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What was the first gig you remember playing?

#81
Wow when was my first gig. Best I can remember is around 1970 we were a jazz/rock combo odd as that sounds for the times. Played for a bowling league I think or was it a curling league can't remember. All I do remember was the 100 requests we had to play Elvis toons. Even though we told them we didn`t play that kind of material they hired us anyways then got pissed because we didn`t play old time rock.....go figure. Still got paid though.
 
#82
I remember it well. I'd joined my first ever band and they told me they had a halloween show booked in a week and needed a bass player. All originals, about an hour set, no recording to give to me to learn. Thankfully they were willing to practice 4 times in the week leading up to that show.

The gig itself was at a bar in OKC that was traditionally a country/western bar. We were a college rock band. After I got set up and was hanging out at the bar I noticed a couple guys who looked like caricatures of rednecks--plaid pearl-snap shirts, feed store hats, mullets, bad teeth, the works. I was thinking to myself "dear god, what have I gotten myself into?"

When showtime came it was the most nerve-wracking experience of my life. Imagine the worst stage fright you've ever had, then compound that with only a week of preparation to fall back on. Surprisingly I pulled it off with only a couple screw-ups that nobody in the crowd seemed to notice. After we got done playing I found out that the two redneck caricatures were actually the guitarist and drummer for the band we were opening up for and the redneck get-ups were their halloween costumes.

After nailing that show and getting a lot of compliments on my playing, I've never really had stage fright since then. I can always think back and remember how scared I was going into the set and how good I felt afterward and it banishes the butterflies from my stomach.
 
#83
In 1974, I was fifteen and had just bought my first bass ('72 Jazz Bass - I still have it!) after playing for a year or so. I was out riding my motorcycle one evening and as I rode by someone's house, I heard a band playing inside. I stopped and went inside. The guy who was playing bass was normally a guitarist and had no clue about playing bass. My '72 Jazz Bass got me the gig with them at the local volunteer fire dept. hall a couple of weeks later. The local Church of Christ preacher published a scathing newsletter about the show a few days before we played, so everybody came out to see what the fuss was. Good times.

-- Dan --
 
#84
1990 in a battle of the bands (age 20). I actually had to switch to rhythm guitar a few days before due to a "personnel issue" - the only other player we could find to fill in on short notice was a bassist, so I gave him my rig (an old Fender amp and Bass Collection 4-stringer) and grabbed the 6-string Explorer we'd used for recording. We came in third and won four $25 Ponderosa gift certificates.
 
#88
I'd gotten my first bass in 1968 and worked diligently on it. After graduating from college in 1969, Uncle Sam wanted me, and before long I found myself in Vietnam. I managed to score a tawdry acoustic guitar after I got in country and practiced with the bottom four strings.

Towards the end of my service there, one of the service clubs had a note up that they were looking for a bass player. I went to audition and they provided equipment (I remember it was a Guild bass). I was taken on on the spot.

They were putting together a play, "The Connection", which was about jazz musicians and hard drugs. It was 1971, and a heroin epidemic was surfacing. The music was changed to rock for the times, and we wound up touring the country. We played about six songs over the course of the play. Our first gig was in Long Binh, and it really went over well. They actually got me released from my company to go TDY (temporary duty) and do this.

The core members of that group all met in Colorado after we got out of the Army and we started a band. Lasted about three years, but it was great fun.
 
#89
My very first public performance on bass was when I was 13 with the youth band at church. If I remember right we played three songs, all with about three chords, I stayed on the roots the whole time.

My first non-church gig was three years later at a Halloween show, with a band I formed with some dudes from school (we were called Archimedes), we opened up for a well-known local band called Three Cord Wonder. We got the gig because our guitarist knew Three Cord Wonder's guitarist.

We actually played really well, even though we were all 16-17 our guitarist and drummer remain the best guitarist and drummer I've ever played with (I'm 21 now). We got paid in free food before the gig, and we were offered three more shows with Three Cord Wonder.

Unfortunately the band didn't survive us all going to college, but our crowning moment was winning a Battle of the Bands over 14 other bands, including four bands that had toured regionally.
 
#90
1968 ... I was 14. Played a "Kent" violin shaped piece o' crap into a Guild "Thunderbass" ... 150W to two 15" in one cab. Sounded like crap. :rollno: We played a junior high dance (not MY school, thankfully) that one of the band member's mother set us up for. Her daughter was a very good drummer, and mama thought we were heading for the big time (sheesh!). :hmm: About half way through my amp blew the main fuse, and I had no replacement). :help: Plugged in one of the guitar amps. Sounded worse!

I have never since been so happy to get off a stage! :hyper: I'm still at it, so things have gotten a little better after 40 years ... :bassist:
 
#91
Ah yes, I remember my very first gig. We didnt get paid, but it was still my first experience playing in front of a crowd. I was 16 and had only been playing for about 3 months. It was some local crappy dive bar on a Tuesday night, so obviously business wasnt exactly booming. I was me and the singer/guitarist. We didnt have a drummer so the bar house drummer played with us. We did 6 songs, 3 covers, "Whole Lotta Love," "Jumpin Jack Flash," and "Smoke on the Water" along w/ 2 originals. I remember a couple younger drunk guys walked in during the set, and seeing that there were 2 chicks on stage they started hootin and hollering. When the singer asked if the crowd wanted to hear one more I looked up at the all of 10 people or so out there-the old lady at the slot machine and the sleaze balls sitting at the bar thinking if it wasnt for them moving their beers to their lips, I would have thought they were all dead! So we played another anyway.
 
#92
If you define "gig" as playing on a real stage, in front of more strangers than people we knew......

The year after I graduated High School I hooked up with a drummer who was one of my best childhood friends and we started jamming with a guitar player he knew. We'd been playing together for a month or two as a LOUD three-piece ala Hendrix, Cream, etc. and getting reasonably good at it, when our "Big Break" hit us like a ton of bricks - opening up the talent show at the Central High School in town (almost 4000 students strong). The drummer was a Senior at the school and he's the one that scored the gig

So, to set the scene.......

A beautiful old school auditorium that could seat roughly 1000 people, better than half full

We had the opening slot, to be followed by the absolutely blazin' HS Jazz Band: all top-notch players for their age, about 10 guys in the horn section alone, hard-driving rhythm section, led by a local Jazz player who taught there (Gigi Gryce's brother Tom, in case anybody's interested). These guys were playing Buddy Rich style charts and absolutely nailing the material. A take-no-prisoners Big Band that was led by a Master, and tighter than a nun's *ahem* well, you get the picture.....:cool:

I was playing my brand-new fretless P-Bass through an Acoustic 136, the guitar player was using a Les Paul copy of some sort through a 50watt 2x12 amp, drummer with a respectable kit but nothing fancy. No PA, of course (this was about 1978 and we were instrumental only)

With little gear to speak of, we set up quickly in front of the Stage band and did a 5 second sound-check that sounded nothing like it did when we were playing in the basement, and then dead silence......

I took a quick look behind me at the Stage Band eyeing us up from behind, then turned back around to see what seemed like a sea of black faces staring at the only white boy in the entire hall - Me (the guitar player and the drummer were black) - and we damned sure didn't look like the kind of band that was gonna be playing any James Brown tunes

Nowhere to run to now :help:

I pegged both knobs on the fretless (the Acoustic was already maxed) and hit my big opener to the first tune - a big 4-note E7+9 chord with the top three done in harmonics and the low E ringing, that set up the intro lick to Purple Haze

And this voice shouts out from the middle of the crowd

Yo! Check it out! Led Zeppelin y'all !!!

That broke up the entire crowd and everybody on stage too, all of us just about pi**ing our pants from laughing. A couple of seconds to recover and it was take-two of the big E7+9, then right into the best facsimile of the Experience that three green kids could've possibly pulled off :D

Finally, the last note of guitar feedback fades off into the depths of that cavernous hall, then a couple of seconds of total silence.....

Followed by honest applause and even a cheer or two :hyper:
I've been hooked ever since

Oh, and as you would expect, the Stage Band then proceeded to wipe the floor with us LOL
 
#93
Late 1986, when I was 19. The guy who got me started on bass played keyboards with a truly awful tropical band (although I was so excited that I didn't think so at the moment) based on a town at 75 miles from mine. One day, he told me that he had a gig with them and that felt I was ready to play with a band. Not a full gig since I didn't know so many songs yet but anyway, he thought I was doing it good. The thing was, they had their bass player but he had a no-brand bass, so the deal was: "Take your (Peavey) T-40 to the gig and let the guy play it. You'll make him so happy. When we're about to play a song you know, ask him to let you play. He won't say no".

My tone was just "boom-boom", as most tropical bassists liked it to be. Neck pickup only, playing near the neck and zero treble. I didn't use my pinky to fret notes at the time and was amazed to see players using it. Again, it was an horrible band, but I couldn't believe it when I played with them. I had a Sony micro-cassette recorder at the time and I used it to record that gig, but unfortunately I lost those tapes. The singer was a high school English language teacher and thanks to that, the band played this song, which I already played lots of times at home along with the LP. BTW, this is the second time I mention that song since the band leader and bass player passed away, but nobody seemed to care about his death.

I didn't receive any payment, but it didn't matter to me. I wasn't looking for money. I only wanted to have my first experience as a live band member and I did it. I was so happy.
 

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