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What do you wear when you play gigs?

#221
There is no right or wrong here. If the question is how do you dress ‘cool’, I think there are some general rules. Avoid frumpy ‘dad’ clothes. Loose jeans, white comfy sneakers and leisure clothes are out. A band is always safe wearing black. If you’ve got a belly wear a shirt designed to be worn untucked. Shoes should be on the flashy side - boots or something dressy but a little swanky. Jeans should be fitted and typically torn. Again, wear whatever you want, if you want to step up you’re game from the dad look to band look these are some general guidelines.
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#226
Neil Folkard said:
Well, I mean, age and crowd based of course. Wearing t-shirts and ripped jeans has gotten me laid often enough, over the years, haha. And with quality women, too.
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Yeah, there's a difference between a crowd who go to a bar that happens to have a band playing, and shows where the entire audience is there to specifically see that band. Sometimes you just can't out-cool an audience.
 
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#227
tshapiro said:
There is no right or wrong here. If the question is how do you dress ‘cool’, I think there are some general rules. Avoid frumpy ‘dad’ clothes. Loose jeans, white comfy sneakers and leisure clothes are out. A band is always safe wearing black. If you’ve got a belly wear a shirt designed to be worn untucked. Shoes should be on the flashy side - boots or something dressy but a little swanky. Jeans should be fitted and typically torn. Again, wear whatever you want, if you want to step up you’re game from the dad look to band look these are some general guidelines.
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Nice pics, and definitely looks like a band, although the second one could be a group of friends on a dress-up night on the town, too. It helps to have good looking people in the band.
 
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#228
_Some Dude said:
I prefer to update my style to match the times. I have no real interest in looking like a cartoon version of the decade I grew up in.

Van Halen in 2015 didn't dress like Van Halen in 1985.
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Exactly. Black shirts/pants and red satin ties were popular in the 80’s. So was sleeveless T’s, or waistcoats. I don’t do that look anymore, sorry. Get with the times.

GKon said:
My last band, I requested that all of us wear black and red. It didn't matter what it was, other than we all had on black and red. I liked the look of cohesion, rather than three people wearing random clothing that they walked off the street with, and onto the stage. It also helped create a mood in regards to the music we were playing, and attitude/feel we wanted to promote for the band.
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Our disco band is all black with gold or silver. Female singer sometimes wears a white/gold A-Line dress to stand out, or if it’s really hot. (Mostly she wears a silver sequinned body suit.)

I get hot so a black linen button up shirt is the coolest shirt I’ve found. Always brink and industrial strength floor fan.
 
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#229
Groove Doctor said:
Exactly. Black shirts/pants and red satin ties were popular in the 80’s. So was sleeveless T’s, or waistcoats. I don’t do that look anymore, sorry. Get with the times.


Our disco band is all black with gold or silver. Female singer sometimes wears a white/gold A-Line dress to stand out, or if it’s really hot. (Mostly she wears a silver sequinned body suit.)

I get hot so a black linen button up shirt is the coolest shirt I’ve found. Always brink and industrial strength floor fan.
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For the band where we wore black and red, I had originally envisioned me in the center playing bass, singing, and wearing all red, with maybe a really thin black tie, red contact lenses and super dark sunglasses so I could raise them up once in a while to show off the red eyes. Then I wanted two guitarists, one on either side of me wearing all black with a thin red tie, same for the drummer.

In the end, we went with a 3 piece band (me, one guitarist, drummer) so I modified the setup for us all to wear black and red.

I think white and gold is the perfect color combo for a disco band!
 
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#236
Nicer clothes for nicer gigs, but never suits. Nice colorful crisp shirts, mebbe a nice vest, anymore new 501s or dig out the light blue Dockers, and polished Doc Martins.

Bar gigs and casual things usually road worn 501s - sometimes rips, a colored tee, over shirt open and untucked - have a few pajama tops with fun patterns from the '50/60s from GoodWill/St Vinnies, sometimes a leather or Levi® vest, mebbe a fringe leather jacket or keyboard pattern open sweater (think Hank Williams music jacket), and Chucks, Docs, or hightop tac boots.

If it's formal a nice white or black shirt, maybe a turtleneck underneath, sports coat, black 501s, Docs. Bring a tie just in case - but these gigs are few and far between anymore.


And as posted above by JimmyM = "But never shorts, never sandals, and never khaki."
 
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