Any Aspies/Auties in a band. How do you deal with clubs?

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I'm a bass player. I love music, and getting paid to play my bass would be one of my dreams come true.
My friend is trying to get a hard rock band together, and I'm canidate for being the bass player if my work situation doesn't screw me.
I've never played in front of an audience, and that's no big deal because when I play the music is all I know. I go into my own musical world. I have sensory issues in clubs, and social anxiety. I know that there are recording artists who are on the spectrum, so I know that it can be overcome. Are any of you in a band, and have similar issues in clubs? If you do how do you play in one without having a serious problem?

Rock on!! !! !! !! !! !! !!

I'm not currently in a band, but if I so choose I would probably be up for grabs.
atm I'm foccusing on the course more than being in a band...
However, for some topic I'm doing I am in a 'group', and we're doing some stuff that may involve pubs and clubs. I reckon I'll handle it ok. Consistency though... consistency is always a danger laying in wait. I sometimes find that I can be inconsistent... got the ability, but not the concentration sometimes.
But it's not simply lack of concentration, there's lots of stuff that can bring me temporarily down in this sorta thing...

I used to play the bass in bands. The more you play in clubs, the easier it should become. I think that my mind had a tendency to simply block out a lot of what was going on around me in order to focus on what needed to be done to get through the event to the best of my ability. Therefore, I don't even recall a lot of the details.

It should get easier the more you do it, and each time you can try to pinpoint an issue that you can work on to make the next time run smoother. I hope I'm making sense.

I'm guessing a lot of musicians take care of this with alcohol but this may or may not be an option for various reasons.

I can definitely relate to this issue. I always dream of playing live (I only played live once to a very small audience) but wonder how I'd manage the whole crowded club thing. I get anxiety just stepping into a club as part of the audience - it can only be worse being on stage. As it is, I haven't been in a band situation in a long time so the option isn't there anyway. But I'd like to figure out how I would overcome this if the opportunity arose.

The one time I did play live I wore a medieval hood - which helped a bit since it kinda hid the audience from view.

I have never used any alchohol or drugs. I am far too messed up as it is without any of those things. As for overcoming the discomfort of club situations, I think it's likely that autistic brains simply block out whatever needs to be blocked out in order to handle the situation.

I am in a band. I don't usually have too much of a problem playing out.

For one thing, I am not the primary speaker for the band. For another, the talk is usually extremely superficial. "I liked that one song..." "Didn't I see you guys at...?" Then they move on. Plus, if you come off a bit awkward, that's okay. Musicians are often considered a bit weird or out there.

One problem I do have is that I don't really like being in a crowd. It is not an anxiety, it just makes me uncomfortable. But, as a musician, I am on stage, kind of apart from the crowd. When the show is over, I am back stage or behind a table, again, separated from the crowd. Again, I usually let the others do most of the talking.

If you are concerned, give it a shot. If it works out, great! If not, you can move on and say you tried.

Don't do the chemical enhancement thing. That is a downhill slide that you want no part of.

I used to be in a band with my best friend about 3 or 4 years ago, but as of currently, I do all my musical writing and recording by myself. (I'm taking the Chuck Schuldiner approach...)

I joined a band when I was 15 (the guys saw me sing at an end-of-year talent show when I was a Freshman in high school...they had all either just graduated, or had been out for a year or so)
I ended up being in that band till I was 25.
Gads..clubs......often I would deal by withdrawing and not being able to talk to anyone before and after we played....unless I got really drunk......I guess....
It has been a while....I really don't remember....lets see.....I spent alot of time hiding behind drum sets with books or sitting in the car....I often got nervous stomach aches...
good times......

Get some noise-cancelling earplugs if there's too much noise, and there's no substitute for experience, so get in front of the audience. Of course you'll get nervous, that's normal.

Sweet, I'm a bass player too. I'm currently getting a group together. Music is definitely a huge passion of mine and I write a lot of my own s**t. It's just that I haven't really performed any of my own stuff yet (I did some jazz stuff once). I guess I just have to be patient. I hope I can make it happen soon.

I'm not a artist but..
Maybe you can try giving small 'performances' in front of the people you trust, your family, best friends and so on.
And, if possible, over time, try adding in more crowd or try to simulate the sensory overload in clubs using lights, noise, sounds and music.

How do you cope with clubs?

...how do you cope with band members thats my quesiton.

Im currently in a band, one that I started. But I am slowly moving away. Feel like such an outcast, like they dont listen to me then again I probably dont talk much. Doesnt help im not as good as the others either. Arrgh I wish I was a guitar god.

I had this problem big time...It was some band mates...I had more than one drummer who was my arch enemy......and the "entourage" consisting of other bands..and girlfriends of bandmates and weirdo PR people....(some of them were awful)

Whenever I found anyone at all that I could connect with, I was absolutely beside myself...

.....I was the lead singer, so I was expected to be the primadonna/outcast...I had my inner world, which consisted of my writing notebooks (for songs)...and a journal that I wrote in obsessively.....I also had my rituals....
...and I would secretly write mean songs about people who pissed me off..and the people I wrote them about were none the wiser....(i had this song called "Love a Little Hate"...about a certain drummer we had who was this really friendly nice bubbly person, save for this horrid racist streak that would come out sometimes....

there's a pic i guess circa 1996..I was so skinny then.....(sigh)

I haven't got passed stage fright so I just write music alone.

Stage fright is something that will wear down in time. I am a drummer, and have played in a band performing at least once a month. Now, I play drums in front of an audience whenever I get the chance. It doesn't really matter what you do on stage, people will applaud anyway