• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Playing beyond our abilities.

#21
StraffordMike said:
The gig will be on pit lane at a very large racing venue in central New Hampshire. There will be 40 race teams there along with crew, families and fans.
Click to expand...

Oh, you're in New Hampshire! Well in that case forget everything I said... cancel the gig and have my band sub for you! :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: the yeti
#23
Like it was said before:
  • Keep warm, use hand warmers in your pockets
  • Let your instruments acclimate to the ambient temperature and re-tune (often)
  • Play what you know best, not what you like best
  • Take every opportunity to practice before the show, it's sprint time
  • Go there to have fun, not to be judged, it will show on stage
Now go go and practice! :bassist:
 
  • Like
Reactions: KickingBass
#25
Just go out there intending to nail it. Bands might not be as good they think they are. But they'll seldom play better than they think they can either.

So "Gird up your loins like a man." as the Good Book put it.

Match point kiddo! Time to shine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: the yeti
#26
NightW0lf said:
Like it was said before:
  • Keep warm, use hand warmers in your pockets
  • Let your instruments acclimate to the ambient temperature and re-tune (often)
  • Play what you know best, not what you like best
  • Take every opportunity to practice before the show, it's sprint time
  • Go there to have fun, not to be judged, it will show on stage
Now go go and practice! :bassist:
Click to expand...
I was going to give some advice but this right here nails it. Practice till youre raw and you and your bandmates can barely stand each others company anymore, that's when you know you've practiced enough.
 
#27
The size of the crowd has nothing to do with it. Either your ready to play the gig, or your not.
Band meeting for sure. What are expectations ? Take the chance an ROCK IT .
 
#28
A couple of things... And this is coming from a similar sitaution.

We are an overglorified garage band for sure, our lead guitarist is by far the best musician of the bunch, and he is fair at best. Rhythm guitar being the worst. And that leaves me in the middle. No comment there aside from I know I need to improve and am working on it at every opportunity.

#1. Practice.
#2. Practice.
#3. Did I mention practice?
#4. Hopefully you have portable gas, or kerosene heaters. Mind you, I don't do outdoor winter gigs up north. Come to think of it, I just don't do winter up north... Sorry, but I know on dreary winter nights here, we use a couple of propane hunting blind heaters not too far away from the stage sides, and play small stages, the heat gets to us.
#5. Like was mentioned before, let your instruments acclimate, and retune, often.
#6. Make sure what you know is well under your belts.
#7. Pick more material that is easy for you guys to nail, and learn it.
#8. If you can get away with it, simplify lines where you can while keeping the groove / feel. Most audience members won't notice, and those that do will think you are "making it your own" OR have some sympathy for a new growing band struggling through. Yeah there will be a few D-bag critics there, ignore them.

I have to assume that whomever hired / invited you to do the gig must have heard you play, so you should be good enough for them. Do your absolute best, and use playing beyond your abilities as a way to stretch to get to the next level. Honestly at best, as a band you become more cohesive and up your game a notch, at worst, the band comes apart because those that aren't serious about it give up, and you have a good learning experience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 65panhead and hrodbert696
#30
On the other hand, I am always kind of astounded at what passes for decent live entertainment these days (especially locally). We had a potential drummer send us samples of his old band playing live: a sea of screaming fans, but apparently no guitar tuner or singer for miles. If you think you're bad, you're already better than the bands that don't know they're bad. Plus, if you don't play the gig, it will always be "we should have played that gig."
 
  • Like
Reactions: npbassman, jnsnj, hrodbert696 and 4 others
#32
We live in an era where people spend $600 on concert tickets just to take a few selfies and have the accompanying Facebook bragging rights.

Probably won't be a problem. Take the gig. Worst case it's a paid rehearsal.
 
#34
if you are gonna suck, then really suck, the last performance art festival we played our drummer broke his bass drum pedal 12 seconds into the show and then he tried to just play the toms like jesus and mary chain with some ringoisms, our guitarist who can't sing demanded to play his new song we played once during practice, the singer couldn't hear herself so she kept walking too close to the monitors and feeding back, and one our dancers "forgot" to wear panties and got angry that all these guys were staring at her bush (she's not straight) and all the artsy women were horrified and asking us why we were exploiting this young girl in such a horrible way
 
#37
I had a similar experience. My first gig was to open for Social Distortion. We were a basement punk band and really had no business opening for them. We had a 12 song set at about 20 minutes and really low quality gear. We went for it. On stage with about 1200 people staring and my knees were shaking. I missed a few notes and the skinheads were really giving it to us ( spitting at us etc. )but we made it through, Mike Ness was really gracious and we were well received. I took the bus home with my bass and combo amp to a lot of peoples surprise, and got a lot of praise from people who had been at the gig.

Just go for it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jnsnj

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back