# BEST Live Experiences.



## _detox (Jun 26, 2007)

After seeing the horrors of the worst live experiences, I decided to be that ray of sunshine and start this thread!

Share your favorite/best live experiences with your band. Since I haven't played live yet, I can't join this club. 


GO


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## newamerikangospel (Jun 26, 2007)

I played at one of my high schools senior parties (there were I think three in one night, all put together by different people). Since I grew up in a town of 400ish, and the county had a population of 28-29thousand (farming communities pretty much) we played...............in a field on a trailer made in ag, with a generator that was like the 4th member of the band, and a motorcylce headlight as the super ultra motherf**kin laser light show. We did only covers, and I remember hearing a response when we started man in the box. First time I felt the "bug" of a live show. We got shut down since we were 30 feet inside city limits, but for those 30mins, the world was ours.


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## metalfiend666 (Jun 26, 2007)

Probably the last gig I did on guitar, also the last gig that band ever did. It was about a year ago now, and we were playing the local venue. It was our first gig there, plus I'd managed to get b3n and 7 Dying Trees from here to come along. We were on fire, having an absolute blast on stage. I just wish the band hadn't had the internal issues that caused the split, I miss the music we made.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Jun 26, 2007)

Best gigs? Man, that is a tough one. I tend to mainly remember the bad ones, and what went wrong there, I think the buzz you get of a really good show deletes a lot of the memory as the adrenaline is just there throughout. I'll see if i can remember some...


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## Matt Crooks (Jun 26, 2007)

Some of the highlights:

- Playing Wacken Open Air in '03 - we were on the second stage, so we only played to 2-3000 people. We got treated like rock stars the whole time. It was awesome playing a full dual recto stack and _not_ being able to hear it on the other side of the stage.

- Opening for Bruce Dickenson in '97 - We played to a packed house that loved us, and I got to open for the singer of my favorite band since 4th grade.

- Opening for Savatage in '98 - Great crowd, and I finally got to see one of my favorite bands - from side stage.


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## Zepp88 (Jun 26, 2007)

Our first show as a band was at Jaxx, felt like an acheivement because it's a national venue

The shows hosted by Rake Jahn and Juliya

Opening for Powerman 5000, there were issues with that one, but it's the first and only time we've opened for a national act.


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## InTheRavensName (Jun 26, 2007)

Playing the Charlotte, in the knowledge that I was standing on the same stage as Dragonforce had about 2 days beforehand, and just before that

the scissor sisters 

plus I was bought about £40 worth of drinks that night


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## noodles (Jun 26, 2007)

Opening for Nevermore/Evergrey/Into Eternity at Jaxx last year. The show was sold out, the crowd absolutely loved us, and we were the beginning of a steamroller that just kept on bowling over the place. When I was packing up my gear, I had to get my rack clamshells from the other side of the stage. I wound up having to make all off Evergrey move to get to them. One of the guys quipped, "Man, we have the exact same problem lugging around our HUGE PODxt Lives..." and we all just died laughing. I got to watch the Jeff Loomis/Chris Broderick guitar dual, made famous by YouTube, from side stage. We were on Broderick's side, and when he came over, he just kinda laughed at the way my drummer and I were staring at him, slack-jawed.

Opening for King's X/Fishbone at Jaxx in 2004 with my previous band. I walked off stage, Ty Tabor's guitar tech pulled me aside, drug me behind the bass stacks, and handed me Mr. Abbot's favorite recreational activity. Later, I got absolutely destroyed doing the same, hanging out on Fishbone's tour bus. Then Doug Pinnick cornered me coming off the bus and drug me onto their bus, where he and Ty "congratulated me on a fine gig"...and more of the same. Then the singer from Fishbone drug me back into the bar for shots. Jaxx kicked us out at four in the morning. I slept in my truck in the parking lot for about four hours, waking up to a cop tapping on my window. "What are you doing?" "Waking up to the world's worst hang over far too damn early, thank you very much."


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## telecaster90 (Jul 2, 2007)

Probably playing with my school's jazz band and percussion ensemble at the local middle school. Just jammin in front of a few hundred kids in a hot gym  It was a blast!


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## Ancestor (Jul 4, 2007)

My first ever show was in Strawtown (!). We were basically back in the woods at these people's house playing outside. I was really comfortable and there was keg. Everyone liked us and had a good time. That was awesome.

Probably the best I ever played was at an old theater called the Ritz in Indianapolis. We had played 3 gigs previous to that one in the same week. I had a pedal to boost up my solos. Didn't make any mistakes. All the kids liked it and some were saying I was really good (had a spy in the audience). It was great. I wasn't even nervous, which is what happens if you play often enough. Just had a great time.


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## Leon (Jul 4, 2007)

my last gig, actually. we played in a new place for us (considering we've only been gigging since January, i guess that isn't saying much), a place called Nino's in Findlay, OH. i wasn't expecting much at all, since it wasn't that glamorous looking of a place. but man, it rocked! the crowd was really into us, and i think that energy really pushed us.

also, the soundman did an EXCELLENT job. of course, i knew he would, since he was wearing a Heaven And Hell tour shirt


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## Drew (Jul 5, 2007)

I can't point to a single show, but the summers while I was in college I sat in with this blues-rock group on a thursday night gig they had opening for an open mic at a local dive bar. Especally the summer after my senior year... We'd been playing together on and off for a few years by that point so I knew the guys really well and we played well together. Since the summer aftert you graduate from college is generally a "let's go out and drink every night" sort of event, I usually had a couple of my closest friends in the audience, and then a lot of people I knew would always show up, and I got to know some of the other people who played there pretty well too. It was everything you could want in a weekly gig at a dive bar - cheap drinks, lots of cute girls (especially when the local college was still wrapping up), good people, and it was also the first time I'd ever gotten laid for my playing (there wasn't a lot of casual sex at Midd, so I generally just got a lot of head). And the music was great - Tom Corrigan, the vocalist, sang the stones better than anyone I've heard outside of Jagger, even though the two sounded nothing alike. Seriously, this guy was one of the better vocalists I've ever had the privelage to play with, but was also really laid back and a pretty solid acoustic player, too.


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## Spinedriver (Jul 8, 2007)

I'd have to say this past Friday night.  

First ever live show with my new band. Myself, the other guitar player and singer have been jamming & writing together for almost 2 years and that work finally paid off when we were asked last weekend to play on Friday night when one of the bands on the bill canceled at the last minute. I'm sure we could have sounded better having never really had a chance to test our gear in a place other than our jam space. Also, there were a few monitor issues so I made a few minor mis-cues, but from the people I spoke to afterwards, they said we were really tight and were surprised when I told them it was our first live show.

So if it's any indication, we may be in pretty good shape.


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## T_money419 (Jul 9, 2007)

that time I played the right chord


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## Nats (Jul 13, 2007)

when my old band played FDR skatepark in philly


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## newamerikangospel (Jul 13, 2007)

T_money419 said:


> that time I played the right chord





Sam from dragon force /\


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## swedenuck (Jul 14, 2007)

In my opinion every one I play is the best. I'm there to play my heart out and experience the roller coaster, and as long as I'm up there it's a great day.


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## darren (Jul 14, 2007)

A couple of weeks ago, we played a club in Burlington, Ontario called The Legendary Red Rooster Vintage Café. This place is out in the suburbs of Toronto, so we didn't have any huge expectations, but it turned out to be one of the best venues and best shows we had played in over 5 years as a band.

First off, the place is owned and run _by_ musicians, _for_ musicians. Everyone there has extensive touring and studio experience, and it shows. They are extremely band-friendly and love to support independent music. 

Here are a few things that made it so great...

- Their PA is a part of one of Bryan Adams' old touring setups. It's something like 17,000 watts of insanely clean headroom. It's a seriousl good-sounding PA out front and on stage.

- They have four fixed cameras and one mobile camera, and they record every band's performance and provide them with a DVD a few weeks after the show. The audio coming to the desk is split so half goes to the PA and the other half goes directly to a ProTools system for proper mixdown for the DVD.

- Bands get free water (cold or room-temperature for vocalists) and a $50 food/drink bar tab. The hot bartender also came up and put some free shots on the stage during our show. 

- They have a ramp on one side of the elevated stage. Yes, it's a small thing, but when your bass player has an SVT 8x10 cab (or some other gigantic rig) the ramp makes things SO much easier.

- There are loads of power outlets around the entire stage, and every one of them is on its own circuit, and properly grounded.

They just understand everything that annoys musicians, and took care of small details, which just makes the whole experience go way smoother. Unlike many other clubs in Toronto, this place actually has a lot of regulars who come out to see great indie music. We had a great time and played a great show as a result, and are dying to play there again.

The only thing that annoyed me was that the last band on the bill came in, didn't talk to anyone, loaded WAY too much gear onto the small-ish stage, and we were left with less room. The guitarist had a gigantic rack and two Mesa 4x12 cabs, all in gigantic, pristine road cases. (And while he was a skilled player, his tone was pretty crappy.) He must have been running a stereo setup, because two 4x12 cabs on a stage that size (and in a room that size) was complete overkill. They were a little rude and stand-offish, but the other band on the bill we had played with the week before, and we hit it off really well, so that offset it completely.


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## Benzesp (Jul 14, 2007)

When my old band opened for Hatebreed and Converge at Sunset Station In SA. The biggest venue I've ever played 4k peeps. The sound was so good, we had so much stage area, and we didn't get screwed on mic inputs. It was totally pro unlike most shitty little clubs. I remember looking down into the crowd in the middle of the fist song and there was already a pit going, it was great. Good times


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## thadood (Jul 16, 2007)

We played a Halloween show last year at a venue in Memphis called the Complex.

Our band name is Mississippi Burning.. but for that night, we introduced ourselves as Kississippi Burning. We had our faces painted like Kiss, and played a bit of God of Thunder and went flawlessly into our first song, which was the same key (We played God of Thunder in A), so it was pretty sweet. Lots of good energy that night!


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## auxioluck (Jul 23, 2007)

Our drummer was out of town for 3 weeks straight after a gig. The night he got back, we had another show. We hadn't practiced for about a month, and I was a little nervous about how well it was going to go. Opened for a band from Omaha that brought a very decent crowd, and mixed with ours and a few others, it was a decent sized gig. After my two days of pessimism about how the show would go, I took some time to listen in, and it was one of the cleanest shows we played. The monitors and house were perfect, every transition was perfect, every run, every fill, everything. The sound guy actually came up to me and said that we had the best sound mix of screams over singing he had ever heard. It made me feel so good.


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