Your First Gig

[Ultima Ibanez Overlord]

Well, for those of you who have gigged, at any level:

How did your first gig go? How nervous were you before it, did the nerves go away or persist through out the show?
How many mistakes did you make? What happened???

 

[shredguitarman]

My first gig was at uni as part of a music society..

There were about 300 people there and it was generally a jam session..

Beforehand I wasn't nervous at all.. pretty confident about my technique although being new to this gigging game I listened to the head guy there who said 'you don't need to bring your guitar... we have a good amp and guitar here'... so I arrived with pretty much a plectrum and nothing else..(couldn't drive at the time so though this would be a bonus)

When it was our bands turn to play I got really nervous... the guitar was a Pacifica.. you know the budget one... I couldn't believe it.. the strings were black and.. and not lying here... about half an inch of the fretboard..

The amp was almost as laughable being an unbranded tranny affair with the worst distortion I'd ever heard..

I was used to my lovely Ibanez and Marshall rack.....

Anyway I suffered... played some horrendous metal blues....and generally got through it..

Most people appreciated it and from that point I was hooked...

The next week I brought my gear and we REALLY burnt the place down with some metal pieces..

I still get nerves now however.. don't understand why.. for the first 2 mins of any performance my knees start shaking (uncontrollably)... although it doesn't affect my actual playing.. just makes me look a bit funny to observers!!! We always open with pretty easy pieces so this kinda eases the pain.

 

[RED OCTOBER]

my first performance was at a school concert it was like a 30 second guitar solo infront of about 200 people or more. The guy who mixed the thing did not know what he was doing so it was at a pretty low volume. howerever next year i did it again and i made sure the volume was loud and it was damn lound. i played the legatto solo before the verse comes in Sea of lies and mixed it in with the solo of that song plus some improv.
But my first real band gig was not to long ago, i think 11 peple payed and about 15 watched. I was not nervous at all and it went pretty good, my pick fell out 2x, it was the first time i tried to play with a very thick pick which got slippery. That though me a lesson.lol

 

[Ozzman]

heres a tip for playing at schools were they have moron sound guys, while setting up turn the volume on your guitar down so the sound guy sets it up for that then when you actually start playing you boost er up to 11

 

[Gnuckell]

I was pretty nervous before my first gig, but ultimately, everything flowed, as it usually do once you get past the hand-sweat. I dropped my pick once, but no one even noticed, so it really doesn't matter if you fuck up.

 

[Stardust2112]

My first gig? LOL! Well, I don't know if you could actually call it a gig because I'm not musician, but I recently made my singing debut with my friends' cover band. They were doing "Freewill" by Rush when a buddy of mine dared me to go up there and sing. Having had a couple of drinks at this point, I took him up on it and marched up there and started singing. You should have seen the expression on the guitar player's face when he opened his mouth to sing and heard *my* voice coming through the monitor instead of his. My best friend *still* can't believe I did it.

Everyone assured me that I sounded great, but I have my doubts.

~Christina

 

[midKnight]

I find that I actually am more nervous playing in smaller places with less people than playing in larger venues with more people.

It probably has to do with the fact that in larger venues, all I can see are a blur of heads, so I really can't tell who's out there.. if it's a smaller place and I can actually make out people watching me, I put more pressure on myself to not screw up.. lol

However my first gig I was pretty nervous 5 min before going on, however once I was up there and going, it was almost zen like as I was totally at peace.

That's not to say I've never had a bad gig, hell I have plenty of horror stories for another day (vocalists who get drunk and forget how to get to the gig, amp heads blow up on stage), but each experience prepares you for the next one.


As far as nerves go, I actually love the fact I still get nervous/excited before playing. The day I don't get excited about going up there is the day I quit playing - I never want it to become boring or routine.

Nick
Prophecy
http://www.queensrychetribute.com

 

[harro1]

My first gig was probably 13 years ago at high school. Of course you're nervous before you go on but it dies pretty quickly once you start playing. How quickly it dies away probably depends on your experience. The first gig was in a class room so I don't know whether that really counts. The 2nd was really my first. It was this huge school concert at a local university's concert hall. About 1000+ parents, students and teachers. My band played 2 songs. I did a solo on my own where I put the guitar on the ground and did a tapping thing (I think the Fool for Your Loving Whitesnake video had only just come out with Vai doing it). I also played along with Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance (the dancing mushrooms in Fantasia). I had a great time. I'd been paying about 2.5 years before my first real gig.

These days I don't really get nervous. Maybe I just don't let it - I try not to think about being nervous and just concentrate on setting up my gear and enjoying myself. I must have had every problem under the sun since that first gig.

Do I still make mistakes - me, never

Harro.

 

[ElPredicador]

My first gig was on a show at my school. I was walking near the set and a friend of mine said "hey, let's play Lucky Man!!". Of course I agreed inmediatly, and when there was no one left to play, we went on stage, and asked a friend who plays bass to play it and invited a drummer to make a decent drumming. After that we started playing, and we must have sounded horrible, because the shut the amps down in the middle of the song!!!! that was a pretty horrible experience. But this time Im encharged of the school show, so I decide who is shut down, hehehe.

 

[†Russel Allen†®]

My first and only gig, actually (do not laught at me!!!! ), was as an invited guitarrist with a local hardcore band!! Yeah!! OK, laugh enough, you people...



Oh, B.T.W., I was pretty nervous, actually... A LOT, in fact... but... well... the audience was very receptive, and... uh... all of my errors weren't even noticed!!! In fact, in all of my solos, there was this guy on the audience, who was "virtually soloing" together with me!! It was pretty funny, actually, and contributed to calm down me! heheheheheh!!