Any advice for the first gig?

- breathe deeply
- hydrate well
- go to toilet just before you play
- stay away from any caffeine

- I you have to drink alcohol save it until after the gig and remember to bring protection.
 
Nice one dude! 350 people and you bossed it? Haha, epic.
I was in the same situation 2 month ago. Although it wasn't the bands first gig, but it was still mine. We've never played to 300+ people though haha, ours was more around 30-40 in a pub. I was nervous beforehand, as I didn't really know one certain song as well as I should have, but I went on to do it all good :)

Oh! Make some notes on some A4 paper - such as the Setlist, what you're doing in the songs (notations) and most importantly, the song structure (how many bars in verse/chorus etc)... Then use some Masking Tape and tape it on your snare. Depending on how good your snare is, it might make it sound better to haha.. It does with mine.

Just a quick Double Jack & Coke beforehand and a toilet break then I was ready to go. I was dreading that first gig, but with 3 gigs now to my name, I'm now looking forward to future gigs! Haha

Preparation, that's all it takes :)
 
Yea Dale I used just about everyone's advice lol. 3 posts up I posted the experience. As far as the jack and coke man I had a straight shot of jack right before we went on to kill the nerves and push some energy and it worked perfectly! That will definitely be a usual...
 
One thing that really stands out to me is when a band can transition between songs in a setlist. Don't have a lot of dead air between songs. Try and string 2 or 3 songs together with minimal dead time between songs. Anything longer than 10 seconds is too long. This keeps the singer from talking nonsense to fill up the silence, which always comes off as amateur. And then when you do have dead time between songs (like when switching guitars or taking a quick breather for a drink or whatever) make sure your singer has something to say, and not just talking for the sake of talking.

Above all, relax and have fun.
 
Haha, good man!
Times are hard these days and I usually have no money, so I just have the cheapest whiskey available haha....or a shot of Jäger, either way :p
 
Any advice for the first gig?

Have fun and don't get too nervous!
 
- breathe deeply
- hydrate well
- go to toilet just before you play
- stay away from any caffeine

- I you have to drink alcohol save it until after the gig and remember to bring protection.

I take it that's hearing protection, as in my experience the only hump you'll get will be humping your gear back to the car.... :0(
 
Since you guys took the time to give me advice I wanted to let you know how it went. Well I had a drum rug marked where stands go and there were cables running all over underneath so had to wing it, had inner ear monitors that I had rehearsed with and the sound guy didn't have a place to hook them up and was nervous as hell before going on with a sold out 350 there....that being said.....I NAILED IT!!! Once I started it was like autopilot and the biggest adrenaline rush ever!!!! It was amazing I was wailing and rockin the crowd tossing drum sticks and interacting... thank you guys so much for preparing me. For all that didnt go as planned I sucked it up and killed it. It was a bttle of the bands and our band got a huge crowd reaction and were selected to go on to the final round!!!!!

Glad it went well!

-Aside from all of the great stuff people have posted is something that I always remind myself of...the people are there to see you because the LIKE YOU....they are not waiting for you to drop a stick...or forget a part...they are there because they like your music. As you said....things do not always go as planed! There is no such thing as over prepared, in fact, the best way to calm nerves is to know that even if you were blindfolded and could hear nothing but your drums you would play spot on. Always. Always. Always look at the other players and have fun! Keeping contact with the other musicians is a great way to easy everyone's nerves :)
 
I take it that's hearing protection, as in my experience the only hump you'll get will be humping your gear back to the car.... :0(

Hahaha, well pointed out! That's true!
 
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