area51recording Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 What do you guys do for outdoor gigs this time of year? I have a terrible time with sweaty hands (not to mention "puffed up" a bit due to the heat/humidity). My hands kind of "hang up" on the keys and it feels like I lose all my dexterity. Just wondering if anyone else struggles with this and if so what do you do to help? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I don't have trouble with puffy, but denfinitely sticky from the sweat. I wash them during break and keep a towel around. The guitar players use wrist bands to keep the sweat of their hands (and guitar). I've done this before as well, but it's never very comfortable IMO. We really have trouble with the heat because we wear long pants, collared shirts with skinny ties, and.... wigs! You never played a hot gig until you've played in triple digit temperatures in the sun wearing a wig. Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Take a small fan and point it at you. Drink lots of water, booze dehydrates you. Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanker. Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I'll keep a towel and some water handy and wipe the keys down with a damp towel to get a little extra moisture on the keys to help my fingers glide on the keys better A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Loving Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Do not take outside daytime gigs; nothing good ever comes from them. We strictly limit ourselves to beer joints in the summer especially. "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Do not take outside daytime gigs; nothing good ever comes from them. We strictly limit ourselves to beer joints in the summer especially. Actually, I really like some of them - the festival, or "summer concert series" type stuff. Mostly because my Wife can bring my (4yr old) daughter out to see daddy's band. Can't do that at the beer joints. Plus I just like playing outside. A little sweat never hurt anyone. I DO like a covered stage or tent, though. Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrokeys Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 After one I had two weekends ago, I will never forget sunscreen again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Nightime Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Here's one of the best fans you can get. Small and compact, Fits into the stage footprint nicely, and blows out a LOT of air. Very reasonably priced. Lasko Fan @ Lowe's I've got an older model, but the rest of my bandmates each have one of these. Makes the hot gigs much easier to deal with. When it comes to sweaty hands, I don't have a problem with stickiness until they dry. I have a problem with my fingers slipping on the keys. "In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome. So God helped him and created woman. Now everybody's got the blues." Willie Dixon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceNorman Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Every now and then I find that the tops of my keys feel "sticky" when it's hot and humid. I keep a small can of pledge in my gig crate - and will spray and work a tiny bit of it into a rag - and then wipe down my keytops when they do. The trick is to work it into the rag first so that you're applying a tiny amount to the keys. The SpaceNorman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuggy Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I will be playing (hopefully) outdoor gigs till late September, and i like playing outdoors. I'm more confident because i can precisely hear what i play, and when i do back vocals, hearing your own sound feels better then hearing from monitors. We play 9.30pm to 00:30am, so sweaty hands is not a problem for me. I always bring a towel with me, no matter if it's january or june, i tend to sweat a lot the towel is like a part of my equipment. I didn't try this before, but a litte powder on your hands might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I didn't try this before, but a litte powder on your hands might help. Our drummer puts powder on his butt... really. Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Warren Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Our drummer puts powder on his butt... really. TMI! DigitalFakeBook Free chord/lyric display software for windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Our drummer puts powder on his butt... really. I use this stuff on long motorcycle rides in very hot weather (not kidding!): http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/Files/directory/AMB_Products/DSCF0410_t.jpg Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clpete Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 My hands kind of "hang up" on the keys and it feels like I lose all my dexterity. Just wondering if anyone else struggles with this and if so what do you do to help? Thanks! Yea, I played a wedding last week and I felt like I had glue on my hands. (crappy gig) Played two other hot weather gigs this week with no such issue. ?? Next time I'll try the Kanker's wet rag. We play for free. We get paid to set up and tear down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyMoe Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I just finished a Great outdoor show here in Dallas. "The Taste of Dallas" The temp was about 105. As always drank a lot of water, had a towel handy and a couple of clip on fans. I just love doing outdoor shows on the big stage..... Montage 7, Mojo 61, PC-3, XK-3c Pro, Kronos 88, Hammond SK-1, Motif XF- 7, Hammond SK-2, Roland FR-1, FR-18, Hammond B3 - Blond, Hammond BV -Cherry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moog_Man Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Gigs in Houston in the summer are such a joy. We always play at night but its still hotter than hell. Just drink lots of water and get in the AC if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Pierce Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I actually love the outdoor gigs. It's one of the reasons I love the Santana Tribute Band so much - we play a lot of festivals in the summer. (I'm typing this from a hotel room in Petaluma, playing their Art & Garden Festival tomorrow). Of course, while it occasionally gets fairly hot in Northern California, we almost never get the kind of humidity that many of you have to deal with. And it's mostly not all that hot either. Supposed to be mid-70s here tomorrow. That's unusual, 80s or 90s is more common for festivals. The biggest problem for me is staying out of the sun. The stages are almost always covered, but if we play late in the day the shade won't cover the whole stage. The secret for me is, lots of water, lots of sunscreen, and arriving first so I can pick the shady side before the conguero gets there. --Dave Make my funk the P-funk. I wants to get funked up. My Funk/Jam originals project: http://www.thefunkery.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Sun is murder -- I have a market-stall canopy I bring just in case, but so far I've always had shade. (Knock on wood: have two outdoor party gigs coming up this summer.) Here in the South the problem isn't the heat so much as the humidity. My fingers stick to the keys. First time this happened, a friend of my wife came to the rescue and handed me a little pot of light rouge, which did the trick -- though my keys and fingertips were pinkish at the end of the night. Another time the bass player (who also played upright in the local orchestra, as well as about 4 other bands, a serious trooper) had a small tub of talc powder, which worked great. I'll be looking for a nice portable something to keep in my kit this summer. My wife says she'll take care of it if I just put it on the shopping list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglow Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Best reason to play hot weather gigs: http://mysite.verizon.net/resvht4v/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/springbreak.jpg.w300h198.jpg "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Schmieder Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I've talked about this story a number of times over the years, so will just summarise it here. A few years back, we had a wedding gig in the middle of nowhere on the Sonoma/Lake County border. No shade, period. It went up to almost 120 degrees that day. We had equipment failures (basically anything that was black failed; anything that was lighter didn't). Worst still, the $600 I made at the gig (after we split the total seven ways), was immediately lost, as the sun melted my seatbelt system and I had to replace it (a $650 repair). The biggest lesson I learned from that experience was to do everything possible to avoid black. Thus the silver Apex stand, and silver Yamaha keyboards. And here I am contemplating a black Kurzweil PC3X! Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1, Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Warren Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 And here I am contemplating a black Kurzweil PC3X! It's actually very dark blue. DigitalFakeBook Free chord/lyric display software for windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carterparks Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Last year I played an outdoor gig at UW with literally no shade/canopies. I spent most of the gig constantly tweaking the contrast for the LCD screen on my Korg Triton until on the last song (of an hour long set) the Korg overheated and turned off. Luckily no bad noises were heard and the Korg survived. Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Electro 3 61 | EV SxA360s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue JC Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Two towels, one moist and one dry, are what I use. Both on me and the keys. Also, I try to wash my hands before each set. Soap and hot water - not Purell hand sanitizer. That stuff will really make you stick to the keys - as I found out the hard way. Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer. W. C. Fields Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmymio Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I'd rather play in heat than cold anytime. Nothing like riffin' with frozen fingers. JP 1935 Mason & Hamlin Model A Korg Kronos 2 73 Nord Electro 6D 61 Yam S90ES Rhodes Stage 73 (1972) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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