Stage patter

[oldslapper]

1 hour ago, Mickeyboro said:

Suffice to say, my friend, that I inherited the ‘spokesman’ mantle from a frontman, now departed the band, who was hopeless at communicating. Awkward silences between numbers don’t do anything for me, so I blundered in.

 

I have now been informed by one band member that I should let the music do the talking, and that ‘bigging up’ band members is ‘cringy’.

 

My immediate reaction is to ask the others with mics to take a share of creating the stage act. I am what I am, but if you get a third of me rather than the full Monty then maybe it will be more acceptable.

 

So they don’t like what you do, but aren’t prepared to take on the responsibility for any between song engagement themselves? 
 

Helpful 🙄

 

Good audience engagement is a skill. I’d prefer it kept to a bare minimum and only if the person is clearly interested in the audience. Not enough bands rehearse transitioning from one song to the next at the best of times. 
Too much gazing at their pedal settings, or tuners, or waiting for the drummer (or whoever) to count the next song in. Should be “Thankyou…1,2,3,4…” unless you think a song needs an introduction because of some significant meaning, or the guitarist needs time for a cuddle from their mum because no one noticed he brought his ‘63 Les Strat with the mandolin duck down bridge spoon. 🙄 

 

Bands!! 

[TimR]

I will make comments to the singer to feed her lines and we can have mini conversations, where only her side is audible. If my side consists of more than one or two words, she'll repeat for the benefit of the audience if it's worth doing. 

 

The drummer doesn't like being joked about. Takes it very seriously and has been known to get very arsey about it.

 

The guitarist is pretty oblivious to what's going on outside of the area between his amp and pedal board. 

 

If a crowd of the singers friends are in, then the banter goes downhill very quickly and the rest of the audience is left out - I should maybe say something to her. Maybe. 

[EJWW]

This is an important aspect of band performance. 

 

Personally I dislike the gaps between songs, particularly during the second set when punters are on the dancefloor. They don't want the music to keep stopping every 3 minutes or so. 

 

But effective banter between the front person and the audience/ rest of the band can make the difference between a half decent gig and a memorable one. 

 

A live band is a 'show' first and foremost. A previous band I was a member of was mediocre but adequate technically, however the actual 'show' they put on was brilliant because of the p*ss taking between the guitarist and other members, and the laughs from the crowd.

 

My wife has not forgiven me for leaving that band for other more musically satisfying projects 😂

[Franticsmurf]

I've had the (mis)fortune to experience a wide spectrum of stage patter over my gigging career. I started off in an originals band where the aim was to play a set through with little or no interaction with the audience - we played a Hawkwind influenced 'show' with linking music of sound effects between the actual songs so there was little scope for it. As the audience were there to see us, it didn't matter too much and worked in the context of what we were doing. That was a good thing because we were all so new to it all that we wouldn't really have been able to handle a difficult audience. Later I was very fortunate to work with a guy in a covers band who was a very good front man. He was able to gauge an audience and interact with them very well. His patter would be different according to the circumstances, ranging from next to nothing if the crowd were dancing (we once played an hour of the set back to back with no gaps as the punters were filling the dance floor) to gentle jokes at the band's expense if he needed to inject some humour. He had spontaneity and wit and the wisdom to know how and when to use it. There were never any controversial topics, inappropriate language or picking on audience members. I think these two examples show the difference between the stage patter required for an audience who is there for the band or music and one that is there anyway and for whom the band is incidental. 

 

I played in a trio where the frontwoman was a good singer but had no self confidence away from singing. Between songs was an awkward silence. Standing on the stage while we lined up the next song (we were using backing tracks) or tuned up was excruciating and made me realise that regardless of the circumstances, it may be necessary to engage with the audience if there's an unexpected delay. In this case I was forced into it with mixed results; I'm not very good with spontaneous witty banter. I played in a duo with a front man who decided he was a comedian and significant amounts of gig time were given over to his comedy script. There was occasional polite laughter but for people who had come to see and dance to music, it was totally inappropriate and went on far too long between songs. I didn't stick with that duo for long. 

 

For me and in my experience stage patter is important and the ability to deploy it appropriately and skillfully is essential. Knowing when to shut up is equally important. People pay to see a band primarily for the music and dancing and while for me it should be a performance, that doesn't mean scripted jokes or long song introductions. Personally, I make a few notes; for example at the recent festival gig where I played in a support band before my main band, I made sure that as the front man I could thank the previous act, introduce the act on after us and talk about the charities that were being supported by the event. I thanked the volunteers helping and our sound man. I had to say some words between songs as we had instrument swaps and I made a point of getting the audience to acknowledge a particularly good performance by our sax player. Most of that was prompted by words or phrases scribbled on my set list and it was spread across the 45 minutes of our set.    

 

 

[Mickeyboro]

2 hours ago, EJWW said:

This is an important aspect of band performance. 

 

But effective banter between the front person and the audience/ rest of the band can make the difference between a half decent gig and a memorable one. 

 

My feelings, Ted. 👍

[TheRev]

Our singer/frontman has excellent banter/audience interaction. I often suspect that people come to hear him rather than the music.  He often takes the pi55 out of people in the audience, but he's only been put in a headlock twice in the 15 years we've been going, which is pretty good going.  The worst moment was when he made a joke about John F Kennedy 'getting the shots in' at a gig in Seattle - totally lost the audience at that point.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I was in a band some time ago, where the vocalist / guitarist was the leader so to speak . I was the new addition and we all got along well. We rehearsed once a week most of the time at the band leaders house.Very mellow bunch , but now and again the other guitarist would pull him up on things ..

 

We played our first gig in the band leaders local pub . Lots of obscure or very old blues songs . I managed to get a few friends along to see us .

During the set , one or two of the punters were shouting one or two things which I didn’t really hear or care about . Then the band leader talked in a condescending way . Not too hostile or anything like that , but to me it raised instant alarm bells . To me it seemed like he was taking things too seriously, a wooden approach and couldn’t take a joke .

This was a friendly gig in the bands local. 
So , in the interval my friends ( who were the ones giving me a bit of banter ) told me they thought the frontman was a bit of a tw@. 
With that , I waited a few days and quit, and concentrated fullly on the other band I was in . Lesson no.1 ; Don’t talk down to the punters!