11 musicians reminisce about playing their first live gig
After forming a band, jamming regularly and writing songs, there comes a point when the group have to take the plunge and perform in front of a captive audience.
We let members of the Bronx, Grayscale, Palaye Royale, Cancer Bats, Marmozets, Parkway Drive, Municipal Waste, Deez Nuts, PVRIS, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and the Faim reminisce about where it all began: playing their very first live gig.
1. MATT CAUGHTHRAN, THE BRONX
It was at The Three Clubs in Los Angeles, and I have a scar on my butt cheek from it. I jumped into our drummer’s [former member Jorma Vik] drums, and his hi-hat stand stabbed me in the ass. The show was complete chaos, and it lasted about 20 minutes. I don’t ever get to see the scar, but I’m told it’s still there!
2. COLLIN WALSH, GRAYSCALE
We played in our hometown in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania—a suburb of Philly—just to our friends in a basement. It was the first for Grayscale. It was cool. I’m sure the sound was terrible. The power went out during a storm, so we ran the entire show off a generator outside. Somebody was pouring gasoline with the lid open fueling all the musical equipment. Playing in the dark—it was interesting.
3. REMINGTON LEITH, PALAYE ROYALE
The Viper Room in Los Angeles. That was the first gig we ever played, and it was about four years ago. I was so fucking nervous, and we all got extremely drunk before we went on. It was a shock because it was our first gig and we’d sold out The Viper Room. We thought we were the coolest band in the entire world at that point. I was shocked that it didn’t go terribly wrong. It was a really cool first gig to play, especially at an iconic venue like The Viper Room. It’s unbelievable. Everybody’s played there.
4. LIAM CORMIER, CANCER BATS
The first official time we played live was when Alexisonfire and Keep It Up were at a Bane show in London, Ontario, and we were telling the Alexis guys about our new band, and they were like, “Oh dudes, go and play a song. You should borrow Keep It Up’s gear.” We got up and played one song during their set; it was “Shillelagh” and kids pitted. We got a huge shoutout from all the bands. Everyone was like, “Yo, that new band Cancer Bats are sick!” I was like, “Yeah! We’re a real band!” Alexis are homies, and they really wanted to see it. It was a great first one.
5. BECCA MACINTYRE, MARMOZETS
At The 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, 10 years ago. Sticky floors. There was your dad, a man with a dog and someone behind the bar. Three people there! All the bands were watching each other; it was pretty rad. We loved it. That was the place we started.
6. WINSTON MCCALL, PARKWAY DRIVE
We played the Byron Bay Youth Activities Centre. We really wanted to play live and had five-and-a-half songs so we thought that’s enough for a set, 15 minutes. It was a local gig, and there were about 50 people there. Jeff [Ling, guitarist] had gigantic, oversized white shorts and tennis shoes—that was the style at the time. We looked like idiots, and our friends moshed and jumped off roller doors. That was the start of it, basically. There happened to be a guy from Adelaide there from a band called I Killed The Prom Queen, and after that gig he said we should do a split record and that was where it started for us.
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7. TONY FORESTA, MUNICIPAL WASTE
It was at a house show in Richmond, Virginia, on New Year’s Eve and a big riot broke out. Windows got broken, and we played a room about a quarter of the size of a festival stage. It was very fun. I’d moved out of Richmond for a year, and then I moved back and started this band. A bunch of my friends showed up. It was great, a good feeling, and it’s never stopped. It’s always been a lot of fun.
8. JJ PETERS, DEEZ NUTS
My first live performance with this band was absolutely terrifying. It was at a small festival in Australia called Psych Your Mind that a friend of mine put on, and I was blessed to be on the bill of a good festival for our first-ever show, but at the same time that increased the anxiety because I was playing to a full crowd and not a handful of people. I remember going onstage, and I remember coming offstage, because I actually blacked out in between—not from drinking, not from doing anything—I was just that terrified and that nervous that my brain just shut down from the experience. Apparently I did OK. I was likely very stiff and awkward, so it’s a memory that’s probably best I don’t have. It was scary.
9. LYNN GUNN, PVRIS
We played this old bar in Manchester, New Hampshire, that all three of us had met at. I just remember it being too hyped up. We were way more excited than the energy in the room, so it was a little bit funny. There were 100 or so people, and we were opening up for Our Last Night. I was so excited, not knowing anything.
10. FRANK CARTER, FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
The first live performance we, the Rattlesnakes, ever did was in the tattoo shop that I work at called Sang Bleu in East London. I had an art exhibition opening that night as well, so I had a big gallery of my paintings upstairs and then downstairs we played to about 75 people, and it was chaos. I don’t really get nervous before shows, but there was definitely an element of trepidation. We were excited more than we were nervous because it was a brand-new day for us. It was the start of a big project. We loved the songs and were excited to share them. But that was really early days. We’d recorded an EP, and I don’t think we’d even released it at that point, so it was very early on. It was awesome.
11. JOSH RAVEN, THE FAIM
It was quite awful! We sold it out—there were 200 people there. It was back home in Perth, Australia, at a venue called HQ. It was storming, raining and all of our gear got soaked; a lot of things didn’t work. It was a bit of a wake-up call and a big learning process as well.
