Poll: How many shows have you played?

[fdeck]

First paying gig was "My Fair Lady" with local musical theater group. I played second cello. I didn't yet have my drivers license, so I had to get a ride.

Fast forward to about 20 years ago, threw my hat in the ring for subbing on jazz gigs in Madison when I moved here, and quickly became overloaded with gigs. There were plenty of good bassists in town, but they were doing all sorts of traveling and other stuff like that, so they frequently had to bail on their regular gigs, and I got calls. Some of them became semi-steady when the regular bassist didn't come back.

There were also some working jazz groups doing weddings and corporate parties.

Things have slowed down. Live music has slowed down. But also, I believe that the caliber of young musicians coming out of school is rising, and it's hard for a geezer like me without post-secondary music training to keep up.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

First gig was on guitar at a high school battle of the bands, 1982(?).

I had a white BC Rich NJ series Mockingbird, played through a solid state Peavey Renown. We were playing metal covers by Savatage, Grim Reaper, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Scorpions.

A friend had a flash pot he was going to use for our opening number. It was literally a metal box filled with gunpowder, with two bare wires in it. It had no switch. You just plug it into an outlet, the wires short, and BOOM!

So first song, we're about to hit the big opening riff in "Power of the Night" all together, and the flash is supposed to go off. I had planned to do a sweet rock style high kick timed with the boom.

Well, we all hit the riff, I kicked, and poof, the power went out. Seems our claymore mine, er, flash pot, tripped the circuit breaker. We tried again, I kicked again, after power was restored, and it happened again.

We then played the rest of the gig without any sweet explosions or high kicks. Disappointing.

We lost. A band called "Steel" won. It was definitely fixed!! Or at least that's what we all said at the time.

 

[bolophonic]

I've played a few hundred shows over the last ~30 years. First gig was playing a high school graduation party in 1989. I would put my net earnings as a musician at around negative $5,000.

 

[Marc valero]

More than 2,000.
I was about 25 years old when I started performing around 1981. Played mostly bass in one of my first bands but also swapped with one of the guitar players so I could play guitar on some tunes. Did a free show at a friend's bar in a small town in Florida and soon after started playing for pay in bars and lodges. I remember early on we were booked just about every weekend and most places at the time booked you for Friday and Saturday. I had a four year hiatus before joining my current band about six years ago and we are booked solid now. We get a lot of inquires and we are already booked. I mentioned before, just for April, May, June we have 40 bookings. We had to move a booking for next week because we had five shows in a row, in five days, and it would have been too much for our lead singer. On a side note, I have been pushing to add some songs that I sing, but the drummer/band leader (who sings no lead) has a hang up on the ones I can sing (which are good tunes I have done for years in other bands) and our new rhythm player has a good voice, but has a phobia about singing lead.

 

[slapshot]

"Sadie Hawkins" dance...man, do they still do those?

A lot of districts have dropped the Sadie Hawkins dance as it puts "pressure" on the girls and just have a regular dance around Valentine's Day.
It's ok to put pressure on the guys to find a date, but not the girls? Seriously?

 

[NathOBX]

First Gig was at Trax in Charlottesville, Va in 1994.

 

[sharkbait130]

Heck , I'm a bass player fercrissakes. You know I can only count to 4. I realize there are some of us that can count to 5 or 6 but being an old schooler , I get lost going that high.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

My first gig was in 2000 and I was 17. I played some christmas music on our local community channel with the band I was in.

Otherwise I played maybe 5 or 6 gig with a jazz group. Then I played 10 gig in the college orchestra.

After that I did prefer to compose music, have fun with the creative process and the recording process. I did post a few of those tune and some cover I did on youtube.

I just don't find live playing satisfying to me.

 

[gitfiddl]

It's got to be over 2000 for me, not counting 8 years' worth of school band and church stuff.

My first performance outside of the structure of school band or church handbells was the Sixth Grade Talent Show at Stone Street Elementary at Camp Lejeune. I and some of my fellow beginning band students played a tune called "Shenanigans" out of our Beginning Band book. It was a 12-bar tune along the lines of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", but we kids thought it sounded more like "Rock Around the Clock". Eddie Gonzalez, and I played trumpet, Brett Jones played trombone, Jim Owens played snare, and I can't remember who played sax. We needed a name for the band. The day we signed up, I'd just got a dinosaur-shaped pencil eraser out of the machine in the lunchroom, and Brett had brought in a little stuffed bear for his true 6th grade love, so the name of the band was an obvious choice: Dino and the Teddy Bears! We came in second place to a Flutophone trio...

 

[gitfiddl]

View attachment 3419284 My first gig was , ironically, at a school for the deaf in 1983

At Ray Charles' alma mater by chance?

 

[nilorius]

I never counted but i think about 200.

 

[MoeTown1986]

I started gigging when I was 16 playing punk rock shows with a few other bands at a time. I even got to play at the famous CBGB's in New York. At 21 decided to get a real job and joined a cover band. I'm now 32 and have played about 100 gigs a year with that band for the past 12 years. I'm somewhere between 1000-1500.

 

[Groove Doctor]

We came in second place to a Flutophone trio...

Ouch... that's gotta hurt.

 

[Jason Hollar]

I'm over 2,500 but closing in on 3,000. I've kept all my date books and I do a recap every decade. In general it's an average of 100 paid gigs a year +/- 25%. In reality it's like 3-4 gigs one week, then bupkis the following week - lol - lots of seasonal work mainly.

 

[somegeezer]

have not gigged in a long time. Did for many years through my teens, though. My first gig as a bassist was almost certainly at a local pub, though I'd done some other things in various halls around the country before that. I'd say I miss the halls most. Once played with a full orchestra around me in the town hall. That was a particularly good one.

 

[Chris 'Wighat' Jordan]

It would be impossible for me to get an exact count. My first gig was in 1992, but didn't really get a proper band until 1999. Over the years since, mostly I played once or twice a week. There was a long stretch of five nights a week and a couple of periods during which I wasn't playing at all. My poll response was based on one gig a week for twenty years... so 1000+ but possibly considerably more.

 

[mikecd1]

Well, its been a long and winding road of fun, silliness, great gigs, bad gigs, cafe a go go, palisades park, cbgb, max's, a few concerts, parties and a lot of great and a lot of lousy clubs. Oh, and in the beginning we played a lot of school gigs, but played a ton of churches and synagogues. I hope our religious institutions are still hoping young folks get together. Gotta be in the 2000 neighborhood by now, but gotta go get ready for another gig tonite - this one includes dinner and ends before midnight! That Gibson bass never worked out for me... Gotta love those white socks!

 

[IamGroot]

First gig. I guess around 1965 Playing guitar with married singer couple at Italian restaurant for tips. I am sure it sucked but it was showbiz. People dug the kid playing with way older folks.

Big gap after hs. Switched to bass in late 90s.

All in all , less than 600 gigs. I never wanted to be in a band after high school. Jazz, paid church , musicals, and subbing everything from country to zydeco. I am a show up and play guy, i like pro behavior and cant
deal with the crap I read about in the Band Management forum. I go to jams to get my fix of blues and rock. I guess i am a NSA musician except for a few jazz guys who retired.

 

[bucephylus]

Just curious. What was the second curly cord hooked up to?

The keyboard. Back then, we had to share amps. It was a normal thing.

 

[SLO Surfer]

First gig ever was in 3rd grade singing at the PTA meeting, followed by many school band concerts on clarinet.

First gig on bass was in 1993 at a high school slosh ball party at a well hidden city park.

First paying gig was at a strip club in 1997 in a punk band. Just after high school.

I've spent the equivalent of 4 years of my life living/working on cruise ships. On ships I played at least one gig EVERY NIGHT, and most nights I played 2-3 shows. That alone puts me around 2,000. Then on land I've been gigging about 100 gigs per year for the past 15-20 years.

I don't know. It's a lot.