How Do You Keep Your Band Gigs Exciting?

[Bluewine]

I've been to see a few local bands recently.  Mostly bands with senior members. Some are very good musically but outside of that I've seen some real snooze fests. Bands with very little interaction with the crowd and not many smiling faces on stage.

 

Our saving grace is our lead singer who does a great job telling stories and engaging the crowd. 

 

What are you guys doing to engage your crowds?

 

Daryl

[Doctor J]

I always enjoyed purposefully antagonising them. That could be done a number of ways but, usually, it would involve musically heading places they were not expecting to be taken, which kept it exciting for the musicians, too. It also allowed more room for self-expression, which was always nice. I understand this is different for the covers game, though. If you're playing for the money, you can't really do much outside the well-worn tropes for fear of alienating your brand and affecting future bookings, so I suppose you're relying on one of the group with charisma to continually work the crowd to keep them engaged and that energy should feed back to the performers. Everybody should play some part in that, however, and take their eyes off the neck dots now and then to look at, and remember to perform to, the people they're playing in front of. There are few things duller than a band with eyes glued to the necks of their instruments.

[Mickeyboro]

Our fans seem to appreciate the between-member banter we engage in between songs - even some poor humour. 
 

For example - here’s a song by Elmore James dedicated to men of a certain age who wander around in the middle of the night looking for the bathroom. It’s called ‘I Can’t Hold Out’…

 

Maybe I should stick to the bass!

[Leonard Smalls]

I find that constantly shouting out "How ya doin' Glaston-berry!" Always works.

 

[Lozz196]

In both my gigging bands the singers are very good at bantering with the audience.

[Phil Starr]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Our saving grace is our lead singer who does a great job telling stories and engaging the crowd.

I think you've nailed it there. I've done some successful gigs with a great front person  and the crowd have lapped it up even though the band were embarassingly bad and played with and seen great musicians who never really made any attempt to reach out leaving a sterile atmosphere with a disinterested audience. I'd way rather play with a great front person with an okay voice than a great singer with no personality on stage.

 

Band interaction is good though. I try to be a foil/straight man for the singer. My duo partner and I kind of heckle each other between songs, the first time we do it in a set the audience wonder what is going on but then get that it is an act and often join in. It has to look natural though most of the 'moves' have started up on stage as a spur of the moment thing but when they have had a reaction become part of the set. One female singer used to try and put me off playing bass when she wasn't singing, just as a tease. The audience soon picked this up and seemed to love her for it.

[police squad]

I might tell 'em who's coming next

for example, 'IT'S WHAM! TIME'

or after 2 or 3 classic 80s songs I might say, 'with all this going on, we need some Spandau'

Just before the Bucks Fizz number I sometimes recount my audition with them

 

but mostly me and the keys player are just laughing all the time

[neepheid]

I find a good old wireless walkabout goes down well. I also get up to no good during songs which have long, bassless sections - I pretend to sleep, or I naff off for a sit down and pretend to be on strike.

 

Just clowning around basically. People seem to like it. Plus the basics - engagement with the audience - making eye contact with folk and nodded along with them bopping around - sometimes my hat gets borrowed - let 'em - I don't get precious.

 

And for the final coup de gras - if the police come in for a venue check, be ready to play something like Breaking The Law or I Fought The Law etc...

Edited 13 hours ago by neepheid

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Doctor J said:

I always enjoyed purposefully antagonising them. That could be done a number of ways but, usually, it would involve musically heading places they were not expecting to be taken, which kept it exciting for the musicians, too. It also allowed more room for self-expression, which was always nice. I understand this is different for the covers game, though. If you're playing for the money, you can't really do much outside the well-worn tropes for fear of alienating your brand and affecting future bookings, so I suppose you're relying on one of the group with charisma to continually work the crowd to keep them engaged and that energy should feed back to the performers. Everybody should play some part in that, however, and take their eyes off the neck dots now and then to look at, and remember to perform to, the people they're playing in front of. There are few things duller than a band with eyes glued to the necks of their instruments.

 

After all these decades of doing shows,  I'm still struggling with smiling and looking like I'm having a good time.

 

Daryl 

[Bluewine]

13 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

I think you've nailed it there. I've done some successful gigs with a great front person  and the crowd have lapped it up even though the band were embarassingly bad and played with and seen great musicians who never really made any attempt to reach out leaving a sterile atmosphere with a disinterested audience. I'd way rather play with a great front person with an okay voice than a great singer with no personality on stage.

 

Band interaction is good though. I try to be a foil/straight man for the singer. My duo partner and I kind of heckle each other between songs, the first time we do it in a set the audience wonder what is going on but then get that it is an act and often join in. It has to look natural though most of the 'moves' have started up on stage as a spur of the moment thing but when they have had a reaction become part of the set. One female singer used to try and put me off playing bass when she wasn't singing, just as a tease. The audience soon picked this up and seemed to love her for it.

 

 

Not the best band and not the best singer. However she can hold the crowd pretty good.

 

Daryl 

 

 

[Franticsmurf]

I've been fortunate to play with two very, very good frontmen. The singer/guitarist in my previous band, for all his faults, was excellent at reading audiences and had appropriate banter on tap. We had good on stage chemistry and I found it easy to play to his antics - I was usually the butt of his jokes and the audiences loved it.

 

In my current band, our singer/BL has charisma in bucket loads. Most of the band (we're usually 13 on stage) are static and glued to iPads (long story but basically they're not dedicated  musicians in the same way as most bands are) but he makes up for it. He talks to the audience, and makes a big deal out of talking to the band as a whole and individuals within it. The drummer and I (with much more live experience) try and work with him to provide a more visual element. I don't have any music in front of me, which I think goes a long way to connecting with the crowd (I have a 'cheat sheet' to my side out of sight of the audience). Being such a large line-up, space is an issue and limits the movement I can make. We just played our self organised festival and he did this   

 

 

which certainly kept the audience engaged! 

 

In my opinion, anything that gets between performer and audience (big music stands are my personal bugbear) has the potential to disengage, as does a band that is not clearly enjoying themselves or that is not performing. Some eye contact with the crowd is essential. Smiling or laughing, interacting with other band members and some kind of movement are all part of the performance that allows the audience to connect and enjoy.   

[Franticsmurf]

15 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

After all these decades of doing shows,  I'm still struggling with smiling and looking like I'm having a good time.

Me too - and in my previous band this was one of the things the frontman picked up on and ran with - I was the 'miserable git' and the folks watching us would try and make me laugh. 🙂

[Mickeyboro]

6 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

Me too - and in my previous band this was one of the things the frontman picked up on and ran with - I was the 'miserable git' and the folks watching us would try and make me laugh. 🙂

It’s worked for Sparks for 50 years!

Edited 14 hours ago by Mickeyboro

[Mudpup]

17 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

Not the best band and not the best singer. However she can hold the crowd pretty good.

 

Daryl 

 

 

They look pretty bloody good to me! 

[Cat Burrito]

We use a lot of (gentle) humour and pride ourselves on our between song chat. Our music is quite dark so it offsets that. We also don't play the same songs in the same way in the same order, which is my pet hate as a player - so I am sure some of the audience get bored too! 

 

At the last gig, the PA died ahead of the encore so we jumped into the middle of the crowd with acoustic instruments and played up close and personal. That definitely went down well. 

[bassbiscuits]

At my last gig the guitarist had various broken string/tuning problems in between songs and me and the drummer ended up busking various 70s TV themes to amuse the audience in the meantime. It became a bit of a thing as the night went on, and was a lot better than awkward silence and shuffling about onstage. 

[Bluewine]

7 hours ago, Mudpup said:

They look pretty bloody good to me! 

We did a show with them. She brings at least 6 different costumes with her.

 

Daryl

[Mudpup]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

We did a show with them. She brings at least 6 different costumes with her.

 

Daryl

I guess she doesn't have a spare bass to bring 🙂

[Stub Mandrel]

We threaten to unleash the dinosaur.

 

[Woodinblack]

Our singer is a great frontman. He is a much better frontman than he is a singer, I have been in groups with better singers, but never been in a group with a better frontman, so I prefer this!

[Dan Dare]

A punch-up or a blazing row on stage often helps keep things exciting 😁

[Bluewine]

18 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Our singer is a great frontman. He is a much better frontman than he is a singer, I have been in groups with better singers, but never been in a group with a better frontman, so I prefer this!

 

Agreed 100%.

 

Daryl