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Dreaming about gig sometimes too real.


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I played plenty of money gigs for more than 28 years. Stopped at end of 2008. So last night, I sometimes relive anxieties, in dreams, that some gigs gave me. After giving up gigs, I was happy to never have to deal with moving, traffic, bad songs, broken gear, coordination with day job, etc. It's funny most times they are nightmares. Anyway, when I wake up it literally takes a while to calm down as it is only a dream. I loved the many years of only gigging and days off, then making better money by playing weddings and working a desk job but this phenomenon of reliving the bad stuff kind of sucks. :pop:

AvantGrand N2 | ES520 | Gallien-Krueger MK & MP | https://soundcloud.com/pete36251

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If your worst dreams are about a bad load-in, consider yourself a happy man.

 

I've had lots of dreams where I'm on a gig and playing, say for instance, my Korg SV, suddenly I look down and it's a melodica, then a child's toy piano, then a typewriter, a pizza, a cat, etc . . . and in a panic I try to keep playing on while my bandmates glare at me like "dude, why are you messing up the gig?" Not kidding, this is a real recurring dream.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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When I wake up I look in my wallet and realize it could have been both real and a dream......

 

Jake

1967 B-3 w/(2) 122's, Nord C1w/Leslie 2101 top, Nord PedalKeys 27, Nord Electro 4D, IK B3X, QSC K12.2, Yamaha reface YC+CS+CP

 

"It needs a Hammond"

 

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Man I just had a gig nightmare last night.

 

It was one of those that you are in some place you know well, but in the dream it's absolutely nothing like reality (once in a dream the main building of my college was a grassy meadow somehow....). This was somehow a small club that I know, but in the dream it was a huge concrete area with tall structures that looked like the backside of a stadium everywhere.

 

I was complaining about the long hike to the stage, and complaining about the inclement weather and we had no cover. The guitarist was giving me crap for it, I remember specifically him saying "this is one of the things I don't like about you" :D

Covid was in this dream, I was stressed out that there were so many people at this weird place (though it was outdoors) and I had to shoulder my way through with my equipment.

The marching band from one of my kid's high school showed up for a reason I don't recall, they were 10-foot-tall grim-looking types (still human but huge) coming in to provide security I think.

 

If I've ever had a good dream about playing music, I must have forgotten it. They are always nightmares, albeit surreal ones that don't (on the surface) line up with actual gig nightmares I've had :D The nightmares are mostly about being late or in the wrong place and not so much playing or singing.

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A lot of these sound like the school nightmares that apparently everyone has some form of, where you get to the crucial final exam an hour after it's finished, or you all of a sudden realize you neglected to attend the lectures all semester etc.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-Mark Twain

 

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I'm told this is extremely common. Workplace stress dreams. I've had Session nightmares as long as I can remember. I'm at the studio and my gear is not, or it's there but not hooked up properly, not working or some is missing. Or I have to go somewhere else to get it. I also have those ones, where I'm late to the session and can't find my way, or I'm stuck trying to find the hotel elevator, or I'm walking and the road turns to thick mud that is near impossible to walk through. I've even had ones where I'm asked to play my parts on things that are not keyboards, everything from table tops, floor tiles, coffee cups....... I've had. them all! :freak:
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Through the past year I've had vivid Covid dreams that usually involve gigs in some form or another. Usually mixing up different band personnel, differenet genres, wrong instruments etc, patrons getting too close for comfort, spit dripping from horns.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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See The Man With The Stage Fright,

Just Standin' Up There To Give It All His Might.

He Got Caught In The Spotlight,

But When We Get To The End

He Wants To Start All Over Again.

Now If He Says That He's Afraid,

Take Him At His Word.

And For The Price That The Poor Boy Has Paid,

He Gets To Sing Just Like A Bird, Oh, Ooh Ooh Ooh.

Your Brow Is Sweatin' And Your Mouth Gets Dry,

Fancy People Go Driftin' By.

The Moment Of Truth Is Right At Hand,

Just One More Nightmare You Can Stand.

Robbie Robertson must have known those dreams.

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

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I have more stress dreams about live sound and recording gigs than I do about playing gigs. I hadn't had one for months, until the other night, where, in my dream, I was required to run lights for a big show on a console I had never run before, and it had this totally alien interface. The funny thing about this is that I NEVER run lights on our live sound gigs, we have a lighting guy who does all that, or lights are contracted through another provider. I know next to nothing about stage lighting. Maybe this dream is a portent that I should learn? I dunno.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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I have more stress dreams about live sound and recording gigs than I do about playing gigs. I hadn't had one for months, until the other night, where, in my dream, I was required to run lights for a big show on a console I had never run before, and it had this totally alien interface. The funny thing about this is that I NEVER run lights on our live sound gigs, we have a lighting guy who does all that, or lights are contracted through another provider. I know next to nothing about stage lighting. Maybe this dream is a portent that I should learn? I dunno.

 

Brings back an old band axiom: 'Can"t play, might as well do lights!' Maybe it"s a subconscious thing about having no gigs?

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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I'm told this is extremely common. Workplace stress dreams. I've had Session nightmares as long as I can remember. I'm at the studio and my gear is not, or it's there but not hooked up properly, not working or some is missing. Or I have to go somewhere else to get it. I also have those ones, where I'm late to the session and can't find my way, or I'm stuck trying to find the hotel elevator, or I'm walking and the road turns to thick mud that is near impossible to walk through. I've even had ones where I'm asked to play my parts on things that are not keyboards, everything from table tops, floor tiles, coffee cups....... I've had. them all! :freak:

 

 

What's weird is that musically I'm a weekend warrior...my band can and does play gigs without me, I could fake it and few would know or care :) And I have these gig nightmares from time to time.

 

My day job is a database programmer/administrator, and if I screw something up in a line of code or operation it can cause a LOT of damage, enough to get me fired, very likely. Yet I don't think I've ever actually had a nightmare about it. I've LIVED a couple though :D

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I've certainly had them. They often involve one of two scenarios:

 

1) playing in a band that I don't know any of the people or any of the tunes. And the count-in comes suddenly and I don't know what I'm supposed to play. Performance anxiety... is there a pill for that? LOL

 

2) the more common one involves me starting to set up my gear and it's not anything I own/know about. And the pressure is on to get done and everything is unfamiliar. And complicated.

 

Jerry

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I have gig nightmares from time to time. Most of the time they are forgotten 30 seconds after I wake up. Sometimes they cause such anxiety it may take hours to shake off, and days to get out of mind.

I haven"t gigged since December '19 (got sick of it), but a couple weeks ago I dreamed I got to a gig at a venue I used to play in the 1970s. Hanging out with band mates I didn"t recognize. Somebody said that we"re on in 5 minutes - went up on stage and all my stuff was piled up there. I expected it to be set-up already. Now I"m scrambling to get it together when my alarm goes off. Stressed out for hours.

Professional musician = great source of poverty.

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When I bought a home way back when I used to get these vivid dreams of this house - not mine, but this fictitious money pit mansion I"ve never seen in real life. But to this day I could draw you the blueprints of this monster in great detail. It was enormous, and old, and everything in it needed to be fixed, nothing was right. Even when it looked great as my repairs came to fruition, there was forever this under belly of the place where issues resided - dark corridors that lead to leaky pipes, making my way under creaky floors revealed structural damage, lol. What a ducking nightmare. Haven"t had that one in years. Gigs, I miss playing, I miss the income. But it"s middle of winter here, I don"t mind not dragging my shit out at the moment.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I'm pretty sure these dreams I get only started happening after I retired from those gigs. I guess that would add to the phycological meanings.

 

Oh the traffic heading down the Cape on Friday after packing car in morning, then working all day and leaving work to gig. Good Times!

AvantGrand N2 | ES520 | Gallien-Krueger MK & MP | https://soundcloud.com/pete36251

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Oh yeah... If I have to leave the stage to find a piece of equipment, I will never find the equipment - and I'll never find the stage again. :laugh:

 

I actually had a good gig dream a few nights ago. Once again I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but I BS'ed my way though a song and it went over. The only reason I remember it is because it was so rare.

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I don't have gig related bad dreams. Have lived a few, however.

 

When I built my first Hammond chop, I was up for days wiring. I wired up until the band came to pick me up, drove several states away to the gig, and wired another hour before we started. First set, no Hammond - it was completely inert and wouldn't start. I did the entire set on only a Pianet - now that's a nightmare! (Fixed on the first break - turns out I had one cold solder joint in the entire build. Unfortunately, that joint was the power to the start motor.)

 

Now I still have the same stress dream I had at my software programmer day job even though retired 5 years. It involves running thru a strange blocks long building and never finding the way out.

Moe

---

 

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My gig bad dream is always this:

 

1. Can't find my pickup truck because I arrive the day before and can't remember where I parked it.

2. I eventually find it about the time the gig is supposed to start, but all of the equipment was stolen because the lock to the topper was left unlocked.

3. There is one non-weighted 6 voice synth that was left (Juno106?) but I don't have a stand or any power or audio cables.

4. All the neighborhood homies are making fun of me as I start to schlep the synth the 6 blocks to the bar we're playing.

 

About this time I wake up in a cold sweat and fall back asleep dreaming that I'm back in my Ph.D program with no idea where or when my classes meet.

I have to beg the registrar to give me a printout.

 

This is after delivering my paper route where I forgot who the subscribers are and throw the paper randomly to houses along the route.

 

Sleep is often a curse :):)

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

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My gig anxiety dreams have definitely become way more frequent since the pandemic. The most memorable was when I was suddenly ushered onstage at an arena gig in the middle of a tune I'd never heard, and I had to start soloing on it. Oddly enough, that wasn't the terrifying part. The terrifying part was that I found myself playing a Korg M1, and it was set to some really crappy sounding patch, so both the bandleader and the sound guy came over and started pushing buttons trying to get it to sound better while I was soloing.

 

Most recent involved me and a singer performing as part of the pre-show entertainment for some network's coverage of Biden's inauguration. But it was an organizational mess and no one knew what they were doing, and we ended up missing our shot because at the moment we were supposed to start I was off looking for a mic cable.

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I dream I"m playing almost every night. Very common is the 'It"s time to start,where is my gear?' as well as being onstage with a mix of band members spanning 45 years or more.

That"s just a couple of playing dreams I have in common with those in this thread. Playing dreams are about 70% negative with the rest positive.One night my wife witnessed me reaching out to twiddle knobs with my left hand while playing lead lines with my right while lying in bed sound asleep. Having gigs and group musical activity in general turned off like a switch thanks to the pandemic has definitely screwed with my head although running,fighting,screaming,laughing,or just plain talking have always been common for me. Sometimes the missus thinks I"m crazier than a s**thouse rat. I must concur.

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I was in a praise band for 10 years - the praise leader for three. I never have dreams about that. Someone upstairs is looking out for me...

 

As others have related, most of my gig dreams are from years ago - in my case back in Seattle when I was a younger man. Getting stuck in traffic is another common element. Or not knowing the ferry schedule. And I haven't had to take a ferry to a gig in over 35 years.

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It's interesting how many of the nightmares you folks have are about missing equipment, equipment failure, lost or forgotten gear etc. I don't recall ever having one of those - though I experienced them plenty in real time over the years. 100% of my gig nightmares were related to performance anxiety - being dropped into a high profile sight reading gig that is way over my head and embarrassing the shit out of myself for example.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-Mark Twain

 

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When I first came off the road my gig dreams always involved casinos. I've played a ton of casinos. Like others here I was either late to the set, or the gear was screwy, or I didn't know the tunes. But the weirdest was based in Atlantic City, NJ, in a mall on an enormous pier. There was a piano/organ store (I worked for Lowrey irl in the 80s) that featured a console that looked like it was sculpted out of wax. High gloss wood but liquid in a way. It had manuals that rotated on an axis and there were three sets of manuals. Press a piston and the manuals spun to reveal a new set. But none of the manuals were conventional. They didn't even look like modern alternate controllers, they were alien. Coupled with the garish drippy wood console, it was the most repulsive instrument one could imagine. And I was compelled to play it. The tide came in and the mall was flooded.

 

I woke up needing to pee.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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My day job is a database programmer/administrator, and if I screw something up in a line of code or operation it can cause a LOT of damage, enough to get me fired, very likely. Yet I don't think I've ever actually had a nightmare about it. I've LIVED a couple though :D

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jBsk1dHls4o/UsVcYKvMjQI/AAAAAAAAAos/uKrFhIBt7ew/s1600/Mundane+Details.png Are you saying that you always screw up some mundane detail?

 

:D

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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