# Finally had our first show, now tell me about yours



## LaceFaceCobain (May 18, 2010)

After a year of preparation we finally had our first show. I will upload the video asap. But it was awesome. I grabbed a guys face and told him to get in the pit even though there really wasn't a pit. He came up to me and said it was "Brutal as fuck" afterward. We screwed up a little bit in transitions and our lead guitarist sped up for whatever reason (I think he was nervous and slipping into bad habits) and apparently no one could hear anyone, but not a bad first show. 

In any case, I want to hear about your first shows, because I am so curious to hear about everyone else's moment of joy.


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## Arminius (May 18, 2010)

My cable came out during a solo. It was like air guitar, but with a real guitar.


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## ttr398 (May 19, 2010)

I can't really remember if it was my first show, if it wasn't it was like my second. It was pretty hilarious, my rhythm guitarist was stoned off her tits beforehand and was totally useless during. Was pretty okay though, on the plus side barely anyone we knew turned up!


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## cronux (May 20, 2010)

first show...

goddamn... in some shithole in my homecountry... got drunk, fell off some stairs in the club, my string broke during our first song, the amp that i borrowed blew smoke half way through our set and everybody had to go out of the club because it looked like ww2 with all the smoke going on(it was some old marshall combo with 4 tubes, it had a hole where the tubes were at the end of the day)... but a descent show


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## Marmaduke (May 21, 2010)

I had my first real gig a couple of weeks ago, alright little venue. Went ok, not much brutality going down but it was tight and we've been asked to play at 3 gigs by people that went to that one so it can't have been too bad


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## flawlesswarrior (May 21, 2010)

First show started amazing went great everything was well timed and was very happy with it. Then as it was over i was moving my amp back and my 6505 half stack feel down and slammed onto the ground and was broken. I was freaking out at first until i found out it was only my tubes that needed to be replaced still cost me money but i got lucky could have been a whole lot worse lol.


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## Varcolac (May 22, 2010)

Well, I guess our first gig was all right. Since then, however, my guitar's decided to stop functioning on-stage half way through our last song, a horrendous Line 6 amplifier has shuffled off this mortal coil at about the same point in a different gig, the "world's most controversial industrial band" tried pulling a Keith Moon on our drummer's kit, and I've managed to destroy a hitherto indestructible Peavey amp simply by plugging in for a soundcheck. Fortunately I live a five-minute drive from that venue so me and the drummer made a hasty trip to pick up my Marshall as a replacement. 

I have had a double bass bridge break during a bass solo with a former band though. That was awkward. Managed to borrow a crappy Fender J-bass copy from a support band and finish the set, because I'm the most rock and roll person ever to play in a '60s revival ska band.


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## noob_pwn (May 22, 2010)

my first show in my current band was awesome,
We had a demo up for a few weeks prior and there were a lot of people interested in seeing us play. The venue was this small club with a good stage and we were opening on a bill with some really good locals, the place was packed out and we played really well. No big issues at all, was a great way to kick things off for us. Our preparation was a bit rushed, we only had the band as a full lineup together for about 4 weeks prior but we worked our asses off and it paid its dues.


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## jymellis (May 23, 2010)

it was about 16 years ago. my drummers drum hardware stripped out when setting up, we rigged it together and it fell apart halfway through the second song. thats right after my bass players amp decided to go out. i instantly jumped off the ankle high stage a started a huge mob style fist fight with a random group of people from some other school that i had NO idea who they where. gotta be remembered for somethin if the show was shit


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## ittoa666 (May 23, 2010)

My first sho was pretty sweet, other than the fact that my guitar was out of tune for the first couple songs.....which has (thankfully) never happened again.


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## JohnIce (May 23, 2010)

My first gig wasn't that bad from our side... but playing 2 progressive metal songs as an intermission during a disco for 14-year olds wasn't the best outlet, perhaps...


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## Bloody_Inferno (May 23, 2010)

My first real gig was with my first band about 10 years ago now. It was in an outdoor festival with other local bands. I wore a jester suit and hat as well (Limp Bizkit had just released Significant Other so we jumped that bandwagon ). 

We also gave whistles to the audience to cheer us on, but they just ended up throwing them at us. Probably because the rest of the bands (all punk/pop) and us pretty much hated each other, I don't think they took it kindly when my singer dissed all of them.


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## signalgrey (May 23, 2010)

was so nervous i had to sing using my note book. did all the songs wrong. got boo'ed off stage. brutal. harsh and valuable lesson to learn.


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## AVWIII (May 24, 2010)

Our first show went flawlessly, other than there was only PA support for vocals and we couldn't hear ourselves. luckily we practiced three-four days a week for three months prior and had all the songs permanently burned into our memories. We brought the crowd, and unfortunately they left when we were done.


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## Vairocarnal (May 25, 2010)

My drummer was 30 minutes late to a gig so we proved that sometimes you just need a quickie.


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## Daken1134 (May 25, 2010)

haha not necissarily my first "gig" but me and a really good friend of mine who is an AMAZING musician, best guitarist ive ever met, composed a crazy duo where the whole thing was both of us doing two hand tapping, it was a talent show (it was highschool) but we were the only musically inclined poeple in the whole school, nailed everything sounded amazing couldnt have been happier. hit the last note and looked up and everyone was silent cause NO ONE knew wat the hell just happend. it was funny as hell, my first real gig in my last touring band i played bass, in the middle of part of a slap line my G popped, just started laughing, first time ide ever broken a bass string, but besides that it went just fine,


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## Demiurge (May 27, 2010)

First show was a multi-band "benefit show." A friend of mine signs us up. I wrote 2 songs, he wrote one and we somewhat work out a cover. No bassist, no drummer. The day before the show, my friend gets a keyboardist to basically play a synth pad for the root note of whatever chords we'd play but we never rehearse. Not very promising....

Day of the show, butterflies in the stomach... and my friend decides to dress like Robin Finck and the keyboardist decides that she has stagefright and needs to cover up. My friend gives her a druid-looking robe. I should have shot myself in the fucking head right then and there. It was pretty much the worst thing that ever happened musically and it looked terrible, too.


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## Scarpie (May 28, 2010)

Hmmm lets see, i was 15, played guitar for about 6 months and in my first band. We were playing a local festival at an amphitheater and during first note of first song, i broke my A string, by the end of the song i broke my D string as well. i panicked and had to play everything on the 6th string, and had no idea where the notes were and basically had to wing it. Come to think of it, i don't know how i didn't kill myself after that night.


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## Inazone (May 28, 2010)

Ours was about as good as could be hoped for. The show was in a house/garage/barn of some kind that had been converted into a very nice live music venue. It was the day after Christmas 2003 if I remember right, and one of my brother's friends invited us to join the bill. The guy was the drummer in a band called Nehemiah, and I believe one of the other bands was Too Pure to Die. I don't recall exactly, but all the bands had way more of a hardcore influence and generally younger than us. We were supposed to play second, but the first band had car trouble on the way to the show, so we switched spots. There were probably about 100 people there, mostly high school kids. It was weirder for me than the other guys, because I was the oldest and remembered thinking "That chick is hot, but I'm probably old enough to be her father."

Anyway, it went pretty well, with no major mistakes. We only played five songs, as that's all we had written, but ended up playing longer than the headlining band(s). It was a HUGE confidence builder.


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## Razorgrin (Jun 20, 2010)

My very first show was a garage show with a really motley gang of folk from all over the musical spectrum. We played a handful of covers - Barenaked Ladies, Stevie Ray, Candlebox, and a few more Top 40-style tunes - in my drummer's driveway for like twelve neighborhood folks. (That band didn't last very long.)

I became a technical show virgin after I left Berklee and put the thing down for about seven years; my second "very first" show was with a band I joined on December 30th as fill-in bassist. Apparently, I did well enough faking through their songs that they invited me to join up for a gig the next day. We did pretty damn well for about sixty or seventy people in a stabbity dive bar in Denver. People - both attendees and band members - came up afterwards and asked us why we were only the opener, so we must've been okay!

Alas, at my current rate, it'll be another ten years before I'm on stage again. >.<


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## ZXIIIT (Jun 21, 2010)

First show with my first band (covers) went horrible, we played a backyard punk show with a fairly known local punk band, NO ONE payed attention to us once we made noise. 
Our set list went as follows

Snowbound - Arch Enemy (I played the wrong notes during the fist lead part)
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Metallica (I played the lead part too fast and wrong)
Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath (Drummer could never get the drum break right, we all went off time)
Bestrafe Mich - Rammstein (Other guitarist played the keyboard part, awful)

And to top it off, we did not have a singer until we played our last show together 5 gigs after....


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## victim5150 (Jun 28, 2010)

My first gig was about 19 years ago and it went flawlessly. I was nervous as hell but that went away pretty quick. I guess people liked us cause 19 years later we're still doing it. Still get a little nervous before shows. A shot and a beer take care of that though.


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## metalvince333 (Jul 2, 2010)

First show was in a pretty cool venue and we were opening for a pretty decent local act with a good little crowd. I get on stage and plug in but...no sound...the last band that did sound check unplugged the cabs from their heads at juste left it like that so I had to run to the headliners and ask him to fix the thing cause I knew nothing about heads and cabs just then.

Show went pretty well but the ex bass player was yelling shit to us and was trying to spit on us wich was fuckin stupid. We played a pretty weird set..

Original trashy/glam song
Remedy by Seether
Original death song
metal trashing mad by anthrax
Original super melodic song


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## Jogeta (Jul 3, 2010)

My first "proper" gig went really well imo! Nothing blew up and our set seemed to go down pretty well with the folks there! We only played covers:

Only For The Weak - In Flames
Rose of Sharyn - Killswitch Engage
Save Me - Damageplan
Bleed For Me - Black Label Society
Bloodline - Slayer

BEST BIT:

Between us, the other bands and everything else going on that day - we raised more than £1000 for breast cancer research. Helping to save boobies is the most metal thing I think I've been involved in to this date! \m/


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## Razorgrin (Jul 3, 2010)

Jogeta said:


> Between us, the other bands and everything else going on that day - we raised more than £1000 for breast cancer research. Helping to save boobies is the most metal think I think I've been involved in to this date! \m/


Truth. Yay for boobies.


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## jakeofthumbs (Jul 23, 2010)

My first gig, at the legendary Tote hotel in Collingwood, with my prethumbs band, Isolar. We opened, the gig went awesomely well, got the comment from the frontman of the headliner that the rest of them shouldn't even bother going on (bit much if you ask me) and then found out my best mate had his car broken into outside the venue, while we were playing, and $800 worth of shit stolen, CD's, clothes..


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## Bloody_Inferno (Jul 24, 2010)

jakeofthumbs said:


> My first gig, at the legendary Tote hotel in Collingwood, with my prethumbs band, Isolar. We opened, the gig went awesomely well, got the comment from the frontman of the headliner that the rest of them shouldn't even bother going on (bit much if you ask me) and then found out my best mate had his car broken into outside the venue, while we were playing, and $800 worth of shit stolen, CD's, clothes..



You were in Isolar? I saw you in a battle of the bands comp down in Braybrook about a decade ago. Blast from the past.


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## Tomo009 (Jul 24, 2010)

Bloody_Inferno said:


> You were in Isolar? I saw you in a battle of the bands comp down in Braybrook about a decade ago. Blast from the past.



Totally off topic as I have not actually had a proper band let alone a public gig, but I just realized I should be seeing you play on the 6th with Testament.


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## Trespass (Jul 26, 2010)

I'm not sure what my first 'real show' would be. I don't really have a distinct memory I'd call my first real show. (I had played quite a few solo recitals before that) However, thinking about it, I think this is it:

I played with the school's Jazz band in November, and it was absolutely miserable. I faked through the whole thing, I think (I'd only been playing guitar for 6 months at that point). My first Christmas show was after that, and I was having a lot of trouble teaching myself the chords. I learned some tunes, only to find out (in true Jazz fashion) that the director was just going to call out the tunes he felt like. As is always the way with these stories, we only played one of the tunes I felt somewhat prepared for. On top of that, our big showpiece that year was Buddy Rich's Channel One Suite - which I attempted to play and ultimately failed (but the band sounded pretty awful on that too, if I recall).

Come to think of it, I also played for my class' grade 8 grad. We played that Greenday tune, with a singer-songwriter guy doing guitar and main vocals, me on keys, and the class singing the chorus. The guitar guy could certainly play fine, but couldn't tune his guitar on his own - And the guitar was tuned by an audience member in front of everyone. My own playing was fine, I was a bit nervous and shaky (I'd always played solo before that point) and the class sang incredibly robotically.


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## shredfreak (Jul 31, 2010)

My first real show was at a grindcore fest as opener.

We didn't expect to have much of a crowd but the place was packed from the start. I'm pretty sure i screwed up quite a few times due to being nervous 

Even this day i'm still nervous for the first few songs & then things tend to feel more natural. Was nervous as hell too when i started doing vocals aswell 

I might actually be tempted to pull a shawn whitaker & take one of my deathmetal project to stage with just my ipod. I think i'll prolly be shitting my self then or something lmao


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## Bloody_Inferno (Aug 2, 2010)

Tomo009 said:


> Totally off topic as I have not actually had a proper band let alone a public gig, but I just realized I should be seeing you play on the 6th with Testament.


 
I'll see you there then.


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## JoeMalov (Aug 2, 2010)

I've got my first show with my new band this Saturday, so I'll have to get back to you on how it goes


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