I PUKE

[D Rokk]

in my opinion it gets easier the bigger the crowd.. its more of a mass of intertwined bodies rather than individual faces..

this also gives you better candidates to check out or make fun of all night

 

[GearHeadBassMan]

wack it prior? soothing, gets rid of anxiety, hell, surgeons do it before dangerous and extensive surguries, there must be something to it!

I saw a kid who had the same problem as you, he puked right before they started playing, came back and RIPPED it up. after the show I made sure to go over to him, give him a pat on the back, and say "you play circles around me dude, you've got NOTHING to be afraid of!" and it brought some of the color back to his face, definitely cheered him up.

As for me, I started going to theater camp at age 10, so yeah, I'm more comfortable on stage than off it. just stick with it, if it helps, develop that rock star attitude to psych you up before hitting the stage.

 

[thisSNsucks]

My Lead Guitar player has puked before every show thus far. He's a big ball of nerves before we play, but on stage he tears it up.

If he ever figures out a way to stop puking I'll be sure to let you know.

 

[mightypog]

Dude, this happened, we just played the Dallas guitar fest, home of the best guitar players in the world, Eric Johnson was there, Anson Funderberg played right before us, and Gary Grainger played on the set before that. We are a lesser known band from Seattle, and I'm no Gary Grainger. Because of a scheduling shuffle, we were scheduled to play last in the slot that Rick Derringer had been scheduled to play. So everyone was showing up to see Rick Derringer on the main stage only to find us. Suffice to say I was nervous. But this old trick I use really calmed me down, and I've done it many places under many different circumstances and it usually works; I walked through the audience. If you look at the faces of the people you are about to entertain, you suddenly realize that the vast majority are not afficionados, not even at Dallas guitar, and that they are no different than the folks in your hometown crowd, and if you put it out there with heart and the skill you have, they will like you for the most part. And although our set got cut in half because the fest was running behind and the all star jam had to start on schedule, we were well received and I didn't actually die or pass out as I had feared.

 

[Low Tone]

Picture the entire crowd in their underwear.
Of course, if there's a lot of ugly girls in the audience, that might still make you puke.....

Picture the entire crowd in clown suits.

 

[oswaldvon]

i used to get really nervous too but after a while it stopped, i kinda miss being nervous because it feels so good when your done playing after being nervous.
what exactly are you afraid of? if you are afraid of screwing up just keep a straight face and almost no one will notice.
if it feels awkward to stand in front of people just look up and scan the audience, you will notice that almost no one is looking directly at you.
somebody mentioned meditation and i think that it could be worth looking into.

 

[ilikethump]

Stage fright? You're a bassist, nobody can hear you anyway!



Or at least that's what I tell myself.