Bad Gig / Good Gig

Gig, son. When you're a musician, a job is called a "gig". - Homer J. Simpson

I used to gig a ton. I do have a day job teaching elementary school that actually pays the bills, but my night job is playing music. Usually guitar or bass guitar, although I've done a number of gigs behind the drum kit or lugging around the double bass (or "doghouse" as it's known in rock and roll circles). The hardest part of gigging is reconciling the scheduling demands of work, family, and sleep. Music is a fun time, but as soon as you get out of the basement and in front of an audience it ceases to be just a hobby, so gigs are kind of like having a second, low paying job. But I'm hooked on playing, they'll bury me with my guitar. Maybe turn my studio into a masoleum or something.

According to my records I've only done one hundred and thirty-seven gigs in my life. This seems a bit low, I think the actual figure is close to one hundred and fifty, but I didn't care enough to keep good records when I was younger. Nowadays I document everything in detail and I regret not being a better note taker or journaler.

This is still a pretty low figure in my opinion, but I didn't start playing out until my late twenties. I did take music courses in high school and majored in guitar at college but I don't count any of the performances I did under the auspices of "academics". For comparison, the bassist in the band I played with yesterday (who was the same age as me) had chalked up a whopping seven hundred and fifty lifetime gigs. Although to be fair he was both unmarried and childless. To introduce another Simpsons quote,

Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in [the music] business." - C. Montgomery Burns

I rarely have a bad time on gigs. As a less experienced musician I used to suffer from horrible stage fright to the point where I could barely play. I read once that when we're scared our brains reduce bloodflow to the extremities as a fight or flight response, so that we're more able to run away from danger or bludgeon a wooly mammoth to death. I couldn't speak to the how factual this anecdote is, but it does line up with my experiences. Nowadays I have enough experience that the stage has become a comfort zone. I still get a little nervous when performing but it's the good kind of nervous that helps keep your mind sharp and focused.

January, 2025

So, on to the gigs. I played out twice this month, once with my dad band Big Cat that mostly plays originals and once subbing in with a corporate cover band.

January 4, 2025 - The Black Swan

The Black Swan has a storied history as one of Toronto's long-time blues bars, and although Big Cat isn't a blues band we picked up the gig through a friend who needed an opener. I wasn't looking forward to this one as it was a ten to eleven pm set, which is later than I'd like to be out and later than most of our crowd is willing to stay out, but we hadn't played anywhere since September (attempts to line up a November show fell through) so we took it. I had briefly been inside the Swan years ago and seemed to recall it as being a real dive, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that either my memory was inaccurate or that the place had been fixed up. There was a decent crowd of bar patrons, and the stage and sound system were just right for the venue. Most importantly, the sound guy mixing the show was excellent! We were somewhat rusty and didn't make any money (this will be a recurring theme in gig reports), but we all enjoyed the set. Good sound makes all the difference and it was an excellent way to start off the year.

I was worried that we wouldn't draw. Most often in a bar gig like this the responsibility of filling the room is on the performing bands. You need to book venues that are sized appropriately to your draw as an act, and if you don't have a draw yet then you're not ready for the gig. My fear was that we had screwed ourselves by starting so late in the evening but things turned out well.

January 29. 2025 - Corpo Office Gig

One of the dads works a day job with a large tech company in Canada. It's not one of the big, big names but that doesn't matter. The CEO decided to put together an employee band to play the occasional office function, but their lead guitarist recently retired so I was recommended to sub into the lead guitar spot for their annual employee awards reception.

The band consisted of three singers, myself and my buddy on guitar, a bassist (who was extremely dialled in), the CEO who played guitar and sang on a few tunes, and a drummer, a famous Canadian rock star who like me did not work at the company but had a connection with one of the band members.

This gig was tough to get prepared for. There were only three rehearsals leading up to the show and ostensibly the lead guitarist I had a lot of homework to do. This was made more complicated by the repertoire selection - a number of tunes either had multiple guitar parts or keyboard/synth parts. I wasted a lot of time practicing keys, banjo, and lap steel guitar (!!!) which are instruments I don't really know how to play. I would have been better served just approximating the songs on electric guitar instead of pushing for learning a new axe three times over. I stressed a lot over getting the tunes together.

Nonetheless once I was at the gig I had a good time. The band was fun to hang with, the food was good, and once again we enjoyed excellent sound. The company had hired a pro audio and video firm to record the whole event, and there was some great looking and sounding footage. We played to a packed house, which is always a privilege.

Closing Thoughts

I love performing! In addition to the thrill of the moment, I also like the idea that playing in front of an audience keeps my skills sharp. The practice room can only take you so far and it takes a jam, record date, or live performance to really elevate your musical chops (when you're a musician, a skill is called a "chop"). In fact, I think the only thing that gets me down about gigging is the hassle of packing my car and commuting to the venue. I need to simplify my gear setup I think. I had some trepidation about doing both of these shows for different reasons, but they both came off well.

I'm currently working on booking the dads at a great Toronto venue in mid-March, so hopefully I'll have another gig report to share then!