I think I played less than a year before I first performed, but it was in a band setting which I think is a little easyer than solo.
A couple things, I dont like to play a gig of any importance before I know for sure the group I'm with is ready. I've refused to do some pretty tempting gigs in the past, often to the frustration of my bandmates, simply because I knew the group had only about a 50% chance of pulling it off half decent, and in the end the gig would likely end up being all the wrong sorts of publicity.
If its a venue you'd like to play at regularly, best to make sure you are going to leave a good impression. If you live in a small town where pretty much every potential fan is going to know how well you did, ditto. Speaking from experience it can take a long time to live down a bad first impression sometimes. A basement show or open mic in a large city, thats where you want to work out your kinks.
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