I Hate Gigging!

[Stub Mandrel]

Sad but true story...

When I was about eleven I spent ages trying to find the 'Colgate Ring of Confidence' inside a box of toothpaste...

[Witters]

Finally, it’s wine o’clock! 

I’ve just been talking to a student about the dislike of gigging, and suggested she create an “onstage persona”, someone she can leave in the case at the end of the night, but bring out and become when she performs. She is quite shy so it will be interesting to see what she does! I am aware this persona will be influenced by the music she chooses to play, currently she loves Day6 ( Kpop), and I have asked her to bring this persona to the next lesson. I can’t wait!

This is a technique I have used over the years, so much so that I am becoming  my onstage persona. Cheers all!

[FinnDave]

I used to have a classroom persona when I was teaching, it allowed me to hide the real me, though the gap between the real me and teacher me became harder to define as the years passed.

[Newfoundfreedom]

1 hour ago, Witters said:

Finally, it’s wine o’clock! 

I’ve just been talking to a student about the dislike of gigging, and suggested she create an “onstage persona”, someone she can leave in the case at the end of the night, but bring out and become when she performs. She is quite shy so it will be interesting to see what she does! I am aware this persona will be influenced by the music she chooses to play, currently she loves Day6 ( Kpop), and I have asked her to bring this persona to the next lesson. I can’t wait!

This is a technique I have used over the years, so much so that I am becoming  my onstage persona. Cheers all!

It worked for Alice Cooper. Although it still took him many years to get over using alcohol as a crutch. 

[Bluewine]

On 25/08/2019 at 14:34, oZZma said:

Why "life circumstances" and not "personality traits"? 

I can go with that. Personality traits can prevent some from gigging.

Blue

[Bluewine]

Being able to make a living ( owning a home, a car, support a family and save money) from playing in a rock band is like winning the lottery.

Out of all the guys I grew up playing music with only two made it. Al Anderson guitar Bob Marley and The Wailers. Al left for London with a one way ticket right after High School 1972. Chuck Burgi , drums Billy Joel . Chuck also left for London after High School and landed ajob with Brand X. 

Both are in their late 60s and currently on tour.

Blue

[peteb]

16 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Being able to make a living ( owning a home, a car, support a family and save money) from playing in a rock band is like winning the lottery.

Out of all the guys I grew up playing music with only two made it. Al Anderson guitar Bob Marley and The Wailers. Al left for London with a one way ticket right after High School 1972. Chuck Burgi , drums Billy Joel . Chuck also left for London after High School and landed ajob with Brand X. 

Both are in their late 60s and currently on tour.

Blue

And the thing is that it's even harder these days

[Bluewine]

On 28/08/2019 at 18:41, peteb said:

And the thing is that it's even harder these days

Agreed, I think there was more money to go around back in the 60s & 70s when you had to buy music.

Blue 

[Lozz196]

On 29/08/2019 at 00:41, peteb said:

And the thing is that it's even harder these days

 

6 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Agreed, I think there was more money to go around back in the 60s & 70s when you had to buy music.

Blue 

Def, nowadays it seems bands are either on the mega bucks level or having to do day jobs as well as music. 

[bubinga5]

I love playing live. I don't even need to be paid.If I get paid its a bonus.  I love making people dance like I do at festivals live music events that I dig. Half an hour lugging gear around pails in comparison to playing with a tight band live and getting a reaction. Maybe that's the narcissist in me. Maybe there is a little bit of narcissism in most musicians on BC me thinky. 

[FinnDave]

26 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

I love playing live. I don't even need to be paid.If I get paid its a bonus.  I love making people dance like I do at festivals live music events that I dig. Half an hour lugging gear around pails in comparison to playing with a tight band live and getting a reaction. Maybe that's the narcissist in me. Maybe there is a little bit of narcissism in most musicians on BC me thinky. 

I reckon we all need a touch of narcissism to want to stand up in front of an audience.

[Guest oZZma]

I will have to "somewhat" play live in october (only friends and guests at my drummer's place will attend the ""event"", LOL). I'll let you know how much I hated it in a scale from "crap" to "HUGE crap" 

Edited August 31, 2019 by oZZma

[T-Bay]

49 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

I love playing live. I don't even need to be paid.If I get paid its a bonus.  I love making people dance like I do at festivals live music events that I dig. Half an hour lugging gear around pails in comparison to playing with a tight band live and getting a reaction. Maybe that's the narcissist in me. Maybe there is a little bit of narcissism in most musicians on BC me thinky. 

When everything comes together the high you get from it is amazing. I love it, the other hassles of being in a band, less so.

[bubinga5]

On 27/08/2019 at 20:10, Witters said:

Finally, it’s wine o’clock! 

I’ve just been talking to a student about the dislike of gigging, and suggested she create an “onstage persona”, someone she can leave in the case at the end of the night, but bring out and become when she performs. She is quite shy so it will be interesting to see what she does! I am aware this persona will be influenced by the music she chooses to play, currently she loves Day6 ( Kpop), and I have asked her to bring this persona to the next lesson. I can’t wait!

This is a technique I have used over the years, so much so that I am becoming  my onstage persona. Cheers all!

I love this.

[TimR]

6 hours ago, FinnDave said:

I reckon we all need a touch of narcissism to want to stand up in front of an audience.

‘a touch’?

[FinnDave]

5 hours ago, TimR said:

‘a touch’?

Probably quite a heavy touch!

[FinnDave]

To be fair, I don't interact much, if at all, with the audience while I'm playing, but focus entirely on the music we're playing (which as it contains a fair amount of improvisation requires concentration. I am aware of them from the energy they give us, but if I start looking at individuals in the audience, it distracts me. 

It is a fact that my current band plays far better in front of an audience than at a rehearsal, obviously a gig encourages greater concentration, but to me, the energy and enthusiasm of the audience is the main reason. I rarely experienced this when playing blues etc in pubs where the audience usually tolerated the band at best, but with current band, where we only play ticketed venues, the audience has travelled a fair distance and paid to hear us, so the band and its music are the main focus for them. When the entire audience starts cheering at the first notes of a song they love, that makes sure we do the song justice.

[Newfoundfreedom]

13 hours ago, FinnDave said:

I reckon we all need a touch of narcissism to want to stand up in front of an audience.

Maybe that's why I don't enjoy it. I'm probably not enough of a narcissist. I don't like being up there in front if a crowd at all. I find the whole thing extremely uncomfortable. 

[Newfoundfreedom]

2 hours ago, FinnDave said:

When the entire audience starts cheering at the first notes of a song they love, that makes sure we do the song justice.

I totally get that. For me that would be the ultimate buzz, but only if the song I was playing was an original. I can't imagine a better feeling than hearing a crowd singing back lyrics that came out of my head. Something that didn't exist until I created it. That would be superb! If they're just singing along to Wonderwall or some such, I may as well just be a CD player. 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Newfoundfreedom

[leroydiamond]

This has been an interesting thread and has helped with nailing down my reasons to quit. I just was not 'feeling it' anymore and my playing suffered as a result. Being A sloppy ageing bass playing weekend warrior was the last thing I wanted after 40 years of gigging. I just lost all passion for giging

I have not picked up a bass for over a year now and no regrets. I am investing my time in other things and reaping the reward from doing so.

On the other hand, people have chimed in on this thread that they love the experience to the point of being prepared to gig for little monetary gain and I get that completely. However taking that position, can lead to a negative impact for bands on the pub/club scene. If pub owners have the opportunity to get a good band on the cheap they will no doubt jump at it. More established acts will be hit hard financially, as the wage will fall significantly. I have observed this scenario in my area.

When I started playing many years ago on the pub/club citcuit, it wasn't uncommon to be offered 'drink money' for payment, but bands started to cop on,upped their game, and started to get paid for their services. IME things have taken a backward step and as I said in a previous post, I was making as much 25 years ago for a pub gig. 

Enthusiasm is fantastic, but when good bands are playing for next to nothing, it does not bode well for getting a decent payment for providing a good service, whilst the pub owners cream it.

[TimR]

1 hour ago, leroydiamond said:

whilst the pub owners cream it.

Pubs are closing at the rate of 3 a week. Business rates are astronomical and people would rather watch XFactor with a pizza and some supermarket lager. 

Playing 70/80s rock isn’t going to inspire anyone to come out especially if it’s not even inspiring the musicians who are playing it. 

You need to up your game, there are two types of musician, those that evolve and look for opportunities and those that just give up.

We have changed singers and got a girl in and learned a completely new set. No more ‘dad rock’, playing to Jeremy Clarkson nursing his pint of real ale, her mates come along and we have a good crowd of girls dancing who get the place moving. 

Selecting and learning 30 new songs for the entire band is hard work, won’t deny that. Not the actual mechanics of learning songs, we are musicians, that’s what we do, but selecting and working out whether a song is going to work within the first few play throughs. Some just work from the start, if a song isn’t working on the 3rd play through, we move on, but getting some members of the band to drop a song that they proposed can often be ‘difficult’.

[wombatboter]

I used to gig a lot and had a lot of work from the nineties until around 10 years ago.. Played with rather well known artists in Belgium and had around 120 bands and artists on my cv.

Suddenly I got tired of playing too many covers (often the same ones), being stuck in traffic, having to be somewhere five hours or more in advance and being away for ten or twelve hours. Would be okay if all would be great but I found myself driving home at night feeling a bit depressed and the money I earned wasn't really necessary because I had and have a well paid daytime job (I can understand professional players who have to accept anything because they have to make a living out of it).

A lot of work was without rehearsal and sometimes you got the call in the afternoon to replace someone and as a bassplayer you have to be on top of the game since everyone is relying on you...Lots of times the others weren't prepared or became sloppy and the gig would be sheer horror but the money kept everyone satisfied (I feel that attitude is still there).

Got the impression that people just wanted to have a bass player and not especially me and that anyone would do (I see the pictures of all those bands on facebook and still a chain of bassplayers who are replacing one another).

I didn't get calls anymore for bands with their own original music, I started my own band but that's instrumental fusion so the market is limited in Belgium..

So now I find myself turning down offers by countless cover bands (could have had a gig yesterday) and I'm staying at home..I still play lots of bass and I want to surprise myself so I'm learning new things and avoiding routine..I just don't need bands anymore..

I don't miss any of the stuff I mentionned above and I love playing bass (bit of fretless, slap, tapping, harmonics, pick, etc..there is so much to do). Every now and then there is the occasional gig with a couple of friends and recently I agreed again to replace a bass player in a coverband (45 songs without rehearsal) just to know if I could still do that sort of thing if I wanted to and everyone seemed to be really pleased.. I drove home away from the drunken crowd and the noise and I was happy to be home again..I realised again that I didn't miss the whole scene. I would miss playing bass though.

[petecarlton]

On 14/07/2019 at 09:09, BassBus said:

Now I make my own music and put it on YouTube and have another audience that aren't that interested 😄 Well there are nearly 300 people who are interested enough to have subscribed and that's great.

 

490 already - the power of BC!

[Rayman]

I’ve always hated gigs, done it for 40yrs, still hate it. As a songwriter and creator, I adore the studio. Always have. The highlight of my musical life was recording a Radio 1 session at Maida Vale in the 80s. Gigs? Can’t really remember any of them.

[Bilbo]

Love gigging. Without that, to my mind, there is not much point. I know lots of musicians who don't gig and I can't fathom it at all. To me, it is a vibrant social life that actually brings in money instead of costing it. I meet lovely people, share a love for the music and have a laugh. Sometimes it is exceptional for some reason but mostly it is just plain old brilliant.