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Playing a show with no sleep?

#22
We were scheduled for a one week mini tour in Croatia a few years ago. Flew from Dallas to Atlanta to connect to Zurich. Late flight out of Atlanta caused us to miss a connection in Zurich. no sleep...caught the next flight out (next morning) to Zagreb...changed planes and flew to Split...loaded our gear in two ratty vans and drove to the venue for a sound check (plan was to do this early and go to the hotel for a nap...no such luck). The back line was horrific (bass cab was blown, tubes were shot in one of the guitar heads, on and on...finally got semi-decent gear to work with, and spent 2 hours doing a check with a crazy sound guy that didn't speak but about 5 words of english..."is good yes?"...no dude, that's not good...We wound up having just enough time to check into our hotel (with no AC I might add), shower, change, and head back for the show. first act went on late, causing another 1 1/2 hour delay...finally got to play and do our set...just absolutely beat. got back to the hotel about 3am, and I was psychically sick from the travel, weird food and exhaustion...had about 4 hours sleep, and got up for a radio interview, and tour of the city with local promoters...sound check for the next show at 3pm...back to the hotel for a couple of hours, and off to the gig...It went just like that for a week. When I finally got home back in Dallas I was so tired I did nothing but lay in bed for the next couple of days...what a trip that was.
 
#24
I remember one time working on a theatre show playing bass in the band. The run was for 6 weeks in various theatres all over Scotland and I remember getting ill the week we played in the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow. I felt terrible and took some paracetomols before the show one evening and I swear I fell asleep for a few seconds whilst playing one of the songs. I remember playing and thinking to myself "I'm just going to close my eyes for a second". Next thing I knew the tune was done. I must have kept going cos the MD didn't pull me up about it.

Back to the original question, touring for me is about napping. As long as I get enough naps in whilst travelling or between soundcheck and show I'm usually OK and my health stays intact. I've seen other musicians get pretty messy due to days on end of partying till 5am and having to be up and ready for travel at 8am.
 
#25
If the military taught me anything it's "get it where you can fit it." If you have an opportunity to nap, rack out. I also sip black coffee throughout if I have to stay up, moderate injections(just like the suggestion for small meals) helps with not getting the ITIS. The show I did last Friday was put on the books that Monday so I had no time to adjust my work schedule. Thursday I worked 2 PM to 1130 PM, Friday I worked 7 AM to 3 PM, was at the studio to grab gear and do a quick run through at 5, unload at 8, play at 1030. I survived and the adrenaline and cute girls got me through it. Probably sub 3 hours of sleep in that 2 day period.
 
#27
I can never sleep on a plane and once flew back on Friday afternoon from San Francisco after a two week stint working out there. Arrived back in London on Saturday morning and drove straight from the airport to a festival gig in the afternoon.

I don't recommend it but at least it gave our vocalist the chance to say "...and on bass...flown in direct from San Francisco..." during the name check.
 
#28
I once played a show with my old Prog rock band in Leicester Square in London. I lived in London at the time, so the travel was pretty much "jump on the tube, sit a while." Thing is, I had pretty awful flu, I never sleep well when I have flu so I was tired as hell, back from work (fri night) and the drummer was out partying all night too. I loaded up on Vit C tablets and painkillers, plugged my way through the show. Actually felt ok until we got backstage, then crashed. We had a camera guy making a video for us that night too.. It was pretty awful. There was apparently an afterparty as well, but I went straight home after the show. Worst gig ever.
 
#29
Think..."what would Nikki, Vince, Tommy and Mick do if they didn't sleep the night before?"

Jk. Like the one dude said before. Small meals if hungry and maybe some espresso or iced coffee(mcdonalds iced coffee is double brewed, so twice the strength or normal coffee)

You can do it!
 
#32
As a college student, I have become learned in the ways of requiring very little sleep. This is really related to playing, but is related to sleeping. One of the worst choices I have made was thinking "Well, I have a cross country flight tomorrow morning, and I have to leave for the airport at 7, and I can never really sleep on planes, so maybe if I stay up all night, I'll pass out on the plane." Sound reasoning, right? WRONG. Backfired terribly. I made some...um...psychedelic choices for that night, got zero sleep, but I felt like a Zombie for all my travel time. And I got no sleep on my flight. Thusly, I was awake for about 48 hours, at least half of which was like being in mobile coma.

Point being, I can't imagine gigging on no sleep. I could probably do it on 2-3 hours though.
 
#33
Over the years I've done LOTS of gigs with virtually no sleep the night before and the night before and the night before etc....

The thing that kept me awake, alert and on the ball - much more than the vibe/energy of the punters - was not wanting to flounder and make silly mistakes in front of my bandmates. In other words, professional pride.

Also, I found strong coffee with milk and sugar (how I normally drink it anyway) and some carbs worked well for me and gave me that extra burst of energy.
 

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