Outdoor Gigs: How cold is too cold?

[lo_freq_geek]

We had an outdoor patio show on Saturday, temperature was 18 degrees C (64 F) or so when we started but got down to around 9 degrees (48F) by the end of last set. You could see our sax player's breath. My arthritic old hands were all but locked up. We have a private party booked next weekend, on a flat bed stage w/ no cover - anticipating a low of 6C (42F) by midnight. Any tips for getting through this?

 

[4SG]

 

[AltGrendel]

Keep hand warmers in your pocket.

 

[pepj]

Either cancel or the venue provides heaters..I can't imagine it would well attended with an audience if too cold.

Regular gig here is undercover and huge iutdoor heaters. Moving indoors is not an option and they always struggle for bands.
Hmmm. wonder why?

 

[lo_freq_geek]

I will begin my quest for a pair of these.

 

[SoCal80s]

Maybe get a $108 [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]? I suggest propane because electric ones use a lot of power and most stages have sketchy power as it is.

 

[Egg250]

I like the idea about the venue providing heat.

 

[Gizmot]

I haven't played an outdoor gig in a long time, but the last one I did where cold temperature was a factor was when it got colder than 35 - 40 degrees (F). When I did that gig, I was playing keyboards (mainly) and some guitar, but it seemed to make little difference. Dexterity was definitely a problem and I had to cut my playing back to the most basic chops I could get away with.

 

[lo_freq_geek]

I like the idea about the venue providing heat.

Me too. It's a private party on a rural property. My BL is awful at providing details, or anything that looks like planning. Could she have anticipated poor weather in Canada on Sept 24th? Likely. I have a feeling there will be rain, so if the host can't get us inside somewhere I call it a day.

 

[Pings Bass]

Flashbacks to high school marching band in the American heartland. We would consider 48F balmy some of those late autumn Friday nights.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

Unless there is heat blowing on you, your hands and fingers will get cold. There won't be enough time to warm them up with hand warmers or other heating aids for very long except for on breaks.

I have played gigs with thin gloves before. Luckily, bass is unlike guitar in that it is possible to be a convincing bass player while gloved as compare to guitarists. You just have to play simplified lines probably.

Just chock it up to the joys and stories of playing live music.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I will begin my quest for a pair of these.

Just buy a cheap pair and cut off the tips.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

I live in NW Fla, outdoor gigs in the winter are usually OK, its the humid 95 degree summer outdoor gigs that are painful! Fans & bug spray!

 

[Marko 1]

Me too. It's a private party on a rural property. My BL is awful at providing details, or anything that looks like planning. Could she have anticipated poor weather in Canada on Sept 24th? Likely. I have a feeling there will be rain, so if the host can't get us inside somewhere I call it a day.

Is the BL a guitar player? They've got it worse than the bassist trying to keep the strings in tune.

 

[redwood]

I recently played an outdoor, New Years Eve gig....In Buffalo NY. 25° and 25 mph winds. (Kinda warm for Buffalo that time of year).
The client "neglected" to get us any heaters (for which he shall suffer a thousand lashes in he!!).
Luckily, I had hand warmers, and the only thing that made this gig bearable was that I took the hand warmers and slid them into wristbands. This did an "ok" job of warming the blood going to my fingers, and kept the gig playable. I also played my first gig ever with mittens on (I kid you not). My hands were THAT cold. And despite tearing up the fleece mittens a bit, they're still intact.
My new rule: No outdoor gigs between September and May. And even then, we have right of refusal if it's too cold.

 

[Jonny Reese]

I did First Night Boston a number of years ago at 25F. There were some heaters on stage which I'd walk close to from time to time. The big crowd kept us going fine. I bought those gloves without fingertips but discarded them during soundcheck.

One of my minor regrets in life was going into guitar center to buy a crappy $99 bass to use for the gig rather than one of my nice basses, thinking I'd smash it on stage when we finished. In a surprising bit of mature and rational thinking (I was probably 25), I thought that would be douchey and DIDN'T buy it. (Or maybe I just didn't have $99!) I suppose that was the right call.

 

[KeithPas]

How about what is too hot? I did a gig where it was nearly 100F this past summer

 

[Killing Floor]

Any tips for getting through this?

MB-75 S to I-29 S. Merge on I-35 S at Topeka. Keep going until you get to Texas. We’d love to have you.

 

[rtslinger]

I played St Pats gig one year it was outside temp that evening got down to 44 with a strong wind I could barely play the neck feel was so much different than it normally was we got through it, but it was a challenge.
And I played campground gig in Oct the was show next to a lake that night was another difficult one to get through the cold air coming off the lake you could not hide from

 

[Smooth_bass88]

We had an outdoor patio show on Saturday, temperature was 18 degrees C (64 F) or so when we started but got down to around 9 degrees (48F) by the end of last set. You could see our sax player's breath. My arthritic old hands were all but locked up. We have a private party booked next weekend, on a flat bed stage w/ no cover - anticipating a low of 6C (42F) by midnight. Any tips for getting through this?

Just keep moving! Maybe bring a portable heater. I did a gig last year and by the time we were done it was 39 degrees (Fahrenheit). I was actually surprised that we weren’t as cold as we thought we’d be.