First time on stage.... help?

Hey guys, tonight is going to be my first time actually on stage. I'm going to be playing at a bar in aspenwall, with my cousin, who's been in bands longer than I've been alive lol! But I'm going to this bar and i'm going to see one of the "best guitar players" in pittsburgh, and I dont want to &^*$ this up, if you know what I mean.

It's a blues place, so I'm doing 2 SRV covers, "Pride and Joy", and "Texas Flood". I'm playin with the house band,so I'm not sure how this is going to go. You guys have any tips on what to do, etc? I'm a bit nervous!
:da

Try not to suck.

:D

Okay, seriously - don't drink too much before going up. And, eat a banana or two. They contain a natural beta-blocker that helps settle your stomach and your nerves.

Try to have fun. Music is fun, right? Don't be overly critical of yourself. Any mistakes you make (and everybody makes 'em) will be glaring to you but probably completely invisible to the audience.

If you look like you're having a good time and playing well, then your performance will go over well. If you look like a nervous wreck and give a look of disgust every time you hit a sour note, well, the audience will go along with that too.

Never heard of the banana thing. That's awesome!

Oh yeah, I swear by them. I've gotten to a very managable point with stage fright but it used to be kind of bad back when I was in school (music conservatory). Before a concert I always had a banana or two and things were great (except for banana-flavored burps). It's not too heavy in the stomach either.

Just visualize everything going great. Think about how fun it will be. You'll be fine. Nothing bad can happen. It's not that big a deal, really.

Watch your alcohol intake before you get on stage. :glug

Unless you have extra bananas for settling your stomach, that old "picture your audience naked" trick may not be a great idea at some blues jams.

:biglaugh:

know your material cold, try and enjoy it.

It sometimes helps to picture your audience naked, unless you're playing in a nudist camp, in which case imagine them fully clothed.

The best advice I can offer is to forget the audience is there. Play for the band, play with the band (musically and personably), and try to stay within your musical bounds. Doing these things, you'll have a good time. Having a good time is what the audience will see, and in turn they'll have a good time.

The next best advice was already given. Don't sweat the mistakes. Everyone makes them. Unlike a recording that gets played over and over, scrutinized for every nuance of style, every note analyzed to nausia, when playing live a mistake is only a fraction of a second away from being completely forgotten. By the time someone recognizes the mistake happened, they're already thinking about the last great lick you pulled off. Most of the audience won't even know it happened. The ones that did notice will be watching to see how well you recover from it (because everyone makes mistakes, not everyone recovers well). Ironically, most stage mistakes are triggered by a mistake someone else in the band makes that snowballs. If recovered well, everyone in the band gets a chuckle from it, and no one feels guilty. If it trainwrecks, everyone still gets a laugh and starts again. No big deal.

aww the gig was canceled, the roads were too bad. :( But thanks for the advice guys, I'll have to remember it!