cookieman15061 Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 and most importantly keep your pants on. Ya wanna get paid act professional! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 and most importantly keep your pants on. Ya wanna get paid act professional! God yes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelhamBlueFire Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 Use good speakers. I once played with a bass player that always had a crappy sound. It sounded like an elephant that farted non-stop. Very **** sounding. You want speakers that make the bass playing sound tight and clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelhamBlueFire Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 Know how to use a Ditto Looper, before taking it to a gig. Screwing around with it live because you think you know how it works, is a big sin. You'll mis-time everything, if you don't watch out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 apologies but I had to link - all the best ones are here: [lol] http://loudwire.com/top-guitar-spin-fails/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Don't stop the song because someone screwed up. Don't turn your head back and forth in an exaggerated fashion while giving a go to hell look because someone screwed up. Don't play the first five notes of the next song before the next song - "Telecasting" the next song. Don't gesticulate wildly enough to unplug your guitar while playing. Don't use a talk box tube to siphon gas and expect to use it again without overwhelming nausea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelhamBlueFire Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 apologies but I had to link - all the best ones are here: [lol] http://loudwire.com/top-guitar-spin-fails/ Haha, best one yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelhamBlueFire Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 When you take a Pedaltrain with you to a gig, before you start, check if everything is still connected. Transportation might have caused some of the cables to get loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromnabulax Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 and most importantly keep your pants on. I did a whole US tour years before the Red Hot Chili Peppers wore socks on their parts wearing nothing but my bass guitar. It led to more national tours with other bands, a solo career, a couple of records, and my mug shots permanently searchable on Google. Also the opportunity to try and explain all this to my teenage daughter many years after the fact! Life would've been much less interesting if I had heeded your advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StRanger7032 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 If the story is true, I think the late Dimebag Darrell may have set the bar pretty high. I watched an interview with Phil Anselmo where he said he once had to hold Darrell's guitar while he crapped in a bucket behind the amps during a show! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Try as you might, you can not, CAN NOT, work the cowbell into every song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 No shorts on stage, even if you are one of those doμchebag So Cal bands like Sublime. Ladies, if you wear tight pants, do not wear granny panties under them. Use the head before you go on stage. Do you know what it is like to watch you run out from behind the drum kit and to the pisser? Don't apologize on stage. Ever. If you are the front person, you are there to entertain. Pick a style and do that to the hilt. People paid to see a show so give them one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drog Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Having a chat with the drummer during the song, realizing after that the drum mics picked up everything. Lol ooops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 We could all write a book about stories from the road I would add that - when you're up on stage look like your having the time of your life. Don't sulk. Don't look angry or bored even if you are. Don't stare at your shoes all evening - engage with your audience. Like it or not you're an entertainer & not just a musician. People come out to see you & spend hard earned money for an evening they are glad they spent their money on - not to watch some unhappy pinhead standing there acting like he'd rather be anywhere but there. It's amazing to me how many really excellent musicians have these traits and should never be on a stage anywhere. You know you've got a lemon when you show them the footage after a gig and they're like "what"? I don't understand what the problems is.... and they never will. I was very very fortunate to have my older brother as my drummer for most of my life. We grew up together in the music & if he raised an eyebrow I knew what he was going to do next. When he passed - after taking a year off thinking I would never perform again ever because it just killed me to think about looking over my right shoulder & not seeing Bobbie there ever again - my friends and family prodded me to go back out there because it's what my brother would have wanted me to do. So begrudgingly I did. It was hard. What was harder was the plethora of morons we had to go through to find a professional drummer. I came across a guy I had played with back in the 80s and he was an absolute killer on the drums. Still was and is. The first gig we played with him was at the Dallas County fairgrounds in front of 1500 people. We were playing the last song of the last set (Highway Song by Blackfoot) & really killing it - the entire crowd was jumpin & then all of a sudden - the drums just stopped. We turned around & there he was slumped over & out cold. Not dead. But dead drunk & passed out. We finished the song sooner than planned, woke him up & fired him. He failed to mention that he had become a full fledged alcoholic since I'd gigged with him last time. Kind of important information not to share with the band don't cha think... sighhhh Oh, and lastly - when you get to be in your 40's and 50's - the chance of becoming a bonified rock star have pretty much passed you by. Grow up. Jeez :mellow: (This comment not directed at anyone here but to some of the players I have met along the way) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 ..do not let the keyboardists girlfriend play tamborine, no matter how big her boobs are.. ..do not let the drunk chic up on stage to sing "Me & Bobby McGee", no matter how big her boobs are.. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha That was awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I would add that - when you're up on stage look like your having the time of your life. Don't sulk. Don't look angry or bored even if you are. Don't stare at your shoes all evening - engage with your audience. Like it or not you're an entertainer & not just a musician. People come out to see you & spend hard earned money for an evening they are glad they spent their money on - not to watch some unhappy pinhead standing there acting like he'd rather be anywhere but there. aka 'pulling a Blackmore' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Paul Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Always assume any mic, yours or not, is on. No dawdling about between songs. Correct set-list for the audience you'll be playing too. No matter how well it's cleaned afterward, never, ever, lend your talk box tube to someone else. Picked up a raging four week head cold from our rythm guitarist/lead vocalist one time for that sin. There's a lot of leads snaking around that stage, always be aware of where they are and what your doing. Pulled our bass player's lead out with my tangled foot once mid song. Very embarrassing. Always have plenty of guitars with you to do the show. There's no time to skoot backstage to retune a detuned git. Or if a git starts popping and hissing you don't have time there and then on stage to trouble shoot the problem. Swap it out and deal with it after the show. Pain in the arse dragging that many around but it's got to be done. If you can, check you gear how you had set up at the sound check, is still there. Gear go's walkabout regularly without knowing. And NEVER, EVER, root the bass player's wife out in the carpark after the show. Guaranteed to give you that solo career you didn't want! (LOL!). and many more... lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I would add that - when you're up on stage look like your having the time of your life. I think this is big. I've noticed that most major, known groups look like they've having a blast. Music is fun. Playing music is fun. People like to see musicians having fun playing music. It's contagious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPguitarman Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Just thought of another one. Similar to Marshall Paul's comment. The Lead Guitarist in another one of my sons' band was a maniac on stage. Even on a small stage, he was all over the place back and forth on the stage. One time he tripped on my son's bass pedal board power chord, and you guessed it, his bass went dead. They didn't stop the song, but my son was on stage trying to figure out what went wrong. No one knew what happened. I was in the audience. After the song I walked up to the stage to see if I could help. I say the plug laying loose next to the power strip. Problem solved. Moral. Tape down your chords and don't run around on a small stage. This stage was so small, all they could do was stand in their position with a few feet of room surrounding each player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvercrow Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 You folks have covered many of the main "sins", both co-mission and omission! I'll add a few; Guitarists / Keyboardists / any other band member; the stage is NOT the place to work out an arrangement! Stick to what you practiced; play what you practiced! Don't come to me literally 5 minutes before show time and tell me "We need to change...." B.S.! We need change nothing now except your proclivity to want to change things at the last minute. Don't "upstage" your bandmates- for Cripes Sake it's not a competition with your fellow band mates. You should be a TEAM and a cohesive unit. Also don't physically upstage your mates- hard to keep from on very small stages. Invest in the little things- "the devil is in the detail", like strap-locks; new batteries available for your tuner / effects pedal. TEST cords and equipment- have spares. Tube amps are great- you MUST have spare tubes or maybe even a spare amp. COMMUNICATE: I'll include this story- my oriiginals band were together for 6 years- and 95% of the time we all met at our rehearsal space prior to traveling to a gig. Occasionally we left from our homes with selected members going to the rehearsal space to pick up the "common" (not taken home) equipment. We found ourselves at a gig 45 miles from our home WITHOUT our monitors. "I thought YOU were gonna pick them up..!?" "NO MAN! YOU were supposed to...?!" We made it through only because an opening act was kind enough to lend us theirs- but we had to change the mixes (early on we did not have a "sound guy") as we had three monitors to work with rather than 6. Not the end of the world...but embarassing nonetheless. From then onward, I (being the old guy in the band)tasked myself to call each member when not leaving enmasse. Great thread~! Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Stick to what you practiced; play what you practiced! Oh this reminds me of one of my sort of recent nightmare gigs. I did a pickup gig once, the "other guitar player" was supposed to be the master mind. (After all, he went to Berkley,, who else should master mind this??) So we have two rehearsals. (all classic rock covers, no surprises here).. We get to the location at the agreed time the night of the gig, our mastermind has not arrived yet. we setup, sound check, tidy up the cables, mastermind still MIA. about 10 minutes before we were asked to start, I'm outside with the bass player, he's having a smoke, I'm just out to get some fresh air. all of a sudden, I hear tires squealing, here he comes, flying into the parking lot, (literally, flying..) gets out of his car, grabs everything in one pass (guitar, amp, gadget bag) and rushes past us with out a word, "Uhmm Hi John?? didn't think you'd make it". "oh,, yea hi guys" (ya man, what ever) We give him a few minutes to gear up, then he hands us the set list... I look at it and say "What is this?" "tonights songs!" "Dude, almost none of the ones we did the rehearsals for are on the list and some of them I have honestly never heard before" "ya I know, I'm tired of playing those other ones" The bass player (who worked with this moron) told him, "uhm, no,, here's the list, this is what we're doing" everyone agrees. so we do a set, it's cool, (we actually sound pretty good, and if this guy graduated from Berkley, you could have fooled me, he wasn't all that good)... Bass Player and Drummer were great! The guy doing the vocals was doing a pretty good job too. So we break after 50 minutes, and this guy John, leaves... not left the building, got in his car, and just left. He calls the bass player about 5 minutes before 2nd set, "I'm on the other side of town, my friend needs a ride... not sure when I'll be back"... What? Wow.. so I say, "ok boys, we're three piece,, lets get it done." So we get up there sans our mastermind, and we actually pulled off an excellent set with bass, drums, guitar and vocals. This idiot shows up as we are half way thru the third set. by then, we were in the grove, and we just ignored him, got thru the last of the tunes. From there it took me 10 minutes to pack up and go. parting words to the guy who asked me to fill in "if you're still working with this a$$, don't call me again.. ever..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I think there are a million things that can go wrong that even the best of us can't predict. But... Regardless whether it's a solo or band gig, I think "we" can get through doggone nearly anything and retain a decent reputation among fellow musicians, venue owners and "the public" if we remember that whether a gig is for super pay or if it's a benefit, that we're professionals and act professionally. For some groups/solos that means a wild stage presence, for others something super sedate. The bottom line is "in control" regardless. Proper prep - everything from extra strings to an extra guitar, whatever - is part of that in-control professionalism. Another could be taking charge of emptying the room or even a street dance because literally a tornado is on the horizon and folks (including you) need to take cover asap. Regardless stuff can go wrong, and you can escape the worst of the consequences by being cool about it 'stedda running around like the sky is falling. Let's just say, "been there, done that." I think too there's a good point about remembering that you're an entertainer, not just a musician. That's to me largely a function of the shrinkage of "bands" from a dozen to 30-some musicians through the swing era down to the "combos" common in more rural groups (country/blues/jazz/whatever). The small group always, I think, remembered they were there to please an audience even more than to play an instrument at maximum virtuosity. That also will help cover the inevitable disasters. Perhaps it ain't all bad to remember that the professionals on the Titanic did keep playing as long as possible regardless... and regardless of their skills or genre, remain in legend as special people. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvinator Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Well you guys nailed down just about all of it! The only thing I would add (and it may have been covered) is LISTEN to each other and follow what's happening! I've played with people who hear nothing but what they are playing, and that usually leads to a train wreck. If a vocalist comes in early or late - adapt to it; if someone makes a mistake (and we all do) - adjust and cover it. I'm fortunate to play with very good musicians who listen to the band as a whole. Mistakes are going to be made - it's how they're covered that counts! 99% of the time, people will never hear a blooper unless you call attention to it. My dad played sax professionally 'til he was 88 years old. With 70 years of experience leading big bands and dance bands he's seen it all, and has given me valuable advice that I try to adhere to: 1) Don't over-play. 2) Play the rests. 3) Dynamics, dynamics, dynamics! 4) Listen to everything, and feel the music. 5) Make sure your part compliments the band - don't "noodle" through every available opening (see #1 & 2). 6) Avoid "Dead Air" - keep things moving; if the front man is a talker, let him talk over the intro. 7) (my favorite) If you make a mistake, smile and play through it with authority! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karloff Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 if you start the song by yourself, dont look around asking every other member "you ready ?" i have a bad habit, if i'm playing in a sports bar I wind up watching the game on one of the many tv's while i'm onstage... looking at band photos, everyone is focused... i'm staring off. I should stop that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelhamBlueFire Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 My absolute worst sin...mind you, this was when I had just a few years of guitar playing under my belt, and I was very young...was this: Around Christmas, there always was this party at the school where everyone dressed up and looked like their best. You know we would all wear tuxedos, and the girls looked smokin' in their dresses. During this evening, a band would be a huge part of the entertainment. This time around, yours truly was the rhythm guitarist. During this particular period, I was kind of dating two girls at the same time...because, you know, that's what you do at that age. These chicks had no idea I was dating both of them at the same time. However, that night it all changed. I'm playing for about half an hour with no problems or conflicts. One of girls was there - front row - during that time. I thought the other girl didn't make it to the party. To be honest, I was kind of nervous for those two to run into each other. So, here I thought I was safe. Then karma struck, and it struck hard. Second girl shows up, upset, because she allegedly found out via a friend of her that I was seeing that other girl, as well. My girlfriends started to push each other, cursing, and it was getting out of hand. We had to stop playing for a second, and both were removed from the party. As you might have guessed, it didn't work out for me or them in the end. Haha, it was quite something to behold on stage. Two girls fighting for you, whilst you're playing an Elvis Song. That was quite an experience. We had to play on, of course, and I was kind of out of it at that point. I felt bad, extremely bad. This affected my playing, obviously. So if you're dating two girls at the same time, make sure one stays home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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