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What was the first gig you remember playing?

#21
My first paid gig was a huge house party, we had a stage and everything. It was 1982 and I was 16. Playing Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Scorpions covers.

We were paid ten bucks each and all the Beer and Jack Daniels we could drink. Our drummer puked before we started, but we made it through and picked up more gigs.

3 friends had their first sexual experience there or at least in the car with a friend they met there. Band name: Max Havoc.

LOL... the 80's....
 
#24
My first gig was at Nightingale's in New York. I sat in with the Swollen Monkeys who had a keyboard guy playing bass lines. Swollen Monkeys featured veterans of the B-52's road band. Remember it like it was last month.
This was also the very first show at Nightingales'. Paid with beer.
 
#27
I'm subbing as a drummer counts, if you get paid!

I was at a dance (high school) and the band included the drummer who was giving me lessons. To make it short - he slipped and fell and injured his wrist after the first set. Since he could not play and knew I was there - I got to sit in for the next three sets.

First song - Born to be Wild (kind of dates me, doesn't it?). I got a whole $25 for the three sets but that was big bucks for a 14 year old at that time!

First "gig" on bass was when I had been playing about 6 months just about 9 years ago. I was playing drums one weekend on one weekend off at a large church (3500 over 4 services) and began to come to rehearsal on my "off" weeks and played along with a headphone set. Anyway 2 hours before the service I got a call saying that the bass player was sick and asking if I could play. Within 3 months I was playing one week on bass and one on drums and about 5 months later I was playing bass every week for a couple of years.

Nothing makes you learn faster than the pressure and encouragement of playing live. (Assuming you keep practicing!)

Dan K.
 
#30
Our Lady of Fatima school 8th grade dance. It was 1977 and all the guys in the band, except our singer, had gone to that school and we had all been altar boys so we had a "in" with the pastor.

Played typical school dance music for that time, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin and more Led Zeppelin (and maybe some Stones and Deep Purple).

I think we got about a hundred dollars.
 
#31
1987 I was 15 years old, my first gig was a singer actually. about 500 people, I dont remeber the songs but was covers from: DRI, agnostic front, two or three songs from us , the band name was TAN ( Total Agression and Noise).

Then I move as bass player to another band, same year, my skills 0, I just copied whatever the guitar player was doing, we used to cover songs from: slayer , kreator, etc. I remember that my bass was an explorer but do not remember the brand. No money , we just got some beers, this happend in Mexico, we did not have money, I remember that I used to plug in my bass in the Stereo, not chicks either, we had a lot of fun.. aa those days
 
#32
It was a gig with my high school jazz band. I was a freshman and it was a thing at the mall around Christmas time. We played in front of Helzberg Diamonds for about an hour, just your standard Christmas tunes off our charts on stands we packed into the director's car. I was terrible at reading, spent most of the time playing the songs by memory and fumbling through the rest with what little knowledge of bass clef I had. I also wasn't very quick with the left hand so a few runs that were on the page had to be left out for fear of embarrassing myself in front of the surprisingly large numbers of passers by.
 
#33
1961 I was 11 years old and got hired to play taps and Swing Low on trumpet for an Easter sunrise service. Got paid five bucks. Thought that was pretty awesome since at the time I had a paper route that paid $3.36 for six days of deliveries!
 
#36
My first gig was in 1966 for a wedding. I was 15. The thing I remember most about this gig is that we had been practicing for a few weeks with a female singer who was 13 at the time. When we suddenly got the wedding gig (which paid about 50 dollars if I remember correctly) we decided that we could do without the "chick singer" and having no balls we simply did not inform her about the gig.

She eventually found out, of course, but being the sweet thing she was, she forgave us. A year later she and I started going out. We have now been married for 36 years.

Kevin
 
#37
interp said:
My first gig was in 1966 for a wedding. I was 15. The thing I remember most about this gig is that we had been practicing for a few weeks with a female singer who was 13 at the time. When we suddenly got the wedding gig (which paid about 50 dollars if I remember correctly) we decided that we could do without the "chick singer" and having no balls we simply did not inform her about the gig.

She eventually found out, of course, but being the sweet thing she was, she forgave us. A year later she and I started going out. We have now been married for 36 years.

Kevin
Click to expand...

SCORE!!!:bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist:
 
#40
WyrdoBass said:
I'm bored and curious, what was the first gig you guys remember playing? How old were you? How skilled were you at the time? How did you get it/ how were you paid? Looking forward to the responses/ stories!
Click to expand...

The first gig was a pool party when I was a fresman in HS. I nearly threw up all over the place. No pay.
I did a club gig at 17 our singer conned the band into letting us do a song. They loved it and thought we were great.

:hyper:

the rest was history, as it were, :eek:
 

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