Pre-Gig Food

Whats everyones favorite pre-gig dinner?

I prefer anything with pasta in it. It seems to keep me going thru the whole gig. Fruit and meat is good too.

Side note: What do you guys think about alcohol and playing. I believe that drinking during the gig greatly effects my playing abilities. Sometimes it will make me feel like I'm having more fun on stage and letting loose a little bit more, but in reality I think it effects my timing and communication with the rest of the band.

What do you think about both food and alcohol?

We usually get pizza before we play. Don't wanna eat too much though, otherwise you'll feel fat and bloated and it's hard to play.

I like a couple of beers before a show, usually not much more. I can get away with being a tad sloppy with the style we play. Not being warmed up affects me a lot more than a couple of drinks.

Damn those venues and bars. They want you to get there early and there's nothing to do for 3 hours except drink. What a shame.

Pasta YES, alcohol no. I can never drink and play. Makes me feel all gumby. But if it works for you, I find it does effect your timing regardless if you think so or not. And somebody in the band has to have good meter. Because guitar players sure as hell don't

Hmmm...I don't really have a ritual. I do make sure that I have had a good meal a couple of hours before I play a gig. If there is anything that I do that is ritualistic it is that I usually drink a cup of coffee before a show. I'm not sure why, it just makes me feel better.

As far as drinking goes, I try to limit myself to one beer per set. We used to play this bar called the Flying Saucer in downtown Fort Worth, it's a pretty cool place with about 75 different beers on tap, and many many more in bottles, but the damn joint makes you play for four damn hours. We divided it up into 4, 45-minute sets with a 15 minute break inbetween sets obviously. I had my usual one beer per set and usually one between sets, so you can imagine that by the end of the show I was getting a bit loopy. I mean I was working on usually my eighth or ninth beer by the end of the fourth set. So, I guess my point is that I thought I was being responsible by only having one beer per set, but they started to add up. You really do have to be careful; and I don't know why I am rambling... Ok, that's all I got.

Nick and Willy's I assume...

Any kind of farinaceous food is perfect, but several hours before the gig latest.

Although it's nice to rehearse after a beer or two, I never drink before a gig, because I can nearly feel alcohol evaporating through my ears When I start playing, I feel a kind of micro-hang-over (because of adrenaline? Because ofphysical load?) This is neither pleasure nor adds to my playing.

I don't really have a food routine...sometimes with time constraints, it's not an option.

As far as drinking, I'll put down a few beers, but nothing to ever pack a buzz. I drink beers when we practice sometimes, so it's really no different than that. I'm terrible on both drums and guitars when I'm drunk so I know to avoid that, but a few beers just makes me feel comfortable, like I'm just at band practice.

Nick and Willy's? Never heard of them. Maybe they are something else now. We do most of our shows at the Starlight in Fort Collins. We go directly across the street to the Surfside 7, the coolest bar in town because most people there are either musicians or tattoo artists. I feel they make the closest thing to a New York style pizza in the area but my girlfriend feels that Pizza Casba on Laurel has them beat. Maybe she's right, she is from New York.

Yeah, I have couple during practice as well. I figure I might as well get used to having some booze in me because I know I'll have some before we play.

I know a guy in town that plays amazingly and word has it that he's so drunk that it's a surprise he can walk off the stage. I think he rocks but maybe because I'm a little drunk too...

I try not to eat anything too heavy before a gig and I like to eat a few hours prior to showtime if possible. I'm always concious about hydrating myself beforehand too.

The booze: Well, nowadays I try to limit it to one per set, one between sets (like JSimms) but it hasn't always been that way. There were some years though where I rarely played a gig sober. Not proud of that fact, but I am amazed that I managed to keep it together. I guess you just get accustomed to it. I even saw myself playing on national tv absolutley canned once, and you know...my playing seemed on.

2/3 Beers no more lol but afterwards eh heh heh heh no food though jus dont feel like eating before a gig

I'll eat anything before a gig. The gigs that I do, we usually get a meal given to us, though quite a few times we're pissed off when we receive sandwiches if the contract stated a hot meal. We always get free drinks though:D I'm not a drinker though so I just have soft drinks.

The bass player and percussionist are hardened weed smokers and they play great on it. Everytime I smoke, the music just sounds awesome, but I don't do it much now cos it really {censored}s with my perception of tempo, even though I know the music backwards. It also makes me forget where I am in the song, which is not good. So I just stay sober and in control. Weird though, on weed, the spaces between beats seems huge, so a fast tempo doesn't sound fast at all. Because of that, it makes you think you're playing it too slow, but in fact, you're not. So I then think I need to play it faster. Lol!

Need you even ask?!? Pancakes of course!!

As for the pre-gig, during-gig, and post-gig boozing, I used to drink more when I was a youngster, but lately I'll probably have somewhere between 1 and 5 beers over the time I get to the bar and the time I leave. It may sound like a lot, but a typical 'all night' gig for us starts with load in at around 8pm, starting to play at 10, playing until 1:30am or so, and leaving the bar between 3 - 3:30am. So 5 beers over 7 hours (one pre-gig, one during each of 3 sets, one post gig) isn't much at all. On average, it's more like 2-4 beers.

Now, if I had somebody loading my gear for me and driving me home at 3am, I'd probably up the intake a little bit, but I never like to get even remotely sloppy while I'm playing anymore.

My band's pre-gig ritual goes like this: Get to the venue, set up, sound check, then go out somewhere to eat, usually an hour or two before the gig starts. What we eat varies - sometimes it's Mexican, sometimes Chinese, sometimes a buffet, but always something light, or at least small portions so no one gets that heavy, bloated, I-need-to-take-a-nap-now feeling.

Marijuana or other illegal drugs? Never.

As for alcohol, all of us have been in other bands where someone liked to drink, both at rehearsals and at gigs. What usually happens is that the person doing the drinking doesn't even know that he or she is performing badly, or at least slightly different than the rest of the band - playing off tempo, singing off-key, etc. As a result of these prior experiences, everyone in the band I'm in now has agreed to a policy of no alcohol before or during rehearsals or gigs. On stage we drink water or soft drinks only.

The beers are not opened until after the last note fades away......

i have one of those bodies that is highly suseptible to the effect of drugs. i've never drank (i'm only 17) or smoked anything, etc., but i do know that i ABSOLUTELY CANNOT have coffee, pop, or anyting with caffiene in it before i play. like i said, i'm highly suseptible for some reason, and with caffiene in me i just can't control my arms or legs.... they start shaking and stuff and i have little control over dynamics and the finnesse aspect of drumming.

haha, jeez i'm a weirdo. actually its cool being sensitive to caffiene cuz when i'm hangin out with friends i just have a couple cups of coffee (sometime just one), and i'm good to go party all night!

A pound of Jojo's and a 32 of buttermilk. I do a lot of backup vocals, so I need that edge.

White Castles

...yeah.....I just have trouble playing with by butt cheeks clinched together after the 2nd song. I love White Castles, but they go through me in a hurry.

Hmmmm...maybe this is too much information.

Wow man,........ I didn't need that much info...

ugh.

Originally posted by ulank ugh.

I had to switch from heavy whipping cream because I started having diabeties symptoms.

{censored}.

....someone had to say it

"Throat yogurt."

But aren't you glad I didn't post any photos?!?

a protein bar, redbull, and then gatorade to replace the fluids you lose from redbull this is usually at least an hour before showtime, once i'm done setting up the kit. I'll usually have a whiskey on the rocks before the show, just to loosen the nerves, but never any significant amount of drinking- or any illegal substances.

...sometimes i'll get hammered after a show, though