comment section got really mad about me playing the bass parts on a guitar, because they can't count tuners.
1st: Frere Jaques round in 2nd with the grade school string group in front of the whole school. I also got to "solo" on the UR to show the audience what the bass sounded like (as did all the other players).
after many orchestra performances, some in front of some very big audiences .... I played Pictures Of Matchstick Men in my middle school rock band.
after 50+ years of it, the rest is just a blur
after many orchestra performances, some in front of some very big audiences .... I played Pictures Of Matchstick Men in my middle school rock band.
after 50+ years of it, the rest is just a blur
Late bloomer (boomer?) I am. Something over 10 years ago, I was still in my 60s, bunch from work formed a band, couple boomers, gen X and Y. We covered a few decades. Some one wanted Adel, another The Squriiel Nut Zippers. The only song we all knew was Angel from Montgomery. Go figure.
But we did do Adel and the SNZ.
But we did do Adel and the SNZ.
My 6th grade teacher had a polka band and his bassist couldnāt make a gig. My teacher had heard me play guitar at a talent show finger picking folk music, the kind where you play bass parts with your thumb. So he asked me if I could make the gig playing his bassistās bass rig, and I agreed. Big polish wedding across town in 1966 (or their abouts) so I was 13 at the time.
My dad was not at all happy about having to drive me to this gig about 40 minutes both ways on his day off. So anyway the gig came and went, around 1 1/2 hours of work, the teacher handed me a wad of bills as I was leaving the church and thanked me for my efforts. My dad sees the cash in my hand and asks āWhat cha got there Bud?ā. āLooks a lot like $45.ā That was the last time he ever complained about bussing me to a gig.
The other fallout from the gig was my teacher told our band director about me filling in and what a great job I did. All of a sudden, bass charts for the band arrive and Iām on my way as a bassist.
1977, I'm 12 years old. My brother's band is practicing on a Saturday night. They are all 16. I'm sitting in on vocals because my brother's bands lead singer has already graduated high school and is out partying. A friend of my brothers comes by and says his dad who has a very popular country dance band says that we can play on their break. We go to the Dancehall and I sing taking care of business by Bachmann Turner overdrive and keep on rocking Me by Steve Miller. At the end of the performance I jump off of the elevated stage and break my ankle. Welcome to Showbiz kid..
First time on base is the school talent show when I'm in high school. Our band is called first offense and we play an original song called Running Wild. The song is very much across between deep purple and southern rock. I am wearing my dad's red work jumpsuit, trying to approximate the look of Michael Anthony. I am also barefooted. The band is first offense, as into offend somebody. Not first offense, like a football team. I still know how to play this song on both bass and guitar, though I doubt the person who wrote it does.
October 1990 at a gigantic Halloween house party. I was 13. We opened up with For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica. Turned out to be an awesome night both during and after the show.
Nuts! That's a tough one. It was 1966 and I was 15, in high school, and playing bass for a group called "The Warlocks". We were playing at a Battle of the Bands put on by our local movie theater and we knew all of 5-songs. We played three of them and I'm trying to remember which one went first. I think the first one was Shapes of Things by the Yardbirds. Then we did Hey Joe by The Leaves, which came out before the Hendrix version, is quite different, and I like better than the Hendrix version. The Third song was also a Yardbirds song - For your Love. I'm not sure of the order we played them but if I recall correctly, Hey Joe, was the second one.
Here's the set list hopefully in the order we played it. This was the only performance I ever did with my crappy green Japanese short scale bass. Two weeks later I bought a 1965 Jazz Bass. The organist from another group was moving away and their bassist was switching to playing keys, so he sold me his '65 Jazz and I took his place playing bass for the St. James Infirmary (appropriately named after an insane asylum).
Shapes of Things - The Yardbirds
Hey Joe - The Leaves
For Your Love - The Yardbirds
We didn't win the battle of the bands but I did get two free tickets each week to the movies for 2-years. So that worked out quite well. Not long after that I had a girlfriend so we went to the movies pretty much every Saturday night for free.
Last edited:
ZZ Tops Sharp Dressed Man at a company Christmas party. I had been playing for only 3 months. Never practiced with a band so I was as nervous as can be.
