How Do You Define A Great Gig?

[Bluewine]

16 hours ago, peteb said:

In theory you should be more worried about your audience rather than other musicians' opinions. However, I am quite embarrassed about how much I value compliments from musicians that I respect and how blasé I am about what punters think... 

I've had punters tell us how great we sound on our absolute worse nights on stage.

I'm afraid I have to stick with and value the opinion of fellow Musicians above and beyond the punters.

Blue

[FinnDave]

We very rarely get fellow musicians at our gigs, and if any are there, one has to wonder why they are watching us instead of playing their own gig. It's the voice of the punters that the bookers listen to, not the voices of a few unemployed musicians.

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, FinnDave said:

We very rarely get fellow musicians at our gigs, and if any are there, one has to wonder why they are watching us instead of playing their own gig. It's the voice of the punters that the bookers listen to, not the voices of a few unemployed musicians.

Dave,

I'm surprised when gigging bands that play the same circuit as us show up at our gigs. Doesn't happen every week but it happens.

Interesting, in my neck of the woods, the unemployed Musicians are only found at the open mic.

I'm not talking about marginal unemployed Musicians. I'm talking about accomplished locals  who's   opinion mean a lot to me. And I'm a skeptic by nature so I'm not always sure about the sincerity of a compliment.

I appreciate punters for showing up spending money and supporting live music.

When I'm out checking out a band, if I'm really turned on by them, I'm going to let everyone in that band know about it.

I've had local heavy hitter bass players show up that are way better than me, those are the opinions  I'm interested in and take to heart.

Blue

Edited May 19, 2018 by Bluewine

[Lozz196]

As a follow on from my earlier post, I`ve since found out that the guy who died is having his casket come out to one of our songs. Really moving, and just goes to show that our bands may touch people in ways they never get to know, but the two things from this for me are never get big headed and remember the audience are the ones who count, and always put on your best show/performance.

[peteb]

On 19/05/2018 at 17:13, FinnDave said:

We very rarely get fellow musicians at our gigs, and if any are there, one has to wonder why they are watching us instead of playing their own gig. It's the voice of the punters that the bookers listen to, not the voices of a few unemployed musicians.

You are of course right. The thing is that many of us do value the opinion of our peers (perhaps too much). Of course, having a good reputation with other players around town does help you get offers of gigs. 

The trouble with punters is that they tend to get the big things right (i.e. they can generally pick out the best bands) but they usually don’t understand why! I remember talking to one punter who was raving about a good band but seemed to confuse who was the best player in the band with the guy who had the best haircut…! 

[Happy Jack]

Coming at this from a slightly different angle, for me a gig can only count as 'great' if it's memorable. It doesn't matter how well I played or whether or not the magic happened if a month later I've forgotten all about it.

The gigs that stick in my mind are the ones that we, the band, will still be talking and laughing about in the pub after rehearsal years later. As musical events some were good and some were bad, for all sorts of reasons, but they're the ones we look back at.

One recent gig wasn't necessarily a great musical performance by the band, but it has already entered Junkyard Dogs folklore as "The Gig That Had Everything" ... multiple satnav fails on the way there, a fuse blowing halfway through the final set, more silicon boobies and 6" stilettos than you could shake a stick at, broken guitar strings twice in one set, being asked if I'd ever heard of a guy called Keith Moon who was the Lead Drummer in The Who, having my photo taken by an under-dressed lady who said I looked just like "a young Bruce Willis" (I'm 61), the band being trapped on stage at the end of the gig because there were 200 drunken (but well-behaved) punters ramming the pub and we literally could not get out. All this and more.

[Twigman]

I think my measure of how great a gig is is how hot the groupie in my bed the next morning is and how long she stays.

[Huge Hands]

6 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

....having my photo taken by an under-dressed lady who said I looked just like "a young Bruce Willis" (I'm 61),...

Wikipedia says Bruce is 63, so maybe she meant a younger Bruce Willis.... 

[Lozz196]

4 minutes ago, Twigman said:

I think my measure of how great a gig is is how hot the groupie in my bed the next morning is and how long she stays.

I think the word under your username sums that up nicely, Ian