Boozing and playing live ??

charleshaupt · 2013-04-23T08:00:31+00:00

Hi all, what is it with some guitarists boozing it up before playing live ,and then still thinking they played a flawless set ? A drink or two is still ok,but if the player,s judgement and skill/proficiency is affected , then it,s not good... just my personal opinion,please don,t be offended,if it works for you then your,e lucky..peace C

chrisbark

I agree with Singemonkey on the two beer theory BUT I also have to insert this Bill Hicks Video in support of Arno's argument

Warning it is a bit rough

=

Hammeron

I don't drink and don't plan starting soon neither.
But we have a rule for my band mates, max 1 before the show, afterwards it's up to you. Pissed on stage don't work for my band, end of story.

evolucian

Anyone who finds a spot to put a Bill Hicks video has a special place in my heart.

"Hey booi... com 'ere... (proceeds to push said person away once he arrives)... gotta love that. Good to know its not just a Krugersdorp/East Rand thing ?

sharonzaz

chrisbark wrote I agree with Singemonkey on the two beer theory BUT I also have to insert this Bill Hicks Video in support of Arno's argument

Warning it is a bit rough

=

sorry, IMO, this guy is a fokken idiot!
(the guy in the vid, not the poster)

I feel as though most of our examples for good musicians came from the 60s and 70s and thats
when they were all on drugs and alcohol and all that and it seems we need to copy those guys to the last note
including their drinking and drugs habits?

I dont know man, I been on every important stage around the country, and rocked the shit out of thousands and thousands
of ppl, and i never felt the need to do so high or drunk or both and the time when i were
had absolutely nothing to do with being on stage or being a musician.
Ive seen great musicians play good drunk and seen them do better sober.
a drink or two dont really count, im talking about way more.

GnR were drunk and high from morning to night and just cos no one told them they could rock it sober.
i have seen unreleased footage with matt sorum who spilled the beans on the GnR days and
how non of that made any sense.

I seen guys pick up guitars for the first time cos they think that would score them girls (it would) and
cos that is a licence to drink and do drugs.

im sorry, you dont need to be drunk or high to write the dark side of the moon, layla, stariways and so on,
you need to be that talented and if you think otherwise youre a fool.

john mayer is clean and is writing the most beautiful songs ever.

I have been drunk and crawled back to my flat in suncity many times after a gig, i have drank in gigs and climbed into my bakkie towing
a trailer and took the offramp into oncoming traffic, luckily late at night with no cars on the road.
been in bar fights, been in many if not all situations bad or good in gigs and i cannot recall one time when i can say
drinking or smoking dope had a positive affect or outcome.

it is bullshit and a fairytale to think that its all sex drugs and rock'n'roll.
its hard work and talent, and because it is such a hard life and zigzag road that musicians need to drink in order
to deal with the hardships.
if you drink it dont make you a worse musician, but it also dont make you better.

DonovanB

I think I get a better high out of being cognitive for the gigs. I do have one before, maybe during the gig as well. But seeing as mostly I have to drive to and from the venue it sucks to drink.

evolucian

no need to take it so seriously. Bill was cool

Bill Hicks -> Comedian... dead but still cool. Besides that, you have differing opinions scattered throughout the thread. A few would agree with you, a few would agree with Bill. Personally, don't give a shit... goin to see Metallica in a few days time.. Woohoo!

Jimi was wickedly high, is one of my hero's... but I can't function with the stuff he took so its not for me. He did tend to take more than everyone else too... which was impressive. One day when I'm famous... Ima have meself a shotgun.

PeteM

I've been drunk and I've been sober. Sober is better.

Chabenda

When my other Tetesticle starts singing "yeah, yeah,yeah" between lines then I know that he's had too much. I must ask him how he knows when I've had too much! If you're playing as a two piece then it is a stuff up. I agree with Arno (although I'm not sure where the 'Sex, drugs and rock and roll' comes in, we're obviously doing something wrong), it is meant to be a complete blast. However, IMO, it's not so great when the blast that the band is having in general, is stuffed up by a member who is incapable of doing his/her job. The best kick is the one you get from hearing and feeling that tight, inspired sound that you are creating as a unit.

I am a practicing alcoholic but I think that I manage to control it when playing. Sometimes a clip off someones cell phone is sufficient to show you how good/bad you were.

RobbieZ

Tokai SA wrote I think it's disrespectful to the audience.

I fully agree.

Chabenda

I played a gig at Mutorashanga Country Club in Zim years back with a band called C'est La Vie. It was one of our tightest performances ever. At the end of the gig we were in the bar having another ouzo and coke and whilst waiting for the coke I was swirling my ouzo and I and noticed that it was not going cloudy. Someone had nicked all the ouzo in the bar and refilled the bottles with water - 'nuff said..

chrisbark

I didn't mean to upset anyone 8) and it is supposed to be funny.

In that clip Bill emphasises that Hendrix et al played from the heart and soul and were extremely talented.
And they took drugs.

im sorry, you dont need to be drunk or high to write the dark side of the moon, layla, stairway and so on, you need to be that talented and if you think otherwise youre a fool.

You have a point about the role of talent but what about:

Hendrix - Purple Haze
Bob Dylan - Everybody must get stoned
Clapton - Cocaine
Bob Marley - I shot the sheriff

and the list goes on ...

All these songs would not exist if the musicians did not use drugs or alcohol.

Drugs and Alcohol are used and abused by society and music is a reflection of society.

chris77

Whenever I read about a muso saying how he was high or boozed up during a prolific period of his career, I just think it's sad that we will never know just how much better it could have been if he wasn't.

My personal experience is that when I was younger and getting smashed on every occassion I was surrounded by friends who were all doing the same. And man, we were the shit. We were funny, we were cool, our cameraderie knew no bounds and it was just amazing how simple life was and everything just made so much sense.
And then we grew up a bit. Finished studying, got jobs, some even got married. Weird thing is that at this juncture, some of us gave up drinking hard and others didn't. Now, we were all still friends (and most of us still are), but booze became a dividing factor. When you're sober, the drunk oke's jokes aren't that funny and they certainly aren't looking so cool anymore talking too loud , being know it alls and behaving like jackasses. And it's amazing how quickly you lose your patience with a good friend if he makes a social event unpleasant for everybody else.

So my take on getting drunk is that (like any other scene as well mind you), it's only cool if your on the inside and partaking in the festivities. When you're on the outside looking in, it's sad to watch and slightly annoying.
Same goes when watching a band. If you're sauced up as well, the performance will likely be great regardless. You won't really mind the sub par performance, because you're not really at your best and most perceptive either. But if you're sober, you don't have the liquer in your ear telling you everything is just dandy. You will notice if the band isn't up to par and you WILL be dissapointed in them.

singemonkey

So the thing about playing stoned is that people's timing goes to hell. Have you guys noticed that? I've seen a bunch of guys recently playing baked as a biscuit, and the unifying result was that their timing was waaaaay shakey. I reckon maybe it can work if the band gets into a groove - like Marley's. But for most people it seems to do the opposite.

Psean

chrisbark wrote
You have a point about the role of talent but what about:

Hendrix - Purple Haze
Bob Dylan - Everybody must get stoned
Clapton - Cocaine
Bob Marley - I shot the sheriff

and the list goes on ...

All these songs would not exist if the musicians did not use drugs or alcohol.

Drugs and Alcohol are used and abused by society and music is a reflection of society.

I know this is a bit beside the point but anyway, here's Clapton on JJ Cale's Cocaine :

"Cocaine" is actually an anti-cocaine song. If you study it or look at it with a little bit of thought ... from a distance ... or as it goes by ... it just sounds like a song about cocaine. But actually, it is quite cleverly anti-cocaine.
—Eric Clapton

And +1 to Bill Hicks ?

Bob-Dubery

chris77 wrote Whenever I read about a muso saying how he was high or boozed up during a prolific period of his career, I just think it's sad that we will never know just how much better it could have been if he wasn't.

I'm not even sure that the two have anything to do with each other. There's too many other cases of creativity without resorting to drugs or booze.

The mistake that some people make is to assume the connection and then follow suit. Davy Graham deliberately became a junkie because Charlie Parker was a junkie. He didn't notice the bits where Parker was saying that he considered his addiction to have no beneficial aspects to it at all and that it was only a hindrance and never a help.

It may even be excuse making, a self-justifying way of giving one's self permission to take drugs. Louis Armstrong used lots of laxatives and was an early adopter of colonic irrigation, and nobody goes around saying that Dulcolax improves your trumpet playing.

briang-telkomsa-net

As one who enjoys a beer, a beer or two through the night didn't ever hurt anyone, it depends on you, but my experience has taught me that trying to play when "motherless" or close to it isn't fun;

You can't seem to feel the guitar neck, your voice sounds distant, playing single string passages sober is difficult enough and in this state it's just about impossible. If that's how it feels for me what must it feel like for those listening?

If one can still produce the goods with a couple of toots in you and not dissappoint a paying audience with your delivery or behaviour then good on you - each to his/her own.

On the life style of some of the great musicians; Maybe the great music of yester year had more to do with the relative commercial freedom artists had back then, compared with what I perceive as a commercially restrictive environment nowadays, than with the lifestyle.

Hammeron

On the other hand, Lemmy hasn't been sober since he was 19.

vic

Chabenda

I remember playing a set once (at the Gremlin Drive In Restaurant - Greater Mbare), many years ago, under the influence of some seriaas hash - it was not lekker, I had tunnel vision that also affected my concept of time, I could see my fret board, as in nearly three frets, and knew what I was playing at that moment, but had no idea of what I had just played nor what was meant to come next - somehow I am of the impression that I did not sound like Jimmy Hendrix.

EDIT: It was a very unpleasant experience and I couldn't wait for it to wear off. I have stuck to beer or fruit juice. I find that there's only so much beer you can drink before it begins to taste like a 65th cigarette of the gig - you know.... the one you try to smoke on the way home and end up throwing out the window. Spirits are guaranteed to affect my playing badly. I gave up smoking years ago.

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