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(Rant) My First Live Performance

S

Slicebread

Jan 18, 2013
17
0
#1
So my band and I have been practicing a song ever since the school yeah started in hopes we can give an awesome performance.We all know know the song off by heart and i can sing and play right and everything is perfect...

Then Karma butts in...

Our song was the first one in the school concert...only 20 people came ,none of our mates were there.We started playing and when i began to sing ,the microphone gave feedback,we continued doing well untill the guitarist decides she wants to play the riff with me (seven nation army) and goes wayy off tempo confusing the drummer...the solo was pretty good but no one seemed to appreciate it(no one was there in the first place).The song that we supposed to know off by heartbecame a song we dont know.(I have always been tpld to the mic while playing and it always worked that way,except for today)

Then Karma strikes again

So this girl comes to the music teacher one day before the cocert and decides she is going to sing a cover,and guess what?The teacher agreed and gives her the last spot..by the time she performs the venue was litterly full ,about 200 people were there and all our mates were there ,she did well and the whole crowd clappedand screamed ,she basicly stole our show (Im not talking sense i know im just angry things are not the way i thought they would go)..

I have concluded the following :
-My school is super bad at organizing events
-The school should have got a professional sound guy
-My band sucks
-That's it.

Done ranting ,thanks for going through this
 
#3
#5
positives:
1. nobody just stopped, right? i mean no matter how bad it got, you all kept right on plugging away, yeah?
2. you were the first to the stage? catastrphy occurred during a nearly empty house?
3. you figured out one of the bandmembers wasn't a good fit, or at least that there was someone not pulling their weight.
4. good or bad, you have a live performance under your belt, and at least know a little better about how things can go downhill quite quickly if every single member doesn't pull their weight.
5. you figured out that the drummer can be thrown off tempo quite easily.
6. you witnessed first hand how important it is to properly sound check.
7. it can only get better.

hey, look. bad things can and do happen, but the show must go on. learn from it and move on. also consider that your drummer is a potential liability as well. if a guitarist can throw (him?) off what's going to happen if, say, a monitor goes out during a show? you're all just starting out, so don't let it get to you or discourage you. it'll get better. one thing that helped me when i was just starting out was recording. even if it's a junk recording, record yourself (and the group as a whole) playing your set, with no breaks in between songs. when you listen to it, you will all hear what needs the most work with you're respective parts; sometimes things you don't even notice while you're playing it. keep on keeping on.
 
#6
basscooker said:
positives:
1. nobody just stopped, right? i mean no matter how bad it got, you all kept right on plugging away, yeah?
2. you were the first to the stage? catastrphy occurred during a nearly empty house?
3. you figured out one of the bandmembers wasn't a good fit, or at least that there was someone not pulling their weight.
4. good or bad, you have a live performance under your belt, and at least know a little better about how things can go downhill quite quickly if every single member doesn't pull their weight.
5. you figured out that the drummer can be thrown off tempo quite easily.
6. you witnessed first hand how important it is to properly sound check.
7. it can only get better.

hey, look. bad things can and do happen, but the show must go on. learn from it and move on. also consider that your drummer is a potential liability as well. if a guitarist can throw (him?) off what's going to happen if, say, a monitor goes out during a show? you're all just starting out, so don't let it get to you or discourage you. it'll get better. one thing that helped me when i was just starting out was recording. even if it's a junk recording, record yourself (and the group as a whole) playing your set, with no breaks in between songs. when you listen to it, you will all hear what needs the most work with you're respective parts; sometimes things you don't even notice while you're playing it. keep on keeping on.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback ,exactly what I needed .I'm actually going to send this post to my bandmates to cheer them up
 
#9
Stuff is going to go wrong in just about every live performance. Sometimes it's no big deal (broken string, bad cable, etc. - but you should already have a couple of spares on hand) and nobody in the crowd notices. Other times, you'll have major issues to overcome.

The show organizer may have done a poor job planning the event. Your band has no control over that other than to decline the gig invitation. No sound engineer? I never had a sound engineer in my bands when I was in high school. The unprepared guitarist has been removed from the band. So that solves another problem.

It'll get better. It'll rarely (if ever) be perfect. As you and your fellow musicians gain experience, you'll get better at predicting and mitigating these things.
 

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