Amp Gig

June 22nd, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Amp Gig

My First Musical Gig

When I was 14 years old, I was in a band or so we thought of it, even if we couldn’t really play anything. With two school mates in tow, we played about once a week at my friend’place and made quite a lot of rather weird noises we thought was incredible music!! But we were enthusiastic and loved the idea of being “rock stars.”

We never really thought about act or anything serious, we just continued along rehearsing in with our 10 watt amps when his went away and we were skipping school. We had no idea how crappy we were and I thought I could play all music. I didn’t understand that I had to do some sort of scale or key!! I just strummed my guitar!!!

Eventually, we found our way to the year 10 leaver’s social at the local memorial hall. In those days, entertainment was always live. DJs didn’t really exist (yes, it was that long ago!) and so bands were hired.

The group that was performing was rather lame, playingsongs not really suited for a bunch of hormonally challenged teenagers. In fact, they reminded me of the scene in American Pie where the group is doing an awful version of “don’t you forget about me” and all the kids are bored.

A few friends at school knew my friends and I had a band and suggested we play. All of a sudden our self confidence disappeared and we got nervous. We’re not ready we said. We just play for laughs. Fright entered all of us and none of us wanted to go.

However, next thing we know, the big kids who played football and were athletic heroes came over and told us we should play. We didn’t want too but they insisted. We insisted. Then they say “get on stage or we are gonna punched ya heads in.” It appeared we didn’t have a choice.

So with the prospect of our heads being smashed heads and loss of any degree of cool we ever thought we had, we trundled toward the stage. Playing others people <a href="http://www.axebay.com">used guitars</a>, amps, and drums is akin to wearing some body else’s underwear- it just doesn’t fit right!!! But we got up there any way, ready to be booed off the stage and into the dark recesses of the hall. We played and the place went wild and with everybody dancing and yelling and smiling. We thought “hey this ain’t so bad” so we kept paying whatever we knew. Nobody, especially us, seemed to care. Everybody loved it. We kept going and going. The tough boys applauded and the girls smiled. My guitar solos still not in any scale or key but hey, there we were a real band on a real stage!! We were suddenly too cool for school and the “it” thing at school.

What we thought was pain turned out to be awesome and we ended up getting a gig with the other band. It was the start of a long musical career that still continues to this day.

About the Author

Matt Kepnes is a guitar player. Check out his website at Axebay. There you can find a lot of information on guitars and guitar tuners.