It occurred to me how weird it was that Joe Satriani has played live for a great many years always with sunglasses on. I would have thought that it would make it more difficult to play?
His reason:
"The sunglasses thing happened as a joke. I surprised my band one tour by showing up with my head shaved. And they were so horrified that they said I had to wear a hat and glasses or they wouldn’t stop laughing on stage. Then I realized that having that curtain to hide behind allowed me to be more creative and feel less self-conscious. My buddy Sammy Hagar feels the same way. He says he can't go on stage without sunglasses because he's so embarrassed to be a singer. He's the last person you’d expect to think that way."
Slash is another wearer:
"I rarely look out at the crowd. It makes me very uncomfortable to look directly into the face of the crowd. I'm in my own little world, playing my guitar. I play from the heart - but it's very insular. I think it was just a hangover thing that turns into an everyday thing. Now, wherever you go, everybody's got camera phones, taking your picture, and you just end up never taking the shades off."
I don't play live myself, but I hate situations in life when I'm the centre of attention and people look at me (eg my wedding!), so I think if I ever played live I would have to get some sunglasses and get practicing with them!
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I think I've done it once but now I'd need varifocal prescription sunglasses otherwise it would effectively root me to the spot.
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I wear glasses all the time which is more my “thing”, I guess. That said, I rarely step outside in daylight without sunglasses, so I would be fairly happy to indoors as well if it felt appropriate to a specific band
Stage lights can be really bright.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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I've never worn them for a gig though. Think I'd sweat too much and wouldn't be able to see
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Gregory Porter is another person who does this!
Years ago my band played a gig in a marquee in a farmers field for some kind of family occasion. It had been a warm sunny day, so I wore my sunglasses (prescription) to get there and setup. Come the evening I couldn't find my actual glasses in the car so I had no choice but to wear my sunglasses all evening.
Driving home at 1am in the dark was......interesting!
I found my specs the following day under a seat in the car.
Duh!
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
I'm second from the right, just in case any of you were wondering what I look like.