What do you wear when you play gigs?

[Altitude]

I decide based on the venue.

One place I play is a grungy downtown music club. It gets hot in there and the clientele dress way down. So do I - jeans, cool shoes, T-shirt. But there are correct choices for all of these that make a guy look like a musician. None of those New Balance dad sneakers, it has to be thought out even if it’s casual.

For upscale venues I wear jeans or black slacks with a stylish button up shirt, again not the kind I’d wear to church or work. Performer wear.

Weddings, I wear what the bride says to.

Like Jimmy said above, never sandals, never shorts, never khaki.

 

[john_g]

Kind of a long-ish story but, years ago I had a new client contact me (im a graphic designer) that turned out to be a stylist in Los Angeles. He said he worked with B and C level celebs and corporate types. I asked him about what I should wear to gigs and I sent him lots of pics. He said its all relative...if you are playing larger places you might want to up your stage wear. Try to look different than what the audience is wearing. There are obvious exceptions of course.

If you are playing small to mid-sized bars/clubs/etc, he said the secret is to accessorize. You can wear a white T and jeans but add necklaces, bracelets, boots/shoes, hats, glasses, etc. So I try to follow that advice but sometimes I slack. Mostly its jeans and graphic t's.

 

[Element Zero]

Cargo ratty cargo shorts and a Big Dogs t shirt and old Birkenstocks.
J/k.

 

[MegaSwing]

I think I'll start wearing a suit, like Robert Palmer.

 

[DanBass]

Socks. That's it, socks.




Seriously tho, as it's been said above it purely depends on the gig.. Wedding? Tux, or at the very least a suit and tie.. Others, just a black button up shirt, black pants, black shoes, etc. My wife says black is "slimming". I need all the help I can get.

Slimming.

Thanks babe.

 

[evanrunyon]

Tux, tails, suit, costume, jeans, etc. the only constant (and my only personal requirement) is good shoes.

 

[turf3]

I always wear pants and a shirt. Depending on the dress code, I may wear a coat and tie.

In my world, you wear whatever the bandleader says you should wear. So, anything from tux to T shirt and jeans. If you want to be a gigging musician, you need to be prepared for the various possibilities. Have at least a sport coat and a blue blazer, a variety of ties, dark suit (for those bebop gigs), tux with both black and red bow ties, couple black shirts and black slacks, plus of course more casual things.

I will say the tuxes did NOT harmonize well with the little red plastic cowboy hats, that one time. Thank goodness that was never repeated. Santa hats, yes, I've done that too.

 

[lermgalieu]

I tend to wear clothing.

 

[foolforthecity]

8th one down... money shot! Nice!

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

Most bands here dress casually at gigs. I typically wear jeans, a henley shirt, running (comfortable) shoes, and a hat of some kind. The rest of the band dresses similarly. We have an upcoming gig at a nearby casino (our first time there) which stipulates no jeans. And that's not a problem. I have some Old Navy black khaki type pants that I will wear that are very comfortable.

I guess I'm just curious as to what everyone wears for gigs.

I tend to wear clothes that don't draw attention to themselves or to the shape of my body. I like to keep it a mystery. Am I hiding a hot sexy bod underneath these lumpy clothes, a' la Billy Eilish? Or do I have a body like Jelly Roll? You'll just have to guess. So for me its loose dark jeans, dark t shirt, dark hoodie. But I do like a shiny blingy bass object to hold and reflect light.

I feel like footwear is super important. The wrong footwear can kill. Or at least cause a face-plant. Well-fitting sneakers that are comfortable, but can look like dress shoes from far away. I avoid shoes with big/wide/grippy soles that can get caught on things or have things like cables get caught in them.

And a velvet top hat with a sunflower in it of course.

 

[Bag of Lazers]

This thread reminded me that I need more black pants.

 

[Jamvan]

Black shirt. Jeans. Some type of boot.

Unless I wear a red shirt.

 

[rtslinger]

I change it up, but 90% of the time like this

 

[Freight Train]

My blues band dresses to the nines, whether festival or dive bar. Shows respect for your audience, and you can feel their response. B.B. King said you should dress for a blues show like you’re going to a funeral.

 

[JC BASS 91]

I dress as comfortably as I can for the conditions.

Indoor climate controlled gigs will be jeans, comfortable shoes, t-shirt and an open button down over that (either short sleeved or long sleeved).

Outdoor on a HOT gig will be shorts and a t-shirt and comfortable shoes. I cannot get too hot or I start having issues.

In a previous band (20 years ago), we had a lead vocalist who thought he was a bigshot. He told us that all of us but him would wear black shoes, black jeans and black t-shirts. I told him that I would NOT be wearing that, that I would be wearing Hawaiian shirts. He got furious about that because I wouldn't back down. (The rest of the band had told him he was off base). He left the group before we even had our first gig, but I stuck with what I said from the beginning. After a few gigs, we all kind of went that way.

 

[Pocket Dave]

I was thinking about musicians' relationship to black clothes...

There's the institution of "concert blacks" in formal settings, orchestras and things. There it's really about anonymity, or emphasizing the group image; a musician in the pit of a Broadway show is not supposed to draw attention to themselves. Likewise for wallpaper gigs. There's also the black suit for jazz and blues clubs, for blues especially if it's rumpled and you slept in it on a bench at the bus station.

For other genres, I feel like it's different. Back when Johnny Cash was playing, to wear all black was striking, people commented on it and he wrote a whole song about being The Man in Black. I'm not entirely sure when it became a thing for rock bands - maybe with Judas Priest in the early 80s? Punk bands? At any rate, it seems like since then it's become standard issue uniform for rockers to wear black. The upshot is that it's become the opposite of Cash's Man In Black statement; black is the new khaki or beige, as bland and anonymous as a pit musician's concert blacks.

Black is an important part of the wardrobe - it's neutral, which makes it a platform for other things, and its being dark does still complement heavier music and all. It probably wouldn't make sense to perform some metal subgenres without a lot of black clothing. But in a genre that's supposed to be loud and brash and expressive, defaulting to the all-black uniform seems like it's at cross purposes to me. I still do some shows in blue jeans and a black t-shirt (that fit, and wearing a decent pair of boots). But I generally think it's best, if you're playing rock/pop/country, to get a burst of color in there and make a splash visually.

Good points.

I wear black a lot, and prefer "incognito" to "anonymity"; Yeah - same difference but it sounds cooler.

I'm not really trying to disappear on stage, just balance the dynamic in my current band, where the BL presents his own outspoken, charismatic and home-spun persona, the drummer is the bright-red-Chuck-Taylor-wearing, crazy-kid backup vocalist & co-front man, whose over-the-top persona the BL likes to play off, and the sax player is a talented maniac, bouncing around the crowd like The Marx Brothers' Harpo Marx.

IMO, bands like this can benefit from that one guy, that incognito, side-glancing straight-man to provide counterpoint, depth and balance; The Zeppo Marx of the band, the guy normal folks can see themselves as in the middle of all the other characters.

I figured early on, "who better than the bass player?" We kind of anchor things anyway.

At the end of the night, I'm grateful to be a semi-normal enjoying the company of some great characters.

 

[WI Short Scaler]

Only 9 pages? Sorry, I find it funny to go around this issue again.

Wear what you want, dress down if it's a deck party in "vacation" land, dress up if it's a wedding or otherwise required. Play your lines, smile, have fun.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, lately I favor western shirts.
I prefer that everyone knows I'm in the band and am there to play a gig.

And on rare occasions, Senior Uno Cinco makes an appearance.

 

[richntiff]

View attachment 5318855

this is SO badass.

 

[51PRI]

Needin to revamp the gigging wardrobe so this thread has been a helpful reminder.....

Me, too, and that's the reason for the thread. I need some revamping especially for the Winter gigs. Also, we took band publicity pictures last Fall and I overdressed. I wore a white shirt, tie, jacket, jeans and a porkpie hat...stuff I would never wear at a gig. The other guys, except for one guy who wore a jacket over his normal t-shirt, wore regular gig clothes. We don't look like we're in the same band.

I'm sure there was another thread on the same topic, I just cannot find it.

Depends on the gig

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This is a pic showing where 3 more black t-shirts would have made a big difference. IMO.