#1688953 - 01/02/06 07:17 PM
What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Jeff Klopmeyer
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An age-old enemy of the performer: temperature extremes.
I'd say there's nothing worse than freezing your butt off while trying to play a gig, but perhaps burning your ass off at an outdoor show or under blistering lights is just as de-inspiring.
If you had to choose between an overly cold gig or a hot gig, which would it be? Personally, while I hate the sweat dripping off me and feeling like I'm running a marathon on a hot stage, I just can't move or sing when it's too chilly.
I'll (reluctantly) take the heat.
- Jeff
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#1688954 - 01/02/06 08:35 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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NoahZark
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Loc: Maryland, USA
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Jeff:
No question: I'd take too hot over too cold any day. As a keyboardist, it's just impossible to play if your fingers and hands are cold. Given the choice between me being uncomfortable (from too much heat) or my audience being uncomfortable (from listening to cold fingers stumbling over the right notes), I'd take the former any day.
Noah
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#1688955 - 01/02/06 10:45 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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MidLifeCrisis
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Definitely take the heat as well
Your fingers dont get numb, your vocal chords dont freeze up, plus when its too hot the women shed clothing 
When its too cold the women put on more clothing.
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#1688956 - 01/03/06 01:11 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Geekgurl
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Loc: near San Francisco
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Yeah, I'd have to say heat is the lesser of 2 performance evils.
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#1688957 - 01/03/06 03:25 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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RicBassGuy
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Well, taken to the extreme, both are equally evil.
There's almost as much fumbling when you've sweated over every square inch of your instrument and now it's completely glazed with your slick body oils. Constantly toweling everything off only slows the process. Fingers slip off strings and keys, and you have a hard time holding a pick or stick. Playing an instrument with a strap that rubs and grinds against your ever more sunburned shoulders -- even with that thin t-shirt on -- is pure agony. Sitting on a black vinyl throne isn't a picnic, either. Keeping yourself hydrated without taxing your bladder is a real trick. The continuously growing headache you experience as your heat exhaustion turns into heat stroke just before you faint is unbearable.
Cold fingers move sluggishly and feel brittle despite a comfortable core temperature. As the temperature drops, the heat from the cans is too feeble to keep you warm. Your toes and feet are painfully cold, and everywhere you touch your instrument it sucks the heat from you. No amount of desperate on-stage movement can warm you up. Drinking something hot just makes you want to instantly relieve yourself. Your body convulses and you can't stop shivering; your teeth chatter noisily, incessantly. Adding wind and/or water to the bitter cold just accelerates your onsetting frostbite and hypothermia.
I'll side with MLC, though: hot is just sexier. 
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#1688958 - 01/03/06 03:29 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Botch.
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I'll agree with Jeff and take the cold. Since most of my keyboard parts are butthead-simple, I keep one hand in a pocket and one hand playing, then switch off. When its too hot I just don't even want to be there.
My worst hot gig: Riverdale 4th of July picnic, 4:00 pm, no wind, no shade, 103 degrees, two hours plus setup/teardown time. I was physically sick for two days after.
Worst cold gig: 2002 Winter Olympics (first show), outdoors, 19 degrees. And that wasn't too bad!
_________________________
Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will http://www.puddlestone.net
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#1688959 - 01/03/06 05:17 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Dave Martin
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I'll take heat over cold any day! I've played outdoor gigs when it was 17 degrees with a wind. That sucks. I've played when it was over a hundred, but as long as there's shade (a covered stage) and water, it's fine. I just sweat. A lot. And I don't mind the heat from lights at all - I remember working at a club with about 60K of Par 64's, and a really low ceiling; The lights were only about 4 feet away. it looked good (and there was water), so I didn't mind...
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#1688960 - 01/04/06 09:19 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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CMDN
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When it comes to shows, I'll take hot over cold anytime. It just feels WRONG to get all overheated and sweaty when everyone else is freezing. Not to mention that you can get SO sick walking offstage sweating into the cold... although the steam rising off of your body does look kinda neat.
That's not to say those crazy hot shows are good for you, either--I've definitely played my share of places where it was so hot and humid that condensation literally ran down the walls and made puddles on the floor. Yeah, you feel like shit after those shows--dehydrated, stinky, drenched, etc--but at least it feels... normal (?) to sweat and be stinky in the heat. Plus... if you're already drenched with sweat during load-in, getting sweaty onstage doesn't matter as much.
_________________________
\m/
Erik
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
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#1688961 - 01/04/06 10:02 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Jeff Klopmeyer
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Side note: how many times have you walked offstage, only to be hugged by a fan of the opposite gender, who then complains, "Ewwww! You're all sweaty!"
Well... DUH. Did you think that I was all wet and shiny with something other than sweat? Because if so, I don't want to know what you assumed it was if not perspiration.
- Jeff
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#1688962 - 01/04/06 11:51 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Botch.
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Originally posted by Jeff Klopmeyer:
Side note: how many times have you walked offstage, only to be hugged by a fan of the opposite gender, who then complains, "Ewwww! You're all sweaty!"  
_________________________
Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will http://www.puddlestone.net
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#1688963 - 01/04/06 12:52 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Caevan O'Shite
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Bottom line is,
Too hot can make it hard to play,
But too cold can make it impossible- my fingers won't work!
_________________________
~Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite~
_ _ ___ _ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _
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#1688964 - 01/04/06 03:47 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Jeff Klopmeyer
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Originally posted by Caevan_O'Shite:
Bottom line is,
Too hot can make it hard to play,
But too cold can make it impossible- my fingers won't work!
- Jeff
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#1688965 - 01/05/06 02:56 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Tedster
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Yup. Fingers don't move when it gets below 60-65 or so.
You Californians probably don't have this problem, but the humid summer heat here in Misery..er, MiSSOURI...can make your fingers stick to the neck in a bad way. It's wet and sticky. You can't play like that, either. Fortunately, "Finger Ease" works to enable your hand to slide on the neck.
_________________________
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine...(WAH WAH WAH WAHHH!)"
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#1688968 - 01/06/06 12:15 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Billster
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I'll take cold, thank you.
Must be from those high school marching band experiences, playing saxophone outdoors in late November, sitting the stands at football games, not even being able to jump around to get some body heat going.
Our director also kept us rehearsed on a marching band arrangment of "I Love a Rainy Night" for those occasions.
As for you "hot" people, should a certain word be in bold? There's rules, dammit 
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#1688969 - 01/07/06 03:03 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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RicBassGuy
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Yes, marching band. That's actually the inspiration for some of my post above, although I embellished with some experiences from hiking in the wilderness as well. Just being outdoors and exposed to the elements 24/7 can be quite taxing on your body.
I think the coldest condition I marched in was under the night lights in Falls Church, VA late in the season, but I still had my thick northern blood to keep me warm. It was the hot, muggy days in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisianna that kicked my ass. And yeah, even if it's a downpour and the field is a swamp, the halftime show must go on.
Wind instruments have the additional challenge of needing to provide the wind. For brass players, trying to get your cold lips to buzz on an ice cold metal mouthpiece is quite difficult.
One year I tromped around with a sackbutt (trombone), but most years I played "heavy metal" (tuba/sausaphone). Next time you think your axe is heavy, try toting some brass on your shoulder for a few hours.
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#1688970 - 01/07/06 03:14 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Bill@Welcome Home Studios
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Yeah, I'm partial to warmth. I've been in situations where the LCD displays turned black from the heat, and who cares??? But when it gets cold, my hands don't work so well, I can't sing, and I'm just generally miserable... and who wants to see a guy with snot pouring out of his nose....
Bill
_________________________
"...it's easier than hitting the kids, and almost as much fun..."
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#1688971 - 01/23/06 06:10 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Phil W
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Hot,hot, hot! I've played in LA in Summer with no aircon (though I know there'r warmer places) and the North of England in outdoor gigs in Winter. Warmth really relaes my fingers, my circulation suffers in cooler environments. And a bit of sweat helps you smoothly slip around on the instrument too.
In very cold places, I have tried to play with gloves on, but to no good effect.
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#1688972 - 01/25/06 11:13 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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jay da cop
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Southern Africa (Zimbabwe) in the summer - 115 degrees, even under the tarp, but we had a blast!! We were playing a benefit for the Save the Rhino Campaign in '88. It was a lot of fun. Fast forward 6 months - same venue, same tarp, 40 degrees, my fingers did not want to work so well (playing keys), we were all shivering, voices quivered, the drummer had a hard time hanging on to his sticks (thank God for Gorilla Snot - thanks Nigel). It sucked hard!!
I'll take the heat. I know I live in northern New England, but I still like it hot (Philly boy ya know).
Jay
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#1688973 - 01/27/06 11:19 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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CMDN
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Update on cold vs. hot...
Last night our little heater at the rehearsal spot broke.
It was about 28 degrees outside and maybe 40 inside.
COLD SUCKS. I had to jump around a lot to keep the blood flowing.
_________________________
\m/
Erik
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
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#1688974 - 02/17/06 06:29 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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SeamyD
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I'd take hot with lots of water, cold would kill the fingers.
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#1688975 - 02/20/06 05:19 AM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Bosendorphin
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Originally posted by jay da cop:
I'll take the heat. I know I live in northern New England, but I still like it hot (Philly boy ya know).
_________________________
"I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer!" - Richard Strauss
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#1688978 - 03/10/06 09:49 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Mr. Nightime
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Originally posted by typi:
Actually, right now, I'd say the excessive cold sucks (February 28th, about 28 degrees here in the Northeast). 
_________________________
I Need That Beer! - Sting "Seven Days" Ten Summoner's Tales www.fatcitysouth.com
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#1688979 - 03/26/06 10:18 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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wwittman
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I hate hot.
It's just debilitating.
okay i suppose if you're the boring stand in place type, but for any type of activity on stage it's exhausting in the heat.
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#1688980 - 04/13/06 06:02 PM
Re: What's worse: too hot or too cold?
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Big Red 67
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I like heat. Got to lube the hardware to keep it from rusting though.
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Moderator: Jeff Klopmeyer
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I do prefer the heat any day tho.
