Was wondering how much experience various Metal-Archives members might have with playing their own shows. Any kind of show counts, so feel free to add whatever you want. Since I've been wanting to play shows myself so much, I figured I'd go seek out some first-hand experience.

Myself and MortalScum have Sledgehammer Autopsy going, but no shows yet. We've had problems with our drummer and keeping everything going efficiently so we've had to put it off for now. We're very anxious to go play though. I really want to find out what it's like.

So, what's going on with your band or project?

We only have our cd presentation in sight at the moment, and some random gigs here and there. but the last few months especially May have been very hectic. we've had shows nearly every weekend, even had some weekend where we played 2 times or so

but yeah what can I say, building up and breaking all the shit down is annoying but for the rest it's really awesome

My friend and my band ( I play drums and he does guitar and vocal, were just a two piece right now) played are first show at our schools rock band showcase( which is where all the bands at the school just go to play) and he did a Rolling Stones and Jerry Cantrell cover on acoustic guitar by himself and then with both of us we did Man In The Box by Alice In Chains and an instrumental that sounds like AC/DC mixed with Deep Purple. It was great, we nailed both songs. Every other band there was like adult alternative crap like Dave Mathews band so the look on everyone's face when we played the opening to Man In The Box was priceless! That's the only show we have done so far but now we have written four of our own songs and have a lot in the works, so we will probably be able to have a good amount of our own material by next year. Playing in the show was incredible, I can't wait to play again, next year we hopefully will find a bassist and maybe play some bar gigs. The only problem is I live right outside of Baltimore city where Hard rock and Heavy Metal is not very popular so it will be hard to find places to play. Our band is not yet here on the Archives, but i'd probably classify us as stoner rock/Metal, heavily influenced by Alice In Chains, my guitarist practically worships Jerry Cantrell!

Something about the wording of this thread title bothers me, maybe it's the seemingly redundant possessives, i dunno.

Well, my band Mefitis is playing Friday. It's our last show before the Summer, after which we are taking a hiatus of two months or so. In addition, it is also the final show of our friends Emortus, who are a local death metal band that has received fairly positive criticism on this site. I personally have been trying to promote like crazy since we have little time to get the word out, but it's more than just Myspace bulletins! You have to design real flyers and actually hand them out it person, I feel that when it's more personal people will be more likely to consider going. Overall, I think playing shows is a fun experience and it is a great way to expose people to your music and meet like-minded metal heads. Local death metal shows around here tend to be the best, since there are a lot of interesting and cool people and very little drama/bullshit.

I play in my black/death metal band Witch King, we've played 7 shows so far, starting at the end of last October. For the first 6 of those, I did vocals and guitar, but started doing just vocals with the last show we did.

Also, I played guitar at my 8th grade social dance with a band of people, mostly taken from our school's guitar ensemble. We had 3 guitarists, a bassist, a sax player, a keyboardist, and a drummer. We did a cover of Riders on the Storm, a jazzy version of Summertime by George Gerswin, and did an improv piece. It was pretty fun for a first gig (I'm not going to count recitals for band class at school, but I've done plenty of those as well - violin in elementary school, guitar in junior high, and alto sax this year at high school.)

Ive played just a couple small stuff.

have a couple videos on youtube just from our high school's battle of the bands.

youtube search Shardborn (btw, www.myspace.com/shardbornmetal FREE DEMOS)


also In a previous band last year played another small show in a church. search Valthum. kinda funny.

played 2 shows so far, another 2 are set for summer.

got vids from the first...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMlQLURNe2Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QANMQDntlc

I played a "Battle Of The Bands" type show with a band I was inlisted into for that gig. We didn't do too well, I don't think. We all did alright, but a few problems and our nerves meant it didn't go as well as it could of. It was fun, though!

I'm hoping one of these days one of the "bands" I'm in will get their shit together (Myself included) and I will play some more shows, they are fun.

I play in a viking metal band called Heidra. We've played 4 concerts since 2008. We wanted to do more shows, but we've been having trouble getting a steady drummer. And now we're down to only 3 members (no drummer, 2nd guitarist or bassist). We've played with som pretty big bands, actually. Supported Turisas in Copenhagen and Svartsot in their hometown.

My band (Evil Shepherd) plays shows every few weeks. Although we're probably going to take a break now during the summer to write more/better songs and prepare a full lenght.

We played with Enforcer, Portrait and Hyades and a shitload of local bands.

I played a show but not with my own band. It was my friend's shitty Alternative Rock band and they needed a substitute bass player.

I'll play my first show tomorrow at school, but due to the bad organization it's gonna be crap.

I've played many shows with Sacrosanct and Jenovah, but only two with Alas, Tyranny. And those shows were both really terrible.

I've played my fair share of shows in my own bands.

I had two different ones in High School. For my first band The Cleph, we played a variety of kinds of shows. We wrote and performed two songs for the TRU campaign at various events (you may have seen the commercials), did talent shows, house partys, and a few bars. Second band New Morality only played a handful of shows before we graduated, but made some decent money off of them.

More recently I played bass in a friend's band called Expire, and we played a healthy number of shows around North Carolina at venues like The Cave, The Cat's Cradle, and The Brewery.

http://www.myspace.com/expire

Nowadays I play drums/keyboards/write music for Mysterium Tremendum. I've had the group going for a little under a year and we have managed to get a decent number of gigs around the area (Chapel Hill/Raleigh NC) at places like Volume 11 Tavern, The Brewery, and The Nightlight. We've also done a couple of house shows, which I personally enjoy a lot. Sadly we haven't played in a couple of months as we are recording.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3540277491

We have demos!!!

So yeah, just harass the hell out of local venues and get them to give you a spot. Just make sure you have some decent recordings to show them. It also helps to have another band who is willing to play with you. Also I wouldn't recommend booking before you are ready to perform, since if you suck they might not want you back and it will be a demoralizing experience for the band. House shows are a great way to start! There is less pressure but you get a good feel for how the band works live and any issues that need to be addressed will reveal themselves (hopefully).

I've played about 40 shows by now. At the first concerts I was pretty stiff, but I've gotten more and more active on stage by every concert, now I absolutely love it, it's really fun to just give everything and feel like a cake afterwards. I don't like playing live too often though, I have other interests as well, that's why I quit a previous band I was in who started to get big. A gig once in a while is great.

I did a wee count today, 131 gigs with my current band. Holy crap.

I can't even begin to count how many shows I've played with different bands over the years(I'm 35 and have been in bands since I was 14). I've played for 2 people and I've played for 2000 people.

To be honest I've been burnt out on playing live for a few years now, so I'm fine to just release albums from my bedroom for now. Plus band politics is seriously tiring after you've run into the same personalities over and over.

i've been playing shows with my 2 bands for a couple years now. Hexen- a power metal/traditional metal band (from new jersey, not the thrash band from la, we've been around longer) and Centralia-a black metal band. i fucking love playing shows, we're playing one with Quo Vadis in allentown pa next friday, there's nothing quite like going on stage and getting the crowd going

I play bass for the band Bound By Blood. You can check us out by clicking the myspace link in my signature. We have been playing shows consistently for the past 2 years. We have an early demo floating around and are in the process of releasing our first EP. We recently signed to an underground label whos just starting out titled Triachy Records. We havnt actually released that information yet but who cares. We've landed a few big gigs opening for Unearth, As Blood Runs Black, Burry Your Dead, Brutal Truth, Obscura, Graves Of Valor, Wisdom in Chains, Full Blown Chaos, The Tondy Danza Tap Dancing Extravaganza, Dance Club Massacre, Emmure, Catalepsy.. They arnt all the best bands but its better then nothing. In July we landed our biggest show in a long time. For me, Its our biggest show yet. We're opening for Atheist, The Faceless, Psyopus, The Agonist, and Gnostic. Were as broke as everyone else but we're having fun and making an effort to go some where. I dont think enough people really bite the bullet and go for it. You have your whole life to spend working full time or going to school so why not take a risk see what happens? We dont think we're the next Metallica and dont intend on becoming that but we're just having fun and taking the band seriously now while we can because the older we get the less time we'll be able to focus on the music.



haha, Tell me about it. We Load our trailer, unload to play, breakdown, reload the trailer, unload at our practice space all in the same day for almost every show.

Quo Vadis, is that show with Dark Faith as well? If so check those guys out, they're great. Their singer is a cool dude who books shows in Tampa and he's gotten my band Promise Me Hell a few shows with the likes of Vital Remains, SWWAATS....we also played with Malevolent Creation. We've played relatively few shows but they've been with some big names so we are grateful for that. I love playing live and we got more coming up, including one with Dark Faith in July!

I've played shows with both my Psychedelic band and my Death Thrash band. In fact, my metal band has a gig lined up this Thursday, in case any Vancouver people see this. Playing live is so fucking fun, probably one of the highlights of being in a band for me. That and writing, composing and practising original material.

A few hours ago I played a show with my teachers band. They are all in their 40-50s and they invited me to join. I'm still in high school

Awesome, what style of music was that?

Kind of like freeform bluesy jazzy stuff with some classic rock thrown in. It's pretty fun. We played at a pizza place for a couple of hours.

I did a tour with my black metal band Frostthrone (now Shadows of Sin) back in 07. Nothing big, but it was a fun experience. We haven't played live since Nov 27th 2008 and probably won't anytime soon (bass player situation is up in the air). I love playing gigs so I really hope we start playing again soon.

Dude, I thought your music was great. What went wrong with the shows?

I've done some gigs with a few different projects, but with my steady metal band they are getting less frequent since every live experience turns out like crap. Not because of us, but because of an audience not appreciating music and club owners just wanting to sell beer and most of all "fellow" bands with superior attidude and lack of musical skill. We've done a few gigs in other cities and they usually turn out better, but they demand time and we don't always have it.

I can only speak for the area I live in, but here it's over all hard to get gigs since everybody wants to play but nobody wants to listen. Plus, the metal clubs just keep going bancrupt and shutting down...

Sorry for being a bit off topic, but many of you are from the states? What is the attidude towards live (metal) music where you live?

Where are you from like?

In the UK it's... getting there. You still really need to push people to go see local bands, especially your own. And normally it's always gonna be friends. No one seems to give that big a deal of local bands unless they are friends with the band themselves.

The huge problem we have, is that local metal, particularly the extreme sort, isn't what people want to see. They're too spoiled and always want to see big bands play. And you have to think, well these bands wouldn't be anywhere if it weren't for local support back in the day.

It's exactly the same here, people are probably spoiled. Which is a shame. Even though really they are very rare I have seen a few acts that have something special, but does the crowd care? No, they visit the clubs only to get wasted beyond belief and don't give a shit about good live music...

My band is seated in a mid-large city in Scandinavia. I grew up in a much smaller town and the situation was completely different. Since nothing ever happened good local acts were highly appreciated.

My band is almost ready for shows..I assume the first couple aren't very fun until you loosen up and such.

Oh god yes. My first shows were a tour supporting Turisas and Norther, I virtually shit myself onstage, hah. You get over it eventually.

We had about 5 shows with my band Bequest hitherto. All the ones took place in our hometown. Last year there were no gigs. I hope that we will manage to realize at least one show this year. I am going to buy a new guitar and record the first demo as well.

It sucks because it's hard to judge who's a real metalhead. Some people think Guns n Roses is metal, some people like Atreyu, some people listen to Gorgoroth,and most listen to mindless deathcore.

The Emortus from San Francisco?

They are amazing! Abominations of Faith is the shit.

Well, I actually did a thread on our 3rd show, and actually we haven't been in contact much since then because we have mainly been writing. Those shows were decent, but not too much fun because we were playing too many cover tunes.

I love playing shows with my band. We're somewhere in the double digits. But that's also about three years worth of playing. We're off-kilter from the scene here (breakdowns, electro-indie-pop). It is really hard to get a show around here and make yourself noticed.

Shitty open mic sorta deals and high school springfests and such. Nothing too memorable yet, but there is time to come...

I'm the vocalist in Vices of Our Virtues, a metal band from central illinois. We've played with a lot of big names in metal and hardcore. (ex; Liferuiner, Dr.Acula, The Banner, The Jonbenet, Waking the Cadaver, For Today etc.)
It's pretty fun to play around here but you get a lot of Christian straightedge hardcore bullshit smeared in your face. I swear every other band has some sort of far fetched message. We've gained a lot of respect in the area because we get up and play then leave.

Currently we're working with a new drummer and trying to find a new bassist because the last guys were complete douches. We're getting back in the studio to rerecord old songs and new ones to finish up our full length.

As far as playing shows go, we're a ball of energy. But right now we're just getting fine tuned again with the new guys. I really miss the stage, it's been quite a few months. I need to tour again.

We are probably at like 8 shows under our belts now....some small some really big (Iced Earth). Good times.

Hey, your band is The Vala right? From Detroit or a surrounding area? You guys are fucking awesome. I've never got to see you guys live but I love the stuff you got.