1st show coming up

[Seamy ALB]

I started playing bass in Feb '91 and played my first gig in Apr 91 about 6weeks after I started playing. All original tunes!!

 

Fun times.

 

That was also the last time I got nervous before a gig, I just love doing it.

[Tim C]

my only advice is this, you have nothing to worry about. you're only going to psyche yourself out if you overthink it. it's simple, just get up there and play like you know you can, you've been doing this for sixteen years, you'll be fine. just smile, rip their faces off, and then enjoy the post show fun.

[Phil W]

Good advice, Tim. I played a gig with a new band (for me) in the summer before a big audience at a festival, one week with a CD, one rehearsal - and it sounded great. I know you guys enjoy to rehearse and want everything perfect and that's cool but ion the day sometimes (often) the unexpected happens and you need to be flexible enough to respond to that - with your experience I'm sure you'll be. Just relax and enjoy it.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Erik's post made me realise that my band's never had sound-checks but just those "line checks" he speaks of. We did always get a chance to play a song for monitor purposes.

 

Anyway, talking with a friend yesterday who's seen me perform 3 times with two different bands, made me realise how different our own perception of our playing is to that of the audience. He first saw me play with Absence when I played my second gig ever and then he saw me most recently when the Dapper Dans

played in front of a home audience.

 

Now, Absence was a hard rock band and my bass playing was a bit more in-your-face and slightly more "lead & melodic" compared to the country / rockabilly bass lines I sport with the Dapper Dans. I've always been proud of what I did with Absence, and always felt that my playing with that band was better and more interesting for the audience.

 

Well lo and behold, this friend of mine - who strums an acoustic occasionally and is a big fan of music - told me that my bass lines with the Dapper Dans (country) must be so much more interesting to play than what I did with Absence, which he found a bit bland Talk about a wake'r upper !! It is of course nice to hear that he finds my bass lines interesting and likes our band, but it was kinda shocking to hear

 

BTW, I wish someone'd told me about the on-stage volume vs out-there volume. I would have turned my amp down a bit. People in the audience generally had two reactions: the set was too short (yeah !! they wanted more) and the bass was not loud enough (go figure ...)

 

So when's the gig already?

[Tim C]

So when's the gig already?

 

yeah man, have you had the gig yet? if so how'd it go?

[yourlord]

It's not until the 13th. Less than 2 weeks to go!

 

We had a rehearsal last night and did the set 2 times.. We did horrible on the 1st time, and completely train wrecked one song in the 2nd, but overall the 2nd time was almost acceptable other than the train wreck.

 

The drummer kept throwing in off time fills and that would totally destroy our sense of time in the song. The results wound up with everyone playing a different time, including the drummer, and searching for a common time. The issue there is that the drummer was also searching rather than falling back into time and letting the rest of us center on him again.

 

I also played most of last night with my eyes closed, and while I had more than a couple of flubs, I did pretty well I think, especially fretless. We're doing our next rehearsal, this Tuesday, in nothing but the light of a couple of candles to get everyone ready for stage lighting issues..

 

Here's hoping we get back on track. If we train wreck on stage like we did last night it will be tragic.

[EddiePlaysBass]

It is said that a great gig is preceded by a horrible rehearsal. I have lived either way:

 

- great rehearsal + great gig

- great rehearsal + horrible gig

- horrible rehearsal + great gig

 

and unfortunately

 

- horrible rehearsal + frighteningly horrible gig :grin:

 

Ain't I a confidence-builder? Relax already, and tell the drummer that if he does all that stuff again all of a sudden, he's fired.

[The Bear Jew]

Hey, if you really wanna get ready for your show in gig appropriate conditions, try this:

 

1. Cram everyone into the most uncomfortable, tiny corner of your rehearsal room

2. Put about six electric heaters two feet away from your heads

3. Aim some very bright, multi-colored lights right into your faces

4. Turn the guitars up all the way and the bass all the way down

5. Turn the vocals in the vocalist's monitors all the way down (but turn them all the way up in the drummer's!)

6. Pour beer and some other sticky, vile-smelling substance on the floor

7. Play about 1/4 of your prepared set and then shoo yourself offstage in a rush

8. Take $100 out of your collective pockets, give it to someone else, and have them give you back $25... then spend that $25 on Beef Jerky.

9. Have someone punch you in the lower back about 25 times, as hard as they can.

10. Break your car window and hand some very expensive portion of your gear to a homeless person.

[yourlord]

Our rehearsal room is in my basement. It's unventilated. When we're all crammed in there and all the amps are cooking it can easily hit 95 to 100+ in there.. I think we have the heat simulation in hand =)

 

We're being very security minded when it comes to the gear. We're planning on taking shifts watching the stuff. My Smith will not leave my hands the whole night.

 

We would do this show for free. It's just a chance to get on stage and get it out of the way.

 

 

 

[The Bear Jew]

I'm teasing, bro. You'll have a great time.

[TimR]

Watch out for anyone matching the following description:

 

The club tie, and the firm handshake

A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile

 

[yourlord]

It's a Dog eat dog world isn't it?

 

[jeremy c]

6 more rehearsals? I don't think I've been to 6 rehearsals total in the last 16 years.

 

You will be ready for anything.

 

Knock 'em dead.

[Brocko777]

Erik, ain't that the way it always goes?

 

TimR, I get it. Is it 3 different ones? PF

[Tim C]

Hey, if you really wanna get ready for your show in gig appropriate conditions, try this:

 

1. Cram everyone into the most uncomfortable, tiny corner of your rehearsal room

2. Put about six electric heaters two feet away from your heads

3. Aim some very bright, multi-colored lights right into your faces

4. Turn the guitars up all the way and the bass all the way down

5. Turn the vocals in the vocalist's monitors all the way down (but turn them all the way up in the drummer's!)

6. Pour beer and some other sticky, vile-smelling substance on the floor

7. Play about 1/4 of your prepared set and then shoo yourself offstage in a rush

8. Take $100 out of your collective pockets, give it to someone else, and have them give you back $25... then spend that $25 on Beef Jerky.

9. Have someone punch you in the lower back about 25 times, as hard as they can.

10. Break your car window and hand some very expensive portion of your gear to a homeless person.

 

hahaha, clearly a man speaking from experience. i've had all of those experiences except 6 and (most thankfully)10.

 

at my first show i was carrying my 4x10 down a grassy hill to the rear doors when i slipped on the grass and landed right on my back, and all the weight of my cabinet went right onto my chest (glad it wasn't the combo head/fifteen incher or it could have been much more painful). I then unwillingly slid down the hill on my back, clinhcing my cabinet for dear life. quite an experience, but the cabinet came out fine and the show went well so it was all in the name of progress.

[ABGBrian]

Hey, if you really wanna get ready for your show in gig appropriate conditions, try this:

 

1. Cram everyone into the most uncomfortable, tiny corner of your rehearsal room

2. Put about six electric heaters two feet away from your heads

3. Aim some very bright, multi-colored lights right into your faces

4. Turn the guitars up all the way and the bass all the way down

5. Turn the vocals in the vocalist's monitors all the way down (but turn them all the way up in the drummer's!)

6. Pour beer and some other sticky, vile-smelling substance on the floor

7. Play about 1/4 of your prepared set and then shoo yourself offstage in a rush

8. Take $100 out of your collective pockets, give it to someone else, and have them give you back $25... then spend that $25 on Beef Jerky.

9. Have someone punch you in the lower back about 25 times, as hard as they can.

10. Break your car window and hand some very expensive portion of your gear to a homeless person.

 

Post of the year.

[Paul K]

You're a post of the year.

[yourlord]

at my first show i was carrying my 4x10 down a grassy hill to the rear doors when i slipped on the grass and landed right on my back, and all the weight of my cabinet went right onto my chest (glad it wasn't the combo head/fifteen incher or it could have been much more painful). I then unwillingly slid down the hill on my back, clinhcing my cabinet for dear life. quite an experience, but the cabinet came out fine and the show went well so it was all in the name of progress.

 

I don't even want to think about that. I'm taking my 810 cab and at 158 pounds it would likely kill me

[Tim C]

Just look out for the dew on those grassy hills and you'll be fine.

[alexclaber]

It is said that a great gig is preceded by a horrible rehearsal.

 

That was always the case with my band at uni. However with The Reluctant we're always under-rehearsed so although the rehearsals rarely go badly, the gigs go better!

 

Alex

[yourlord]

We rehearsed last night and knocked it out of the park. We even had a promoter sit in on the session so the nerves were frayed as well.. Was a pretty good test drive for the show.. It was definitely needed after the fiasco we had on Sunday.

 

1.5 weeks to go!

[Tim C]

You're gonna kill dude, only a week and a half huh? now the anticipation should begin to mount, so don't let it get to you because as I said before, you just gotta get up there and play good like you know you can.

[Phil W]

It is said that a great gig is preceded by a horrible rehearsal.

 

That was always the case with my band at uni. However with The Reluctant we're always under-rehearsed so although the rehearsals rarely go badly, the gigs go better!

 

Alex

 

What's a rehearsal?

[yourlord]

Ok, this Saturday is the day. We had an awesome rehearsal last Tuesday, we played the whole set in candle light last Friday and pulled it off, not perfectly, but good enough. It's hard to play a lined fretless in such low light, I found I rely on the lines a lot on that bass, where on the unlined the dots are my guide. My hands kept trying to use the dots on the lined as a guide and of course they were in the middle of the fret space on the lined bass, so it didn't work very well. But I managed to pull off 95% of the set without too many horribly misplaced notes.

 

I'll have the 5 string unlined on stage so if the lighting becomes a problem I can switch off to that one.

 

We practiced again last night and killed it.. Almost flawless, if we do even close to that on stage I'll be ok with it.. The nerves/anticipation is building up like mad now. We have a rehearsal tomorrow night, then one on Friday, then it's show time!

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

I'm almost jealous, even if my first ever gig is only two years ago. I really know what you're going through, what with all the excitement and stuff. But once it comes around, do not - and I emphasise: DO NOT - forget to enjoy yourself

[slowfinger]

One of the important things is to ACT THE PART. Act as though you've done it all before. Strut or swagger onto the stage, plug in, check your tuning, noodle a bit, talk to the other guys. Make sure you all know how the first song starts - ie who counts it in.

 

One of the things we like to do is play the first 3 songs straight off with no introductions and hardly any pause between songs. If there is a MC they will introduce you. ("Lets hear it for ....") Maybe halfway through the set we might introduce the members of the band.

 

It looks like you are well prepared, and you sound good on your Myspace, so just enjoy it.

[yourlord]

I would love to act that way, but I have a bad habit of getting the shakes when terrified.. Sooo, I'll probably be shaking like a leaf.. I mean really shaking.. As in if you need your drink mixed just strap it to my leg..

 

 

[jeremy c]

Considering your general appearance and that of your band mates (I've seen the pictures on your website), I doubt that anyone will know that you are terrified.

 

You will do great!

[slowfinger]

Here's an idea - bring your 2 big cabs then hide behind them while playing. Works for some ppl.

 

As for the fear bit - ask yourself what is there to fear? On a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 is abject terror when being chased by 10 bears and a swarm of killer bees, where does your fear fit in this scale?

[yourlord]

Probably 8..

 

It's completely irrational. And I tell myself that. Even if it all goes horribly wrong I'll still go home with my wonderful wife, I'll wake up and go to work, and come home to play with my kids. It's ridiculous to be so terrified.

 

But telling myself it's irrational doesn't seem to help too much..

 

I'm sure by the 4th song or so I'll be completely over it and having a blast.. It's just those first few songs I'll still be in all out panic mode.. The latter songs in the set are much faster and more technically difficult to play, but because of the style and speed it's easier for a mistake to go unnoticed.

 

The first several songs are slow and melodic, with a distinct bass line that outlines the general melody, and a mistake there really stands out..

 

It's almost funny.. the songs I'm most worried about are the easier ones, but an error stands out more, and I'll be playing those when I'm most likely to make a mistake due to the pressure. But we purposely made the set lit this way so that the energy level builds as the set progresses.