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Performing under the influence!

#101
I've been drunk twice on stage in my life.

The first one was an on stage fill-in/audition. I had to travel to Vancouver Island by ferry to do it and I had the flu. I was sick and feverish and had spent most of the day puking my guts out. The waitress took pity on me and brought me a rum toddy. It went down awesome! So I had another one, on top of a couple of Contact Cs and a Neo Citron. Needless to say I didn't get the gig. I sure felt better the next day, tho'.

The only other time was when my son was born. I was in a duo at the time and the guitar player had got a replacement. My son was born at 8:15 pm. By 10 pm both the kid and the wife were asleep, and I was totally wired from the experience. Since the gig was within walking distance to where I was living, I walked up to the bar we were playing at. The guitar player announce that I just had a kid. After 3 bottles of champagne and all the free drinks I could (couldn't) handle, I was completely trashed. Awesome party, but I doubt it sounded very good. Hard to believe that was 26 years ago.

These days I usually limit myself to one beer between the 3rd & 4th set, and one beer while we tear down.
 
#104
I was a little baked last night and got really bored on one of the slow tunes, gave the drummer a wink, and started playing in double time and making the groove more upbeat.

It ended up being exactly what the song needed. The lead singer was so happy (it was his song) that he could not stop talking about how much it really captured more what the songs was about by the change.
Herb can really help to develop ideas in my experience. Really the key is to know your limits and not get waysted.

Not all drug stories are bad.
 
#108
I've had both good and bad gigs whilst intoxicated.
One gig was when a band i was subbing for played up at the Byron Bay Beach hotel, the band sounded surprisingly good and our stage presence increased a **** load- the crowd loved it!
The other time was a gig with the same band where i spent the entire afternoon on an unexpected pub crawl. We played at 10:30, and i was all over the shop. Terrible...
I've since then limited myself to one beer before the gig, one for each set and one after the gig.
 
#111
if i can stand, I can generally play bass OK.

(drumming is a different matter, I have a much lower cut-off point in terms of quality. I have tested this theory to destruction! ironic seeing as you get to sit down when you play drums...)
 
#112
Our new drummer commented about us
playing a few songs faster. The guitar
player and singer refused because they
couldn't play their parts that fast.

When the new drummer arrived at his
first gig with us, we noticed that he
was on some kind of amphetamine.

When we started our first song, the
drummer started at twice the speed we
normally played at.
surpriseddog.jpg


We all stopped and looked at each other
and then we looked at a dumbfounded
crowd.

A few seconds that seemed to last twenty
minutes passed and we recovered. Actually
we had a good set. Everyone was pissed!

The drummer was gone soon after, :hmm:

Tabdog
 
#113
only did this once. about 3 years ago when i was 18, i was in a "grunge" band (literally was almost a bit of a Bush clone with a bit of reggae involved.) they were together for maybe a year or so before i joined and i was with them for the last 4 months of being together cause our drummer went to go to school in florida. anyways enough of the life story, this was our one and only performance.

i went to school with these guys, but they were a few years older than me and were good friends with a group that i liked to call the "party crew". anyways we were at their house having like a before gig party type thing almost. a kid that hung out there regularly offered to smoke me up with the "funny stuff". he told me to only take a hit or two cause it was "really good s***" well, he wasn't kidding despite my scepticism. like unbelievably good s*** is was it really was. and i haven't had any like that since.

i blacked half the night out after two puffs.. i remember having to drive half the equipment to the bar being that i was the only person with an SUV besides the drummer. luckly it was a bit less than a mile to get there and we took backstreets. i don't remember a whole lot after this besides a few things. once we got there and set up i remember my usual friends showing up for a bit and i can remember laughing at them uncontrollably. another thing, for some reason my drummer was moving his jeep and he had asked me to jump in for what i can't remember. but neither of us were paying attention and he ended up hitting a little concrete wall with the side of the jeep while trying to pull back into the place. it made the weirdest looking dent i've ever seen made by just one sharp concrete corner.

i only remember bits and pieces of the rest of the night, mostly of us preforming and afterwords when i got home. despite all of this it actually didn't effect my playing(then again it was all pretty simple music) i was only told that i was a bit loud, but i get this all the time cause my tone is always bright and cuts through like nothing. most of the time i remembered headbanging just cause i had the long hair. though i pretty much ended up hitting my guitarist's les paul with my head stock cause i got so out of control with it.

that's about the jist of what i remembered. sorry for the novel... but to this day i now smoke regularly and have never come across any of that insanely potent stuff since.
 
#114
I usually have a few beers throughout a gig. There was only one time where I felt like I crossed the line. It was around 1:30 am at the time and close to the end of our last set. Our singer got toasted too and started forgetting lyrics. I got threw it but it was a struggle.

Also, Ive never done any other kind of drugs, but my doctor gave me some Percocets for my back and I took a couple after the first set of a gig because my (broken) back was killing me. That was strange. I eventually got really tired but for a while my fingers felt feather light and overall I felt pretty...um...good.
 
#115
krstko said:
Not alcohol, I had weed problems. Our guitarist got some muffins and we ate them for relaxation. We didn't knew they step in your head about half hour later after eaten. So we ate first ..no effect. We ate second ..no effect. We kept on till we ate all ..no effect. So we just tought it was just bad stuf and went on stage. Just before the start of first song, rhythm guitarist came to me and sreamed ''OMG, EVERYTHING IS RED, WE ARE IN HELL!!! ..and that is the last thing I remember till the last song xS xD

and sorry for my bad english :)
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The whole band ate them or just you two? That sounds like a recipe for disaster! =) I'm sure you now know not to eat too much...
 
#117
HugheJapackage said:
With edibles you gotta wait like 30 min...or so I've heard :p
I personally love playing high. It helps me relax the pre show jitters and makes me get way more into the song.
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Not my experience. It made me more sensitive to and analytical of my own playing, and I realized THAT THE GROOVE WAS NOT THERE. Never since.

Beers? Two a night, if that. One night no one from the band consumed alcohol, and the bar added $30.00 to our guarantee.
 
#119
HeadyVan Halen said:
We work hard on stage. I sweat myself sober.
Now after the show and the ladies are ripe for the picking, that's another story...
Click to expand...

I thought I was alone here. I don't drink during the gig OR at practice because - to put it quite simply - I have found it impossible to get drunk! No matter how much I drink, it seems like I can't feel it. All that happens is the more I drink, the more I sweat, so after a few gigs of that experience I decided I was just getting empty calories and stopped altogether.

Pot is a different story, though...
 

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