How many here play live vs. do not play live?

How many here play live or used to play live regularly before the pandemic?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 71 63.4%
  • No, I use the Axe-Fx (or other gear) strictly for recording, home use, as a hobby, etc

    Votes: 41 36.6%

  • Total voters
    112
I have zero interest in playing live anymore. Trying to find dedicated, non-egomaniac band members who actually learn the songs and have the gear is more stress than its worth. Also, I'm 50. No local band that does original music is going to be interested in someone my age. At best, I'd hook up with some dad rock band that does 70s, 80s and 90s covers. Woohoo, I can get up on stage with a bunch of over-the-hill geezers and muddle through "Pour Some Sugar On Me" at some run-down dive where the owner doesn't want to pay and the audience is a bunch of drunk grandmas and grandpas still trying to fit into spandex and wearing the same denim jackets they wore in 1988. No thanks.
Get out of my head.

This. Every day and twice on Sundays. Uphill. Both ways....

I got out in '99 when the band I was playing with lost its one regular paying gig, after having put up with a raging psychopath of a band leader who threatened to break all my fingers so I would never be able to play again simply because I requested to use one of his microphones to troubleshoot the bassist's mic cutting out (running the PA system for the vocals was my job).
 
Played two different Cygnus Betas (one at each gig). Hoping that we'll be back to our approximately every 2 weeks gigging soon!
 
Haven't played live since Feb 2020.

Lockdowns have resumed so no band practices since last November.

Currently setting up a thing where we will live stream, as I can not take it anymore.
 
Except for a period of a couple of years in the late 80's, I've been playing steady live for almost 40 years in dive bars, awesome clubs, big stages and festivals, postage-stamp sized stages, backyards, basements, living rooms, hockey rinks, auditoriums, houseboats sailing around a lake, opening for national acts, opening for local bands, docks on the water...anywhere they'd let us play.

My gig frequency has been a bit varied over the years, sometimes three/four weekends a month for months/years at a time, sometimes only a couple of dozen weekends for the entire year....it all depends on a ton of factors.

My last live full weekend show was March 2020 and Ontario shut everything down the week after we played. Since then we have been in lockdown and/or social distancing so I've not even jammed with another musician nor rehearsed with the band in over a year now, nor has anyone I know pretty much.

Unfortunately I don't see a return to clubs/venues until at least 2022 here but it's possible that we might do some outdoor shows this summer...I'm not holding my breath though. If it's not safe I'm not going to push for anything.

The worst thing is that I got my FM3/FC6 last August and haven't even jammed with anybody with it, nor even taken it out of my house...I'm really trying to not let this all get to me but man, I gotta jam soooooooooon....o_O
 
Haven't played live since '09. Packed on a bunch of weight, had a couple kids, bought a house, got a career, tale as old as time. Now I'm in my 40s, not sure if that's really the jam for me these days. Would have to find the right group, invest some time into it, the whole 9... might at some point in the future, just not at the present.
 
Just played our first no-Covid protocols gig and it was glorious. Near full house and a dance floor full of dancers. No masks...... YEEESSSS! 🎸🤟🏼🎸. YMMV
Where do you live? Texas or Florida? It can't be anywhere in Lockdownistan.


I think that the biggest problem older musicians have that sour things for them is that they have to deal with other older musicians. Which really run the whole spectrum from hyper ambitious to I couldn't give a damn as long I get to play my rehearsal once a week. When you're a young adult and haven't really taken on the responsibilities of a job and family it's easy to all be on the same page. You're young, you're full of piss and vinegar. A lazy bum just in it get chicks or a prima donna is your biggest risk. As you get older and still have the ambition to make it big you truly run the risk of the lazy bums and prima donna's to the weekend warriors who got busy jobs, or the family men who can't take a sneeze without asking permission of their spouses, And they can ALL sour you on playing in a band as an older musician.
 
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I have a covers band that practices every week and gigs a few times a year. Obviously no gigs this last year. I also do solo shows occasionally with an acoustic guitar and singing, at weddings and such. I'm going to start working more on my my solo act more and produce better content, so that I'm ready and available when the nightlife starts revving up again. I love playing with other people, but it's so much easier to actually get gigs on my own.
 
Where do you live? Texas or Florida? It can't be anywhere in Lockdownistan.


I think that the biggest problem older musicians have that sour things for them is that they have to deal with other older musicians. Which really run the whole spectrum from hyper ambitious to I couldn't give a damn as long I get to play my rehearsal once a week. When you're a young adult and haven't really taken on the responsibilities of a job and family it's easy to all be on the same page. You're young, you're full of piss and vinegar. A lazy bum just in it get chicks or a prima donna is your biggest risk. As you get older and still have the ambition to make it big you truly run the risk of the lazy bums and prima donna's to the weekend warriors who got busy jobs, or the family men who can't take a sneeze without asking permission of their spouses, And they can ALL sour you on playing in a band as an older musician.
Phoenix, AZ. No, not in Lockdownistan...... LOL..... I agree with a lot of what you are saying it is tough to get group of older musicians to get along, be on the same page as to direction and be compatible musicianship wise. That isn't even mentioning gear issues etc......
 
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