Why am I so shit live?

hotpickups

It's quite human. I did one almighty cock up at my last gig and I've been playing that song and in bands for years. I simply forgot the song/riff and even had to do the absolute unforgivable and stop the song. We just went straight into the next song in the set. It won't happen again though.... well not to THAT song anyway

northern_guit

nerves are good, it's healthy to be nervous, gets your adrenalin going. I remember not having gigged for ten years and one was coming up. I was so scared I didn't sleep for a week prior to it. A good friend came along to it and before hand I told him I was shit scared. He was very in to hypnotherapy and asked where I was standing on stage. " just up there on the left " I said. he said " Ah right, so everyone will be looking at the singer in the middle then ". that's all he had to say, it worked and I felt more relaxed. It isn't easy but as jack Black said in School Of Rock, " Loosy goosy ". Drop your shoulders and remember what some of these other comments say, most of the audience have no clue as to what you're doing and wouldn't know if you're dropping clangers. I play all my best lead breaks at home to no-one, that's how it is sometimes. Another piece of philosophy I stick with came from Les Paul who said " it doesn't matter how good you think you are, there's a ten year old kid round the corner who will frighten the life out of you ". That helped me too. You may as well just crack on and try and enjoy it and remember it's you on stage having a go. 

hotpickups

northern_guit said:

nerves are good, it's healthy to be nervous, gets your adrenalin going. I remember not having gigged for ten years and one was coming up. I was so scared I didn't sleep for a week prior to it. A good friend came along to it and before hand I told him I was shit scared. He was very in to hypnotherapy and asked where I was standing on stage. " just up there on the left " I said. he said " Ah right, so everyone will be looking at the singer in the middle then ". that's all he had to say, it worked and I felt more relaxed. It isn't easy but as jack Black said in School Of Rock, " Loosy goosy ". Drop your shoulders and remember what some of these other comments say, most of the audience have no clue as to what you're doing and wouldn't know if you're dropping clangers. I play all my best lead breaks at home to no-one, that's how it is sometimes. Another piece of philosophy I stick with came from Les Paul who said " it doesn't matter how good you think you are, there's a ten year old kid round the corner who will frighten the life out of you ". That helped me too. You may as well just crack on and try and enjoy it and remember it's you on stage having a go. 

I agree. Let go and have fun and who cares if you corpse during a gig etc. Even the best guitarist have done it I'm sure. When you think about it whats the worse that can happen really? Otherwise we'll all be bedroom guitarists if we listened to that inner demon who wants us to cock up Go for it like you don't care

hubobulous

I remember going to an Iron Maiden gig in the late 80s. They played Phantom of the Opera, (which was awesome), and I remember Adrian Smith being a fret or two out with his ascending run on the intro. I still remember it, but it doesn't cloud the fact that it was an awesome gig.

I went the night afterwards as well and they nailed it, but can't say the overall gig was better for it :-)

vasselmeyer

hotpickups said:

It's quite human. I did one almighty cock up at my last gig and I've been playing that song and in bands for years. I simply forgot the song/riff and even had to do the absolute unforgivable and stop the song. We just went straight into the next song in the set. It won't happen again though.... well not to THAT song anyway

I did the same last gig. We were playing The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and I actually forgot the song in the middle of playing it. I've been playing that song for thirty years and, let's face it, it's hardly difficult. Luckily we have two guitarists in our band so I bent down and fiddled with my pedalboard as if there was something wrong with it until I was able to watch his fingers and remind myself of the song.

hotpickups

vasselmeyer said:

hotpickups said:

It's quite human. I did one almighty cock up at my last gig and I've been playing that song and in bands for years. I simply forgot the song/riff and even had to do the absolute unforgivable and stop the song. We just went straight into the next song in the set. It won't happen again though.... well not to THAT song anyway

I did the same last gig. We were playing The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and I actually forgot the song in the middle of playing it. I've been playing that song for thirty years and, let's face it, it's hardly difficult. Luckily we have two guitarists in our band so I bent down and fiddled with my pedalboard as if there was something wrong with it until I was able to watch his fingers and remind myself of the song.

LOL I just blamed my tuning to save face

jd0272

vasselmeyer said:

hotpickups said:

It's quite human. I did one almighty cock up at my last gig and I've been playing that song and in bands for years. I simply forgot the song/riff and even had to do the absolute unforgivable and stop the song. We just went straight into the next song in the set. It won't happen again though.... well not to THAT song anyway

I did the same last gig. We were playing The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and I actually forgot the song in the middle of playing it. I've been playing that song for thirty years and, let's face it, it's hardly difficult. Luckily we have two guitarists in our band so I bent down and fiddled with my pedalboard as if there was something wrong with it until I was able to watch his fingers and remind myself of the song.

Two guitarists are handy, I'm always covering swiftly when his digi set up goes to the wall. Every gig...

JayGee

hotpickups said:

vasselmeyer said:

hotpickups said:

It's quite human. I did one almighty cock up at my last gig and I've been playing that song and in bands for years. I simply forgot the song/riff and even had to do the absolute unforgivable and stop the song. We just went straight into the next song in the set. It won't happen again though.... well not to THAT song anyway

I did the same last gig. We were playing The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and I actually forgot the song in the middle of playing it. I've been playing that song for thirty years and, let's face it, it's hardly difficult. Luckily we have two guitarists in our band so I bent down and fiddled with my pedalboard as if there was something wrong with it until I was able to watch his fingers and remind myself of the song.

LOL I just blamed my tuning to save face

I have a feeling this may be quite common. I've done it with the riff for Superstition (which I'm supposed to kick off) about three times in the last couple of months and had to frantically signal the bass player to kick the song off (and then watch his fingers, etc, etc).

The worst thing is that (for me at least) when it happens once I'm tense as hell every time the song comes up and this makes it about ten times more likely to happen again... :-(

viz

It sometimes helps to have an internal icebreaker. To defuse the intensity of the situation. That adrenalin feeling while you're waiting in the wings before your big entrance is cool, sure, but it can be so much easier if you're not too hyped. I remember one time we were doing a gig at a party. We all walked on amid smoke and lights and I started my intro, all swirly and spacey with lots of delayed pitch shift and slow gear swells. Not the sort of thing you can stop and start again. I was nervous. We all were, it was an important gig. Then halfway through my bit, just before the rest of the band came in with The Cult's Wildflower we saw our keyboard player pushing his way through the crowd towards us, his trousers down by his knees, trying to pull them up and do his belt at the same time, a strange frantic look on his face. Everyone had been so nervous we hadn't noticed he wasn't with us, he was in the bog at the back of the venue. That somehow took all the nerves away.

robkay

I played a gig with a band and comedian one night, the comedian was about 20 stone and wore a rubbery catsuit...he looked a real &ick, i always thought whatever happened i couldn't look as sick as that, so if i get nervous i just remember that night and it all goes away.

Rob

hotpickups

Oi! I thought it looked quite good on me. Quite slimming in fact

robkay;346491" said:

I played a gig with a band and comedian one night, the comedian was about 20 stone and wore a rubbery catsuit...he looked a real &ick, i always thought whatever happened i couldn't look as sick as that, so if i get nervous i just remember that night and it all goes away.Rob

mudslide73

hubobulous;346159" said:

I remember going to an Iron Maiden gig in the late 80s. They played Phantom of the Opera, (which was awesome), and I remember Adrian Smith being a fret or two out with his ascending run on the intro. )

I saw Brian May stand on his lead while doing his Brighton Rock showpiece. Also I saw Jeff Beck do a couple of flubs when I saw him. Anything can happen.. it's how you view it and deal with it that counts.

Roland

hotpickups said: Even the best guitarist have done it I'm sure. When you think about it whats the worse that can happen really? 

Cilla Black once stopped mid song on a live television broadcast because she'd forgotten the words

thomasross20

Never mind live... last night I plugged and and my 3rd finger and pinky weren't doing anything, and my picking went to sh!t - it was like I'd gone back 15 years and started all over again lol! 

Voxman

Bidley, I can't remember how many times I've forgotten stuff!  Happens to everyone mate, especially old fogies like me...its called having a 'senior moment' )  

The whole fun of playing live is that stuff just happens - I just posted a clip on another thread here, where we got 'pitch-invaded' on 'Mustang Sally' & had to adlib the arrangement, and cope with a duff PA that kept conking out (forcing me to go backline with a little amp)...and the audience still enjoyed it and didn't give a monkeys!  As long as everyone has a good time, what the heck. 

thomasross20 said " Never mind live... last night I plugged and and my 3rd finger and pinky weren't doing anything, and my picking went to sh!t - it was like I'd gone back 15 years and started all over again lol!   "  Thomas - you've been watching my technique haven't you!   )

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/24168/post-live-videos-of-your-band-here#latest

 

thomasross20

Hahaha, good stuff (edit - your singer is lovely lol!)!!!

Great thread, that!! 8) 8)