Old musician predudice?

I feel you , Steve. I’ve been playing with a group and am nearing the point where I have had it. Having to train the youngsters it tiresome. Last gig:

Me: “hey you, are going to need to slide your kit back because other bands will be setting up in front of us since we go on last”
Drummer “Uh huh”
5 minutes go by… I am just staring at him… wtf
Guitarist “You need to slide your kit back…”
Drummer “Uh huh”
5 minutes later… I just stare…
Sound man " you need to move your kit back"
Drummer “grunt”
5 minutes later…
Sound man “Move your kit back”
Drummer “oh OK”


OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF! :imp:

I don’t know. I certainly wouldn’t want to do the weekly gig/rehearse grind now, but I happily do the odd little gig every couple of months, and relish the opportunity to play my own stuff - even if it is to a small crowd, like I did last summer.

To be honest the prog scene is a bit weird, typical prog band will be a couple of older guys who got into it with Yes or Rush or Genesis (One of them is usually the keyboard player) a young guitarist who has grown up on Dream Theater and wants to be John Petrucci and often a lithe and 20-something female lead singer. And the audience demographic pretty much mirrors that

My wife always says she likes prog gigs because, the music is great and as a woman she never has to queue for the toilets :laughing:

Not to mention those endless bus trips to the distant towns, where you have a gig in which you get paid according to commission on ticket sales … only to find out the venue forgot to promote the gig :imp:

Same here. I really enjoy to go out and be a “guest star” on the bands of those of my friends who still are passionate enough to keep on rocking. It’s the best therapy I know.

Me and my mate play out one night a week. We’re the ‘oldies’ but it’s an amicable bunch we mix with mostly and no-one really seems to care about the age thing… except me! :confused: I feel a bit conspicuous sometimes - surrounded by 20-somethings. :neutral_face: Still there’s actually another older fella who’s just had his 70th. He’s still out there several nights a week doing it and lovin’ every minute. He’s kinda got the ‘Grandpa’ thing happening though, so the youngsters think he’s kinda quaint and hence he’s also quite popular with them as a result. I’m way too old to be cool and at the same time way too young to be old and quaint :laughing:

I wasn’t involved in any kind of gigging or playing when I was younger so this all still relatively new for me. Maybe for me the novelty will wear off, and I’ll start to look and feel like a REAL old geriatric fart trying to rediscover my middle-age, when I’m 70! :smiley:

I started doing gigs almost 30 years ago and I still play gigs regularly and love doing it! :sunglasses:
I wouldn’t wanna do three gigs a weekend anymore though, I play around 30 or 40 gigs a year now in different bands.

I don’t feel old on stage, maybe because I’ve still got all my hair and there are only a few grey hairs… :laughing:

Ok, come on, what’s your secret!! :smiley:

Secret must be:

  1. “all” is a blatant lie
    and
  2. “only a few” is true only when compared to David Crosby
    :smiling_imp:

:laughing:

I would love to be gigging but I had trouble finding a band that was stable enough to make it to the first gig.

Prior to those science experiments, I was in a regularly gigging band…except they always did charity things, i.e. we never got paid. That was upsetting because it was costing me over $100 per month to make it to rehearsals - I lived the furthest away so gas was an issue, plus there were tolls - and yet no one cared if I at least broke even.

I love being on stage and always have. My biggest gig was opening for Air Supply here on Staten Island. There were 2,200 people in the audience. 200 of those came to see us specifically, and a few even left after our set was finished! Woot!



To be or not to be…"

This may depend on a more clear and relative definition of the what the term means to ‘make it.’ I can’t malign or make any assumptions on anyone being pathetic for choosing to do what they do - particularly if you consider that people will do what they do simply because it’s who they are, what they’ve done and essentially, born to do what they’ve always done - label it like you do for other life forms/species. They simply are what they are.

For myself, making music and playing piano has always been and still is a life-long activity that will only end when my time on earth ends. It’s always been my main passion in life. Whether or not anyone thinks I’m good at it or not - is a tertiary consideration… even if someone deems me pathetic.

People who listen to their hearts and follow their passion are happier (and more solid as a musician) than those who continually second-guess themselves and/or the reasons why they do whatever they think they want (or will attempt) to do. Another way to put it is that they’ve answered for themselves the, “Sh-t, or get off the pot” question about who they are, as in a personal sense of identity as an artist/musician.

Granted, there are those who will fall off the bandwagon because they will not achieve the milestones they’ve laid out for themselves (where reasons will have nothing to do with the art of making music -where something else is an ulterior motive of an agenda… like fame and fortune), but for the most part, these shortcomings still won’t define someone being a musician, or any artist. Artists have to be warriors - rather than some ‘wannabe’ dabbler.

Some people are hard-core lifers.

No, no secrets, just good genes… :sunglasses:



:laughing:

I’ve seen grey-haired, bald, rickety, ornery, arthritic, blind, almost deaf and moribund musicians - but I’ve never yet met an “old” one. The elixir of life, the fountain of youth called MUSIC is readily available to musicians (but not necessarily to Cubase experts) :laughing: :sunglasses:

yeah, too much hair on my head haha!
Also looks like it always have color wise.
Carefully selected parents! :sunglasses:
Although my beard would be gray if I ever grew one, but naaaaw. :stuck_out_tongue:

To me it’s very simple, if you put on a show and people turn up (and pay :open_mouth: !) and enjoy it, what the hell is wrong with that?
As far as I know Charlie Steinberg himself is still doing live shows in a hard rock band, heh heh. And he ain’t got no hair either :wink: .

Mauri.

If it sounds good to you and it makes you happy, play!
If somebody wants to listen :sunglasses: :sunglasses: :sunglasses:

Kids under the age of 35 should not be allowed to perform music.
The skin isn’t wrinkled enough to disperse the sound waves properly at that age!
Besides they play too much too fast and make fools of themselves! :imp:

yeah, Charlie was born rich and never had to move a finger, go to school nor write any code for MIDI and Audio software. Lucky bastard!

Yep.