First gig ever stories

[jim e. grappler]

I have played for quite a while but never really made the full commitment to a band. That finally changed and I played my first gig the other night. It was such a great experience, especially feeding off the crowd which was pretty big for a mid-week gig. I made it through without causing any trainwrecks, but certainly have some work to tighten up. There were not too many crazy stories from the crowd other than the bachelor party that helped us out with one song and the hot stripper-type dancing right in front of the singer the entire 3rd and 4th sets and her attempts to talk him up after words!

 

The sound was really clean and the I felt the mix was good considering the speed with which we had to set-up (and no sound check). Being my first time on stage, I did not know what to expect as far as sound and hearing self and others, but it was great. It was amazing playing one of the most popular places in the area as a first gig ever! I am so excited that I have the chance to play with these guys!

 

What are some of your stories from first gigs (either your own or one of your bands)?

[ned911]

We played Comfortably Numb early in the first set. My adrenaline was pumping so hard I cranked out the outtro solo twice as fast, got to the end and the bass player yells "we're only half way through"... so I played it again. Probably couldn't do that twice.

 

New band after 10 year layoff, we are hitting an open mic next Thursday.

[jim e. grappler]

That adrenaline rush is amazing and can be your best friend or worst enemy!

 

Good luck with your upcoming gig!

[Brian Krashpad]

I actually have two stories, since what was supposed to be our first gig kinda didn't happen.

 

The Atomics was my first band, begun in the Fall of 1980 when I was in my 3rd year of law school. Everyone else in the band was undergrad age or younger (our drummer was about 14 or 15!). We played a bizarre batch of covers that basically just included anything we liked, from hard rock to punk to power pop to new wave.

 

Our first show was to have been at Lake Wauberg, a receation area for the University of Florida located just south of Gainesville. We agreed to play for free (as was true of almost all our shows) since there would be food and beer at this party hosted by some law school group. After schlepping our PA to the hall, tearing through our soundcheck ending with our deconstruction (most Atomics songs were deconstructions, as we seldom if ever attempted note-for-note covers, and hadn't any keyboards despite that numerous songs we covered did!) of Led Zep's "Rock and Roll," the noise complaints from the rich folks living on the other side of the lake began pouring in.

 

We were unceremoniously asked to leave, since the "guests" there had all paid a few bucks to get in and we had not. It was not even sugggested that we kick in a few bucks to stay, much less that our efforts in practicing up 4 sets of material and hauling and setting up, and then striking and loading out, our PA and backline might've been worth something. Our drummer, Chad, and our bassist Frank both wanted to commit a little mayhem in return for such shabby treatment, and in retrospect, that's exactly what we should've done. But I prevailed on them to simply eat and drink as much as we could during an extended load-out.

 

The Atomics' actual debut came a month or so later at another kegger, this time at an apartment complex then called Maracaibo Manor. We played 4 sets, marred only by my vocal mangling of the Records' "Starry Eyes." My brother Kerry and Kerry's friend Mike both sang leads on several songs. People danced and had a good time, and George Tabb [who has subsequently become semi-famous in punk rock circles via his column in the punk zine "MaximumRockNRoll" and his friendship with (and extremely short duration employment as a roadie by) the Ramones] and Bob Fetts of the local punk band Roach Motel slammed to our rendition of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated."

 

After we ran out of material, George Tabb somewhat sheepishly approached me and asked if Roach Motel could play a set on our equipment. Frank, who also played in RM as their drummer, vouched for them so we said OK. They played a short set of 5 or 6 songs including "Burger King Is Dead" and "Brooke Shields Must Die."

 

Here are some pics of that fateful night!

 

Me:

 

 

Guest vocalist Mike and other guitarist/singer Jon:

 

 

Drummer Chad:

 

 

Bassist Frank:

 

 

Roach Motel playing our gear:

 

 

BK

[Brian Krashpad]

Don't let me have killed this thread!

 

Bump for more stories!

 

BK

[LPCustomLive]

Age 15:

 

I'd been jamming with a few other people my age, but we had no drummer and there were essentially no options for a bunch of people our age. We had learned that GODDAMNED BTO song Takin' Care of Business, so we decided to try it out at an open mic night being held at a bar in our town. We thought there would be just a few people there, so it wouldn't really be a huge deal if we went up a screwed around.

 

It turns out the open mic night was being hosted by one of the bigger music shops in the area; their 10th anniversary of all things. So of course the place was absolutely packed; with spectators and all of the locally 'famous' musicians.

 

Basically the other tow guys I were with said '{censored} it' and took their gear back out to the car. While they were out being a bunch of pussies, I went and recruited a drummer; the guy was about 25 (remember we were 14 and 15), and asked him if he would fill in for one song. He said he could do, so I went and found the organizer and got us a time slot. The other guys knew nothing of my scheme, so when the time came to play I went up on stage, plugged in my guitar, told the tech to give me a little overdrive and hammered out an E chord.

 

My band mates looked horrified, but I told them to get their asses up on stage; I believe I called them a bunch of pussies. They ran out to the car, grabbed their crap and came up. By this point the organizer was getting a little pissed because we were taking so long, but eventually we got going.

 

I played rhythm because my ability was about 4 chords at the time, my one friend sang and played bass and the other guy took lead. The guy playing lead is absolutely amazing. He started at a young age and was playing Voodoo Chile by about 11. He was 14 and playing a Les Paul Custom, and this kid could {censored}ing wail. I'm still astonished how well this kid could play. (He took up jazz and is going to school for jazz guitar now).

 

Anyways, we played well, the drummer was solid and the solos were great. I think the crowd was really surprised at how we did because we were just a bunch of little buggers. We got a loud standing ovation and an encore. Who the hell gets an encore after only 1 song. We just played the Hunter riff and improvised blues solos over it.

 

Probably one of the greatest days of my life. The adrenaline was flowing and I had an amazing time.

 

Lots of other gig stories, but I hate living in the past and they make me want to find a new band!

[Lee Knight]

First gig

 

7th grade talent show. I played a SCORCHING version of Wipe Out on my Tiesco through a Baldwin amp, straight into the Accordion input. Reverb on 10!

 

My best friend played his blue sparkle drums and had seizures playing the part...

 

We rocked and the chicks dug us.

[Lee Knight]

First REAL gig, I was a sophmore in HS. My bandmates were pestering me to sing a song. I promised I would and suggested "Ready For Love" off Bad Co.

 

I'd never sang outside of "folk mass" doing Kumbuya mind you.

 

So every rehearsal, "are you ready to sing that one?" I kept putting it off... and off, and off.

 

Now it's time for our 1st gig at St John's annual fiesta. John goes into the intro guitar part, I walk up to the mic and get transported into another dimension where only those who've truly experienced stage fright have been.

 

My mouth is open, the 1st verse is history... ... ... and nothing has come out. At all. I can only see the confused faces of 150 Catholic school kids. "Is this an instrumental?" "Why's his mouth open?"

 

John's just reminded me of it yesterday.

 

That bastard!

[hankypanky]

My first gig holding a guitar was a 'battle of the bands' at a local bar (i'd performed in public before but concert chior and highschool jazz don't quite compare to this). It was university and a few of us got together to make some music. Interestingly we would have never associated if it weren't for the band. I was a computer science major, drummer was pre-med, bass player was a physics/math double major, and the singer was...um....well he never got through the second year of university so whatever. What a crowd of poindexters though.

 

Thinking back on it everything went remarkably well - we won which was a huge boost. We did 5 songs (maybe 6, I don't remember now)...4 or 5 originals and a cover. What I DO remember was the 'reception' after I came off stage and thinking to myself that we absolutely had to do this more often ...

 

Haven't gigged as much as I'd like to.

[jim e. grappler]

These are great stories!! Most everyone has so many years experience on me as I am in my ... cough... thirties!

[X-Wing Fighter]

well i was 16, and our drummer's sister was graduating from high school, and her rich father had an amplitheater built for the party, and hired some bands to play there-locally big bands, with record deals and the works-and paid us each 100 dollars to "open" for them. we played about an hour and half worth of covers, mostly {censored} that i wouldn't listen to now if you forced me to, and did ok for some kids. the kids at the party dug it, but it was a joke looking back on it. what's the most humiliating is not the performance itself, but the fact that i laid in bed that night thinking that we would "make it big" as a band based on our perception that night....hahaha

[Terry Allan Hall]

I was 15, and worked as the "sanitation engineer" at a nice restaurant that had live music on the weekends...usually solos and duos.

 

One evening, the act booked called about 45 minutes before "show time" to cancel...the owners were in a panic, and called everyone they could think of, but everyone was booked...as I was clocking out to go home, my D-18 in hand (I'd stuck it in the mop closet because I was teaching the owner's daughter how to play), the owner called me into his office and asked me to play him a song, which I started to do...about halfway through the 1st chorus of "Time In A Bottle", he stopped me and asked me if I knew enough songs to play 3 45-minute sets, and when I assured him I did, he said, "OK, you're tonight's entertainment" and he sent his wife out to get me a nicer shirt.

 

Went over well enough that I had a regular gig every Friday night for the next 2 years...and I went from making $75 a week (as janitor) to $125 a week ($50 extra for Friday nights + tips)...still, decent bucks for a 15 y.o. in the early 70s

 

Been pretty much doing it ever since...unfortunately, some gigs STILL pay $50 a night + tips!

[ned911]

Thought I would post our open mic experience from last Thursday.

 

The "host" band played for an hour with the usual blues stuff - Tulsa Time, Knockin on Heaven's Door, Mustang Sally.

 

We went on second. Host bass player made it perfectly clear we were to touch nothing on his rig. Host guitar player was great and spent a few moment dialing his Line6 Flex in for me.

 

First tune: Guitar was so loud no one on stage could hear anything which caused us to be way off timing wise - not a good way to open. Towards the end of the song I rolled the volume down on the guitar which allowed me to hear drums and some vocals - only vocals through the PA.

 

We called the bass player/leader up to turn up the bass and add more vocals into the monitors. He must like a ton of reverb because the vocal mix was dripping with the verb.

 

Songs 2-4 went off perfectly. Song 5 (Interstate Love Song) don't ask me what happened but it was like an out of body experience. I looked down saw my hands playing but it felt like someone else playing. Timing was off and the tune just sounded bad from the stage.

 

Singer was great - with the problems he just kept going and sounded good. Drummer and bass player were rock solid.

 

Lessons - do a quick sound check before starting to make sure everyone can hear each other.

 

Overall very pleased with our first live performance as a group.

[ratthedd]

My first ever gig was as a bass player for a highschool friend's praise/worship band.

 

We went to a parochial school and I had had my very first guitar lesson maybe 6 months before (Mel Bay easy learn method, or something along those lines.)

 

When the band's bass player announced that he was tired of playing they needed a replacement quick and I was the only person they knew who knew anything about stringed instruments (which amounted to basically how to tune the thing and maybe 5 chords.) I practiced with the group probably no more than 6 times before they had their biggest event ever and my bas playing skills amounted to nothing more than plunking out the root note of whatever chord was being played.

 

As far as I was concerned it was the most horrible gut-wrenching experience of my 16 year old life, but I got over it.

 

 

Holy crap!!!! I just realized that was about 24 years ago!!!

[Preacher Will]

Lesseee . . . it was 1971, i was fifteen, and had been playing organ since i was seven. During that time i had played several times at church, but only a special here and there. This time i was booked for a revival with an outside evangelist. This was a big deal and there would be a full choir with backing band, piano and organ. i would be playing this big Baldwin theatre organ. Told the guy, "i'll be fine as long as you don't throw me a curve. Give me the play list, don't change anything on the fly because my sight reading isn't up to par." Everything went great. Kickin choir, sweet little band. Got to the invitational hymn and he changed it. i gave him a long look, got up and walked out. Someone else finished the revival. Man was i green . . .

[69lespaul]

Okay...............1980 or so, I was 23, joined my first band as lead vocalist. "Nobody's Business". Our first paying gig was at a place called the Hospital Pub. (near a major local hospital) We agreed to do a 2 nighter (Friday and Saturday). I lost my voice after the first night. Woke up with nothing but a squeak coming out of my mouth on Saturday morning. I had never done a full 2 nights before. So 2 hours before Saturday night's gig, we hooked up at the drummer's house, he massaged my throat and burned insence, chanted, then had me drinking some herbal tea. By the time we went on, I had my voice back alright. BUT I WAS TOTALLY {censored}ING STONED!!! He had put pot in the "herbal tea". Anyway, I got thru the second night and we rocked. Ended up getting a standing 2 weekend a month gig at the place fior almost 2 years. Including a cable TV special. I loved the 80's.

[elbow]

Well.. we were all in the same class in high school... sophomores I think, so we must have been 15 or 16. We were always plunking on tunes and showing riffs to each other, but it was announced there would be sort of battle of the bands at the high school... I think there were 4 bands around the school at that time.

 

Anyways, we had 3 guitar players and no bass or drummer. I lost the paper/rock/scissors thing and had to find a bass rig... luckily I found one.. in real bad shape that had a warped neck and only about half of it fretted out... who cared?... whatever.. We came up with "Mariah" as a band name.. years before Ms. Carey came on the scene.

 

We needed a drummer.. There was a guy that went to our school that used to DJ some dances on the side.. he went by Disco Pete and he even had a denim jacket with Disco Pete in sequins on the back. We found out he could play the hell out of some drums and we pressed him into service, but played down his nickname.. he became just Pete around us... we already had skeleton in the closet.

 

I think we had 3 practices for about 30 minutes each.. that's all the time we could get at someone's house before someone's parents or the police would shut us down. We hadn't mastered the concept of volume control. If our little combos went to 10, that's where they were set. We had no distortion pedals and the combos would sizzle if they were blowing as hard as they'd go. It was magic.

 

We were the 2nd band up on show night. Some older guys (like 18 yr olds) were helping us during a 30 second closed curtain sound check. I still remember one nugget of advice we got. He told us, "Roll your guitars down to like 5 or 6, let the PA dude think that's where you're at.. when they open the curtains, dime it dudes!" I giggled with glee.. this guy had to know his {censored} to come up with that one... the curtains parted, we dimed the guitars, and flew into a raucous version of Rush's Bastille Day.

 

The first 3 rows or so were visible to us and everyone's mouth was wide open.. either in shock or screaming. I was thinking how that little nugget of wisdom on the sound check thing was working it's mojo and then I looked down to see my parka that I hurriedly shucked off right before sound check was wrapped around my right ankle.. I kicked it off my foot and then kicked it right off stage right, just like it was a stage prop and meant to be.. we might not be the best band they ever saw, but we owned that stage and nothing was gonna slow us down.

 

We were so into it.. a few more songs and we wrapped up with Stairway to Heaven.. we were so cocky we left the place and didn't even want to see the other two bands.. they would surely suck after seeing us...

[srsfallriver]

Outside of school bands, my first public gig that I can recall (I was 16 then and I'm 34 now) was at a local HS talent show. My band wasn't part of the competition, we were sort of an encore/headliner as most of the band were graduates of that HS. The only thing I remember is that I hooked up with one of the girls in the audience after the show and spent the next 2+ years going out with her. We came close to getting engaged but (thank God) we ended up breaking up while I was in college.

 

I played with that band for another year or two. It was a great learning experience. We wrote tunes, tried to get signed, played competitions, clubs, and parties, had fights, broke up, got back together, broke up again......

[Tedster]

My first gig was back in, uhhh...I think Valentine's day of 1974. I was a junior in high school...and the gig was a jr. high school Valentine's day dance. Our guitar player's little sister called me (I don't know why she didn't just ask her brother. Well, come to think of it, I think I do ) but, we played a bunch of new (at the time) tunes. I think a buddy of mine still has a couple of songs we played on tape. Listening to it nowadays...it sucked for the most part.

 

My first bar gig was horrible beyond belief. I was a last minute hire to fill in. There was a guy who played rhythm guitar and sang. He ran his mic into his guitar amp. There was an old guy with a wooden leg (true story) playing drums. No bass player. It was very, very bad. We played both kinds of music, country AND western. Not good country either.

[Craig Vecchione]

My first real gig was in 1977....sophomore in high school, playing an 8th grade prom/graduation thing in the next town over. I'm on bass, Karl's on guitar, and his brother Johnny, who's all of maybe 13, is on drums. The venue is a school multi-purpose gym, auditorium that at least has a stage.

 

To this day I can't get over how well it went. The songs were the usual for the day...Back in the USSR, Southern Man, several Pink Floyd songs. Pretty awful stuff really, but the kids liked it enough that the next year's class asked us back the following year. It certainly was addictive playing to a crowd.

 

I'm still amazed at the crap we used. I had a Silvertone bass, a homebuilt cabinet with two 12" Radio Shack "Instrument" speakers, but at least a Fender Bassman 50. The PA was a Bogen line mixer....4 channels, no channel EQ at all...just 4 volume knobs and a master volume....into a $99 home stereo graphic EQ....into some sort of weak power amp pulled from a record player...and finally on to a pair of Sam Ash (pre Samson!) 12" speakers...no tweets, not even piezo's; that would have been $25 more......

[Badside]

First gig was at the beginning of the 90s, usual high-school kids playing Metallica covers. I was the lead guitarist and I could hang with the best shredders, but I had no feel.

 

We didn't have a PA... well actually we did since my guitar amp was a freaking Traynor powered PA, with a MetalZone straight in it (imagine the tone... Metalzone + full range speakers). The singer was singing through some kind of a keyboard combo. The drum was the cheapest Westbury kit available but of course with 2 kicks, 4 toms and 2 floors.

 

Second gig we had the "good" idea to rent a PA. However we had this thought that the guitar amps would sound better if left at low volume (we were using cheap SS amps). We thought the PA would take care of amplifying it to the right level. However we made the mistake of going with the best known PA contractor in the area, meaning not only did we overpay, but they were rude and unhelping. Anyway, the sound tech wouldn't put guitars in the monitors because he was afraid he'd get feedback?!?! Over my 10 years of gigging I've learned one thing: if you get feedback through the monitors, it's never because of a mic on a guitar amp!

Anyway, we couldn't hear ourselves for {censored}, but we had a blast!

[ratthedd]

Where's Mr. Knobs with a detailed recounting of his first gig? I don't think his 1/2 page edition in the LS&P forum is detailed enough.

 

We want to hear about all the finer "points" of THAT evening.

 

 

:D

[LateGreats]

I was 18, it was a biker bar, and all I remember is being afraid that the bouncers would find out I was underage and kick me out in the middle of a song. I was so worried about it that I threw up in between songs during the 3rd set.

 

But I played wingman so the sound guy could get laid, so the sound was good, and everything ended up ok.

[GZsound]

Want to hear a really, really sad "first gig" story?

 

I have been racking my brain and cannot for the life of me remember the first gig I had. It might have been in the grade school stage band in 1959, it might have been for a community center in 1960 in my rock and roll band.. But I know I played in grade school concert band, junior high school concert band, stage band, pep band and marching band and I know our rock band formed in 1960..but my first rock and roll gig?

 

The old mind is a blank......

 

I do remember the four of us, all under driving age, going to all our gigs in a 1955 Cadillac convertable..always with the top down because we had an upright bass. We all got in that car, drums, sax, guitar, bass, etc. and drove off to the gigs, rain, snow, sleet, etc. always with the top down so the upright bass would fit.

 

We got paid five bucks each and all the spaghetti we could eat..

[elbow]

I've already posted mine, but thought I'd share one of my bandmate's first gig stories... I thought it was hilarious.

 

When he was around 17 years old, he and his brother got some guys together and created a little rock group. They practiced some covers for a few months and got their first gig at some little dive. Well.. after the second song, the owner came up to the stage and told them that if they would leave right then, he would pay them $100. They took the hint. They stopped the show, took the money, and went home... never to play in that group again. What an intro to gigging!

 

Maybe that's why he is so anal about getting every little piece just right now.