Your Very First Gig!

[hideyoursheep]

Memories,
like the cobwebs of my mind
smokey road-coked fuzzy memories
of the way we played...

Splattered pilsner
on the cords we left behind
Smiles we gave to some one's girlfriend
before closing time











Got any good gig stories, or just want to reminisce?
Please do!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Well, I don't count this one, but my mother forced me to go with her to see Manilow in '77....

But the first REAL concert I went to was:

Molly Hatchet - Allegheny College, Meadville, PA - 31OCT81

[LoungeMachine]

Well, I don't count this one, but my mother forced me to go with her to see Manilow in '77....

But the first REAL concert I went to was:

Molly Hatchet - Allegheny College, Meadville, PA - 31OCT81

Yeah, um... VA

I think he means YOUR first gig


Mine was a high school talent show, like many others.

First paid gig was a frat party on the UW campus.

First club gig was the famous Astor Park in downtown Seattle where U2 played, that no longer exists.



Barry Manilow..

[chefcraig]

While I have great difficulty recalling what was my first proper gig, I certainly remember my last one. This is a story involving some self realization, and pretty much sums up why I quit the business for the 25th time.

Somewhere in the uneasy climate of early 2002, our band had managed to get a booking for a today well-known (yet at the time anonymous) Led Zeppelin cover band. Opening for us were to be two punk bands. OK, I'd better explain the situation. The evening was broken into two segments: First an all-ages show featuring the two punk groups, and intermission and then an "adults-only" offering featuring us and the already mentioned "zeppelinists". It was assumed that this would be a good career move for us. It certainly was...something.

The way the club was set up, there was no rear load in, you literally carried your gear in/out through the front door. The parking lot was a narrow strip running the length of the block. So the drummer and I arrived with the band's gear in our pick up trucks and parked out front. Just as we arrived in tandem, from inside the club came the somewhat unsettling sound of teenagers screaming and the ever-comforting noise of furniture breaking. Moments later the front doors swung open and out into the parking lot poured a melee, in full force. (Who in the hell knows how these things start with kids, yet later it was explained that apparently it began with one group of fans debating the qualities and merits of the other's band.)

As this sea of battling humanity crashed in apparently unending waves of profanity and teenaged spirit across the lot, the drummer and I resorted to standing on our respective tailgates armed with only a baseball bat and (yup, you guessed it) a three wood golf club. Fortunately we had back-up, as the local police found it prudent to dispatch one officer to deal with things. Fortunately one of the combatants flashed a knife and was then eagerly chased down by the entire mob and presumably beaten within an inch of his life.

Order was restored, the under aged crowd sent on their way and a clean up operation that would last nearly three hours began. During this time the carpet was shampooed and vacuumed to remove any evidence of blood, furniture was righted/repaired as well as several teeth were collected.

I spent much of this time speaking with the quite charming members of the Zep cover band, who informed me that until recently, they too had been performing originals for people that did not wish to hear them and going broke in the process, just like us. Upon switching to covers, they'd not stopped playing and being well paid for their efforts. Having (at the time) recently reached my forties, this had quite a profound effect on me, along with the somewhat disturbing tendency of the lead singer to remain in the character of Robert Plant as he explained it all to me.

In any event, we played the gig, albeit with no sound-check and a curtailed performance of roughly 30 minutes (or less). For our efforts, we were paid the somewhat questionable amount of forty-five dollars, split between five band members.

Taking in the evening's events as I drove home to get about two and a half hours sleep before reporting for work the next morning, I came to a decision. After reading this far, I'm fairly confident that you'll be able to easily grasp what it eventually entailed.

[LoungeMachine]

I came to a decision. After reading this far, I'm fairly confident that you'll be able to easily grasp what it eventually entailed.

Never go to a gig without a 9-iron?

[Hardrock69]

My first performance in front of people was at Ft. Lewis, WA in the spring of 1978. I had gotten to know several musicians on base, and the Recreational Services Division announced a Battle Of The Bands. So myself, another guitarist, and a drummer got onstage and played 2 'jams' we had come up with. No vocals, no bass.

Needless to say we did not win.

But another band in the competition were friends, and I wound up in that band.

[rocknrolldork]

My first gig was a recital for a group of kids the local music store put in different bands. We played Rocky Mountain Way. I had to tune all the guitars for the entire show because the others didn't know how to use a strobe tuner. I think this was about 77 or 78 so I was 9 or 10.. So long ago. My first paid gig was in 81 at the Community Teen Center & Roller Rink. I think we made $10 each or something.

I'm really glad I make more money per show now, but I wish I wouldn't take it so seriously at times.

[chefcraig]

Never go to a gig without a 9-iron?

Pretty much, as I sure as shit can't hit anything with a driver.

[LoungeMachine]

Pretty much, as I sure as shit can't hit anything with a driver.

Except every sand trap and body of water within reach.

[Top Jimmy]

First public performance was @ a blues jam,
with a guitar playin' friend of mine.
They put us on last, with this drunk-as-a-skunk moron in shorts and a white Navy shirt
(the kind with that flap on the back that looks like a hood)

He was playing House Of The Rising Sun, worse than anything in the universe...

speeding up, slowing down, very noticably.....
singing outta key and sometimes shouting the words...
(I was on drums)

just fucking horrible.

About halfway through the song,
the keyboard player sneaks off stage 'cause he just can't take it...

then the horn player goes....

then the bass player goes...

This dude didn't even realize that by now it was just my friend and I up there with him....he was soooo wasted.....

So I looked at my bro, we just shrugged our shoulders at each other,
and left the stage too...

I swear to christ dude didn't even know he was now alone onstage...
it was much funnier when I was sitting in front of him watching,
as opposed too behind him on the drums......

Ever since then, it's almost like post-traumatic-stress-syndrome....
I have to leave the stage if someone plays that song or I get all bent outta shape....

[chefcraig]

Except every sand trap and body of water within reach.

I wish I could hit a sandtrap. So do the people in the condos whose BBQ grills and back-porch furnishings I've managed to nail, dent or destroy over the years.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Yeah, um... VA

I think he means YOUR first gig


Mine was a high school talent show, like many others.

First paid gig was a frat party on the UW campus.

First club gig was the famous Astor Park in downtown Seattle where U2 played, that no longer exists.



Barry Manilow..

Hey asshole, I played the caracas during Copacobana on that tour....

[Va Beach VH Fan]

By the way, it should be in the fookin' Geetar forum then.... :tongue0011:

[LoungeMachine]

Hey asshole, I played the caracas during Copacobana on that tour....

Is that what mommy told you to call them?

and then in late 1985, VA went on to play cowbell with Blue Oyster Cult on the Casino Circuit

[Va Beach VH Fan]

LOL, honestly, the only thing I remember about that night was that for the encore, Manilow came out in a Bradshaw jersey, that made my night...