[Sticky] Your first gig - tell us!

we play metal, a crowd of about 15

Played my first bit in public today. It went well in general, and the best part of all I didn't have to worry about being nervous because I didn't plan on doing it. So for the full story...

I'm a senior in high school, and one of the classes I'm using to fill my english credit is Latin Roots. We are in a chapter right now that deals with Roman Gods and Goddesses, so our teacher had us pick one, research them, and come in and do a presentation in the first person. I was Apollo, god of music among other things. My prop was my acoustic guitar. I didn't play it infront of the class, just had it as a prop. The class after was sociology. I walk into sociology, and one of my classmates asks me to play. The day before, a classmate had brought in a squier and played some music from his ipod through some speakers and pretended to be playing the squier, and today we were missing a lot of people, 4 out of 8 of us. So I took it out and started playing. I played some easy stuff, like wish you were here and back home in derry (on of my classmates is very irish, his dad owns the local irish imports store, so that song was a hit). After that I played some blues shuffle and some improve. Everyone kept telling me how good I was. Afterwords my friend, who is very critical, told me that besides the occasional "musical studder" I did really good.

So now that I've got my toes in the lake, I'm ready to jump in. My best friend and I have been talking about playing something for the upcoming school "battle of the bands". I'll let everyone know how that goes.

That's awesome!!! :D

First gig. I was part of this percussion ensemble. We started out with a few percussionists, a couple of synthesizers, a sax player, and myself playing bass. Only the percussionists and myself showed up for the gig. I decided just to play percussion with the other two. We were set up on opposite corners of the club, as opposed to on the stage. We played for about 30-40 minutes. The crowd enjoyed it. The other 2 bands playing that night were Firehose and Sonic Youth. They were really cool to hang with after the show.

First gig playing bass in a band that played songs. Joined a thrash punk band called Gothic Playground. We played this battle of the bands thing at a place called the Musical Moon in Tallahassee, FL. About 1600 screaming kids showed up. We won the contest. The money disappeared, as did every penny Gothic Playground ever made. 2 and a half years and I got $25. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Some girl went home with me after the gig, but I was so blown away by the event that I just stared at the wall. Around 4 or 5 am she left. Never saw her again. C'est la vie.

Well, my only "gigs" were in what feels like a pre-historic era for me, but I guess they still count. :) Actually, it's a decent tale - and what a punk I used to be. :twisted:

I was in 8th grade, 14 or 15, and had a band with friends. We played at a variety show, just a song or two, and that went well. We arranged with a teacher to play at a spring dance for our school, but the administration nixed it at the last minute because they already had a DJ booked. About half our class (led by one of our bossier friends, we had nothing to do with it!) staged a protest, leaving the cafeteria during lunch and sitting outside the main office. They compromised and let us play before, not during, the dance. We were as unskilled as you'd guess - I'd never taken a lesson, drummer made up his own beats to any halfway difficult song; but we and our peers thought we sounded good, so ignorance was bliss!

I remember we opened with Pinion and Wish, from NIN's Broken EP. That was really cool for me, being in the spotlight playing my favorite band. (Pinion is a super simple "intro" type song that's just a few power chords, repeating and slowly getting louder and louder.) The drums to Wish were 100% wrong, but the right tempo. I nearly laughed at the on-the-fly lyrical censor the singer made when he screamed "bad luck, fist talk!" (Feel free to Google the real lyrics to Wish...) I'm sure we butchered that song. I can't remember exactly what else we played, but I'm pretty sure it would have been our first two original songs plus a bunch of Nirvana covers - probably Breed, Lithium, Drain You, and/or Heart Shaped Box.

At the time it really felt like the crowd was into it and we were totally rocking out. :) Quite a thrill! There were at least a couple pretty girls enjoying it and certainly dozens more of our peers. I'd never heard of action or intonation, and if Kurt Cobain didn't need to learn anything more than power chords, neither did I! The amps were loud and distorted, we had a real live drummer and bassist, we were in the spotlight, and we had a lot of fun.

It was enough of a success that we played at the "graduation dance" two months later, this time *without* having to reach any compromise. Ah, good times.

Sadly, I stopped playing guitar less than a year after all this. But it's been great discovering it all these years later, and doing some things the "right way" this time, so I really wouldn't change any of it.

I love reading stories like that. It's nice to visualize someone elses experiences.

Thanks, I'm glad somebody was willing to read that long post ;) It was nice thinking back on it, too, I haven't thought about that stuff in a while.

Good thread, I really liked reading about others' first gigs. That's pretty sweet you got to play before Sonic Youth, Oenyaw!

I have now made my first public apperance , playing guitar in front of hugh crowd.
We had a big party (100-200 people) at my work last friday and I was asked to perform in a talent contest as some people knows that I am playing guitar. I said ok to do that , taking it not to seriously as it was just a party thing.
I decided to play a song with my acoustic guitar and selected a wellknown swedish version of the folksong "Monday Morning" ( made known by Peter, Paul and Mary). The swedish version and lyrics is made very popular by the swedish/dutch folksinger/songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk.
My first idea was to play one instrumental verse (singing in public scares me) but then I got the idea to start with an instrumental verse and then get the public sing all verses.
The week before the party, I played the song many, many times and the stress started to grow on me...
The party started 5 o´clock and i was informed that the "talent contest" should start half past 9. I took it a bit easy on the boose and had good time with my friends. A stage was fixed at a big rotunda and a band was hired to play during the evening.
When the time come for the "contest" I was a bit nervous, but when I entered the stage it all cleared up and I got my guitar connected to the PA system and sound checked. Then I turned too the crowd and got the spotlights on me..
After my presentation of the song (and the singing ideas) I started to play the first instrumental verse and it all went well. When I started the second verse I was not sure if the audience would start singing, but they did ( papers with song lyrics had been distributed without my knowledge). Then I started to relax and played without thinking, I even started to sing in the mic in front of me...
WHAT a feeling it was , standing on stage , looking over the crowd, see expressions in the faces and have the people singing with you. I played through all the seven verses and had even time to plan for a corda on the guitar after the last verse.
Then came the aplauses (a roar)and I went of the stage. The next half an hour was just a blur....
The competition was just makeshift choir made up at the last minute as no other individuals had been pursuaded to perform.
/ Kalle

It's the first thing I read on the Net all day. Kalle, that is fantastic! :D

I have just now gotten around to read this thread.
way cool everybody.

I will never forget my first gig. it was 1966. my mates and I had been playing for about nine months. we had a drummer, me and another on guitar but no bass player. one day this older guy (he was seventeen) we were 15 year olds walks into the garage we were practicing in. he had a bass guitar and wanted to join in. the next month we landed a gig at our old middle school. we were freshmen in highschool and going back to the little school had us feeling pretty stoked.
we opened with Psychotic Reation then went right into Gloria. we had no stage and were on the same level as the crowd. all the pretty girls stood right in front of us. it was awesome. we played two sets, made no mistakes, no string breakage. it was perfect.
our second gig was at a Catholic girls school. we had a stage. wow that was a great feeling. we ran out of material and had to play a few songs twice. the older guy had the wherewithall to say ' and here is another request'. and we played Gloria again. I was playing a 65 Fender Mustang through a crappy Gibson Skylark amp.

Awesome stories, awesome thread.

My first gig I was 13 playing at the local Agricultural show with my pop band. We played about 6 or 7 originals and about the same amount of covers. We had been practicing and writing for months in a shearing shed out on the drummers farm.

I was on lead and halfway through the set we played "better" by the screaming jets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFxVjsmrOqI

When i ripped out the solo i had guys in the front row ripping out air guitar solos. From then on I have never looked back, except to laugh at how funny i looked with my nerdy bowl cut.

The rhythm guitarist in that band is now engaged to my sister so we're all still really close. I learned everything i know about performing with those guys.

My first gig was at my school where ma band played on the roof at the end of term. We all got excluded 4 dat one. So worth it! :mrgreen:

That's awesome. Glad you got our there and played!

does my 6th grade talent show count? :D

does my 6th grade talent show count? :D

It counts for me! :)