In the studio, you can redo things. In concert, you only have one shot at it, so you have to try to be as perfect as possible.
I cannot give a single concert at which I do not play one piece after the other in an agony of terror because my memory threatens to fail me. This fear torments me for days beforehand.
Believe me when I say this: you can't please everyone in concert, even though I still want to. Someone always wants you to sing a song that isn't necessarily on your set list.
Solo concerts are murder, I find; I don't like doing them.
We are the kind of people who obsess over one word... but we have only one shot to get it right in concert. It was hard the first time I practiced with them. I was so nervous that my vocal chords were paralyzed for about a half-hour.
My version of a stress dream is, really, showing up on a concert stage with a drum set and not knowing the chart.
Musicians get tense at big gigs. Some you can't talk to before the concert; some you can't talk to afterwards; some need the same size dressing rooms as others; others need bigger; some have comments to make on others' musicianship or how a particular song ought to be played.
Having a sold-out show takes a lot of the pressure off because I know that it's going to be a room full of people who are excited to be there. The worst part - or the part that I'm adjusting to - is the actual act of traveling. The hotels are pretty trash.
