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Stage Apparel - What's On Your "No" List?

#81
I find it interesting how today even some big touring acts come on stage looking like they walked up on stage right out of the crowd, polos, Ts, cargos.

I recently saw Seether, they looked like bums especially the lead singer.

I saw band on Conan the other night called The Kills. They looked like a rock band the female front looked the part and very cool.
 
#82
There are only a few hard-and-fast rules, in my book:

-Short pants are not acceptable rock and roll attire.
-No T-shirts with your own band's name, unless you're in Metallica.
-No all-white shoes (Adidas, Pumas or Chucks with contrasting stripes can be okay).
-No sandals, and especially NO CROCS EVER.
 
#83
My onstage "no list" includes everything that is in my offstage "no list" ... My "no lists" are about 95% alike. But onstage I tend to avoid wearing my most casual offstage items. I like to dress up a bit more than normal onstage. So basically my onstage "no list" has a few more items on it than my offstage "no list." For example, I don't wear my day-to-day engineer's boots onstage.

I suppose my normal offstage wear makes me look like a musician 24-7, because I often get asked if I'm in a band when I'm out on the street or shopping etc. My offstage "no list" is similar to many people's onstage "no lists"... I never wear shorts, tennis shoes, mallstorewear, typical frat boy attire, etc.
 
#86
Hmmm..... apparently, I has no shame.... or fashion sense....

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#88
I'll wear strange stuff, but never over the top.

... That being said, my favorite "look" that I have ever rocked on stage was a grey "Pee-Wee Herman" suit, a red bow tie, chucks, a Boba Fett helmet, and my friends black Epiphone Explorer bass. It's was a big outdoor party for a friend and Devo was part of our setlist.
 
#90
#94
I normally wear black slacks, a dress shirt with some color and a tie "loose". As a band we kinda agreed on this look.

As a side note I think we should devise some kind of drinking game on this forum. You know, every time a phrase gets mentioned everyone has to do a shot. Oh EVEN BETTER! Every time a number - any number at all, completely random choice, anything whatsoever, any ol' number, anything like 12 or 73 or 22 or 58. Yeah that's it 58. Every time 58 gets mentioned everyone has to do a shot of the beverage of your choice.
 
#98
Ya'll be whatever yas wanna be up there, I don't mind watching. If you play well with enthusiasm, who cares (oh yeah, obviously some folks do). Heck ya'll, I'm freaking 61, ponytail down my back, bushy moustache and beard, and have ridden my Harley to a gig before and played in my riding clothes, including leather vest with colors, do-rag, riding boots, etc. Does that mean I don't care about my playing. H*** NO!!! I played my arse off that night. Hey, I'm a serious musician, have a degree in music, and have played professionally full-time. Recently when we had a classic rock gig going for awhile, we each wore whatever we wanted. I was the jeans and t-shirt guy, another was the jeans and collared shirt guy, another was slacks and silk shirt guy, the drummer was jeans and loose shirts. We didn't even specify. Be whoever you want. I was 60. When I untied my hair to play Woodstock, even the young crowd went nuts. Heh, heh.

But then, I wear a tux to weddings because it's appropriate (see I DO care), or slacks and a nice shirt to other gigs because it's also appropriate. My most recent band wants to all wear the same shirts. Whatever. That's not my style, but I like the gig very much, so...

But you can bet yer socks I"M SERIOUS alright!
 
#99
Oh man... I was in a band a few years ago where all the other dudes were like, "dressing any differently from everyday street clothes is pretentious and silly." I showed them a photo from one of our gigs where it looked like all of them had gotten mugged on the way home from a fishing trip. None of them cared at all except me. The music was great, but the band didn't last more than a few shows.
 
#100
Different gigs call for different clothes. I usually do slacks, canvas shoes and a short-sleeve button-down shirt, but obviously if I were playing at a nicer function I'd dress up to scale. As a rough guideline, I think "dress up one step nicer than the audience" is helpful.

And I think most bands should coordinate their stage outfits at least to some degree. If people are watching you play, the visual matters, whether you share that sentiment or not. I have a coffee shop gig next weekend. It's a casual low pressure thing, but you better believe I'll be coordinating with the other guys to make sure we don't look like we all stumbled in from 3 different bands.
 

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