Ever done a show where it didn't "click"?

[Inearthed]

I just got back from playing a gig with both of my bands (I play guitar in one band, play bass in another) and it was interesting.

My band where I play guitar (my black RR1T) went through our set and due to the fact that I was sick and little minimal mess-ups here and there (the stuff that only someone who knew the music well would notice) we just never really got off the ground tonight. We played pretty well, but the typical energy / stage presence that we usually had was very low in comparison to our previous shows. This is even more unfortunate because the gig we played about a week ago was probably our best performance overall where we went totally all out and just had a great time. We're trying to avoid this again (as we discussed after the gig) so does anyone have any suggestions? More rehearsals? (We don't have a strict practice schedule 1-2 times a week) Has this happened to anyone else?

The weird thing is that I switched to my band where I played bass immediately after finishing the first set and after our 10 minute take off / load in we started up and everything just went perfect and we were sounding just fine with a ton of energy. Oh well.

Also as an added note I just talked to the other guitar player and he said that after some further talking everyone in the band admitted that they had a lot of stuff on their mind... This might have affected our performance very negatively. Ah well, ya win some, you loose some.

[Newc]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t "click"?

Yeah if you're not 100% focused only on the music, you're not gonna have a good time.
Been there, done that.

Newc

[JacksonConcept]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t "click"?

I've had drummers that didn't click. No pun intended....I don't know what it is about drummers that make them want to get totally smashed before a gig! If the drummer is sh*tfaced on stage you can forget about having a good show. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

I've played with 4 alcoholic drummers and a friend of mine is about to fire his drummer after he got drunk and totally screwed up their last show. [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

[diablomozart]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t "click"?

playing live is a touchy thing...any technical difficulty can throw you off...same goes for having "too much on the mind"...not every show will be 100%...no matter how hard you try...the trick is to get consistent enough so the audience can't tell [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ...d.m.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t "click"?

Originally posted by Gary Powell:
I've had drummers that didn't click. No pun intended....I don't know what it is about drummers that make them want to get totally smashed before a gig! If the drummer is sh*tfaced on stage you can forget about having a good show. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

I've played with 4 alcoholic drummers and a friend of mine is about to fire his drummer after he got drunk and totally screwed up their last show. [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">buy a drum machine [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[JacksonConcept]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Originally posted by MichaelMadeja:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">buy a drum machine [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] For real.

[markb]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Gary Powell:

Holy crap, that is the first thing that came to my mind too when I read the first post!! Our drummer would show up for a gig toasted, drop a beat 10x a song, forget where he was etc. Murder was contemplated more than once. Most gigs he was fine but...

One gig the hungover drummer sucked, the acoustics were so bad I could only hear mush and then more mush bouncing back at me, and the humidity in the club was outta hand and nothing would stay in tune. And all the chicks were ugly. So I just started pounding back vodka during the first set and drank myself into oblivion. Problem solved!!!!

Not a gig, but once we were booked in a studio for 9:00 saturday morning to start on a demo. The drummer shows up looking like shit. Hasn't quite made it to bed yet, hasn't quite finished drinking yet. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Oh well, at least I felt a whole lot better about nailing his girlfriend. C'est la vie [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Outlander]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Oh Yeah!the perfect performance is the most elusive of all.It helps a lot if everyone manages their energy properly through the day.If you get high or drunk no matter what you may think you are not at your best.I allow myself to have a beer before we start to help with nerves but that's it.Now when we're done it's a completely differant story. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] As with anything, being prepared goes a long way.All of us will flub a line or miss a part from time to time no matter how much rehearsal or preparation we've had but the sign of a really good group is how they cover for each other and the public is never aware of it.
Playing out is just like rehearsals. Some go better or are more productive than others.Analyze what works or goes right as well as what doesn't and strive for consistancy [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[JacksonConcept]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Yeah Mark [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Thats hilarious. We outta start a thread about fired drunken drummers who couldn't get their Sh*t together. They don't sleep or eat properly either [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

Whats up with that? [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Well, at least none of my past drummers exploded on stage or died from Bizarre gardening accidents like Spinal Tap's drummers.

[Inearthed]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Thanks for the responses everyone makes me feel a lot better about the performance. Luckily there were only few people in attendence at this gig (late monday night gigs result in barely anyone showing up)

Originally posted by diablomozart:
playing live is a touchy thing...any technical difficulty can throw you off...same goes for having "too much on the mind"...not every show will be 100%...no matter how hard you try...the trick is to get consistent enough so the audience can't tell [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ...d.m.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yep.. I forgot to mention that the club we played at had no monitors for us guitar players up front to even hear each other (2 guitars + Every song having harmonized riffs + No Monitors = Very very bad combination). Our drummer didn't have monitors either and he told us after the gig he was listening to us from the bounceback.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

it happens, some gigs are great others not so great. The key is being well practiced and professional to whereby if you do have an off night that it is hardly noticeable. I was always my worse critic and on nights where I thought I was terrible, after listening to tapes of it wasn't as bad as I thought I was. Everyone has the gigs from hell where nothing works right but its best to learn from them and move on. The next gig is the most important as you don't want to get in a rut of sucking [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[lerxstcat]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

You just have to keep practicing and playing shows. you'll get tighter so what's sub-par to you won't be noticeable to the crowd, and you'll also learn to soldier through the off nights without feeling it's the end of the world. Don't get complacent, but don't be devastated either - unless it's the record company showcase that you choke on! Just don't let it happen on that one, pull yourself together and kick ass!

[JacksonConcept]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

99% of the time only OTHER musician's in the crowd know if you screw up or not. Problem is half the audience are usually other musicians! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

And 99% of them will also be dogging you out anyway, whether you're great or not [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

We never had the drunken drummer or other drunken member problems (well, except when we were looking for a bassist - try to find one that wasn't too stoned to make it to rehearsals [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ) but we always had equipment failure during a gig; either my rig would crap out, the bassist's brand new rig-o-the-week would crap out (or just suddenly sound like crap), or the singer would catch something, or the drum kit would mysteriously start falling apart [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

We'd all move away from whoever was having gear trouble and give them a look like they were about to explode [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

[Inearthed]

Re: Ever done a show where it didn\'t &quot;click&quot;?

Originally posted by Newc:
but we always had equipment failure during a gig; either my rig would crap out, the bassist's brand new rig-o-the-week would crap out (or just suddenly sound like crap), or the singer would catch something, or the drum kit would mysteriously start falling apart [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

We'd all move away from whoever was having gear trouble and give them a look like they were about to explode [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh man.... I know how that goes... The first real band I was in, every show we played there were technical problems... Our first gig our lead guitar player's cable died in the middle of a solo, our second gig the 1/4" input in my speaker cab dropped inside the cab but luckily I had a friend with me who happens to work for a computer repair company and had a tool kit in his car so he quickly ran out and brought in a powered screwdriver and we managedto get the thing back in working order by the time we started. Our third gig we kept tripping a breaker on one song and this pattern repeated over and over and over again. At least in both of my current bands things aren't falling apart on stage!