Describe your best gigging experience ever

[drummer]

Usually there's one gig that stands out for most of us. Maybe it was one with a large crowd or maybe it was opening for a big act or maybe it had a special cause. What was your best gigging experience?

[slinky]

I have a couple that kinda stick out, not that I killed it on stage or anything but maybe a combination of having a good time all around.

The first was back in 92 when I was still living in Cali a band I was in got to play at the now defunct club ''The Stone'' in San Francisco. That was a lot of fun. It was on Broadway. If anyone is unfamiliar with that area it's pretty historic. Practically in North Beach which use to be the Italian district, lots of neon (Big Al's) lol an old strip place, anyway over the years every national touring band seemed to play there and it was a lot of fun being on that stage. The headliner that night was a band called Asphalt Ballet. It was crazy everything moved fast, like after our last song having my kit spilled out the side door onto the sidewalk of Broadway lol, it was fun though. I miss San Francisco my birthplace.

The second was a fill in for a band in 97 called Mississippi Rythm Oil that I thought had some pretty cool songs and it was a lot of fun doing the show with them. That show was up in Reno, NV at Del Mar Station. The place was packed and I will always regret not getting a copy of it on VHS or something. They had the stage on camera and played on tv's around the club.

[yohin]

There are two that stand out to me. One was with my old cover band No General Direction...we were playing at a huge 4th of July private party on the beach. We were on the deck of a beach house directly over the beach and there were probably at least 300 people in the audience which was absolutely huge for us. We were opening for a well known and very talented cover band, and they let us come on stage and play a few songs with them since our set lists overlapped on a few songs, which was really cool.

The other one that stands out in my memory was with my current band, Third Nature. We were opening for a band who isn't nationally famous but is well known in the local music scene. There was some pressure on us because it was the first "real" show we did as Third Nature, i.e. in front of more people than just family & friends. But we absolutely killed it. To this day I still think it's the best gig we've ever played. All of us were just on fire...it was awesome.

[Northern Redneck]

Coming back and opening for Honeymoon Suite at my old high school.

[truckerdrummer]

Opening for Luke Bryan... Killer sound, killer stage, killer crowd. It went by way too fast.

[isaacvining]

My best gigging experiences have been from playing guitar, but one drumming experience that I remember being especially fun was a pop punk show in a really really small venue. For the heck of it (we have no idea why) we all wore as much winter clothing as we could for the first few songs. Lots of coats, scarves, and hats. Fun/weird times.

[EddieV]

I was 19 - began working with a cover band that played 5 nights per week. I had spent the previous three or four years farting around with bands that played now and then and made very little money, one even signed to a small label and cost me more money (and frustration) that I ever saw.

I had also spent my time working jobs to earn money - mainly "retail jobs" for a little over minimum wage - which at the time was $3.35 per hour. I'd work a 35-40 hour week and after taxes would get a pay check of around $115. (give or take). I also worked more than one job....so I'd spend my entire week working close 50 hours for around $150.

About a week after I joined the cover band, we played a 4-night stint at a popular club just outside of town. The first night (A Wednesday) my folks decided to come out and watch as they wanted to hear this new band I was in. My brother and sister came too, it would be the first time they'd ever seen me play, as they were visiting from out of town. Which was cool for me as I'd seen my older brother play gigs back when I was little and I though it was awesome (he's 15 years older than me and a guitar player).

We had a good crowd that night.....back then it was easy to pull in 4-500 people on a Wednesday night - and this week was a holiday week, it seemed everyone was home and in town. The place was just packed to the gills, with close to 600 people coming through the door @ $5 a head, then $3 after midnight or something like that.

After we finished the night, my family members and I were sitting at a back table finishing drinks and watching the drunks fall around when the bands keyboard player came up to me and gave me close to $450 cash.

My whole family stood there as I counted it....(If I'd of known how much it was, I would have been more discreet.)

"Is this for the whole week?" I asked.

"No" he said...."that's just tonight - we play for the door here." he said with a big grin.

I was stunned. I'd made more money with one night of drumming than what I made almost in one month working my jobs.

It was a good feeling.

We ended making more money at the door the next three nights. Then that Sunday afternoon...I went out and bought a $300 leather jacket and a $250 pair of snake skin boots and then took my folks out to dinner and one of the classiest restaurants in town.

I've played with that band for ten years, and did more important gigs..better gigs...better paying gigs...whatever. But that night was special to me.

...and I still have those stupid boots and the still proudly wear the jacket.

[drumstix]

In 2009, I was in a short lived pop punk band called Almost Everything with some mates from church. We applied for a local music festival but we didn't make the cut unfortunately. Then one of the headline acts pulled out and a mate in another band managed to get us in to replace them. The festival ended up rearranging the timetable and putting us on as the very last band of the day starting about 15 minutes after the headline act started so we didn't have very many people there to watch us, but it was only our second gig and we absolutely went for it and had a hell of a time. Unfortunately, that was the last gig we played. Our next gig got cancelled and the band just fizzled into nonexistance. I will never forget that gig though..

[Hellwyck]

I have a few that really stand out for me.

May 23rd, 2012 @ The Tache, Blackpool
This was a gig supporting a Manchester death metal band called Shades Of Avalon.
It was memorable for a few reasons, not just because it was a cracking gig but;

a) I got to enjoy a pint with my bandmates in one of my favourite seaside towns on a beautiful day
b) My mum, dad, cousin and her fiancée showed up (my cousin and her fiancée aren't rock fans yet they thought it was an awesome gig - the power and raw emotion of rock 'n' roll, eh?)


March 30th, 2013 @ Ye Old Man & Scythe, Bolton
This was pretty much my (now) home town gig as it was in my local pub,
it's not a rock pub but a lot of rock fans go in as the beer is decent.

We got in and from the off we had a decent sized crowd (the power of live rock) which didn't let up until we'd packed away after our 2nd set.



May 10th, 2013 @ The Pub, Lancaster
This was a great gig as we got a great crowd of bone-fide rock fans who sung the lyrics to the covers and had a great time dancing.



I've done more gigs with Fretsaw this past year or so than I've ever done in my entire life. It's tiring, I'm first to load in and last to leave but I wouldn't swap this for the world!

[Bish]

I'm first to load in and last to leave but I wouldn't swap this for the world!

I had to do that out of necessity. If not, the rest of the band would bring stuff in and set it anywhere leaving no place for the drummer to bee-line to the stage without negotiating the obstacle course. No one ever "got it" and it sure got old fast.

[PHROGGE]

10 years of french quarter new orleans
has left so many "good gig stories"
i'd haveta write a book (and i am)
of da ones im allowed to tell (or remember)

sure all da touring has some gtreat stuff but 2 stand out
both with freddy fender in 1983...

San antonio livestock show feb 1983
never played in front of 60,000 people before....

And march 1983...
Constitution hall washington dc
with us air force 65 piece concert band...
In attendance:
18 4 star generals
george bush sr was vice prtesident
henry kissinger was secretary of state
john brock sec of agriculture
sang "crazy arms" w/ us onstage(he was terrible)
everybody in da place dressed "to da 9's) including freddy
except "da bayou country band" (us,,,his backup band)!!!
Cos we refused to wear pink banderlerro outfits...
And they wouldnt rent tuxes!!!!
So levis & flannel shirts!!! (we looked like da road crew!!!)

equipment used paid for by taxpayers $$$$$
ch had monster jbl pa system
guitar players & fiddle player thru marshalls
bass player used an ampeg svt
and i had my choice of 15 drumkits & over 100 cymbals...
I chose a 5 piece silver wrapped pearl kit & paiste cymbals...

No i dont have pics but i gotta tape recording to prove it!!!!
Oh there so much more to dat story

[tadly]

My most recent show a couple weeks ago with my (original) Christian rock band, Jacob's Well. Played 3-4hrs & you could feel everything coming together as the night progressed...the owner of the place was jumpin', singin' along. What started out as a small, almost casual gig ended up absolutely rockin', and the band was tight by the end of the night. Best show I've had with that band.

My other current band is one of the funnest bands I've ever played with...every gig is awesome. It's just a classic rock cover band, stuff I've played for years, so there's really nothing to it for me. They only play the fair & festival circuit so there's no worry about getting a certain draw, and I can relax and have fun with it--I get to be the crazy drummer who never wears shoes. The rest of the band is half my age--literally...I have a teenage son the same age as a couple of the guys in the band--and the band has a big, loyal local following...it's not uncommon to sell $100-$200 in merch per show. That may not be much to bigger city bands, but that's unheardof for a small town cover band.

Def the best year I've had gigging in a while...

[Dawgkikker]

1984. High school talent show. We played Freebird and absolutely killed them. While I haven't played hundreds of gigs that one really stands out. I played in front of my friends with my friends. We has some great talent in that band with the drummer being the exception.
Ironically me and the guitar player have re connected after about 25 years. Hopefully we can get something going and recapture a littler that magic.

[Drumbledore]

I had to do that out of necessity. If not, the rest of the band would bring stuff in and set it anywhere leaving no place for the drummer to bee-line to the stage without negotiating the obstacle course. No one ever "got it" and it sure got old fast.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, been there done that and still doing that outta habit (and you've been doing it longer than me, I'm sure lol).

[markthechuck]

Probably the one we just did, it got a bit rude, ladies started stripping off, we got to see some sights i tell you, we saw B@@bies and other bits too, it was a right laugh, some people might not like it but we had a wicked time, it was rammed too, felt like a Steel Panther concert.