How do you deal with a bad gig?

K

Kaiser

Member
I played a wedding on Thursday night last. We played for 4 hours, the sound was terrible, and I couldnt get hold of a good groove until the last hour or so. I usually enjoy my gigs but I felt rotten after that one. How do you deal with nights like that?
 
Move on, there will be others. A bad gig is still better than a good day working.
 
belive me i feel you on that one, im my own worst critic.ive started taping every gig i do now good and bad. i watch the videos afterwards the good are another happy notch in my belt and the bad are something that can be analyzed and used to identify the holes in my playing. you just have to learn from the bad ones,and as said above our job is great ,ive never had so much fun screwing up or kicking ass.
 
HI Joeysnare, that sounds like a great idea, dont know if I could face watching myself play though! Probalby end up hiding behind the couch!
 
Bad gigs are bummers and leave you feeling pretty hollow. But my thing as Tutin said, is to record the gig.
You want to be a good gigging musician? have have to record yourself every time if you can.
Not so much for its acoustic clarity but a reference point of who was doing what and when. It really a working tool.. work in progress if you will.

It separates perception from reality, " How good you played..." from "...how good you actually sounded"

But here'sthe interesting thing I've experienced over my years of gigging. There are times when I thought we really sucked and were rushing or not musical enough, and then you hear the recording and it all sounds great and the people come up to you and surprise you by saying "hey, you guys sounded incredible" etc..

AND VICE VERSA...

So many times we though we were in the pocket and smokin', and then sure enough, the tell tale tape recording clearly told us a different story...


moral of the story; get yourself a little tape recorder.
 
But here's something interesting I've experienced over a few years of gigging. There are times when I thought we really sucked and were rushing or not musical enough, and then you hear the recording and it all sounds great and the people come up to you and surprise you by saying "hey, you guys sounded incredible" etc..
QUOTE]

Hi aydee, thats the mad thing, we actually got two bookings from that wedding and some of them said we were great, I thought it must be the drink talking!
 
Kaiser said:
But here's something interesting I've experienced over a few years of gigging. There are times when I thought we really sucked and were rushing or not musical enough, and then you hear the recording and it all sounds great and the people come up to you and surprise you by saying "hey, you guys sounded incredible" etc..
QUOTE]

Hi aydee, thats the mad thing, we actually got two bookings from that wedding and some of them said we were great, I thought it must be the drink talking!
Click to expand...

There you go! What you do and what you think you do are very different sometimes..

AND trust me.... nobody ever noticed or gave a rats behind about the flubbed triplet or the tentative fill or the missed entrance to the outro...etc.

As long as you play with passion and feel and enjoy the music........chances are they'll feel it too.

and remember to test yourself the morning after, and fix the flubs for the next one with that little cheapo tape recorder that you're gonna get tomorrow from Walmart. ; ) good luck.
 
Last edited:
My band members are all 15, so we can't drive and its hard for us to play in bars (but we do). The last 2 gigs we have had, we promoted the balls of it. Unfortunately, the other 2 bands did not. We ended up bringing out 10 people (which is awful...) and they brought out none (or maybe some came out after we played, but I'm not sure). It was overall 2 bad shows and we havent booked one since. We played our asses off both times because as any musician knows, every gig counts, but next time we will try to not book on a school night AND promote even more (which will be hard)...
 
Hi agressivec, when I played in a band in school we had the same problem getting people to turn up. And after one gig our self-appointed 'manager' made off with the takings!
 
Kaiser said:
......"hey, you guys sounded incredible".......the mad thing, we actually got two bookings from that wedding and some of them said we were great, I thought it must be the drink talking!
Click to expand...
That's the key. Leave the crowd happy. "They" didn't know "you guys sucked".....keep that "your" little secret. We are our own worst critics. Get past that, you guys got 2 bookings off a lousy show. Sweet.
 
harryconway said:
That's the key. Leave the crowd happy. "They" didn't know "you guys sucked".....keep that "your" little secret. We are our own worst critics. Get past that, you guys got 2 bookings off a lousy show. Sweet.
Click to expand...

Very true harryconway, I thought we would have been chased out of the hotel!

Loads of beer. Of course, that is probably why I had a bad gig in the first place.

I cant use that excuse unfortunately DrummerDavid as I just cant play at all when I've been drinking!
 
Had a bad gig in your mind ? Get over it, it'll happen again sooner than you expect and you can never prepare enough for those times that are uncomfortable.
I have learned that when it comes to the finer nuances of a performance, the onstage perspective is the absolute worse place to make a determination on how the band sounds or feels. Your at the source of the sound that is projected away from you.
At any one time or another the feel onstage may change because your not hearing an instrument that you normally do, or there is a different acoustic vibe happening.
Prepare yourself well enough that you can perform your material without anyone else in the room and then don't sweat the small stuff, have a good time and it will be a good performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top