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OMG I bombed our opening song...

Thump_N_Bloom

Thump_N_Bloom

May 4, 2012
75
13
Santa Ana, CA
#1
So, I'm going to play at a small club. First show with this band.

I set up and get a sound check. Everything seemed fine. So, I go to use the bathroom. Comeback, everyone is on stage. I forget to put my earplugs in and boom. Total wipeout. Missing stuff left and right. completely off time at major junctures. The rest of the set got better, after putting the earplugs back in. But, I kept having to turn myself down. I was so loud I could barely hear anyone else.
Then it was like I wasn't even there at times.

I feel really horrible. How do I redeem myself?
More importantly, what did I do wrong?
 
#2
It won't be the last time you blow it on stage, that's why it's called live music.

Don't worry, just settle down and keep plugging away.

You most likely played poorly because you changed a variable, IE, how you hear the music and mix by not using earplugs.

Once you play long enough, these variables won't effect you as much.

One example is playing outside on a flatbed. If your sound technician can't hook you up with good monitor mixes, you'll most likely only hear the drummer on stage. It will sound funny and be scary. The guitar player and his amp are 60 feet away on the other end of the flat bed. You'll be out on an island.

You just have to trust that what you are playing is correct and that the mix out front is jammin'. If you lock on with the drummer, most of the time, you'll be Golden.

Congrats on your bomb session, one down, many to go, but that's how we get better. ;)
 
#3
Thanks jamzilla. You're right. Just gotta get back on that horse.

It was weird though. I asked the sound guy after the show why my bass was so prevelant and he said " I like a lot of bass in the mix". I couldn't agree more with him, but I just kept turning myself down until I could hear all the instruments (2 guitars, keyboard, drums, and vocals). Is this a gig faux pas?
After the 2nd song I noticed I couldn't hear anything in the mix besides me. Was I wrong in adjusting my volume? Should I have relied more on the soundman and communicated as such? It sounds like a stupid question, now. But I was so concerned with time constraints that I did not want to "take time out for me and my levels".
 
#6
The lesson to be learned from this: Never, EVER, go to the bathroom.

Actually it's don't panic and let yourself get rushed RIGHT BEFORE you start your set. It's never good when you THINK you're ready to go only find you're wrong when the song starts. My worst gigs have all started with panic and rushing at the beginning of the set.
 
#7
cheapbasslovin said:
The lesson to be learned from this: Never, EVER, go to the bathroom.

Actually it's don't panic and let yourself get rushed RIGHT BEFORE you start your set. It's never good when you THINK you're ready to go only find you're wrong when the song starts. My worst gigs have all started with panic and rushing at the beginning of the set.
Click to expand...

^^^^Werd.

While I wouldn't say never go to the bathroom, everything should be good to go so that, right after sound check you can start playing. That includes potty breaks, taking a smoke break, ear plugs, good luck kisses, etc etc etc. Helps to prevent getting caught "pants down" :)

Peace,
Greg
 
#8
Thump_N_Bloom said:
After the 2nd song I noticed I couldn't hear anything in the mix besides me. Was I wrong in adjusting my volume? Should I have relied more on the soundman and communicated as such? It sounds like a stupid question, now. But I was so concerned with time constraints that I did not want to "take time out for me and my levels".
Click to expand...

This happened to me once. We set up further apart than we normally did because we thought we had to use the whole stage. Bad for me since we didn't have monitors back in the day.

Seems to me that when you bypassed your sound check that led to your opening song mistakes.

In the future, take care of yourself first, then worry about everyone else.

Also, go to the bathroom earlier if you can. Or don't drink water/etc. so close to gig time.

Explain what happened to the rest of the band and let them know that it won't happen again. Nail the next gig and all will be forgotten.

Good luck.
 
#10
“Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.”
Dizzy Gillespie

There will be days like yours! :)
 
#11
I've learned a lot from everyone in this thread. It helped me understand some things. Thank you.

We did do the sound check. We even did 12 bars of a song (not our opener). Everything sounded fine; then we all left the stage, as we still had 15 minutes before showtime. However, I just learned today that the bar owner wanted us to go on earlier, which led to the rush.
I still should've just done a quick check of my gear. Anyways, dwelling on it doesn't help and I've moved on.
I am curious though about why my bass seemed so loud, even though throughout the show I did turn my amp down. Strange thing is, the FOH sounded fine. I could still hear everything on my crappy video recording. I guess that's a testament to the sound man's skills.

After listening back to a recording of it, it didn't seem too bad. A bit off time at the start of the first song and at least I was able to recover.
 
#13
Thump_N_Bloom said:
I am curious though about why my bass seemed so loud, even though throughout the show I did turn my amp down. Strange thing is, the FOH sounded fine. I could still hear everything on my crappy video recording. I guess that's a testament to the sound man's skills.
Click to expand...

Sometimes weird stuff can happen acoustically during a live performance. We played a bar gig Saturday night, and in the middle of the show our guitarist asked me if I had turned down my bass. I hadn't touched it at all. My guess is that as more people came into the bar as we played, possibly the acoustics in the room changed. You can only control so many things.
 
#16
My uncle sang in a gospel quartet back in the day. He relayed a story that still cracks me up. It happened to another gospel group he was watching. There was a break during their performance for the pastor to talk to the congregation. One of the guys just had to use the bathroom. Apparently during the rush, the end of the toilet paper got caught in the back of his pants. He quickly hurried back on stage dragging the long string of toilet paper (extended just about back to the bathroom) with him all the way. He didn't catch it until he got on stage and turned around.

Of course at this point there was nothing to do but laugh and begin rolling it back up, all the way back to the bathroom. My uncle said that everyone was laughing so hard it took 15 minutes before the group could resume.

So yeah it could've been a whole lot worse. Just get back at it!
 
#17
I was playing through my amp (GK 700RB II -12 o'clock) and an 115MBE. We do some classic rock mixed in with alternative rock. The amp was mic'd, no DI. I did have a choice though, and the soundman seemed to preference mic's, so I went with whatever he preferred. As, I'm still learning live sound. Perhaps he used the mic for the ability to control the mix better? Not sure what type of mic it was. Looked like a bass drum mic, from my knowledge and experience.
 
#18
Yeah, but you SURVIVED!

So one thing you can take from this is inspiration!

Stuff goes wrong sometimes. Horribly, horribly wrong.

For us, it usually happens somewhere we were really trying to impress the owner, because it was a fantastic venue for us.

My favorite is when my wife was playing bass, and the guitar player was tuned in a different key, and they started playing "Fire," by Jimi Hendrix, in TWO DIFFERENT KEYS.

I tried to sing, but I didn't know who to sing to, so I'm pretty sure I was switching back and forth between the two keys, and sometimes landing somewhere in the middle.

I stopped the song, and my whole band yelled at me.

"YOU NEVER EVER EVER EVER STOP A SONG!!!!!"

Actually, there is one time you stop a song.

That's when the bass and the guitar are tuned to two different pitches, and you are the lead singer.

THAT is one time you ALWAYS stop the song, even if you're playing freaking on a WORLD WIDE SATELLITE HOOKUP TO THIRTY MILLION PEOPLE.

Because it would be UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE to make that sound good.

It simply can't be done.

Anyway, we did play there again; in fact, the rest of that night went fantastic, and the audience loved us, we got paid, the whole deal.

But while it was happening, I thought we looked like the worst, most amateurish band I had ever run across.

No one died.
 
#19
What about when you just go "blank" ?
I've had it. Everything-well, not everything-just goes elsewhere.
Had it happen about 5 yrs ago.
We'd learnt a new song, guitar intro.... my time to come in..... Not a BIT of the song is in my consciousness!
It was a FAST song too, so I was watching, & listening as hard as poss to the guitar for some direction. Damn!
Things happen-live is live :p
 
#20
For setup it helps me to be in a routine, however boring that may sound. I setup in the same order, in the same spot on stage, with my gear laid out exactly the same. I pack, and hence unpack my gear exactly the same each gig. It's almost like a ritual that I can't depart from. Or maybe just OCD :)

Having said all this, boy am I going to bomb our first number tomorrow night hehehehehehe

Anecdote :

Years ago, sitting the 8th grade (the highest available at the time) performance exam on piano, a Ludwig Van sonata (forget which one) without music, there's a rest followed by a crashing fortissimo chord. I had a total blank and my left hand came done with my thumb a semitone out :-0 "SH*T" I said perfectly audibly, and then pressed on with a pretty good recovery through to the end of the piece. It was like I'd got rid of some monkey on my back, and I played the rest of the piece better than I ever had.

On the result sheet for that piece she wrote, quite beautifully I thought:

"A good solid pass, despite the lyrics"

Mike
 

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