What Do You Do To Prepare For A Gig?

A couple of weeks ago, I did a guest spot on my friend John Batdorf’s (www.johnbatdorfmusic.com) evening at Kulak’s. He wanted me to do a few of our Rolling Stone (www.allwoodandstones.com) songs together and we did a couple of our own tunes as well.   Fun stuff and very informal and part of an evening of songwriters and singers.

Consequently, I didn’t think much about preparing for the gig. It was a Saturday night thing and I only had to do about fifteen minutes. So Friday night we had some friends over to dinner…martinis, hors d’oeuvres, too much wine, big dinner, dessert, brandy and chocolates after that. You get the picture.

Saturday I woke up around eight thirty, got up and started working in the yard. I spent the entire day digging, replanting, removing all kinds of vines that had taken over. Hard physical labor for about eight hours. Then I got cleaned up and went down to Kulak’s Woodshed, stowed my gear and then met a friend for dinner. Sushi and a beer.

As I relate this to you, I am stunned by my arrogance. I was going to be performing for people who had left their homes and braved the Los Angeles traffic to hear me (amongst others) perform and I clearly did no preparation. Now I have been doing this for decades and believe that I have a level of competence that I don’t fall under. But that’s crap. You either use it or you lose it. When I am on my game, no one is any better. But when I ignore my responsibilities as a musician and performer, I suffer and so does the audience.

Here is what has to happen in order for me to do a really good performance.

I take it easy the night before in terms of what I eat, smoke and drink. I go to be as early as I can and I get a good night’s rest. I wake up when I wake up and do some very light exercise to get everything flowing.

I have a nice breakfast. I go out to the studio and I make certain that my guitar has great sounding strings on it, or I change them. I check all my gear and put it all in one place to load into the car. I put together a package of CD’s to sell along with posters, post cards and a mailing list sign up sheet.

I play music for an hour or two, just easy nothing straining, just to get into that musical place. I leave for the gig in order to get there around five thirty. I load in and then sit in my dressing room and play until they ask for a sound check. After which I go back into my dressing room, look over all the songs I want to do that night from the list and then sit there and play the songs I’m gonna be doing that night until about ten minutes before showtime.

Then I meditate for five to seven minutes and then put on my nicely pressed trousers that won’t have any wrinkles on them because I didn’t put them on until just before I walked out on stage –remember the maestro in that Seinfeld episode? Well it really works.

Then I go out fully prepared and there is a very good chance that I’m going to do a very good show. When I don’t do all those things, then the show is less than I am capable of giving to an audience. I apologize for the other night and promise that the show on February 9^th at Boulevard Music in Culver City will be fantastic. I am committed to it.

Now what kind of preparations do you do? I want to hear about it. I want to know about it and I want to incorporate anything that might make my own show better. Let me hear from you.

Comments

[fran]

Hi James,
A great thing I learned (and sometimes have to re-learn) is to prepare something new, no matter how small, for every show. I did some "cross-Florida" shows with Mad Anthony Wayne, a brilliant guy, and discovered that he wrote something new for every show. He'd come up with a new joke, turn-of-phrase, or witty comment appropriate for the venue/audience/significant date. Often, he'd work on it on the way to the gig.
Not only did he keep his show fresh and interesting for himself, but showing up with a little pre-planned ammo often put him in the right state of mind to come up with great stuff on-the-spot.

You know - that's pretty good advice. I think I'll blog about it. 8^)

[james lee stanley]

fran, that's a great suggestion. i forgot to mention it and i'm so glad that you brought it up. i always try to weave the audience and me together by reading something in the local paper and commenting on it, or commenting on the geography, construction, something local. and i like to do something new at every show. when i don't i feel like i've let both me and the audience down. live performance should be that...live. not regurgitation. good one.
james

[Bobby Brogan]

one word STREEEEEETCH.......arms up over hear working the inner and outer costal muscles every thing around the rib cage and the abdomen...feel it but of course dont pul anything massage of the face and neck shoulders hands fingers...if you have someone else to work with you great if not doing it yourself is a great way to be aware of your body and relax tension you might not even know is there...nothing complicated make faces neck rolls you get the idea

[Brenden]

As a guitarist I always have to watch some sort of concert footage to get pumped (such as Metallica or AC/DC)

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