What was your first chip gig like? (Page 3 of 7)

This gets my TCTD nomination for "Best Thread Ever".  Keep 'em coming!

December 21, 2002 in NYC, at the Knitting Factory's AlterKnit Theater (basically a tiny black box of a space on the lower level of the Knitting Factory's Leonard St. location), opening for a friend's experimental band called arch ECHO. I'd played shows before in bands but never with a Game Boy, so I was pretty much shitting it. Stood stone-still the whole time in a petrified terror. Somehow in spite of it, the audience (maybe 25 or 30 people) was really receptive & seemed genuinely into it. Sadly, that crutch of the Game-Boy-as-instrument novelty has become a lot less dependable these days. If I could go back & redo the gig, I don't know, I guess I'd have a shot or two of bourbon beforehand. And get a better haircut.

Small helping of exquisitely embarrassing photos & videos here.

Video of my first chip gig can be found here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … &hl=en

It was at Magfest 6, in '08...Played three songs running LSDJ on my DS...I'd been using LSDJ for about a week so not only did I not have any idea of how to do anything interesting with the program, but I was also still writing pretty shitty music. The crowd was very unenthusiastic, most of them sitting down. At first I thought that was a reaction to my music, but Virt got the same response so I guess not. I was nervous as fuck and with no crowd energy to tap into I just stood up there like an idiot for 15 minutes.

What I consider to be my real first gig (in which I was paid, and also had an actual set instead of just playing three songs) though was back in October, at a multiband festival in Phoenix, Arizona. That night, the crowd was dead for almost every band, and then when I played, people were literally running in the door from off the street to dance. For the rest of the night, every time I turned around I had people complimenting me on how much they enjoyed my set. It was a great time. Video evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roG4-PzJ8R0

I live near this little "city" thing that has a group that puts on all ages shows.  Generally it's your usual acoustic guitar and high-school garage band stuff you would expect to see if you were around this area.  After I did RPM Challenge 2009, a friend told me to sign up for a gig with this all ages group and after laughing it off with "yeah, would be fun," I eventually did.

I was in a library, I do not know why the library had a stage or a PA system, really weird, but that's where I was.  About forty to fifty people were there, all to see the main act who was from another city over.  I went after a one-man acoustic guitar thing and some horrendous death metal flailocolypse group who really sounded plain awful.  Then I go up as horribly afraid as can be and began with what is now my usual stage-banter catch phrase "All you hipsters out there, go tell your friends you saw Beverage in concert, they'll think you're beyond awesome!"  Maybe three laughs.

The music was okay, not my finest work, but the novelty of gameboy music always gets you through the first gig, somebody out there will enjoy it.  Mostly people just stood there, a couple of kids moshed, and a homosexual couple ballroom danced and kissed a bunch.  Seriously weird, but pretty entertaining nonetheless to look down from the stage and see those loons.  I think that the audience really makes this sort of thing possible for newbies - if they like it, you have a good time.  But much like Bit Shifter said above, I also stood shy of perfectly still and really only moved to piddle with the mixer and get my circuitbent garbage to behave.

After everything, the lead act asked me to come back in their set and do a little improv thing with them - I used an emulated version of Pixelh8's music tech pro I happened to have on my PSP.  Real classy.  I didn't know any music theory at all, the guitarist whispered to me what key we were in every now and again and I changed the key accordingly.  I sounded awful and out of place, but they had so much fun that I got asked to do that again on the fourth of July at some bar.

tl:dr, rocky beginning, but in little towns like this, people can be accepting.  I'd have changed things by having better music, but coming home after that first gig after getting applause and all of that junk was pretty great.  Euphoric I think is how I described it at the time.  Eh.  Also, watch out for gay ballroom dancers - those guys were crazy.

Last edited by Beverage (Jan 22, 2010 4:13 am)

1st April 2007, at a local (Aberdeen) venue supporting :(. I'd played gigs as part of a band before, but this was the first time I'd took to the stage alone with nothing but a Game Boy for protection. It felt very weird. One small image here.

The audience were all either sitting down or hiding at the back of the room. During songs they'd ask each other what I was doing up there, and in between songs they'd applaud politely. I finished with a cover of 'Teethgrinder' by Therapy?, which made use of the speech kits in LSDJ. I think people were won over by hearing a robotic voice coming from a Game Boy, so it ended well.

What I'd change: I'd use DMGs instead of GBLs! It sounded too tinny.

I've been there twice in the past couple months, albeit playing drums in a rock and roll band. Cool looking place but maybe its evolved for the worse over the years, kinda has a reputation now for being not that cool because they always charge too much at the door and the sound has sucked balls both times I've been.

oh man. my first show was a slight mess. we had the show at this local music cafe. the lineup was NOROCK, Yatagarasu, e.s.c., and myself.
kevin drove all the way from chicago and didn't even get to play as we got shut down twice for being too loud. the lady running the place was being a bit of a bitch. so NOROCK, Yata, and myself got to play. e.s.c. regrettably did not get to perform. i played my old nanoloop 1.3 stuff and a few milkytracker tracks.
what would i change? ummm, starting the show a bit earlier and not getting shut down (TWICE) and maybe not being so stiff on stage.

i think that covers my first show, anyone who was there that would like to add to this, feel free.