Donovant22

I've heard some pretty scary (and hilarious) stories about disastrous first performances by some bands.

Here's mine (sort of):
My very first band was barely a month old. The guitarist and I are 16 and the drummer is 18. We were practicing at a pretty slow pace and we didn't even have a singer yet. My friend calls me one day and says, "Hey I'm having a party next week, you want to go?" I say, "Sure, I'll have to cancel my band's practice but they'll probably want to go too." She says, "Oh, you're in a band? Can you guys play at the party?" I, being a complete and total fool, say, "Yes."

So I get the guys together and we pick a short set (5 songs) of pretty simple songs. I plan an 8 hour practice the day before (thinking somehow we're going to get it together by the next day despite the fact we were NOT READY AT ALL.) So, we begin practice and realize our guitarist hasn't practiced at all and doesn't even have the music, tab or anything. So, while he's practicing the drummer and I (the bassist) go out and buy some sheet music at the nearest guitar center and also some new drum sticks. We get back, and he's barely any better. We've got crappy equipment and it's just not clicking.

So we practice for another 4 hours, with me calling a friend every couple of minutes to see if they'll sing for us the next day. It's 8 o'clock and I get a call from my friend and she says, "Oh, I just asked my mom and you guys can't play here." I tell her, "You just thought to ask them NOW?" She replies, "I didn't think it would be a problem that a rock band would be playing at my party." I still can't tell whether I'm more embarrassed, relieved, or angry about it but it sure was funny.

Okay, not technically a first gig, but that's what I got. What do you guys have?

D&DLover

My band played at a Halloween Dance at our high school. We all had terrible equipment (Vox 15 watt solid state amp for me). We didn't have much time to warm up or sound test too much. Once we started, all of the lights were turned off so we could barely see anything. Then people were taking pictures, so it was even harder to see after the flash went off. Needless to say, our playing may have been a bit sloppy.

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Ibex

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goony

First gig was forgettable at best. We were supposed to play a set of 10 cover songs at a friend's party with a bit of a break inbetween.

During the first song i got too close to the audience (it wasn't a raised platform or anything), and someone messed with all the tuners of my guitars. There was no monitors or PA or anything so i could barely hear the mix. So we played maybe 1 song well and the rest were really out of tune.

5 minutes after our break, we re-tune all our gear and then the cops show up and cancel the party due to noise complaints (mind you, this was in the same suburb as the prime minister of australia is supposed to live when he's in sydney :P...kirribilli for those who live around here). Also, one of the neighbours threw a beer bottle over the fence that smashed a window.

After the show we're waiting outside for the maxi-taxi and someone vomits all over our guitarist's amp, and the cab ride home (incl. all the gear) was $150. We didn't even get paid for that gig haha. Ah, good times.

DrunkenGoose

My old band's first gig actualy went pretty well. It was our third (and last) gig that went bad. It was at a school Battle of the Bands.

1: The singer rewrote one of our songs the day before the show and expected us to learn/play it after 1 practice. We messed up tduring the song. Also it was our opening song.
2: One of the bands playing took way too long with their soundcheck, so us and another band only had like 4-minute soundchecks
3: during our soundcheck, the band that took too long came back onstage and wouldn't get off unitl they got to play one of their songs again. As a result our soundcheck was like 1 minute.
4: During our second song (a metalcore song) our singer started jumping around and broke our guitarist's foot pedal
5: There wasn't a wingnut on the ride cymbal, so right near the beginning of our last song (Song for the Dead - QOTSA) the ride cymbal came off. I played half of the song without the ride (during a part that needed it).

Unsurprisingly, the band taking our soundcheck won. My band agreed that we don't want to play the metalcore that the singer loved, so we kicked him out. We've since changed our name, and are now playing Rock/punk/stoner rock. Our first gig as this new band is July 2nd, and hopefully it will go well.

Live and learn.

rickyj

me and my friends first gig was actually 2 weeks ago and we were playing two cover songs ( smells like teen spirit by nirvana and enter sandman by metallica - lars, dont sue)
and we got through teen spirit fine. then we started playin enter sandman and about 1/4 of the way through our lead guitarists wah came unplugged. thats about the only thing that went wrong. if you want to watch its on youtube im the chubby dude in the background with the paul stanley star and axl rose bandana

btw i realise that we have a terrible name were tryin to come up with a new one if you have any suggestions message them to me

also i know both singers were terrible we are also lookin for a new singer

gotbass

In a band I was in when i first started playing bass. I think I was 16 I just had my equiptment for a 2 months. Didnt even know how to tune but i ended up in a bad with 3 guitars, a drummer and no singer. So we start jaming and like the 3rd time we played together our lead tells us he booked a coffee house gig. Basicly we go there play and get free coffee and muffins, all proceeds went towards the community..more or less just cover the event. So buy now we have 2 originals to play and nothing else matters by metallica.

So i'm nervous because i've never had an audience, even though it was like 30 people and the lead guitarist asked me if i got his email. Apparently he wanted me to sing nothing else matters and we're not doing our 2 originals were doing 1 of them and minus human instead.

I didn't know the bass riff to minus human, and like hell was i gonna sing and play at the same time. The rythum player showed me like 5 minutes before our time to go on.

We sucked at nothing else matters, we did okay at minus human but while playing it my strap came undone and put a nice war wound in my bass. we rocked one of our oiginal song.

We disbanded shortly after that. lol

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dancelasvegas

My first ever gig.

I was 12, fat and wore a sleeveless top that emphasised man boobs.

My first gig with current band.

Went pretty well, were playing the mainstage at a local festival, infront of 300 people and played 6 of our own songs that went down very well, the only problem was that the monitors were not turned on so it was hard to hear ourselves, but we still did quite well.

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lt22

Wellll...

First gig I ever played was a small show at this fundraiser for our school's relay for life... the band had only been together for about 3 or 4 weeks and only practiced 2 or 3 times for 2 hours each... obviously we weren't very prepared :P

Anyway so our singer forgot the lyrics to 2 out of our 4 songs... not only that
He forgot the lyrics to We Will Rock You... i know, sounds impossible, but it happened, so I had to step up and just start doing an improv solo to fill in for him... same thing when he forgot part of Paralyzer by Finger Eleven... it sucked. fortunantly i'm good at improvising... but still it was quite frustrating -.-

our first gig with our current lineup... we had tons of technical difficulties. the other guitarist's amp didn't work for the 1st song... we had to take like an extra 5-10 minutes for setup which no one liked... my cable was messed up so it would randomly cut out sometimes... the mic wasn't turned up enough due to the guy who was doing sound (mic was routed through the auditorium's speakers instead of one of our speakers) so our singer couldn't hear himself very well... despite that it wasn't too bad of a show once we got all the tech. difficulties sorted out.

Donovant22

Nice. My friend's band had a their first gig (with their current lineup) at a battle of the bands at a school.
The violinist (it was an irish punk rock band) went to the school and told us (I was the roadie) as we were going in, "There's a cell phone jammer so if you need to make calls you have to go outside." Which was fine.

So they get all their stuff onstage and start playing their set. A Dropkick Murphys song, a Flogging Molly song, and an original. As soon as they start playing, the lead guitarist's amp starts acting up and we can't figure out why.

Then we remember he has a wireless connection and the cell phone jammer. It was screwing with the connection. So between the first and second song he replugs it in some way that the whining was not as bad.

Somehow, after they sucked through three songs, they still finished 4th out of 11. Pretty much because everyone else couldn't play their instruments or finish a song.

Nietsche

Welcome to the world of school battle of the bands.

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Zinnie

Haha my bands first gig, nothing really went wrong with us. There were 4 'bands'. 2 bands and 2 solo preformers. First was our friend who did an acoustic thing. He messed up 3 times in a song, and decided to start over. After a few more fails, he just quit that song and move on to another. Then we were up, we didnt really have any practice at all, this was all of our first gigs. We were invited last minute, and only had one song, our first original Dawn of a New age. It went over fairly well I must say, except our bassist didnt know what he was doing =/ He wasnt turned up loud anyway, so no one heard him when he totally forgot our... 2 note progression xD. The restof the show was awesome, our friends Punk band kicked ass, and their drummer did an outragous dum solo out of no where. Show generated about 300$ for the AMerican Cancer society. I wa happy with it

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cheapr2keepr

Played parties many years ago in college that were a means to get free beer and get laid.

After a hiatus of almost 20 years, my first gig was a nervewracking experience. I had 4 songs, singing and playing guitar. A Dokken cover was the first song, but I should've gone with an easier confidence builder since the George Lynch leads were more demanding.

It went fairly well. I remembered every note I screwed up even though no one else did. I had to restrain myself from playing too fast because my worked up nerves were somehow pushing me to finish as soon as possible.

After it was done, I could barely sleep that night I was so pumped up. It felt amazing.

Donovant22

QFT. No kidding.

My school's Battle of the Bands is on the high end of them. They are actually 4 competant bands in it every year.

soja82

my first gig was really horrible. at my 6th grade picnic, i played in front of a whole bunch of people. parents teachers students and a girl i liked. she was in the front row. i played the best song my band could play. what i've done by linkin park. it was really embarrasing. my friends made me play acoustic. while they all played distorted guitars, i was the idiot playing. i hated it. i brought all the equipment. amps, keybordm guitars. i didn't even get a solo. i worked the hardest. the girl i like doesn't like me because of the concert. it's not my fault. i'm way better than the band. they goofed off at practice, did take things seriously. i quit the band 1 month after this gig. i'm looking forward to see their down fall. they don't have a place to practice anymore, or a pa, or amps, or a guy who works his a** off practicing a chord progression while they all talk about were gonna be famous. i know it.

Declan87

My first gig with my second band was at a 40th birthday, opening for a jazz band. We played really well, but that gig is generally accepted as the benchmark for "rocked-too-hard"

Then our second gig was at a 60th, but we didnt find out till we got there

We've learned to choose our battles since then

Pyrotechie

You know all the people out there saying how you should play for yourself, and not for pussy?



Yeah, they're all facepalming after reading this.

DeepPurplefan69

My first gig was kinda odd, it was about a year ago.Our band only had three people in it, lead guitarist, bassist and me(rhythm guitar and vocals) Our lead guitarist's grandfather worked at this local opry house ( I live in Tennessee) and he wanted us to play there. So our first problem was that we weren't a bluegrass band but we weren't about to pass up our first gig! So we figured we would play some southern rock songs and they would be happy with that. So we learned 5 songs and got we all knew them pretty well, except for the bassist. We thought that wouldn't be a problem and we would just turn down his amp.

So its now the night of the show we get on the stage after this incredible bluegrass band so were a bit nervous. The sound guy working they're sets up the microphones for our guitars and lets the bassist set up his amp. So here comes the big problems. The sound guy didn't turn on my microphone (I think because the band before us didn't use it) So for the first half of the first song you couldn't here me singing. He finally comes and turns it on but we still have a problem. The bassist is louder than any of us and is obviously just playing random notes and it goes on for all five songs. And at the end off it all they didn't like us anyway because we didn't play bluegrass.

herman ri2

Your the kind of guitar players that I hate with a passion.

asator

ontopic:
My first full gig outside of school went rather smoothly. Apart from one of our originals which we wrote the day before and learned inside the venue while the first band were on...

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