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wearing shades on stage

#41
Wearing a hat may have something to do with hiding your bald spot. Or maybe some people think it's cool. I used to wear a felt hat and trench coat in high school...pretty much all the time. Some people thought my individuality was cool, but some did not. I had plenty of scalp coverage at the time.

In the late 90s I ran a country group for a few years. When I joined the group they had a tradition of wearing felt hats and western wear to include shirts, boots, jeans, and a big belt buckle. We all picked out our own shirts, rather than dressing alike. For formal gigs we wore a black western jack and bolo. Western style is not really my thing, but we got lots of compliments and I went along to get along.

My hair started thinning in my mid 30s. From my early 40s to my early 50s I shaved my head. The first time I did this was on tour and several people seemed to think the reason is I lost a bet :laugh:. I stopped shaving my head in my early 50s because I retired and didn't want to deal with the daily hassle.

I have some Wahl clippers and cut my hair pretty tight from time to time. I think it looks way better tight, but tend to let it go beyond the point where it looks disheveled. For the most part, I don't really care how I look and nobody else does either. However sometimes if it looks particularly bad, I put on hat for a quick jaunt to get fast food. If I was gigging or working, I would probably go back to shaving, or regularly cut it tight.

My advice: If you want to wear shades and think it's some sort of look, go for it. Someone who is confident will ignore naysayers who disagree. Oh and by the way, I think it's kind of uncool to be pointing fingers and laughing at people. But let's be real, we all probably do it from time to time; I know I do :bag:.
 
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#42
Generally I'd have said no, but over the last few years my eyesight has been getting worse. Wearing glasses of some description, or at least having them available makes reading stuff close up a LOT easier.

For one gig I do I'm heavily dependant on notes - long songs, specific parts, key changes... the choice was between regular glasses (which mean the audience is uncomfortably blurry) or some varifocal, graduated sunglasses... it was a revelation. I could look down and see what I needed to see, I could look up and see the rest of the band in focus. Best of all we've been upgrading our light show, and they made the lights pointed straight in my eyes much more comfortable.

No, I don't think they look particularly cool. I do sometimes wear them because they're very practical.
 
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#44
sonic boogaloo said:
just wondered what the general TB consensus was about wearing shades on stage.

some initial thoughts:

PROs - they make me look younger and cooler.
CONs - i like to be aware of mhiy surroundings, shades can interfere with that • can make you look pretentious and ALOOF.
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Even though im mostly blind in 1 eye...I've always loved making eye contact with audience members. Stage lights sometimes blind me but i would never consider it. I usually print out set list in giant lettering with one word hints of next song and hide it in front of my pedal board. Hard to keep my prescription glasses from falling while moving on stage.
 
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#46
HolmeBass said:
TB is full of so many horribly judgmental people!

What about the Parliament lyric:

Yeah, I dig!
Let me put my sunglasses on.
That's the law around here, you got to wear your sunglasses.
So you can feel cool.

I say do it, own it, feel cool, and forget the haters.
Click to expand...

It's entertainment. Sunglasses, hats, shorts, leather and chains, spandex, whatever makes the image you want to have is fine. There will be haters no matter what you do, so you be you and screw 'em.
 
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#48
Who cares? is it kind of silly in a practical sense to wear the darkest of dark sunglasses in an already usually dark environment, yea, id probably trip over everything. Nothing wrong with them in general though. as far as looks, nothing wrong with it either. Some people who may have some stage fright wear them to sort of zone out the crowd. Stage lights could also be a reason to wear them. If you’re like me and wear prescription glasses, some sort of color tinted or lighter tint sunglasses are a much better look than just wearing my regular glasses. To sum up though, again, who cares! Have whatever style fits you.
 
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#50
sonic boogaloo said:
just wondered what the general TB consensus was about wearing shades on stage.

some initial thoughts:

PROs - they make me look younger and cooler.
CONs - i like to be aware of my surroundings, shades can interfere with that • can make you look pretentious and ALOOF.
Click to expand...
I don't play live much these days, but when I did I always kept a pair (as seen in my profile pic) because I'm sensitive to bright lights. Hard to see with them, but if the lights are bright it's hard to see without them, AND it's uncomfortable and distracting.
 
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#52
sonic boogaloo said:
just wondered what the general TB consensus was about wearing shades on stage.

some initial thoughts:

PROs - they make me look younger and cooler.
CONs - can make you look pretentious and ALOOF.
Click to expand...

Re:
PROs …no they don't
CONs …yes they do, and more importantly like you're trying too hard to be cool

Exceptions. You are in a Blues Brothers tribute or As stated, daytime outdoor gig, then of course they're fine.
 
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#55
tindrum said:
Absolute cringe when worn indoors. Only made exponentially worse if a fedora is involved. Just don’t.
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IMG_2145.jpg

The whole band wore fedoras and shades. Indoors.

When the bandleader likes to surprise members by pointing at them at ANY time during a song to start soloing, shades hide the shock and fear in my eyes.
 
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#58
Music is an emotional communication between human beings - between those on stage and those in the audience. You want to connect with your audience? Eye contact is the most important tool in your arsenal. If you don't want to connect with your audience, by all means wear shades.
 
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