Stage Clothes?

[GitFiddle]

Regardless of your clothing selection, at least looking clean and prepared makes a difference. I always carry a few clean shirts for the performance. Especially during the warmer months, its easy to get sweaty and grungy unloading, hauling and setting up for a gig.

For gigging musicians on the road, sometimes it can be a challenge to maintain clean clothes. During the early 80s I was on the club circuit with a country show band. We had the opportunity to open for the Bellamy Brothers and TG Shepherd at a large concert venue in Bristol Tenn.

The Bellamys were pretty popular at the time. Just before we opened the show, we were backstage and the Bellamys came out dressed in their stage clothes. I stood and talked with them for a few minutes. First thing that hit me was an overwhelming stank. It smelled like they had been sweating and wearing those same outfits for a couple weeks without being washed. After a few minutes I had to walk off because my eyes were watering.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1QBKkjYm3o&feature=related]The Bellamy Brothers - Let Your Love Flow (HQ) |TOTP 13-05-1976| - YouTube[/ame]

A good tip in today's world... If you have favorite gigging outfits, try to cycle through a number of them for each weekend gig. These days, after a gig, pictures start popping up on FB and social networking sites. Sometimes it looks pretty sad when you scroll through a band's gig pictures and see the same sweaty shirts in every picture. For you its just wearing the same shirt once a week, but in pictures, it looks like you live in the same shirt. Just sayin'.

 

[TOMMYTHUNDERS]

Regardless of your clothing selection, at least looking clean and prepared makes a difference. I always carry a few clean shirts for the performance.

this is the worst advice in the thread.

 

[GitFiddle]

this is the worst advice in the thread.

 

[Skintaster]

dude must have missed the entire 1990s grunge scene. all uber famous, all dressed like regular dudes.

Not really. There was a similar thread a while back, and I dug up a bunch of old photos of several of the most popular grunge bands of the time - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the like. All of those dudes were wearing clothes that showed how image conscious they were. Some of which were pretty outlandish looking, especially in retrospect.

Sure, their "look" was less over the top than the hair metal guys from the previous popular trend, but it was still a completely thought out image, and pretty much all of those popular bands played that game.

Seriously, go look up some old photos if you don't believe me. There might be a few photos of those bands wearing flannels and jeans, but most I found had dudes wearing suit jackets over t shirts, funny looking hats, and other stuff to create a look.

 

[martin H]

I'm too old, and have lived through too many unfortunate fashions to think about this issue without horrific memories of prior stage outfits that looked "good at the time" arsing from a dark place where they were supposes to be confined.

 

[Skintaster]

Oh my fck'n god. Gilmour, really? Look at him where he has gotten. He could go on stage dressed like an easter egg and for the audience it would be ok. Look on him in his early days. When he didn't have everything he wanted. I'm guessing he didn't dress casual.

Not a Gilmour fnatic, so I'm not sure exactly how he dressed, but I'm pretty sure he didn't wear a T-shit and jeans.

In the case of a band like Pink Floyd, I don't think that their clothes really matter. It wouldn't surprise me if they DID just wear t shirts and jeans.... BUT! They also had enormous stage shows with films, lasers, a flying pig, other props, and on one tour an enormous wall built in front of the audience.

And image they have was created by those things, and the clothing was secondary.

 

[martin H]

Not really. There was a similar thread a while back, and I dug up a bunch of old photos of several of the most popular grunge bands of the time - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the like. All of those dudes were wearing clothes that showed how image conscious they were. Some of which were pretty outlandish looking, especially in retrospect.

Sure, their "look" was less over the top than the hair metal guys from the previous popular trend, but it was still a completely thought out image, and pretty much all of those popular bands played that game.

Seriously, go look up some old photos if you don't believe me. There might be a few photos of those bands wearing flannels and jeans, but most I found had dudes wearing suit jackets over t shirts, funny looking hats, and other stuff to create a look.

Agreed The 'regular guy' look can be just as calculated as wearing satin pants.
Reminds me of a line from a Dexy's Midnight Runners song
"if you're so anti-fashion, then wear flares - instead of dressing down all the same"

 

[martin H]

Originally Posted by GitFiddle
Regardless of your clothing selection, at least looking clean and prepared makes a difference. I always carry a few clean shirts for the performance.

this is the worst advice in the thread.

Not if you have to ride more than a few minutes in the van with your fellow musicians.....

 

[Skintaster]

Here. Pearl Jam, early 90s. Weird hats, fancy jackets, even the tee shirts look fancy somehow. All looks pretty image conscious to me.

 

[Skintaster]

Alice in Chains, early 90's. Again, pretty image conscious. These guys were a hair metal band before jumping to the next trend, so they were well primes for wearing a "look" on stage.

 

[Rich]

Pantera:

 

[Rich]

Guns N Roses:

Well, except for Slash who doesn't appear to have bought new clothes in nearly 25 years.

 

[Eric Smith]

This guy was once asked on Johnny Carson why he wasn't wearing one of his fancy tuxedo's with all the glitz, his furs and feather boas and such. His answer was, "you have to pay to see that, honey."

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dioRwB4RvrQ[/ame]

 

[CHUNKYNECK]

Oh my fck'n god. Gilmour, really? Look at him where he has gotten. He could go on stage dressed like an easter egg and for the audience it would be ok. Look on him in his early days. When he didn't have everything he wanted. I'm guessing he didn't dress casual.

Not a Gilmour fnatic, so I'm not sure exactly how he dressed, but I'm pretty sure he didn't wear a T-shit and jeans.

Im not a gilmour fanatic either but i can only remember him wearing a t- shirt and jeans or no shirt and jeans back in the day.
I just used that video as an example that plenty of guys choose to dress down or just wear what they feel comfortable in when on stage.

If a guy can't back up a fancy costume with a decent performance then it verges on being a cheesy stage show imo. That being said i can also appreciate the fact that if you are after a certain image or want to up the fun factor of a show clothes can help.

The type of music you play also comes into it imo.

 

[Luka_Luka!]

I used to play in a band where the singer spent more time on the wardrobe and photoshoots than she did on practicing. Needles to say, our shows sucked.

 

[Skintaster]

Im not a gilmour fanatic either but i can only remember him wearing a t- shirt and jeans or no shirt and jeans back in the day.
I just used that video as an example that plenty of guys choose to dress down or just wear what they feel comfortable in when on stage.

If a guy can't back up a fancy costume with a decent performance then it verges on being a cheesy stage show imo. That being said i can also appreciate the fact that if you are after a certain image or want to up the fun factor of a show clothes can help.

The type of music you play also comes into it imo.

Yeah, but Gilmour has had an enormous stageshow... Probably one of the most developed ever, for at least the last 35 years... So he doesn't exactly need to dress up. The show takes care of the image for the band. If I had a giant wall erected around me, with films projected onto it, I'd probably just wear jeans and a tee shirt myself.

 

[Luka_Luka!]

Yeah, but Gilmour has had an enormous stageshow... Probably one of the most developed ever, for at least the last 35 years...
[snip]
...I'd probably just wear jeans and a tee shirt myself.

Tell it to those Kiss guys

 

[CHUNKYNECK]

Yeah, but Gilmour has had an enormous stageshow... Probably one of the most developed ever, for at least the last 35 years... So he doesn't exactly need to dress up. The show takes care of the image for the band. If I had a giant wall erected around me, with films projected onto it, I'd probably just wear jeans and a tee shirt myself.

True, they pioneered the use of lights and effects.
I think they did wear some freaky gear too at the start but no freakier than most of the tripping audience.

 

[DLChance]

The main thing to keep in mind here is the word "APPROPRIATE."

Dress appropriate to the music you play and the image you want to project.

If you play off-the-rack music to audiences that couldn't care less who is onstage, dress the way that works best for you.

But if you want to stand out from the rest of the bands playing the same circuits you play, and seem more special than the rest of the bands in the minds of the paying customers and the managers who hire the bands, image-enhancing AND APPROPRIATE stage clothing is one relatively cheap and effective way to do that.

If it's not as comfortable as what you wear when you're just lounging around the house, or rehearsing with the band (or at the beach or shooting some baskets with friends), so what? It's not like you live in stage clothes all the time.

You're there to give the paying customers as enjoyable and memorable an experience as possible for their money, not for your personal comfort.

And besides, if you're one of those guys who mainly plays gigs for fun, it's a LOT more fun to play to a crowd that thinks you're special than a crowd that doesn't know you from the last band they saw, and won't remember you the next time they see you.

 

[slapshot]

Okay so as a gigging local guitarist, I've been pondering on a dilemma - What to wear on stage.

From the start I wore a normal t-shirt and jeans, as do the rest of my band; but that is starting to make us all feel really boring. We play hard blues rock, I feel like we should at least try to be bad asses

Now I'm not saying we want to go all out Hendrix or Page with our attire, but what are some suggestions to spice up our image a bit?

you should wear whatever matches your girlfriends purses cause that's clearly where your balls are