....playing drunk is hard to do.
 
discuss.

Easy to do...impossible to do well.

Just tonight the guitar player in my band said to me: I could take another beer, but when I do that, I'd better leave my amp on standby...

This could easily devolve into Best Drunken Bandstand Stories by the Sober Survivors . . . any takers?
 
J o e y

Playing drunk is hard to do...
 
Playing stoned seems easy to do, but it's hard to remember the song I started playing....
 
Playing on speed could be easy to do, if only I could only get the damn bass in tune within the next hour or so.......
 
Playing on coke would be easy, if only I could relax with that guy in the front row looking at me strangely.  I bet he's the one that's been following me around for the past two days.....

I've been on both sides of that fence. I've been the drunk and I've been the sober one. That part of gigging I don't miss at all.
Best Drunken bandstand story.....I have so many to choose from....

Try tripping.
 
Bill, tgo

I tend to find I play better after a few drinks, and no, I'm not deluding myself! I have the recordings to prove it! I've always suffered quite badly with nerves when playing and I find a few drinks relax me. I find when if I don't have a drink to relax I'm so tense I fluff everything.
 
Once, in a previous band, we were playing a fairly high profile gig and upon finishing the last song our guitarist turned to me and said,have we been on yet? Turned out he'd been so nervous he'd been drinking all night (there were several bands and we were last on). And yet I have a video of that performance, and you'd never know he was drunk...

Iv'e played high on everything in the book!...now adays i find a half pint of Brandy is a way to get me funkin!................but, aint nothin like a good Ol-Fashiond JOINT!

I backed up a guy once who thought that drunk was okay but even a little bit stoned was a big no-no.  No problem with the 6 double-shots the club would provide you free over a 5 hour gig.  But go on after a couple of tokes and this character would come uncorked.  I was just careful not to let him know.  I never had any complaints from the other band members that I was playing all over the place, so I guess I did okay.
Rich

I was messed up last night. I couldn't stand for hours, never doing that again.

How many times have we said that before?.......Being f#cked-up on stage is part of being a Musician!..............I look forward to a good Buzz!

A wee bit of Grand Marnier or a decent dark beer to nurse through the set sometimes helps the night go way more smoothly.  Sometimes not.  Kind of depends on what kind of day I've had, and it's always a bad idea if I'm really tired.  That bass gets awfully heavy, as do the amps at the end of the gig!  Can't justify the expense (and potential expense!) of drugs worth doing.  I'm always stone sober by the time I drive home, regardless.  Seen too many dead young people when I was a photojournalist back in the day...
 
John

Of course we are all discussing non-alcoholic events that happened at least 3-7 years ago, depending on the relevant statute of limitations in your state/province/country.  LOL
 
As Grace said: FEED YOUR HEAD!!!!
 
Bill, tgo

Keavin stated being [intoxicated] on stage is part of being a Musician!.  Of course Keavin was not making a statement of fact but merely relating his own personal experience.  I'm guessing Yoyo Ma isn't doing qualudes.
 
Bill quoted Grace Slick, and both, I believe, were probably speaking to the fact that most people are constricted by an illusory view of the world that their Self has programmed through habits of thought over a lifetime of experiences in order to survive in the world, and that feeding your head can provide one with an alternative interface with one's environment that the Self might otherwise be unable to see.
 
Personally, I have found that a daily meditation practice also provides that alternative interface, and I have found that meditation before going onstage enhances one's ability to be in the zone where the music is the totality of experience and there is no separation between you and your instrument, you and the other players , or you and the audience.  It's like the best of all worlds; totally relaxed, totally into the music, the people, the atmosphere; and no hangover in the morning!