first gigs- let's hear it

the first band i was in was a hardcore straightedge group called deadwait http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xnFwxsYIy8.

i was 17-ish. this was around 95-96, before the internet and social networking officially replaced "real life", (this is true for me at least...i didn't get a computer until around 98 -99) and looking back, im grateful now that i got to experience what was in many respects basically the last gasp of the whole DIY, analog world of local music; playing in peoples living rooms and garages, making your own flyers at kinko's, making 7''s and zines, going to local record shops and participating in somewhat of a local "scene". i had joined the band after i saw a flyer looking for a drummer, then tried out.

the first gig was at a local coffee shop. about 30-40 late teen early 20s kids. i was so nervous that day i had forgot my sticks, and had to borrow a pair from another band's drummer . the mantra was "dont drop your sticks, dont drop your sticks" because i didnt have a bag of them sitting next to me in case i did. maybe the third song in the set, one of my sticks went flying out of my hand and across the room. i had to run over and grab it mid-song, run back, then sit back down and try to act like nothing happened. turns out, no one else in the band had noticed that i stopped playing and ran across the room during a song...and from the 3-4 people i talked to afterwards, it seemed no one in the audience noticed either.

ive played in many bands and played lots of shows since, but i'll never forget that goddamn stick flying out of my hand..

Nice thread, that's a funny story. Your band was pretty good!

My friends and I formed a rap group in 94, I was 14. It was my introduction to all things recording-wise, because one of the guys' older brothers was an audio nerd. He showed us how to use the 4-track and we recorded this: http://crackcomb.bandcamp.com/

His brother was also part of a hardcore collective in Lafayette, IN, and he hooked us up with a show in febuary 95, at this old hollowed-out office building called "door #3" next to a parking lot filled with porta-potties. So it was us little kids rapping between these hardcore bands. Luckily 2 of the other guys in my group played in these bands, or else I'm sure we wouldn't have been invited back. Later on that year, someone set the toilets in the parking lot on fire and the whole place burned to the ground.

what the fuck that tape is fuckin sick homie. im downloading it right now i really like that old school sound. looking forward to hearing it as a whole

for 14-15 that shit is ILL!!

thanks guys, we did much more, I'll digitize it sometime... anymore stories about first gigs?

In high school back in late 90s we would dip out of class early to head to homie's house and record freestyle cyphers on a cassette kareoke machine.
We called the group "6 Deadly".
We went different ways, but 4 of us stayed together. I saved up enough for a Gemini starter DJ package and set up a lab in my mom's house.
My boys would come over and I'd mix their vocals over instrumental records dubbed onto cassette. Doing everything in one take.
I got a job and bought a 202 and thus spawned a life of using all my spare money to shop for vinyl.
One of my boys got real serious and started a group that produced 5 or more albums while I was away in the Marine Corps.
2 of my other friends still spit lyrics over my beats.
I'm working on a long overdue EP (which may end up as a full blown album) with 2 or 3 tracks from each on it.

@ tedstryka
Cool! Reminds me the mid 90s period with r.a.t.m., headset, orange9mm etc...
@ kel
Man, cool trax, the drums were live!?! Yeah!

haha dope thread and stories.




As a shorty performing 'jump' from Kriss Kross.
I was the this small kid but was leading this project , with background dancers (girls) and all o that haha.
At the day of the performance the girl that supposed to provide the tape with 'jump' on it, brought the wrong tape, so we did the same routine on another song.
We won second place.


Now, I get requests for gigs, but cant cause of illness at the moment


Still living of that first gig haha.

my favourite early gig was me and a couple of mates doing some nirvana covers at a party in like '99, i was 16. Drunk as a 16 year old i needed a piss so wandered across a field, fell down a drainage ditch into a thorn bush and walked back dazed and confused. Got back and we were going on, I just have this awesome memory of playing aneurism on the bass with blood dribbling down my arms from a thousand thorn scratches. It was, in retrospect, probably far less heroic than I remember it, but that's one of my favourite idiot kid in a band memories.

one of my first gig was in 1995, i was in a rock/grunge band in rome(italy); so we were in a music festival were noboby knows us; i begun saying "hello, we are (name of the band)!", start playing the first 3 songs; people (20 persons) didn't care; ...i didn't noticed that after the third song, without saying nothing, the other band's guys abandoned the stage; so i looked at those 20 persons, sayin "bye, we were(name of the band)"

Probably mentioned this elsewhere, but a few years back I had a few mates who DJ'd a bit around town. One put on his own gigs so he got his best mate & I to share a slot. Turns out he'd organised a psytrance night & I hate that shit... But I thought it'd be funny to play at the crowd rather than for them so I agreed to play.

So the other fella & I put together a set of his techno stuff & a bunch of mashups I made on the SP. We had tempos, keychanges, rehearsals & everything...

Our slot was the 4-5am shift. So with both of us being sober it wasn't the greatest time to play. Mate played one of his tracks to start off with, faded it out & I came in with a Tom Waits/Afrika Bambaataa flip (playing about 50bpm too slow for the crowd's liking). Tried finger drumming, lost my rhythm & got heckled. Had the sequencer running on mute as a backup & switched over to it mid bar so the crowd get a moment of awkward silence then the music kicked in mid-bar. But it's OK, I think I lost them waaay before that fuck up.

In less than a minute I'd cleared a room of 50 people. All that was left was a disappointed mate who'd travelled hours to catch the event & a girl too wasted to find the door. Even the barman went for a smoko!

We tried one more of my routines which went just as bad (Salmonella Dub + Bon Iver? Yup!), we agreed I shouldn't play the rest of the show & instead I pretended to play a spare synth for the next 50 minutes.

Lesson? When playing gigs, pick the audience before agreeing to it.

@Dust- mate, you're in for a world of embarrassment & laughs when you get better & start gigging. Good luck!

HAHHAHA!! this was so funny.. also how you tell it..hahaha dude it makes a great story and experience for next time.


And thanks bro, appreciate it.

I'm in a indie rock band and the first gig I ever did was in my apartment with 4 other bands, I was playing the shit-drums back then (basicly a tom and shitty crash from the thrift store and a small child kick drum) and playedwith that setup for 3-4 shows. Shit sounded awful but people seemed like they didn't care I guess.

First solo shot with more beat vibes was at a punk coop along with people that do noise and post rock and wierd droney stuff. I knew their collective and went to their shot 2-3 time and they invited me.

I was kinda drunk and doing a bunch of silly think like readin old french litteratures and plying the longest intro ever and wierd skit and all my beat were just overly loud and but people were having fun I guess.