Drinking beer at a gig

A regular topic...

I've enjoyed a beer - or two - at almost every gig I've played over the last 30-odd years.

I play in a weekend bar band. I want to play well and I don't drink too much.

But I do want to relax, and enjoy myself too. I'm with my mates and I've been doing my day job all week.

However, if I was in a professional drumming situation, where it was my full-time job, and people had paid to get in, I wouldn't drink at a gig.

Until afterwards anyway!
 
Been playing in bar bands for the better part of 20 years, I’ve had my fair share of drunken failures but I learned from them. Haven’t had more than two beers at a show in years, the rest of the guys pound em down and nobody noticed but me. If I mess up everyone notices, sucks being the backbone
 
Alcohol generally has the quality that it makes you less nervous, and more adventurous. In the right dose, it can make you perform better because it relieves your nerves, while not significantly impairing your ability to focus on what you are doing.
 
Chance would be a fine thing!!
Saturday's gig saw us setting up in 27c heat (that was outside, inside was warmer) which is extremely unusual for NE England. The pub advertised a fine selection of cask ales so a cool one an hour before playing was the carrot at the end of the set up stick. There were no IPAs or APAs on draught but there was an interesting looking local blonde beer. After pulling out pints of pipe clearing solution that beer itself was too fizzy tasting (actually I think it was off) so I declined. Next was a national branded ale. The tap sputtered, they'd ran out. At which point I'd exhausted their entire "range". So generic lager it was then. At least the water was nice when I was playing.
 
We played a festival this weekend in the Cincinnati area and I had a beer while staging gear while the band before us was playing their last set. Temperatures were in the 90s, humidity was high, and we were surrounded by blacktop.

I was pounding water all through the first set when I could. When we went on break, the promoter bought me a beer. It lasted the 2nd set, 3rd set, gear tear down, and load out. I was so hot and miserable I just couldn't drink it. I really wanted to. The spirit was willing but the flesh was week. (h/t Zapp Brannigan).
 
I find, unfortunately, that super clean living in general keeps me in the best mood, most energy and endurance, and keeps my mind the most open to artistic expression and general grooviness.

I dont drink anymore anyway because my body decided abour a decade ago that it couldnt handle it (a different story). But I'm at my best, especially at shows, when i avoid any other drugs or smoking, sugar, starchy food, or any food within a few hours of playing.

Kinda sucks really because i enjoy all those things, but the evidence is clear at this point. I find I'm actually more likely to enter into an ecstatic inebriated state, while still being focused, without any external sitmuli.
 
Woolwich said:
Chance would be a fine thing!!
Saturday's gig saw us setting up in 27c heat (that was outside, inside was warmer) which is extremely unusual for NE England. The pub advertised a fine selection of cask ales so a cool one an hour before playing was the carrot at the end of the set up stick. There were no IPAs or APAs on draught but there was an interesting looking local blonde beer. After pulling out pints of pipe clearing solution that beer itself was too fizzy tasting (actually I think it was off) so I declined. Next was a national branded ale. The tap sputtered, they'd ran out. At which point I'd exhausted their entire "range". So generic lager it was then. At least the water was nice when I was playing.
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Places we play are always fine, real ale, establishments.

With my campervan being usually parked outside, I find the temptation to be too good. I'm very weak.

All I will say to those considerably more stronger willed than me, if I drink about 8 pints I find my drumming comes back into time.
 
I have a ritual I always stick to, one pint of beer directly after the set is over. Nothing crazy strong, No drinking during the actual set. For that it’s water. I am usually driving so more than one pint would be pushing my luck. I have been stopped a couple of times on the 2 am run home no way I am risking my life or others or my driving licence.
 
My band has a 2-3 drink limit before gigs.. Sometimes on a 4 or 5 band show we don't go on until 12:30 or 1AM. If load in is around 8 that is a LOONNNNG time to sit there doing nothing.. It would be pretty boring to not have a beer watching the others, but also dangerous to not have a limit. We have a member who has gone past that limit and seeing many of our gigs are videotaped, he won't do it again as you can see the mistakes.

I prefer to have 1 on stage. I agree that for me it's an event/party. I am having a blast up there and I can enjoy a beer. I don't find it unprofessional. If I was playing a wedding gig, or some coffee shop sure, but we are playing bars and playing punk/metal.

I have personally gone over that limit in my younger years and my playing suffered. WHAT you are playing greatly determines how many you can get away with. In my extreme metal band I will have one or two max. I am playing at my absolute TOP speed and endurance levels. It would be like drinking a 6 pack and going for a workout or a run. You definitely would not be 100%. There are many people who say they play BETTER after having drinks and I also disagree with that. Maybe one to loosen up, but no ones coordination actually improves and there are plenty of tests to prove this. (unless you are an alcoholic calming your shakes). It's the same as people saying they drive better after a few drinks. NOPE. On that note, If I was playing cover songs at a rock bar, I COULD probibly get away with drinking 6 as I wouldn't be pushing my body so hard, but I would probibly still cap it at 3 or 4 to not play sloppy.

It's all about reading the audicance, venue, your body and playing and what you want to get out of it. For me I wan't to play tight. I would get embarrassed if I play like crap infront of a large audience. Rather than drink beers these days I am warming up on a practice pad. For me the celebration starts AFTER we are done and I am sweaty and thirsty :)

EDIT: the celebration is at my place after the gear is dropped off. unless We are gear sharing and I get a ride. I am also anti drinking and driving.
 
I'm more concerned about late night gigs. I don't want to get stopped by the police at 2 AM driving home after drinking in a bar all night. Just two or three beers could be a problem.
 
Learned a few years back from former Denver drumshop owner and current Sabian field rep Bob Rupp, to bypass the beers while on the bandstand. "Drummers have to stay fast", he would say, and I've taken that advice to heart. Complicating matters is our altitude in Colorado, where it's real easy to get dehydrated, especially while drinking. I might have a beer while packing up at the end of a gig, but that's it. No alcohol for moi, while playing, just H2O.
 
I look at it like, to each his own. I understand when your doing big gigs you want to sound your best. I also don't like someone telling me I can't have a beer. I am old enough and been performing a long long time and don't need a daddy telling me or imposing their will on me. Most of my drumming gigs are outside gigs and in Florida. I enjoy drinking draft beer and playing. The venue gives us free beer. I think anyone who has been playing professionally for many years years knows their tolerance level. You just have to know what is expected of you in a given venue.
 
1 to 2 beers to calm my nerves is great. Feel nice a chilled out.

That said, I am currently in a thrash metal band, all in our 20's, we have no aspirations other than making loud music and having fun... and drinking lots of beer :)

Its very unusual to be anywhere near sober while playing live in that band. And, we still get called to do gigs, so we can't be that bad!
 
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