Drinking before a gig?

[PPPMAT]

Well I stuck to the 2 pint rule and trusted my luck - the drummer only made one large mistake which was a bonus so I got away with it.

You can carry a bad guitarist and a bad bass layer but get a bad drummer and you are fecked - never again

BTW I had a load of wines when I got home  :D (rock n roll)

[headtheball]

A pint before, and whatever "adjustment" necessary during.

At one point, one of our mates came down to all our gigs to act as go-between to the bar.

[dragonfire709]

I used to get pretty pissed at most of my old bands gigs, and to be fair i could somehow still play in that state! Now I dont drink at all until after we've played and I enjoy it so much more.  :lol:

[gwEm]

no! extremely bad idea. i never indulge before a gig any longer, and rarely afterwards

[tomjackson]

Oh yes :drink:

[blue]

i find that even a few drinks completely erases my ability to play!  i've played some real mourneful blues while hungover though :)

[AndyR]

I preferred no alcohol at all (especially beer/pint-type alcohol) when I was gigging, but that was mainly because I was the lead singer.

I found that almost any beer impaired my hearing, or at least my ability to "focus" my hearing, and it seriously affected my stamina and the amount of breath I had at my command... Also, I wasn't such an effective front-man entertainer when I was feeling "woolly-headed".

I had to take liquid on board though - during the course of two one-hour sets I would usually drink about 4 pints of water. Virtually all of this must have been sweated out (I never needed a pee after gigs!)

The only exception to this was if I had throat problems. An old folk singer let me in on the "half a guiness with a port in it" secret to get/keep your voice going when you can hardly sing a note... This really does work :lol:

However, you can overdose on it and end up with the aformentioned "beer" problems... so I found out that for me "Port & Brandy" has the same effect on the throat, but didn't get me so p1ssed.

On a "bad-throat" night I would have the pints of water on stage, with a glass of Port & Brandy (4 measures of each) beside them for sipping all the way through the night. If there was much left, I'd down it in one as we started the encore... Obviously, someone else had to drive on "bad throat" nights :lol: (I felt sober as a judge, but I suspect a breath-test might have said otherwise...)

[Nadz1lla]

I used to have a double JD before going on, about 15 mins usually. Loosened me up and for some reason made my vocals far easier to sing. But I don't drink anymore, which sucks because that was always handy before getting on the stage.

[Ian Price]

Never tried drinking before a gig and I doubt I ever will now. My 'gigging' career lasted for about 5 gigs before I left the band.

[Crazy_Joe]

The temptation is always there, considering you get free beer usually when you are playing a gig. If you get nervous too it's a good way to settle nerves. But i drank 5 bottled beers on Friday before our Bristol gig and i didn't play so well, forgot some of the stops in the songs haha. I drank nothing before the London gig on Thursday and was nervous as hell (though in all fairness it was our very first gig). I drank 3 cans of Fosters before our Worcester gig on Saturday and it was the best show so far, everyone loved it who i spoke too and i made about 1 mistake in a 17 song set.

Depends how well you can handle your drink, and if you get nervous in my opinion. I found a good balance of 3 beers which i will now stick to.

[HTH AMPS]

I've always had a 1-pint rule and since I always end up being the band-leader, it's my way or the highway.  Might sound harsh, but there's nothing worse than pissed bandmates forgotting what they're supposed to be playing and missing cues.

My last vocalist got it in his head that a sherry before going onstage loosened up his vocal chords.  I let it slide as he was always spot on and it made him perform better, whatever works. 

[m0jo]

We as a band have a nice theory: get pissed at practises, and you'll be able to handle yourself fine when you've had a few onstage ..     Unfortunately we don't really excercise it, it's mostly 1 or 2 pints for us ;)

Oh and related: never give a drummer 3 Red Bulls right before the gig .. we actually ran out of songs in about 3/4 of the time haha. No problem though, we do long funkjams too :) which turned into a funkmetaljam  :lol:.

[ailean]

Oh and related: never give a drummer 3 Red Bulls right before the gig .. we actually ran out of songs in about 3/4 of the time haha. No problem though, we do long funkjams too :) which turned into a funkmetaljam  :lol:.

LOL :lol: