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Wearing shorts on stage.

#181
What??? What does it matter? Shorts/hats/glasses/socks, anything goes. If someone wanna be comfortable wearing shorts or flip-flops so be it. If someone thinks some kind of fashion is cool so be it. What does it matter? The only explanation I see for wearing something specific is if you play in a band that requires a uniform or a dress code of some sort.
Rock on with what you feel is right. If you don't feel right it won't sound right.
 
#182
dan_doh said:
What??? What does it matter? Shorts/hats/glasses/socks, anything goes. If someone wanna be comfortable wearing shorts or flip-flops so be it. If someone thinks some kind of fashion is cool so be it. What does it matter? The only explanation I see for wearing something specific is if you play in a band that requires a uniform or a dress code of some sort.
Rock on with what you feel is right. If you don't feel right it won't sound right.
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Werd to the up ^
 
#183
dan_doh said:
What??? What does it matter? Shorts/hats/glasses/socks, anything goes. If someone wanna be comfortable wearing shorts or flip-flops so be it. If someone thinks some kind of fashion is cool so be it. What does it matter? The only explanation I see for wearing something specific is if you play in a band that requires a uniform or a dress code of some sort.
Rock on with what you feel is right. If you don't feel right it won't sound right.
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Because this business is a little more serious than that for some of us.

Some bands and guys take a "willy nilly, who cares approach to what they look like on stage. and some of us take it more serious and put professional thought into how a product is executed and presented.

Neither camp is right or wrong, just depends on which one your in.

The "I Care" camp or the "Who cares what I wear, it's not important what I wear" camp.
 
#185
An easy rule I know many obide by is to dress one level above the customer. However, I'll bend the rule to the level of the customer in many cases but not below.

Personally, I think looking uber sweaty and unkept is much worse than wearing shorts. More importantly, having a performance suffer due to heat exhasution or worse heat stroke is more unprofessional.

Friday night I played a wedding at a country club and I would not have dreamed of wearing shorts. Saturday I played an outdoor festival in the afternoon inside a roasting tent then a packed sweaty club that night. You bet I wore shorts to those. Everyone was wearing shorts or less and I wasn't going to be the sweaty fool being all gross and disgusting talking to patrons.

Just my .02
 
#187
fishstix said:
An easy rule I know many obide by is to dress one level above the customer. However, I'll bend the rule to the level of the customer in many cases but not below.

Personally, I think looking uber sweaty and unkept is much worse than wearing shorts. More importantly, having a performance suffer due to heat exhasution or worse heat stroke is more unprofessional.

Friday night I played a wedding at a country club and I would not have dreamed of wearing shorts. Saturday I played an outdoor festival in the afternoon inside a roasting tent then a packed sweaty club that night. You bet I wore shorts to those. Everyone was wearing shorts or less and I wasn't going to be the sweaty fool being all gross and disgusting talking to patrons.

Just my .02
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I see your point, but I am not in the shorts camp.

We played outside Thursday& Friday night, both events drew around 7-800 people. It was 90 degrees, I wore light blue vintage jeans and a Sun Records T Shirt.

I can't pull off the shorts look and shorts would screw up my attitude and again I would look to much like the patrons. I'm lucky. I don't sweat much if at all. I spoke with and signed a few cds, frisbees and pushed our upcoming shows to patrons
 
#188
bluewine said:
Bob, like the Chilles can pull it off.They look cool in how they do the shorts thing.

However, they are putting a little more thought into it than just throwing on a pair of cargoes.
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Yeah. I never would have thought to make chaps outta carnival stuffed animals like in the mc hammer video "bust a move!." Seriously. I never woulda thought...
 
#190
bluewine said:
We played outside Thursday& Friday night, both events drew around 7-800 people. It was 90 degrees, I wore light blue vintage jeans and a Sun Records T Shirt.

I can't pull off the shorts look and shorts would screw up my attitude and again I would look to much like the patrons. I'm lucky. I don't sweat much if at all.
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Lucky for you then, the sweat thing that is. I can't claim the same. I understand the attitude thing, gotta have our game going.

I've experienced bad things with heat and actually had our singer collapse on stage from heat stroke. We had to have paramedics check him over and missed the rest of that show as well as two more that week due to this, that's a good chunk of $$. I'm not messing with that. If I was told to wear a suit and tie in the sun on stage for a 4 hour gig in 90+ degree weather, I'd pass on it and wish the next guy luck no matter the money. There's always more gigs as long as we're professional. My health and longevity are too important.

We all do what works for us. It's only when it's not working that we need to question why.
 
#193
fishstix said:
Lucky for you then, the sweat thing that is. I can't claim the same. I understand the attitude thing, gotta have our game going.

I've experienced bad things with heat and actually had our singer collapse on stage from heat stroke. We had to have paramedics check him over and missed the rest of that show as well as two more that week due to this, that's a good chunk of $$. I'm not messing with that. If I was told to wear a suit and tie in the sun on stage for a 4 hour gig in 90+ degree weather, I'd pass on it and wish the next guy luck no matter the money. There's always more gigs as long as we're professional. My health and longevity are too important.

We all do what works for us. It's only when it's not working that we need to question why.
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Wow, I hope your singer came out of that ok.

Your in WI, like me. We are playing all the major outdoor fairs and festivals and it's going to be hot. I am going to make sure I'm hydrated and eat right during the summer.

At my age anything can happen, so, I have to be careful.
 
#195
He's going at it better this summer, taking care of himself. The summer festivals can be tough heat/weather wise but are so much fun. Maybe I'll run into you. Just make sure to stay hydrated and bring a fan (the kind that moves air) :-). IME the ever flowing free beer of WI festivals can be a real killer too.

Sorry nothing about shorts in this post. Now back to the scheduled programming :-)
 
#196
fishstix said:
He's going at it better this summer, taking care of himself. The summer festivals can be tough heat/weather wise but are so much fun. Maybe I'll run into you. Just make sure to stay hydrated and bring a fan (the kind that moves air) :-). IME the ever flowing free beer of WI festivals can be a real killer too.

Sorry nothing about shorts in this post. Now back to the scheduled programming :-)
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You very well might run into me.

Now that you mention it, a discussion about older TBers that will be out on the front lines dealing with playing outside in the heat this summer. In general taking care of yourself. For example getting enough sleep which I struggle with,
 
#198
You know, while I'm a 60s 70s guy. I admit that some of the way bands looked in the 70s & 80s was way over the top and silly in some cases.

However, I really think bands like Nirvanna and the guys like Ed Vetter gave the wrong idea about dress to a lot of younger musicians.

They were , to me saying it was cool yo look like a bum on stage.
 
#200
justBrian said:
I'm with bluewine on this--no shorts. Ever. And no sneakers either...
I want to look like a professional...not one of the crowd.

Just my two cents...
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I get wearing "Chuck Taylors" for some guys in some bands.

But wearing cross trainers and running shoes, OMG ghetto for any band. No other side to that one, not cool.

Some of my band members are guilty here but I would never say anything. If your on stage wearing white running shoes on and you don't understand that there is something not right about it.It's behind anything you can tell anyone.

Thing is, I'm wearing Beatle Boots and my feet were killing me. 12 hours later I had them back on for the next show and my feet still hurt.
 

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