What Do You Think Of This ?

[Woodinblack]

33 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

I have to remind the singer to say when it's a song we've written rather than a cover and the band leader herself is not the most social on stage and sits down on a stool. Her view is it's all about the music and to be honest I think she'd be happier playing her songs in the kitchen on Saturday night!

 

Our singer wont have the quiet bits, and he does announce the songs, even if sometimes it is not the best description and other times just plain wrong (Although who could argue with, "This is one by the stones,  its about painting stuff black")

 

42 minutes ago, TimR said:

I'm guessing the Shake n Vac chords are a fairly simple 3 chord type blues progression. 

 

Maybe not just the song, but she was a hell of a frontwoman!

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Our singer wont have the quiet bits, and he does announce the songs, even if sometimes it is not the best description and other times just plain wrong (Although who could argue with, "This is one by the stones,  its about painting stuff black")

 

I was impressed by our singer/guitarist. He's early 20s but very confident and did a great job with the crowd, even got them clapping and singing along. He understands that the best way to convince a crowd the band is really good is to tell them they are!

[Barking Spiders]

Went to a small local music fest last month where arguably the best band in terms of playing was one doing their own material. They had quite a good image, were technically proficient, tight and as boring as feck. Of the 300 or so punters there I guess less than a dozen were actively watching.  Their mistakes? Only playing their own material, which engaged next to no one. Two, there was minimal movement on stage other than checking their playlists. Three, zero banter, chat whatever. The band which drew the biggest crowd had only rehearsed some of their set the previous day, had a couple of false starts including a completely wrong song and sometimes were a bit loose. But you know what? No one was bothered because the singer had presence, character and good humour, the band looked like they were having fun and they played songs people knew by bands they'd heard of e.g. Killers, Foos, Oasis, KOL etc.

[ubit]

Many years ago when we were in our very first version of our band we used to regularly play with another band who were technically more proficient than us, more experienced and had better gear but we always blew them off the stage at dances. Why? Because we played songs which, although may have been easier to play, we better floor fillers and we used to enjoy ourselves on stage. We were like the Scorpions and Motley Crue combined with our antics. We didn't give a toss. Nine times out of ten the audience liked this and gave us a good reception. 

[Barking Spiders]

2 hours ago, ubit said:

Many years ago when we were in our very first version of our band we used to regularly play with another band who were technically more proficient than us, more experienced and had better gear but we always blew them off the stage at dances. Why? Because we played songs which, although may have been easier to play, we better floor fillers and we used to enjoy ourselves on stage. We were like the Scorpions and Motley Crue combined with our antics. We didn't give a toss. Nine times out of ten the audience liked this and gave us a good reception. 

 

A lot of bands and players can get too hung up on technical proficiency and sophistication and forget that the majority of people in audiences are probably non-players and as such don't give a monkeys about fancy chops.  Can you get them dancing, moshing or canoodling? If yes, job done.

[ubit]

I also think, up this way, If you try to talk to audiences in bars they can't hear you anyway. When you sing it comes over nice and clear but the spoken word is quite indistinct over the bustle of the pub. You quite often hear bands talking and you are thinking what did he say? If you see professional bands playing in big concert halls, usually they shout into the mic plus the audience will all keep quiet when the band talk. We used to get a decent enough reception but to most punters you are background noise. Fair enough people won't stay if you are bad background noise but background noise it is. Punters like to have the noise of a band to accompany their shouting and laughing but certainly in one of the pubs we played in very few people were actually actively watching the band.

I will add, on nights when no band was playing, this same bar used to be quiet.