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Double Bass No drinking while performing. Anyone else do this?
- Thread starter Low Key
- Start date
If you had balls when you were young you overdid it. Getting older you chill.
I am a bartender and I haven't drank in over 5 years. No real reason just wasn't for me. I've become a pro at turning down "shots for the band" and other offers for drinks. Other members of our band are happy to take the drinks and drink chips for me. Our banjo player is known to overdo himself at gigs and practices. It doesn't really mess with his playing or coherence. The only issue is that he is already a talker and he'll try to discuss every little thing when we a rehearsing a song. The guitar player and I are like, "let's just play the song already and see where the issues are and deal with them." We don't need your 15 minute ramble before we even play the song...drives me nuts!
I used to over indulge in my 20s and 30s, now I prefer coffee....
I used to play in bands where getting wasted was the norm! Then I hooked up with musicians and singers from various churches,nobody drank and the music was so much more enjoyable. I feel I lose my edge,even with 1 or 2 alcohol drinks.
I used to play in bands where getting wasted was the norm! Then I hooked up with musicians and singers from various churches,nobody drank and the music was so much more enjoyable. I feel I lose my edge,even with 1 or 2 alcohol drinks.
I've cut way back since my younger days when I would have at least one beer and a shot per set and maybe some funny cigarettes to top it off. Today, one, maybe two beers for the night. Sometimes nothing.
Stricter DWI laws and alcholism running in the family helped me decide to make the change as well as noticing that my playing suffered as the night rolled on.
Stricter DWI laws and alcholism running in the family helped me decide to make the change as well as noticing that my playing suffered as the night rolled on.
Nope. Playing on stage and fishing are incompatible with drinking. And probably sword fighting too.
Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute! I can go along with "playing on stage incompatible with drinking", sure, but FISHING?
Did you seriously just write that "fishing is incompatible with drinking"?
Well, where I'm from the flies are in the air, and we use worms (Plastic or living), spoons, poppers, minnows, bacon, crickets, etc. And beer.
I don't drink at gigs because it makes me play worse and I don't want to get pulled over and risk the car getting towed with all my gear in it. When someone offers drinks, I've learned that just saying "no thanks" doesn't work and they usually get offended or get aggressive about it, but if I say "Thanks, but I don't really drink much anymore..." most people don't push the issue any further. Half the city probably thinks I'm a recovering alcoholic but that's fine.
I’m pretty active onstage and the next morning I wake up tired as it is (I wake up 5.30-6am regardless of bedtime)
Adding Alcohol makes me sleep worse and just makes me more tired and more dehydrated than usual.
I stopped drinking at gigs when doing 2-3 gigs most weekends. Instead I drank green smoothies/ vegetable juice (kale, carrot, celery, etc) to keep my energy up. Or a honey & lemon in hot water in winter to help my singing. Not very Rock & Roll.
Adding Alcohol makes me sleep worse and just makes me more tired and more dehydrated than usual.
I stopped drinking at gigs when doing 2-3 gigs most weekends. Instead I drank green smoothies/ vegetable juice (kale, carrot, celery, etc) to keep my energy up. Or a honey & lemon in hot water in winter to help my singing. Not very Rock & Roll.
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I'm limiting myself to one drink overall now, whether I'm at a gig or out hearing music/with friends. And if it's for a gig I usually have it a little before and during the 1st set, and then drink plenty of water afterwards. Alcohol makes me dizzy, so it sucks to play when I'm buzzed cause I can't maintain a solid grounding in my stance.
I was drinking a little too much before the lockdown. Being out 2-3 nights a week for gigs or hangs that often involved drinks got my tolerance too high. Thankfully my alcohol tolerance is pretty much gone now. Maybe the only good think that happened last year asides from getting into baking. I do enjoy a good beer or glass of wine still, but one glass is usually more than enough for me now. My caffeine tolerance though is through the roof, but that's a whole other discussion.
I was drinking a little too much before the lockdown. Being out 2-3 nights a week for gigs or hangs that often involved drinks got my tolerance too high. Thankfully my alcohol tolerance is pretty much gone now. Maybe the only good think that happened last year asides from getting into baking. I do enjoy a good beer or glass of wine still, but one glass is usually more than enough for me now. My caffeine tolerance though is through the roof, but that's a whole other discussion.
When I started out in the early seventies, it was de rigeur to drink beer on gigs ... quite a bit of beer, as well as smoking you-know-what. So I did, but generally about one beer each set, not enough to impair me much.
If there is any benefit to alcohol, it's the "social-lubricant" factor... and that's only a benefit in moderation. Now, as an older person, one beer will do that for me ("take the edge off"), but I only partake in nonclassical situations.
Over my career I've seen others crash and burn (sometimes literally) from alcohol abuse. I thank God that I'm not prone to that disease.
If there is any benefit to alcohol, it's the "social-lubricant" factor... and that's only a benefit in moderation. Now, as an older person, one beer will do that for me ("take the edge off"), but I only partake in nonclassical situations.
Over my career I've seen others crash and burn (sometimes literally) from alcohol abuse. I thank God that I'm not prone to that disease.
I have one whiskey and coke before the gig and one at the break, except at those places that no longer serve me because I drank too many whiskey and cokes in the past. ... So, I strive to not drink before or during gigs.
Nope. Playing on stage and fishing are incompatible with drinking. And probably sword fighting too.
I'd definitely not want to do any sword fighting whilst drunk, though a trip to the pub after a session is enjoyable. I recall a chap in Edinburgh who did try unmasked fencing with foils whilst drunk and had a hole run through an eyelid, luckily not piercing his eyeball.
No drinking and playing for me either; even one drink can be fatal to an adequate performance.
I don't drink much on or off the gig. There is no specific reason for it; 'just not my thing.
The huge challenge with that is everywhere I go and every gig I'm at, all of the other drunks automatically assume that I'm in some sort of recovery program and in denial about it, no matter how many times I say I'm not......
The huge challenge with that is everywhere I go and every gig I'm at, all of the other drunks automatically assume that I'm in some sort of recovery program and in denial about it, no matter how many times I say I'm not......
