Definitely had my confidence boosted.

Pimento

Senior Member
Well las week my band played our first "stage" show together for a local promoter. There were 3 other bands, and being the new comers we were first. Of course it was also the long weekend so it was a small crowd turn out (metal shows here are usually packed, but long weekend everybody goes camping .etc lol) but it was a blast!

While we were loading in and setting up i kind of got teased (friendly) by the other bands about my larger drum kit (7 piece gretsch with a bunch of brass) and being somebody who has never been 100% confident in his own drumming i was starting to get nervous as hell.

The whole band gets on stage, sound guys mic up the kitj and we start sound check, so of course im on the spot kinda soloing for all these musicians lol. So i whip out some beats, do some rolls, play my cymbals and were ready to play.

Our monitors all die during the set, few minor screw ups, but nothing big and we KILLED. The promoter was asked to set up a show for us to headline, and informed us the next day that the general opinion was that we were just too good to play first in future shows.

My wife was in the crowd with my Zoom, filming us, and people walked up to her constantly complimenting my drumming, telling her i had awesome timing and an ability to bring out certain song accents that just made the tunes what they were.

And for the first time i had the sound guys, people in the audience, and every other drummer there tell me how good both my kit (especially my snare) sounded, even had a few of the other drummers have me look at their kits and help them tune a bit before they played that night. My band was complimented also for our professional and friendly attitude during load in and load out. We have been asked to join a fairly popular band in a small tour that theyre doing to a few towns in our area as well :)

So all in all for having a drummer who thought the other guys would blow him out of the water and a bass player and guitarist who have never played on a stage before, im on a complete high from that show and while not everyone digs our music, its nice to know theres a group out there now who is just nuts about it now
 
That's just about the best outcome I could've dreamed up for someone's first show.

Huge congratulations, looks like the start of something good.
 
That's a really good way to start drumming. I hope I'll a nice start too when I start performing in front of an audience. Such a start surely increases your confidence a lot. Well done buddy.
 
Great! It's all downhill from here! I'm kidding!

Seriously awesome post. That's the high you will be chasing the rest of your life. Love hearing these kinds of stories. You must have really kicked it to get that kind of response for an unproven opening act.
 
That's awesome! Good job!

I was fortunate enough to have a similar experience my first gig ever as well. (just a few years ago)

Ride the high, it's the main reason I play!

Just remember, all gigs are fun, not all will be gems however :D
 
Though I don't personally care much for the guttural scream you were right, it did seem like a good first show.

If you had any control over the sound you might bump up vocals. Even purposely hard to understand lyrics should be easy to hear amiright?

Lead singer might want to take a cue from the first row- have fun with the music for cripes sake! In that genre he should be head banging right back at them, (and keeping better time imo)
 
Well heres what happened....the guys setting up on stage plugged the lights in, and it blew the breaker for all the monitors, where our singer was he couldnt hear a thing, because the kick drum was cranked way high. He did really good considering the sound situation.

Those are just 2 songs, we played 6 more and during most of those he was walking around in the mosh pit and moshing/head banging lol
 
definitely not my cup of tea, but I'm glad that the first gig went so well for you!
 
Thanks for the support guys, i know its not everyones style, but we dig it, and apparently more than drunks at house parties dig it too lol!

Bo, in my previous post i put up both an origonal track (the most screw ups we had that night...half way through my monitor, being the only one that worked, went out and i lost everything lol so i got a bit lost) and i also put up our cover of the Beastie Boys- Fight for your right.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C-NLBrgdk4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcMz9...feature=relmfu
 
Also i know its hard to hear (little Zoom only does sooo much) but any comments on my drum sound would be appreciated, i am always looking to improve.

I have more videos to post, and will start a thread in Your Playing where it belongs where i move around a bit more, but am having a hell of a time uploading stuff to youtube at the moment.
 
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