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Thread: Band attire??

  1. #26
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    I agree that some bands look like they just came in from the barn and right to the stage. Nothing wrong with blue jeans and shirt tails out on the bus, but there's nothing wrong with a decent pair of dress pants and a nice shirt tucked in on stage either. The other extreme, that I don't like, is the dressed to the hilt with ties and coats playing a summer festival. If you are a professional in any business, you should act like and dress like one. I never called on a customer dressed in jeans and a sloppy shirt and don't wear a coat and tie to play on stage either. There has to be a middle ground.

  2. #27

    Default Re: Band attire??

    "Hey Willie,
    Next time we play on Presley's I'll try to remember to change from the the clothes I slept in the night before:-))
    Hope you enjoyed the music better than how we looked."

    Good riposte, Danny.

    I enjoyed it as much as Adam Steffey's "I guess I'll quit singing now" post from a few months' back!

    - John

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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Quote Originally Posted by D. Roberts View Post
    Hey Willie,
    Next time we play on Presley's I'll try to remember to change from the the clothes I slept in the night before:-))
    Hope you enjoyed the music better than how we looked.

    Danny
    Dude, that is the greatest........

    Love your playing.

  4. #29
    Ursus Mandolinus Fretbear's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Played a show the other day with a few guys.
    We had not discussed clothes, but we all arrived dressed in black from head to foot, and looked good.
    But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
    And London never fails to leave me blue
    And Paris never was my kinda town
    So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues

  5. #30
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    I like it more if the band members look like human beings, i.e. with at least a slight variation in clothing between them and between appearances. I get scared of uniforms, just as I find it creepy if the band members' faces look all alike or resemble a zombie nightmare stepped right out of a Grant Wood painting.
    The clothes should represent a certain common lifestyle that goes with the music genre, but should not look like they have to be surgically removed from the band members after retirement.
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  6. #31
    Mandolin Botherer Shelagh Moore's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    You could, of course, all dress in your birthday suits.

  7. #32
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Moore View Post
    birthday suits
    Granted, it might present an advantage for the drummer
    but you'd get the same with kilts.
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  8. #33
    Mandolin Botherer Shelagh Moore's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    Granted, it might present an advantage for the drummer
    but you'd get the same with kilts.
    Yes indeed! I'm always rather careful when wearing mine for a gig. I prefer to stand up to play when in full Scottish regalia...

  9. #34
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Richard, that's a good idea. (I wear Sinclair Ancient Hunting).

    Jamie
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  10. #35
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Moore View Post
    You could, of course, all dress in your birthday suits.
    I was going to say you really put distance between yourself and your audience when you overdress, but I guess the same is true for under-dressing or undressing (....the further the better).

  11. #36
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    My one bandmate had the best line "which black t-shirt should I wear tonight?"
    Black t-shirt, jeans and boots for me, except in the summer here in South Carolina, might wear shorts....I play mostly blues harp in the band, so I get to wear a fedora or newsboy cap (gotta look the part)

  12. #37
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    I get scared of uniforms, just as I find it creepy.
    That is a good point. I know exactly what you mean.
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  13. #38
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Quote Originally Posted by Santiago View Post
    I was going to say you really put distance between yourself and your audience when you overdress, but I guess the same is true for under-dressing or undressing (....the further the better).
    One thing is for sure there: stage fright no longer matters - there's probably audience panic instead.

    But that symmetry reminds me of an observation of Ian Anderson's, himself known for quirky outfits.
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  14. #39
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Last time I played out I wore a shirt advertising one of my favorite local breweries. Turns out all the wait staff wear that shirt too. Luckily nobody tried to order a drink from me.
    Sloan Hamilton

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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Reminds me of a lot of years ago, I played in a fiddle contest and got third place. Later, a judge came up to me and said that I had played well enough to win, but they scored me lower because I was wearing a flannel shirt.
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Maybe you would have won if you had been competing in the grunge category.
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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    Yeah, my feet are clean Mike, as to Danny`s reply, I`m sorry I picked your band to make a point, because there are quite a few that fall into this catagory, it`s just that when I saw that show it reminded me of a LOT of bands that don`t dress what I will call "very attractive"....I don`t like the suits with ties and the fancy sequins glitter and that wasn`t what I was alluding to....I just think when a band is performing on National TV and are trying hard to keep bluegrass music going strong that they would dress a little more like a band that has been playing together and wants to make a good impression and not look like they just plowed the east forty acres or came off of a cattle drive.....I understand that you travel a lot and may be limited to how much luggage you can carry with you but so do most professioanl bands....

    That being said I believe you Danny are one of the top 10 mandolin players that I have seen in the past 20 years and I enjoy your music very much....

    You wear what you want and I`ll comment on what I like and don`t like, thats the American way....I noticed that quite a few people agreed with me on her.....

  18. #43

    Default Re: Band attire??

    Willie,
    What you said really didn't bother me a bit.
    Everyone has their like and dislikes and have the right to say what they are.
    I have played in bands that I wore suits, in others I wore shirts and ties just depended on what everyone decided they wanted to do for that band.
    When we started the Grascals we decided to dress just like what you saw on RFD last week and with the exception of an award show or two that is the only way we have ever dressed.
    I can tell you that the shirt and jeans I had on probably cost more than most suits you see (of course with the exception of Doyle) and I always put thought into what I wear on stage, I don't just throw on whatever I can grab, my music and my look matter a lot to me.
    I always enjoy reading your posts on this website and have for many years, I wasn't upset I just thought I would have some fun:-)

    Danny

  19. #44
    Registered Mandolin User mandopete's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Can't look like a waiter at Applebee's without enough flair!
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Thanks Danny, Again I wasn`t picking on your band alone, it`s just that when I seen the contrast from the Presleys to you guys it just sort of surprised me.....You guys are great and I enjoy just about all of your songs and they are done with great professionalism...I hope one day this summer I can catch one of your shows at a festival and I`ll come up an introduce myself, promise you won`t smack me?.....I`d like to play atune on that Fern also.....

    Willie

  21. #46

    Default Re: Band attire??

    Willie
    I would love to meet you, I promise there will be no violence:-)
    You will be welcome to play my mandolin, you said Fern I guess you may be thinking about the 29 I had but that's gone. I have been playing my 22 Loar for the past couple of years and your welcome to play it also.

    Danny

  22. #47
    Registered User f5loar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    I've seen the Grasscals enough times to know those aren't cheap shirts and jeans they wear. Some of the shirts are those fancy western cuts. And while I'm not up on what's hip with name brand jeans they can run up in the hundreds. As much as the Presleys change their colors and rhinestones each week I don't doubt they have a full time seamtress on payroll. I think it's a band thing like Danny said. Some bands want the "we all look like a band cause we dress the same" to the bands where you know who the leader is without question like Doyle and Monroe or F&S. Hard to beat the way Red Knuckles band dressed.

  23. #48
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Some years back some friends of mine had been hired to play at an event at a nudist colony, and they decided it would be fun to ditch their usual outfits and join in the spirit of the event and play in the nude.
    Their band was coed, but they all felt they could deal with that, and were swept away in their enthusiasm to "fully participate." That enthusiasm began to dwindle rapidly as soon as they got on stage, and they admitted afterwards that it had been the longest afternoon they had ever spent.

    Regarding the suits and ties sported by Bill and his Bluegrass Boys, they were playing a festival in Texas one summer, and the temperature was over 100 degrees, and the humidity was about 98 percent. His fiddle player at the time, who had actually grown up in that part of the country, was suffering greatly, and offered Bill $20 if he would let him play with his jacket off. Bill growled back that "If I can stand it, you can, too."

  24. #49
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    Some time ago, in a thread devoted to weird or just godawful gigs, someone mentioned a nudist colony gig. Lawdy! I wouldn't if I had to shuck. It's tough enough on the audience that I have to show my face!

    Way way back some 30 years ago, I was playing in a string band (guitar, fiddle, mandolin) that played swing, Western swing, novelty tunes from Tin Pan Alley, some Hank, and since the Urban Cowboy look was very much in, that's what we wore - shirts with snaps, jeans, and boots. Surprising how many of those snap shirts could be found at Goodwill and Salvation Army. But what those snaps did to the back of my mandolin, before I noticed, was a crying shame! It looked like worm tracks. Horrible.

    That's the only time I did anything like a band uniform. It's been mostly Hawaiian shirts or, in the jug band, white shirt and black vest, for an old-timey look.
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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  25. #50
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    Default Re: Band attire??

    My old bluegrass band, Flower City Ramblers (1970-76) had "outfits"; first blue shirts, black pants, brown leather vests, then Western shirts with embroidered red roses, two black shirts and two white ones. Later, in the Celtic band Thistledown, the ladies had long skirts of the same pattern but different colors, and the men had sort of "blousey" shirts that the fiddler's mother, a professional seamstress, made for us.

    Doing historical programs, I often use "costume," which is evocative, if not strictly historically accurate, of the period when the music I'm doing was written. I see fewer and fewer bands that actually dress in matching outfits, but still do see more bluegrass bands than other types of ensemble, that "dress up" -- coat and tie, hats, etc.

    I think that an attempt should be made to look "professional," without necessarily looking "formal." I have heard bands criticized by audience members, for showing up in jeans and T-shirts, even though the music was excellent.

    One area where I have a bit of a hang-up, is that I hate to perform in sneakers! Even if I'm doing just a seniors' program or a coffeehouse, I somehow feel that "real shoes" are required. Don't know why that is...
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