For the most part, the band I'm in, Home By 11 (www.homebyeleven.com) plays your garden variety cover band stuff. On the average, we are a fairly consistent bunch playing to small bars and pubs locally.
Saturday night I thought we had a rock solid performance from 9:30 to about 1:00am. For some reason, at 1:00 am, the wind just came out of sails. The crowd energy plummeted, people left, and has a result we lost focus. Ugh, it was the toughest 30 minutes of playing I've ever been through.
So now I'm left wondering why I'm letting 1/8th of our performance leave such a bad taste in my mouth. And - has anyone else experienced such a thing? I need to know there are kindred spirits out there lol.
Ever had a bad show?
In my band it's usually more of one guy having an "off night". For example the guitarist keeps forgetting chords, or I can't quite get in the groove, or the drummer plays everything a little too slow, that sort of thing.
I've also experienced gigs where we had to play so quietly that the PA volume was actually off, & people kept asking us to "turn it down", that was extremely difficult to get into, as we're a pretty high energy band. Definitely not the right crowd.
I have a recording of one night where you can hear the balls clacking together on the pool table & people talking while we're playing.
I've also experienced gigs where we had to play so quietly that the PA volume was actually off, & people kept asking us to "turn it down", that was extremely difficult to get into, as we're a pretty high energy band. Definitely not the right crowd.
I have a recording of one night where you can hear the balls clacking together on the pool table & people talking while we're playing.
Plus five minus five!
I've found that many times there is one guy in the band that everyone depends to be the spiritual or emotional anchor. In my case for a long time it was our second guitarist who, while not the greatest player in the world was always steady and reliable. If he was having a bad night we all were.
If the drummer was having a bad set I'd look over and yell at him to get his sh*t together and focus. If the lead guitar player was having a bad time of it, well, that's his problem!
As for me, well, hmmmm... For some reason I can't recall ever having a bad night...
If the drummer was having a bad set I'd look over and yell at him to get his sh*t together and focus. If the lead guitar player was having a bad time of it, well, that's his problem!
As for me, well, hmmmm... For some reason I can't recall ever having a bad night...
Listen to that sustain!
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lyle_from_minneapolis
- Advanced Member
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- Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:13 pm
Jason, anyone who's ever performed live has experienced what you describe. I'm interested in what you think went wrong. Maybe it was just 1:00am and everyone is ready to go? Did your band respond to the vision of people abandoning ship? Or did you all just get tired?
Whatever the reason, it always feels bad, but doesn't mean much about how good the band is. Unless you guys were also drinking throughout the gig...
I was once in an improv group that performed every Saturday night. The first half-hour was prewritten sketches, ala SNL, the second half-hour was pure improv. Without fail on the weeks we thought we had a killer show...it fell flat. And when we were scared out of our minds because our pre-written first half was so lame, or off the wall, or just wasn't even there...we absolutely slayed the crowd. Which is just to say that how performers feel often has nothing to do with how they're really doing.
Whatever the reason, it always feels bad, but doesn't mean much about how good the band is. Unless you guys were also drinking throughout the gig...
I was once in an improv group that performed every Saturday night. The first half-hour was prewritten sketches, ala SNL, the second half-hour was pure improv. Without fail on the weeks we thought we had a killer show...it fell flat. And when we were scared out of our minds because our pre-written first half was so lame, or off the wall, or just wasn't even there...we absolutely slayed the crowd. Which is just to say that how performers feel often has nothing to do with how they're really doing.
Here is where I hide my music:
http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman
http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman
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shamustwin
- Senior Member
- Posts: 5285
- Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 5:00 am
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lyle_from_minneapolis
- Advanced Member
- Posts: 2530
- Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:13 pm
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jwr2
I was playing as a replacement bass player in a not so good blues band in Michigan years ago ... the band was booked at a dive bar ... the bar changed management and ****** off the regular customers ... we got there and it was empty ... at one point there were more people on stage than were at the bar ... do the math ... it was a 3 piece band and at the bar was one customer and one bartender ... and the customer at the bar wanted to listen to the juke box and not the band ... the drummer and I said were out of here ... the dumb *** guitar player wanted to stay and perform 3 full sets ...
and I have had some painful moments at open jams when I got put on stage with some pretty bad players ...
then back in the 70s I was playing a room that was too cold ... the drummer broke 3 heads that night ...
then there was pretty much every gig with Beowulf ... the drummer played too loud, the lead singer was drunk, and the guitarists had bad tone ... I used to get so bored playing with them ... I would make mistakes on purpose to submarine songs ...
and I have had some painful moments at open jams when I got put on stage with some pretty bad players ...
then back in the 70s I was playing a room that was too cold ... the drummer broke 3 heads that night ...
then there was pretty much every gig with Beowulf ... the drummer played too loud, the lead singer was drunk, and the guitarists had bad tone ... I used to get so bored playing with them ... I would make mistakes on purpose to submarine songs ...
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captsandwich
- Intermediate Member
- Posts: 1312
- Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:13 am
First show on our Canadian tour, 18 hrs of driving, pull up to the club in Thunder Bay, set up & sound check. Then the owner says "Nobody's coming tonight, the forecast is calling for 60cm of snow." We played almost one full set (the drummer had only been with us for one rehearsal before the tour started) to the owner, sound guy and single patron, then tried to beat the storm to get to Winnipeg for our show the next night. Didn't make it and spent the next 30 hrs in the smallest town in Northern Ontario, waiting for the highway to open again.
In retrospect, the gigs weren't bad, the situation was. The drummer enjoyed the tour so much, he quit his other band to join us full time.
Cliff's Notes: don't tour Canada in February.
In retrospect, the gigs weren't bad, the situation was. The drummer enjoyed the tour so much, he quit his other band to join us full time.
Cliff's Notes: don't tour Canada in February.
Lemme graze into your veldt/ lemme stomple your albino/lemme nibble on your buds/ I'm your Love Rhino
Two gigs stand out as bad when I was in a band (Second Saturday) ages ago (early 1970s) back in Illinois. The worst: we played at a chili parlor/bar on the south side of Peoria. Throughout the gig, the only acknowledgement (applause or whatever) we got was from family/friends who came with us. For the rest of the patrons, it was as if we were not there. We got paid $5 and all the chili we could eat - and that wasn't very much, as it wasn't that good!
Second worst was at a teen center in a small town. Unfortunately for us, a street fair was going on at the same time down the street; everyone was attending it and not our gig. There were maybe eight to ten people total in the audience (two or three were our friends!) during the whole thing; at least they enjoyed us playing!
Oddly enough, the wedding-reception gig where the band got thrown out of the town of Dunfermline wasn't overall a bad gig!
Second worst was at a teen center in a small town. Unfortunately for us, a street fair was going on at the same time down the street; everyone was attending it and not our gig. There were maybe eight to ten people total in the audience (two or three were our friends!) during the whole thing; at least they enjoyed us playing!
Oddly enough, the wedding-reception gig where the band got thrown out of the town of Dunfermline wasn't overall a bad gig!
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. - Seneca
December 1967 IIRC. Place Elphinstone School, Gibsons Landing. Band: Meddy's People. Two singles with lots of airplay to our credit and our gig calendar was full. We had just received Disraeli Gears direct from England before it was released in Canada and had learned all of the cool songs.
I should point out that you need to take a ferry to get to Gibsons. Our rhythm player/lead singer missed the first ferry and as a consequence the first set.
We had never played as a trio before so what did we do? We played a whole set of Cream and Who songs.
When the rhythm player arrived he was not amused. We were just finishing Sunshine of Your Love to a lively crowd who would not stop cheering after the song ended.
Well our set list was all down hill from there. All the great stuff had been played in the first set. The audience practically booed the poor rhythm player every time he opened his mouth to sing.
That was a night that I will never forget. It really was the beginning of the end for the band. It was a defining moment. We tried desperately to keep it together but less than two years later we were completely finished.
I should point out that you need to take a ferry to get to Gibsons. Our rhythm player/lead singer missed the first ferry and as a consequence the first set.
We had never played as a trio before so what did we do? We played a whole set of Cream and Who songs.
When the rhythm player arrived he was not amused. We were just finishing Sunshine of Your Love to a lively crowd who would not stop cheering after the song ended.
Well our set list was all down hill from there. All the great stuff had been played in the first set. The audience practically booed the poor rhythm player every time he opened his mouth to sing.
That was a night that I will never forget. It really was the beginning of the end for the band. It was a defining moment. We tried desperately to keep it together but less than two years later we were completely finished.
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
Most gigs I do are either as almost half of a duo (my cohort is more than everything you could ask for- completely solid musically, not flaky, no ego, and is a blast to hang out with) or part of my own band- he's in that too. I have done a few parties as a side musician/singer. Some of which have gone down the drain when the eight bass players and the five saxophonists and the sixteen other guitarists have had a little too much to drink, etc., and they cascaded downward into a spiral off the set list into hopelessly depressing seventy-three verse ditties I didn't know the words or chords to (but, evidently neither did they), so I got off stage to avoid association (I did my stuff fine.) Even though I did okay on some of the gigs I have done in my life, I have refused being paid when I didn't think the band I was part of did not provide sufficient _musical_ entertainment.
This was very difficult for me emotionally. I don't play music just to hang out with the guys/gals. Music is far too important for that. I try not to have a stick up my butt, so everyone else and I can enjoy ourselves, but when I do play, music should come out. I try to avoid situations that won't be great anymore.
I must be babbling now, but after playing lots and lots of coffeehouse gigs in the acoustic duo, I have had to bring down my expectations- dealing with a crowd that is too cool to enjoy us, staff who wish the musicians were in another part of the globe, espresso machines that are not music-friendly- last year my buddy and I were able to open for a friend of ours who is very popular in Santa Rosa. I actually was a little nervous, seeing a real crowd that was there, but the gig was incredible. We had something like 40 people there who listened intently to every song, participated when that was appropriate and laughed at all the right places. That experience really made up for a lot of ****** musical experiences and allowed me to forget some of them.
This was very difficult for me emotionally. I don't play music just to hang out with the guys/gals. Music is far too important for that. I try not to have a stick up my butt, so everyone else and I can enjoy ourselves, but when I do play, music should come out. I try to avoid situations that won't be great anymore.
I must be babbling now, but after playing lots and lots of coffeehouse gigs in the acoustic duo, I have had to bring down my expectations- dealing with a crowd that is too cool to enjoy us, staff who wish the musicians were in another part of the globe, espresso machines that are not music-friendly- last year my buddy and I were able to open for a friend of ours who is very popular in Santa Rosa. I actually was a little nervous, seeing a real crowd that was there, but the gig was incredible. We had something like 40 people there who listened intently to every song, participated when that was appropriate and laughed at all the right places. That experience really made up for a lot of ****** musical experiences and allowed me to forget some of them.
"rubber heads don't dent easily"
Multiband venues can also be a prob ...after forming our tribute band,
last August, we did our first gig ...we worked hard on vocals/harmonies
...well...the venue is a Shadows/Ventures ...they let us play for some
variety ...we were the first singing group and because they wanted all the
groups on/off stage quickly, there was next to no soundcheck~~~
sooooo...when we started ...other than a verse here and there, we couldn't
hear each other sing! ..there were monitors in front of us, but they weren't
working~~~ ....so the vocals went out the window~~~~ ...actually, what
you hear on the YouTube link below is nothing what we heard while playing
...for one, other than the few guitar breaks here and there i couldn't hear
what i was playing either... until i watched the video...ha ...lesson...insist on
a proper soundcheck ....it sure made us appreciate the Beatles even more who
under worse circumstances could still pull it off !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUwxYY_eaU
BTW, i'm playing the 360/12WB
...nice thing about a Rick 12, is if you
mess up a chord it still sounds good
last August, we did our first gig ...we worked hard on vocals/harmonies
...well...the venue is a Shadows/Ventures ...they let us play for some
variety ...we were the first singing group and because they wanted all the
groups on/off stage quickly, there was next to no soundcheck~~~
sooooo...when we started ...other than a verse here and there, we couldn't
hear each other sing! ..there were monitors in front of us, but they weren't
working~~~ ....so the vocals went out the window~~~~ ...actually, what
you hear on the YouTube link below is nothing what we heard while playing
...for one, other than the few guitar breaks here and there i couldn't hear
what i was playing either... until i watched the video...ha ...lesson...insist on
a proper soundcheck ....it sure made us appreciate the Beatles even more who
under worse circumstances could still pull it off !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUwxYY_eaU
BTW, i'm playing the 360/12WB
...nice thing about a Rick 12, is if you mess up a chord it still sounds good