How Do You Define A Great Gig?

[FinnDave]

For me, a great gig is one where the band is working well together and the audience 'gets is'. My first gig with the Grateful Dudes last Easter was a good example, everything slotted together well on stage, plenty of Dead-style jamming, audience dancing like dervishes, people queuing to buy shirts and shake our hands, that was a great gig. The 4 hour drive home was less great, but didn't take away the buss the gig left me with.

[mikel]

A good gig is the band playing well and the audience enjoying it.  A GREAT gig is when the magic happens. That all too rare night when everyone in the band is "On" and the musicians are almost telepathic. When everything you touch turns to musical gold and the components of the band fit together like a Swiss watch. When even one or two of the songs you have played for years, and are not that fussed about, just take off. The audience picks up on this and you can feel the energy flowing back onto the stage, adding more fuel to the bands fire and lifting things even higher. It can be in the local pub or the local arena, whatever, the feeling is the same, emotion and energy.  That is a great gig.

[NickD]

Just the crowd loving it. That's all for me.

Dancing or transfixed.... I don't care, people love music in different ways.

1000 people or 10.... I don't care, we're playing for those that are there, not for those that aren't.

(All the band mood stuff is a given at this point, If we're not on the ball, the above can't happen)

[Ghost_Bass]

Well packed venue
Audience enjoying the band and interacting with frontman
Great FOH sound and good backstage sound
Nailing the set list for that specific audience (we don't follow a set list, singer reads the audience and chooses the songs)
All band members having a great time playing with each other
Good comunication on stage
Finishing after hours with, stil,l a packed venue and audience asking for more

Great Gig!

I'm lucky to be in a band were we have great gigs constantly. Everybody has his down days but we're great friends that enjoy playing together and have lots of fun doing that, even in a bad day having a gig together raises our mood and allows some problems to be forgoten for a bit of time and this vibe passes on to the audience.

I don't take in account the setup/breakup of stage as it has nothing to do with the gig, it's a matter of professionalism and responsability. Sometimes somebody can't show up on time but we just throw some banter at him and have a beer and a laugh afterwars.

Pay isn't a factor for a great gig, i had played great gigs for free and not so good gigs for a big pay.

[Graham]

I think it's a bit like art - hard to define, but you know it when you see it

[peteb]

3 hours ago, mikel said:

A good gig is the band playing well and the audience enjoying it.  A GREAT gig is when the magic happens. That all too rare night when everyone in the band is "On" and the musicians are almost telepathic. When everything you touch turns to musical gold and the components of the band fit together like a Swiss watch. When even one or two of the songs you have played for years, and are not that fussed about, just take off. The audience picks up on this and you can feel the energy flowing back onto the stage, adding more fuel to the bands fire and lifting things even higher. It can be in the local pub or the local arena, whatever, the feeling is the same, emotion and energy.  That is a great gig.

Pretty much this, where everything sounds bigger than the sum of its parts and you feel that you just can't get anything wrong! A great performance is usually (but not always) inspired by a great audience. 

4 hours ago, FinnDave said:

For me, a great gig is one where the band is working well together and the audience 'gets is'. My first gig with the Grateful Dudes last Easter was a good example, everything slotted together well on stage, plenty of Dead-style jamming, audience dancing like dervishes, people queuing to buy shirts and shake our hands, that was a great gig. The 4 hour drive home was less great, but didn't take away the buss the gig left me with.

After a great gig I don't even mind a long drive home - it can even feel sort of serene. Mind you can't embrace the serenity too much - I'm always worried about falling asleep at the wheel on a long late-night drive...!  

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, peteb said:

Surely you are not expected to keep an audience for the whole of a 4 hour gig? I assume the point of playing that long is to catch an audience that is moving from bar to bar and try to keep them there for an extra drink, or pursuade them to return later on to catch the end of the show. 

Your right, you can't hold the same crowd for 4 hours. But you want to keep the attention of each crowd that comes in under the course of 4 hours.

Blue

[Bluewine]

Another necessary element of a great gig, well great bar gig. The punters are spending a lot of money on premium alcohol. 

Nothing worse to an owner than a packed house but they're not buying drinks.

Blue

[Huge Hands]

As already alluded to, for me the greatest gigs are the ones with guaranteed parking that is easy to load in from and nowhere near where anyone is likely to lean on my car/be sick on it/urinate up the side of it/spit on it/key it.

The best gigs have always been the ones where I'm not worrying about my car as I'm much more relaxed.

Trying to squeeze on the end of a row and not sure if slightly overhanging the double yellow lines with your bumper will get you a ticket in Soho will guarantee a bad night for me!

 

[FinnDave]

4 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

As already alluded to, for me the greatest gigs are the ones with guaranteed parking that is easy to load in from and nowhere near where anyone is likely to lean on my car/be sick on it/urinate up the side of it/spit on it/key it.

The best gigs have always been the ones where I'm not worrying about my car as I'm much more relaxed.

Trying to squeeze on the end of a row and not sure if slightly overhanging the double yellow lines with your bumper will get you a ticket in Soho will guarantee a bad night for me!

 

Sounds like trying to park in the centre of Reading, one of my pet hates.

And guess where I'm playing tonight???

 

(to be fair, it's a great venue and usually a cracking audience, but there's nowhere to park and we can't see the side road we usually leave the cars in from the stage.)

[Lozz196]

A great gig for me is where many of the audience buy merch and tell us how great it was. I don`t say this because I want the attention and to be loved, it just means that they really enjoyed themselves and liked the band, which after all is the reason why we do it. I`ve played to some very small audiences but because of their reactions to the band these gigs have been some of the best, like a gig we did in Bremen last year, small venue (full though), first time we`d played there and they went nuts. To get that reaction means we`ve done a good job. We try to remember that the audience are the important ones, not us, we`re there for them, not the other way round.

[gjones]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

One of the big things for me that defines a great gig is when the band can hold the attention of the crowd and engage them for the length of the gig.

This is a huge challenge for American bar bands. It's hard to manage 4 hours of performing. Imposible really.

Blue

Bruce Springsteen would have a hard time doing that

[paul_5]

Just that feeling when the band are ON. Those moments when you make eye contact with one another and your face breaks out in an unstoppable ‘sh#t-eating grin’ and the audience are singing along  or dancing or both. 

Thar’s a great gig!

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, mikel said:

A good gig is the band playing well and the audience enjoying it.  A GREAT gig is when the magic happens. That all too rare night when everyone in the band is "On" and the musicians are almost telepathic. When everything you touch turns to musical gold and the components of the band fit together like a Swiss watch. When even one or two of the songs you have played for years, and are not that fussed about, just take off. The audience picks up on this and you can feel the energy flowing back onto the stage, adding more fuel to the bands fire and lifting things even higher. It can be in the local pub or the local arena, whatever, the feeling is the same, emotion and energy.  That is a great gig.

Agreed, I like your definition of a great gig.

Blue

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

A great gig for me is where many of the audience buy merch and tell us how great it was. I don`t say this because I want the attention and to be loved, it just means that they really enjoyed themselves and liked the band, which after all is the reason why we do it. I`ve played to some very small audiences but because of their reactions to the band these gigs have been some of the best, like a gig we did in Bremen last year, small venue (full though), first time we`d played there and they went nuts. To get that reaction means we`ve done a good job. We try to remember that the audience are the important ones, not us, we`re there for them, not the other way round.

I love appreciation from punters. However, there have been times when I thought my band sounded awful, yet punters loved it.

The only compliments I take seriously are from other gigging Musicians.

Blue

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

As already alluded to, for me the greatest gigs are the ones with guaranteed parking that is easy to load in from and nowhere near where anyone is likely to lean on my car/be sick on it/urinate up the side of it/spit on it/key it.

The best gigs have always been the ones where I'm not worrying about my car as I'm much more relaxed.

Trying to squeeze on the end of a row and not sure if slightly overhanging the double yellow lines with your bumper will get you a ticket in Soho will guarantee a bad night for me!

 

We played at Hops & Leisure a few weeks ago. Absolutely fabulous back of building double door entrance to the green room and stage.

Great load in, but not a great gig for us.

Blue

[peteb]

6 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

A great gig for me is where many of the audience buy merch and tell us how great it was. I don`t say this because I want the attention and to be loved, it just means that they really enjoyed themselves and liked the band, which after all is the reason why we do it. I`ve played to some very small audiences but because of their reactions to the band these gigs have been some of the best, like a gig we did in Bremen last year, small venue (full though), first time we`d played there and they went nuts. To get that reaction means we`ve done a good job. We try to remember that the audience are the important ones, not us, we`re there for them, not the other way round.

Actually, I disagree with that. As much as I value performance skills nearly as much as musical ones, the most important people in the room are always the musicians. There always is a selfish element to any great performance and to have any authenticity the band have to satisfy themselves in order to satisfy the audience. 

[peteb]

11 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

I love appreciation from punters. However, there have been times when I thought my band sounded awful, yet punters loved it.

The only compliments I take seriously are from other gigging Musicians.

Blue

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... 

[Barking Spiders]

A great gig, in my experience? where punters don't throw  glasses of p*$$ at the stage. It's uphill after that

[Lozz196]

9 hours ago, peteb said:

Actually, I disagree with that. As much as I value performance skills nearly as much as musical ones, the most important people in the room are always the musicians. There always is a selfish element to any great performance and to have any authenticity the band have to satisfy themselves in order to satisfy the audience. 

Really? Whilst I do agree that you have to write music for you, and not because you think audiences will like it, take away the audience completely and what do you have left, bedroom guitarists/bassists/drummers. The audience and fans are to me the major thing - what we all do means something to people who come to see us. A few weeks ago we were asked to play a gig for a guy who unfortunately had cancer - I say had as sadly he passed away recently. At the end of the gig he said to me "that made my night". I was really humbled and pretty choked by this, I felt honoured that we had been asked to do the gig. Never forget that whilst we get pleasure from what we do, it`s who you deliver it to that counts, and your music could really mean a lot to someone.

[casapete]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

Really? Whilst I do agree that you have to write music for you, and not because you think audiences will like it, take away the audience completely and what do you have left, bedroom guitarists/bassists/drummers. The audience and fans are to me the major thing - what we all do means something to people who come to see us. A few weeks ago we were asked to play a gig for a guy who unfortunately had cancer - I say had as sadly he passed away recently. At the end of the gig he said to me "that made my night". I was really humbled and pretty choked by this, I felt honoured that we had been asked to do the gig. Never forget that whilst we get pleasure from what we do, it`s who you deliver it to that counts, and your music could really mean a lot to someone.

Absolutely Lozz. We get lots of stories sent to us about how important certain songs are to them, and it's easy to forget this and get caught up in the playing/gear/band side of things. At the end of the day, the audience are why we're there, so it's best to put them first - after all, without them we wouldn't be there! Our best gigs are where we've connected with everyone in the room, that's when we know we've done a good job.

[pbasspecial]

Last Saturday we played at the Horley Tavern and one of the staff helped us carry our gear in and then got us a free beer!  The pub was busy and everyone was dancing. Doesn't get a lot better than that. Not unless Salma Hayek is the barmaid and she has taken a shine to me.

[peteb]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Really? Whilst I do agree that you have to write music for you, and not because you think audiences will like it, take away the audience completely and what do you have left, bedroom guitarists/bassists/drummers. The audience and fans are to me the major thing - what we all do means something to people who come to see us. A few weeks ago we were asked to play a gig for a guy who unfortunately had cancer - I say had as sadly he passed away recently. At the end of the gig he said to me "that made my night". I was really humbled and pretty choked by this, I felt honoured that we had been asked to do the gig. Never forget that whilst we get pleasure from what we do, it`s who you deliver it to that counts, and your music could really mean a lot to someone.

I agree with everything you say here, but I still think that to put on a credible performance there has to be a small element of something personal / selfish that you are inviting the audience to appreciate.

When it comes down to it, most of us are just song and dance men of one hue or another and performing to an audience is the key to it all. But while playing rock, punk or ELO covers isn’t exactly high art, there does have to be an artistic element for it to be convincing.

Edited May 19, 2018 by peteb

[Japhet]

1) All get there on time and do your bit to get set up.

2) Get a good sound mix with no feedback issues.

3) Play well with everybody on song.

4) Audience have a good time.

5) Bar staff have a good time.

6) Skip the songs in the set I don't like.

7) Pack away and load out with no problems.

8) Get paid as agreed.

9) Get asked back.

[Bluewine]

16 hours ago, peteb said:

Actually, I disagree with that. As much as I value performance skills nearly as much as musical ones, the most important people in the room are always the musicians. There always is a selfish element to any great performance and to have any authenticity the band have to satisfy themselves in order to satisfy the audience. 

Agreed, I appreciate compliments from punters, however I only take the ones from Musicians seriously.

Blue