I Love Gigging!

[Roger2611]

Give me a stage, any stage and I'm a happy chappie!

 

[mep]

Me too. Find rehearsing difficult to get into but gigs are where it's at. Although at my age it's quality not quantity.

[Maude]

Yep, I love gigging too. I enjoy all aspects, writing, rehearsing, even the load in and out (it's sociable) but gigging is where it's at. I've never not enjoyed a gig, the worst ones are enjoyable, the best ones are fantastic. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Gigging is great.

How many childhood dreams do you get to live out - more than once?

[NancyJohnson]

12 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Learning new material, rehearsing and gigging is a large part of my life. The money is a nice bi-product, but it’s not why I do it. I just enjoy it, or rather I enjoy other people enjoying what we do.

Money?  There's money to be made from this malarky?

[mingsta]

For me, yes. Though I appreciate that people play for different reasons. If I don't have gigs to work towards I hardly play, though this is more due to bonkers job and three young kids swallowing up my time. 

I love whole process that surrounds preparing for a gig, learning the music, rehearsing and getting tight with the b a nd, but this would all be quite meaningless if there wasn't the payback of delivering it all to an audience. The best bit for me is when you start out with an indifferent audience, but make things happen so that everyone is up and dancing and asking for for at the end of the night. 

[chris_b]

I wouldn't own a car and not drive or own clubs and not play golf.

From the first time I played my Spanish guitar with my mate Pete at school, I have loved playing with other musicians. IMO the music that people make together beats playing anything on your own. Then I discovered audiences and I was hooked. In my view, public performance is the pinnacle of being a musician.

I've just got back from a pub gig in Solihull. Part of a Blues and Jazz festival that's being held in town. This was certainly a long drive, but it was a good band, good audience and financially worth it so, win-win-win.

 

[Newfoundfreedom]

We're playing at 8 o'clock tonight and I've already got that waiting to be hung feeling. The best part of a gig for me is when it's over. If it's a good gig then there is a bit of a buzz and feeling of accomplishment afterwards. But I hate the actual being on stage part, and the waiting to go on even moreso. 

I'm hoping this is something that will change with experience as we're a pretty new band and only done about half a dozen gigs. The rest of the band love it, I'm still not convinced.

We're playing our first festival next weekend and I'm dreading it already. 

Edited July 20, 2019 by Newfoundfreedom

[Leonard Smalls]

I like to play with myself, and I also like to play with the band...

But you can't beat a good gig, with a roaring crowd and groupies that are recognisably animal, vegetable and mineral queueing outside the enormous dressing room waiting to have a go on our extensive rider. 

Then there's the press adulation - HERE'S an example from 1991...

Edited July 20, 2019 by Leonard Smalls

[Stub Mandrel]

13 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I enjoy other people enjoying what we do.

That's the biggest buzz.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

48 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

We're playing our first festival next weekend and I'm dreading it already. 

Don't worry. People go to a festival to enjoy live music. Unlike a pub, you don't have to win them over, you just have to keep them engaged. I palyed two tiny festivals and they were the best.

(Worst was a big club where several of my mates came - driving 100s of miles from afar - nothing went wrong but we were on a DJ stage 10 feet above the audience and we might as well have been in a different room).

 

[Mykesbass]

Yep, gigging is where it is at for me. Playing original music to 100+ punters who have never heard of you and who absolutely love what you put in front of them - doesn't get better than that! Makes up for all the grotty pub gigs!

[EJWW]

I love gigging. 

I play covers in a pub band and record every gig so I can watch and listen to the whole thing all over again the day after. 

I note what sounds good and any errors I make. 

Even though the material is quite unchallenging I have used the experience to sort out two longstanding problems: my stage presence, and singing live. 

I look forward to an evening's gig all day and I often like to have a haircut before getting ready. 

It is without a doubt the best hobby I can imagine.

And the money pays for my singing lessons and more basses.

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by EJWW

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, EJWW said:

Even though the material is quite unchallenging I have used the experience to sort out two longstanding problems: my stage presence, and singing live. 

I know what you mean - when I saw the video of me singing BVs I was going at the microphone like a chicken pecking seeds! Sounded useless.

One song I was less confident I stayed well back from the mike, the soundman obviously turned me up and it sounded fine!

Lesson learned...

[Bluewine]

I love gigging, however now at 66 years of age the 4 hour bar gigs are difficult for me for a myriad of reasons.

Blue

[lurksalot]

I still enjoy gigging but have taken a sabbatical for a year so that I can claim back a bit of my social life . There’s nowt  wrong to the social side of gigging , but the amount of family get togethers and weekends away that I have missed over the years has started to bug me . 

A year out and making good use of my weekends will dictate whether I join up as a weekend warrior again 

[Woodinblack]

Yep. I love it. There are many annoyances and irritations on the way although unlike some above, almost all of my gigs are within 5 miles and pay money, today being a far away one for at almost 30 miles but it was nice and sunny. 

[Monkey Steve]

I love playing in a band, and the best part of that is playing gigs.

Don't mind the travel, the getting home in the wee small hours, the sitting around for hours doing nothing, the barely (or not even close to) covering expenses, the load in or the load out.  For me it's all hanging out with your mates in the band, and not playing gigs is a very poor second choice.  I'd rather be rehearsing than dozing on the sofa watching TV, and I'd rather be playing a gig than rehearsing.

The only down side is the bad gig, where you play badly as a band, or the crowd hate or ignore you 

[Stylon Pilson]

FAO people in originals bands: you should be aware that, for people who are in covers bands, a "gig" generally involves an evening consisting of about 6-7 hours door to door, of which the majority is travelling and lugging heavy equipment. On the plus side, you generally get paid, and the crowd, if sufficiently lubricated, will dance and sing along.

FAO people in covers bands: you should be aware that, for people who are in originals bands, a "gig" generally consists of playing for 45 minutes on a bill with 2 or 3 other bands. You don't have to worry about any PA or lighting equipment - that's all handled by the PA Fairy, so you can often do the unload from your car in one or two trips. You get paid in "exposure" instead of real currency, and the audience is usually either ignoring you or staring at you blankly.

S.P.

[Muzz]

Covers bands? 6-7 hours door to door? Hardly. It does happen, but the money goes up - an average pub gig for us is 7:30pm - 11:30pm, and for normal money, no more than half an hour either way.

Lugging heavy equipment? You've got the wrong PA/Backline 😀

[Woodinblack]

Yeh, I leave the house at 7:30 / 8:00, drive to the venue, normally park outside, dump the stuff, set it up, we start at 9 or 9:30, play until 11:30 / 12 or so, load back in the car, home before 1, cash in the drawer

[Stylon Pilson]

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear. I don't mean 6 hours driving each way. I mean I leave the house sometime around 6:30pm (plus or minus half an hour) and get home at about 1am (plus or minus half an hour).

S.P.

[Linus27]

Yes, I totally love gigging. For me, its about playing music, that's the enjoyment and why I do it, I'm playing music and that's all that maters. I'm doing what I love and I've been doing it for 32 years now and I'm only 49.

I started out in original bands and had a little success. That died and formed a new band that ended up getting signed and we had a minor hit and all the trimmings of being in a signed band touring etc. That ended and joined a few other bands with some minor success. Then I stopped for a few years and got asked to join a very busy covers band which is a totally different kettle of fish to the original band environment but equally as enjoyable. I'm now earning good money, have an audience every gig who get up and dance the night away and we get chased for gigs, no more "give us a gig please". The only thing missing is the creativity of writing new songs but the other side sure does make up for it.

On average I play around 100 gigs a years and I love it.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Linus27

[odysseus]

1 hour ago, Stylon Pilson said:

 You get paid in "exposure" instead of real currency, and the audience is usually either ignoring you or staring at you blankly.

My experience of playing originals is that you get to play festivals in front of people who want to see original bands, not some bunch of Man U shirts squawking for Wonderwall all night.

If I wanted money I'd be playing Agadoo (and possibly Wonderwall!) in some function band.  Nowt wrong with that, if you're in it for the wedge. We all got our motivations. Vive la difference and all that... 🙂

[Marc S]

yes, I really do play music, so that I can enjoy gigging. Fortunately (or is it unfortunately) I'm in several bands, doing different genres, and I do covers and some originals - cos I like both.
Perhaps I'm a bit too busy at times, with gigs coming up for several bands, in a short space of time - lots to remember.... but I'd miss it if any one of the bands folded......

Originals are generally played in the "right" sort of venues, where they're either wanted, or tolerated well. Generally, we play where they're wanted.
I also enjoy playing covers in the most suitable venues for cover material too. I enjoy seeing people dance & sing along to songs they know.
Occasionally, a gig doesn't go quite "right" which happened at a charity fest I played on Saturday. The onstage sound was terrible, and the sound guy couldn't fix the very low frequency feedback type of "drone". However, the crowd didn't seem to hear it, and they enjoyed the songs, and the sun was shining and the beer was flowing... so it was a nice experience, especially as it raised some money for a homeless charity

I've got to say that recently, most gigs have gone either well, or really well. I stopped playing years ago, with the intention of "keeping my hand in" and jamming along to songs, recording etc.
But without the motivation of other musos around me, or the upcoming gig - must rehearse! scenario.... I dropped out of playing, for 25 years!
I'd really miss the gigging now, and I'm sure I'd drop back into not playing if I was out of bands now. Each to their own, of course - but yes, yes, yes - gigging for me!

Edited July 23, 2019 by Marc S