In one sense, I can already see that I'm going to regret this, but here goes...

For most of my solo gigs (usually weddings) I will usually wear a dress suit (DJ and trousers - pants, Tom!), dress shirt and bow tie.

However, just recently I've been wondering if this is starting to look a bit staid and, well, square. Certainly, here in the UK, guests' dress for weddings has become ever more informal, with very few neckties in evidence, for example.

Also, while DJ and bow tie sits OK with classics and dinner jazz, it feels a little less right for contemporary pop material, somehow.

For evening band gigs, I just wear a black, open-neck collared shirt with plain black pants, so wondering whether it's time to revisit my daytime wear. I don't want to go down the route of glitter-encrusted stagewear but maybe I could switch to a more casual jacket/open-neck shirt combo, perhaps even suit with t-shirt.

Oh, and to add to the difficulties, it's gotta be available in my size and look reasonably OK on a fairly rotund, middle-aged guy. What does everyone else here wear on stage?

Serious suggestions welcomed. Serious mockery expected. Hit it.

I think it's fine for you to eliminate the bow tie.

What I wear depends on the gig. If playing indoors, I ALWAYS wear long pants, usually a nice pair of jeans (we are a blues band after all), and brown leather shoes. Shirts can vary from some funky t-shirts to some crazy patterned bowling-type shirts.

If playing a more formal gig (I've played some of these in the past and hate them), I'll wear dress pants and a button up shirt, but usually no tie.

If outdoors, I MIGHT wear shorts if everyone else is doing so, but I will sometimes just wear jeans like I do in the indoor places. WILL always wear a hat and sunglasses outside, and often I wear both inside too. I played one gig where I brought 12 baseball hats of mine and switched to a different hat every song. Just for fun of course.

A while back, I considered starting a thread about attire in general.

The dress code is certain changing. I see it across the board i.e. business, public, functions, etc.

Obviously, it makes sense to dress for the occasion. When it comes to formal events, they will definitely let you know.

Personally, I'd rather not wear suits, ties, slacks, etc. So, for most situations, I can get away with a more casual jacket/open-neck shirt combo.

Of course, it is a step up from jeans and t-shirts. At the same time, it moves away from the baby tuxedo that makes a muso look like wait-staff.

The jacket/shirt works for middle-aged, rotund cats too.

Stating the obvious, but it really depends on your sense of cool and whether you are a good dresser. If you know how to dress, you can look good in something less formal and nobody will complain.

If you don't know how to dress, stick with a nice suit, shirt and tie. I know a lot of musicians who -if given a chance- would totally come to the gig in faded corduroys and button-downs that are either too small or too big, but certainly the wrong size.

There's this drummer we play with, and whenever he is on the gig, the singer/bandleader categorically tells the band that the dresscode is tuxedo. When he is not there, she relaxes and tells us to just look 'smart'.

Another common thing is to just wear plain black everything.



Mike, really...

I think we need to consult brother ERIC when it comes to haberdashery!

Mike T.

There's no question that people are dressing more casually these days, but I like to keep in mind that great Steve Martin line from 'Leap of Faith': "Always dress better than they do, kid!"

Best opinion would come from your employers, wouldn't it?
They set the standards.

Definitely loose the bow tie! Many tuxedos have dropped the bow tie in favour of a nice large regular neck tie. Personnaly, it has been my experience that no matter how formal the event, if you're on stage you could and should be a little less formal. Jacket with open collar shirt always works well. If you have the physique for it, just a nice fitted buttoned-down shirt with the top few buttons open, untucked works very well, especially for singers and guitar/bass players who stand and usually dance around the stage. For us keyboard players, dress-code is less important because we're either sitting or standing behind a stack of keyboards. And don't worry, no matter how good-looking you are, chicks never look at keyboard players:(

The thing with being stylish, is that there are no rules, because the secret to looking good is finding something that works with your body type, skin tone, hair style, and overall look. In the end, just look carefully in the mirror and ask yourself am I pulling this off? Or do I look like I'm in a mid-life crisis and trying to reclaim my youth?

Aidan,
Good question, I posted it a few years back here. I took a beating on that one.

I try to remember a tip that I picked up around here a while ago, and that is to dress better than the patrons whenever possible. For my band doing bar-rock gigs, this is not difficult! Usually, dark dress shirt and dark jeans.

Regards,
Joe

Dude.. bow tie went out of fashion quite a while ago!

My suggestion for more laid back stuff: black/white sneakers, khakis, graphic tee, and blazer. You will look studly.

If you need to go more formal upgrade to a button down shirt and dress shoes. Or you can go for the all black look with no blazer and look quite classy as well. For me going further than that means a tux!

Wait.

I knew that one, Aidan. Well, the trousers part anyway. But why are you doing wearing a DJ? Isn't he supposed to be spinning records, er - vinyl? Could that be Dinner Jacket? or Dress Jeans?

Frankly, depending on the gig I try to wear something black. A lightweight jacket is also good. Black pants. Black shoes... Black boxers (just in case my black belt breaks... briefly).

Thanks Tom, you didn't let me down!

I know, I know. I start thinking that I'll raise my standards a bit, and then I go and do something like that...

I always wear clothes to integrate myself visually with my keyboard
to get perception as a single unit. Same with bench.

Because the gigs I play are much more casual these days, I'll go with Florida Formal. Khaki cargo shorts, a musical motif t-shirt, straw hat, and flip-flops. Or Bluejeans, tennis shoes, and a Fedora in place of the shorts, flip-flops, and straw hat. But, if the gig warrants it, I'll go with dress pants and a nice Polo shirt, possibly a blazer.

LOL -- You're the real deal Florida-wise, Mr. N.

Several years ago I attended a wedding, where the dress was specified as "formal". I saw one couple in there dressed in "Florida Formal". My wife and I couldn't stop laughing.

BTW Mike, I see from your site that you'll be in my general neighborhood Sunday.

Make up your mind, Tom... is it boxers or is it briefs?

Personally, I wear both, just in case. Momma always said to wear clean underwear in case I was ever in an accident...

But, if you're in an accident, they're no longer clean. First you say it, then you do it.

Aha, but that's the brilliance! By wearing both, the outer pair is still clean while the inner pair is carrying the holy excrement.

Of course this only has a chance of working if the boxers are UNDER the briefs, and are of sufficiently high thread count to be somewhat ... ummm ... waterproof.

Urgh.

For my style of music and type of gigs, whatever I woke up in that morning will do just fine onstage.

That open-collar silk shirt with the blazer will work really well if you add some gold necklaces and a pinky ring.

Especially for Rotund-Americans.

Or you can go with this.

That I will. Come on out if you're an early riser kinda guy

Ronnie, for real, thanks for checking out my site. I remember looking at one that you had with one of your previous bands. Are you in a group again?

Sorry for going OT, fellas. Back to boxers and briefs!

If possible I'd recommend checking out what other musicians in your area are wearing to similar gigs.

As was already said, different circumstances call for different dress.

For bell choir at my church I usually wear white open-collar dress shirt, black dress pants and black dress shoes. This is what I'm asked to wear. Sometimes I'm asked to wear a necktie and/or suit (2-piece). Very conservative (obviously).

For the country band the guys wear open-collar long-sleeve button-down shirts (tucked in). I broke ranks at one outdoor festival and wore a short-sleeve. Blue jeans. Black boots. A dab of hair product.

For the rock band (see avatar) I wear some sort of short-sleeve shirt, untucked. If I wear a T it's like brand new. Blue jeans. Black-and-white gym shoes. Lots of hair product.

When the rock band played NYE last year we started out in suits and ties. After the first set we retired our jackets and ties. I wore a louder tie than I would normally wear in public. I found a button-down shirt in the young men's department at Kohl's (good stuff here) with graphics and a Fender decal on the back for this show. For fun I wore suspenders. Dress shoes. (Didn't do the Kiss thing.) Still lots of hair product.

You can do the same thing and "casualize" yourself later in the night when you break into more popular fare. You could start by taking off your jacket and flipping your necktie (no bowtie) over one shoulder; make it look like you're having fun!

I won "knobbiest knees" on a cruise; I don't wear shorts to shows. (They're comfortable, but I haven't seen a guy on stage yet who looks good in shorts.)

As long as I have hair I don't choose to wear hats. YMMV.

A common complaint from venues, booking agents, and even audience members is that some bands don't look any different from their audiences. That doesn't mean everyone feels that way, but some do want to see the band do something just a little special with their look. For me that means contacts instead of glasses, styled hair and a shirt that's "special" in some way. (I don't prefer the loud/obnoxious shirts, but they work for others.) The first time one of our booking agents saw me on a non-show night he didn't even recognize me! (True story.)

Wearing a hat is the easiest way for a guy to look different from his audience. They're also great for covering thinning hair.

I understand the whole "black makes you look thinner" thing, but it can also mean that on a dark stage you look like two hands and a head floating in space. Try a specialty store for musicians (if your area has one), a big and tall store, etc. Check out fashion magazines and websites for guys your size. Maybe get a woman's opinion. In properly tailored/fitted clothes, big guys look every bit as good as the skinny runts!

Finally, it could be that your clientele are hiring you for their weddings based on your current look. So maybe there's no reason to fix something that isn't broken?

Standard LA gig clothing is black on black.

Either Black suit with tie or Black sport coat with black dress tee shirt and black dress or pseudo dress pants. I usually can get by with black Brooks Addiction running shoes has I'm sitting. Dress shoes aggravate my arthritic big toe joints.

This is standard fare for most private gigs and higher end clubs--it obviously doesn't include rock bars or $50-75 jazz gigs.

I see a lot of this around here as well (Chicago area). Nice thing about this rig is that you can always lose the sport coat and/or tie depending on whether it's a casual or more formal gig.

When in doubt, it seems a general rule of thumb may be that it is better to be slightly more formal at a casual gig than to be casual at a formal gig.

It depends on the gig. If it's a formal thing ... the guys do tuxes and our female vocalist something shimmery... When I do the tux thing - it's a white wing tip shirt with red bow tie and red vest. (Think of a pudgier Leslie Nielsen from "Dead and Loving It".) I play seated, behind a two tiered rig with an 88 key board on each level. I lose the jacket as soon as I sit down - and hope the white of the shirt and the red of the vest and tie help me not blend into my rig soo much.

If it's a casual gig...I try to go "snappy casual" ... dress pants, sport shirt sorta thing. (Never a jacket ... I sweat too much to wear 'em on stage.

If it's a casual casual gig ...it's khakis and black Polo shirt.

If it's "who gives a shit casual"....khakis and a black "T"

If it's "who gives a shit casual" ... and hot and humid....khaki shorts and a black "t".

Somebody had to post this...

Sometimes I'll wear a personalized t-shirt:

How's My Comping?
Call 1/800-251-6251

Much the same here (Australia). On your jazz gigs I'g go the suit but lose the bowtie - someone will think you're a waiter - a normal tie, something not too loud. (Our drummer wears sandshoes with his suit for much the same reasons). On more casual gigs try the plain t-shirt (no real preference for black here, but a plain colour is good - or a band t-shirt if you have one), black dress pants, black jacket.

For rock gigs I like the early 70s Elton John thing of denim jacket with buttons.

Ok - we are skirting all around this issue, but I don't believe anyone has asked yet. What about matching band outfits? There is a band here in Ottawa that has taken this to the extreme, and had good mileage out of this (hard to tell from this pic, but the guitars (and bass) match too):



My band tried matching outfits with mixed results. We wore all black with Red ties. I liked the look, but out guitar played and singer didn't always play the game.

One band I was in many years ago was sponsored by a beer company. We had various matching outfits for different gigs. This one was played on the back of a truck while it drove in a parade. I was wearing my "Elton" glasses.

Great pic! Nice glasses.

Ya know, no one looks at you keyboard players anyway.

(ducking)

Beyond the bad marriage syndrome, matching outfits is another way to keep me out of a band.

For those who sweat profusely, how do you deal with load-in and set-up?

By the time I walk into the venue to survey the stage area, I'm already drenched. At that point, I haven't lifted a monster cable.

Of course, the ideal situation would be a decent amount of time to set-up, shower and change.

Those tour days are gone. Applebees doesn't afford that luxury.

In most cases, I wear a non-gig shirt and carry a towel. I'll dry off before changing into my Eric Special i.e. gig shirt.

Few things worse than feeling clammy and putting on fresh gear but the show must go on regardless.

I deal with load in and set up sweat by wearing load in clothes, and I bring my "gig clothes" with me. I always have a towel and a fan on stage. I hate sweating.

Gig attire for me depends on the band and the venue. One gig last week was sandals, shorts and a tee shirt. The next night was a nice black striped short sleeve button up, jeans, and Beatle boots.

The one band I'm in will coordinate dress when we are doing particular gigs- ones our agent gets, better venues, upper scale private parties etc. Usually all black for the guys and the girl wears something colorful.

Well gents, I've had three very severe auto accidents and it does not matter what your under garments look like or whether they are clean, they all come off.
I'm from the Houston area now and its hot here. I used to always wear black jeans, sport shirts and running shoes. I've never been one to just stand or just sit playing boards. After I saw ELP several times I started moving around playing even for weddings. Guess who got the compliments? Everyone wanted to know how I could do that and how I did it? I practiced times three= practice,practice,practice!

Well, Aidan, aren't you glad you asked?

Never did matching outfits ... except once for a Halloween thing ... Band name was "The Shades" ... we all came dressed as ghosts...sheets, whiteface and Raybans.

Old college band coordinated color schemes ... everything was black, white and the accent color of the day. We had "red days", "blue days", "green days", etc. Pretty much anything was fair game as long as it conformed with the color scheme. Oh...and it wasn't a requirement that you had to wear something with the accent color.

It was simple and worked pretty well ... a little uniformity without resorting to a uniform.

Those glasses went on any time we did an Elton John song.

Generally we dress for the crowd/time of year.

Right now, it is a t-shirt/jeans/sneakers (I prefer sandals and yeah, I get pedicures..lol) time of year unless we are in church for a formal service, then we ditch jeans and sneakers (or at least sneaker for shoes).

You can never go wrong with a simple dress shirt (solid, striped, etc.) or something funkier if you have the 'tude to pull it off, jeans (or slacks if more formal). Khaki's are always flexible in most informal situations. Being "rotund" myself, I buy a size larger so I can wear it out or open (with a color-coordinated t-shirt underneath).

When in doubt, wear black, except outside in the summer .

I usually wear a fedora, an unbuttoned dress shirt (With either a plain or musical-motif T-Shirt underneath), and jeans. It's not too formal, but it still looks sharp. I tend to dress more outlandishly than my bandmates, but I like it.

Last November, I decided to stop playing with shoes on. I use a lot of pedals, and I don't like to get shoe-prints on them. Besides, nobody looks at your feet (If they look at the keyboardist at all... )

Some interesting ideas, guys, thanks. At yesterday's wedding I wore the dress suit and shirt but dispensed with the bow tie. I think it looked OK.

I did put the bow tie on for the ceremony, but only because I was at the front next to the registrars and felt a bit "on show". Had I been at the back of the room as is more usual, I would have left it out entirely.

Off clothes shopping in a few days to get some more ideas!

Just tell 'em you're the Sandie Shaw of keyboard players.

Hmm.. My gig is a metal band, so I put on big military-style black boots, black pants (more or less tight) with buckles and chains, black fitted t-shirt. Before I wore a nice fitted black buttoned shirt, but thought it was too much.

So my outfit is all black, and looks good with my red (not Nord red, Karma red) keyboard.


I think that the looks is as important as the music.

When I see a band which looks (and acts) inconsistent with their sound, it ruins the expirience for me.

I dress as nice as a can, which means "business casual" and as hip as possible within reason. I'm usually the best dressed person in the room and have always enjoyed that since pianists generally do dress to impress.

But I have a problem with my contemporary church gig... they dress in some of the most casual wear ever - shorts, old t-shirts and flip-flops would not be out of the ordinary. I'm not comfortable with it but I dress down as much as I can to go with it.

My church gig is contemporary, but not quite that casual. Occasionally some of the teenagers will show up that casual, but not usual for adults. A very few of the older adults dress up like traditional church service.

In the church band, I usually wear a reasonably dressy shirt, occasionally a tie, Dockers, wingtip shoes. Cold weather would be with a jacket or suit coat. Before the humidity sets in in the spring (or in the fall) a silk shirt. I try not to wear black - its always too hot if going outside - learned in doing a few jobs in Florida to wear light colors - COTTON is a lot cooler than any of the synthetics. Occasionally, band and worship team or choir will all wear particular shirts and colors when some special presentation is made.

With the jazz group (mostly young adults) I'm not as casual as above, but still the basic Dockers and shirt. I don't like T-shirts unless there is a pocket; even then, they are hotter than a button-up all cotton shirt.

With the country/gospel group, a bit of "country-western" wear in shirt, belt buckle, etc.

The only time I ever wear a bow tie is with my tuxedo and/or dinner jacket - and I don't gig in them, I'm more likely to be going to a formal dance with my wife.

In years of working on electronic equipment in homes, churches, and businesses - I got in the habit of dressing to look neat and well-groomed. A large part of that came from a desire to have the business prosper.

We're a different deal because we do an 80's tribute - but we have band outfits that we wear everywhere. The girl singer wears whatever 80's garb she dreams up. The rest of us wear black jeans, black button-up shirts, and black Chucks, with skinny ties that match the color of whatever she's wearing. We also wear wigs, headbands, and other accessories.

When people book us for weddings, we make it clear that THAT is what they are going to get. If they don't like it, or start to question it, we tell them to go hire a wedding band - that's what we do.

So why am I telling you this? Because I think you would be surprised what you can get away with at a wedding. I DO think that in any occasion, you need to differentiate yourself as a musician - however you choose to do it. And I think it's good if there is SOME sort of common theme amongst the band - you don't have to have uniforms, but it looks bad if everybody is much different in their attire IMHO.

A little OT... some other local bands have started dressing EXACTLY like us.. and they aren't even 80's themed bands. I guess they think it's working for us so they should do it, or whatever. So we're in the process of working on new wardrobes for our shows just to keep ourselved different from all the other yahoos out there.

guys... i generally operate like this. any bands i play in, i got the gig because the musicians have seen me play before. i would always wear a pair of flaired jeans ( i mean big ones!!) a tight tee shirt and no shoes. i have tasteful tattoos and am certainly no pumped monster!!! (sort of like some who would belong in an aero smith video). my point is this - what ever you were wearing when the people who book you first saw you.... you are entitled to wear a similar out fit (even if that is a donald duck suit)plus if you have sytle, carisma and play a killer gig den who cares what u wear. always look the best in the band and remember - some pepole may laugh at you cause you look different.....but you will be laughing at dem cause they all look the same!!!

I've don't like when people in the band (usually the singer) wear a shirt with their own band's name on it. Just seems kinda weird.

Depends on the gig...

My church gig? At one point they asked me to wear a tie, a few years ago.. then I quit playing there for a while. Now I'm back and all they told me was that I couldn't wear shorts for the services. "Even designer shorts?" I asked, ever the wise guy...
So I wear a casually nice shirt and pants, no necktie, and it's fine.
If I were playing a secular gig I'd just dress pretty much the other musicians did in that venue. If I stand out, I want it to be for playing well!
I never had to be in a matching outfits scenario... it wouldn't bother me, but I wouldn't seek it out, either.

I met a club owner when we were visiting a nudist resort. So what you are saying is…

o.k you got me der!!!