Get the balance right

[TimR]

We played a local festival on Saturday. We are a pop/rock covers band and had an early afternoon set. 

 

Waiting to see the video, but think we played quite well. Usual problems of no soundcheck and 30mins allotted stage time. Just make sure you can hear most of what you need and get on with it.

 

How do you strike a balance between taking time to engage the audience and just getting on with playing the songs.

 

As a cover band, I don't see it important to play loads of our material to showcase the band. I think it's more important to play well and engage the audience. Singer seems to see it as an opportunity to play only her favourite tunes and the drummer seems to think we need to play songs as closely together as possible. 

 

I came off with the impression we had rushed through 7 songs, we had 2 or 3 minutes left, not enough to play an 8th but which could have been used to create a better 'show'.

 

Next time I will try and emphasise my point of view. Usually we play for 2 hours or so, so finding 8 songs we could all agree on was pretty hard so I stayed out of that conversation. 

 

Audience thought it was good and lots of compliments afterwards.

[Doctor J]

I'd side with the drummer. When I go to see a band I want to hear music, not listen to jibba jabba. Play the bleedin' songs. If you absolutely must have cheerleading, do it over intros. Give me 27 minutes of songs and go, I don't need the extra 3 minutes of "IS EVERYONE READY TO GET DOWWWWWNNNN?"

 

From a band perspective, we'd always cluster songs together. Do two or three songs, segue one into the next and get on with it. Nobody comes to hear your singer talking. That's why they're called a singer 🙂

[Dan Dare]

Can be a tricky balance to strike. On the whole, I agree with your drummer and Doctor J above. The fact that you say "Audience thought it was good and lots of compliments afterwards" shows that perhaps it wasn't as bad as you'd feared.

 

There's a big difference between headlining and doing a short support spot. In the position you were in, I'd favour keeping the chat/engaging with the audience short and sweet and letting your playing do the talking, which it appears you did. Play your 7 or 8 best numbers and finish with "Thanks for listening. We've been XX. You can see us at the Dog & Trumpet next Tuesday if you like what you've just heard" and direct them to the place where your merch', etc is on offer if you have any. Then offski.

 

 

[Nail Soup]

I think I'll have to disagree a bit with the other posters.

If you have some good chat between numbers it will really help a lot with how well you go down.

You can do it in a tight way... plan the set into groups of two or three songs, and only have chat between those groups.

Many of the gigs where I've come a way with a smile on my face are when the between-song chat was good. 

Many bands are good musicians and the chat (and similar stuff) can be a differentiator.

 

This applies even if (especially if?) you are a support band.

 

[Nail Soup]

35 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

I'd side with the drummer. When I go to see a band I want to hear music, not listen to jibba jabba. Play the bleedin' songs. If you absolutely must have cheerleading, do it over intros. Give me 27 minutes of songs and go, I don't need the extra 3 minutes of "IS EVERYONE READY TO GET DOWWWWWNNNN?"

 

While I say in the previous post that I don't agree with the above, I would make an exception for stuff like "IS EVERYONE READY TO GET DOWWWWWNNNN?".

If you can't think of anything better than that then maybe say nothing!

[Nicko]

55 minutes ago, TimR said:

Audience thought it was good and lots of compliments afterwards.

That's all that matters really.

 

I played in one band where the singer was good, but really didn't know how to interact with an audience, unless he was singing.  When he tried it was a bit cringey - and we were better just rattling through with a minimum of time between songs.

[TimR]

5 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Many of the gigs where I've come a way with a smile on my face are when the between-song chat was good. 

 

Yes. A few seconds to get your breath back and set the pace/tone for the next song, rather than overboard whipping people into a frenzy. That's never going to happen when it's mid afternoon and everyone is just getting started. 

[TimR]

1 minute ago, Nicko said:

really didn't know how to interact with an audience, unless he was singing.  When he tried it was a bit cringey

 

That's something that comes with practice though. 

[Lozz196]

Unless you’ve a lot of time on stage then the singer knowing what they’re going to say between songs & how long that takes (and between which songs so the rest of the band knows) is part of the rehearsal process. Otherwise you can easily run out of time.

[Dan Dare]

5 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Unless you’ve a lot of time on stage then the singer knowing what they’re going to say between songs & how long that takes (and between which songs so the rest of the band knows) is part of the rehearsal process. Otherwise you can easily run out of time.

 

Good point. If, for example, members of the band change instruments between numbers or there is likely to be any delay (string breaks, etc), it's important to have something worked out to avoid awkward pauses and silences. Best to avoid cringe-inducing stuff - "Are you ready to get dowwwwwn", "Three blokes walk into a bar", "Take my wife.... please", etc - of course.

[TimR]

We don't have enough time to practice the songs, let alone any talking between them. 😁

 

[Nicko]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

 

That's something that comes with practice though. 

It does.  When the band split he formed a new one and after a few years of steady gigging he's finally got there.

[BigRedX]

49 minutes ago, TimR said:

We don't have enough time to practice the songs, let alone any talking between them. 😁

 

Then just play the songs. You're a band. Playing songs is why your audience are there.

[TimR]

31 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Then just play the songs. You're a band. Playing songs is why your audience are there.

 

Some may be.

 

Personally I get shell shock if a band is just rattling off tunes one after the other. It gets very waring. Particularly if they have their amplifiers set to stun. 

 

I just think performances should be a bit more considered. 

[Franticsmurf]

I've been in a similar situation (20 minute slot in a multi band line up). We devoted a rehearsal to timings with a short list of potential songs and ended up with 4 (we were vaguely proggy so they weren't your 3 minute pop songs). It gave us about 2 minutes over run/audience interaction. While we didn't plan word for word, we knew when and roughly what was going to be said. It might seem like overkill but for me it was about making the right impression (not looking rushed, for example) and being smooth and professional about it. The result was good, we had time to cope with a minor issue with the FOH sound and the crowd liked us. In fact, the organisers gave us time for another song and fortunately we had a couple spare from the rehearsal.  

[BigRedX]

In a gig what a band does between the songs is as important as what they do during them. Both should be practiced.

[Doctor J]

34 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Some may be.

 

Personally I get shell shock if a band is just rattling off tunes one after the other. It gets very waring. Particularly if they have their amplifiers set to stun. 

 

I just think performances should be a bit more considered. 

 

That's why I said to utilise the likes of intros for the talking. They can be scaled down, stretched out, used to to build tension and be a part of the show but they can still be musical and engaging. For me, when the band stops playing they lose their momentum. Silence (or worse, and utterly unforgivable, someone playing the tuning song) with someone trying to be a cheerleader is tedious. It's lost time in a set. It should never be Level 10 all the time, definitely not. It should also never be Level 0. We used to rehearse instrument changes. It shouldn't take more than 10 seconds and can be easily covered by other instruments doing something interesting and musical. People come to hear music. That can be a solo bass drum just holding a beat to keep attention for a while at least, or the bass riff, or some guitar, while you introduce a new song. Use your imagination.

 

The skill of a DJ (a good one, not some berk talking over a chorus about charideee) is keeping an audience engaged without sacrificing the dynamics of a show. A band can learn a lot from that approach.

 

Play song. Stop. Talk. Play song. Stop. Talk, etc etc etc is frankly rubbish. Your performance starts at the first chord of the first song and ends at the closing chord of the last song. Don't let gormless idling be a part of it 😉

 

 

[Muzz]

Yep, I'd agree with the 'it's a performance' side of things, especially in the covers/function arena - some comfortable, funny(ish) chat - just a few seconds, not rambling or shouty faux-hype - between songs gets an audience on your side. It's the difference between a singer and a frontman; engaging with your audience.

 

That said, we do have a few songs we run into each other, with the drums carrying the transition, but they're the 'real' dancing ones (like Superstition, Play That Funky Music, Good Times, Long Train, Le Freak, etc), and of course they're all pretty much the same 'dance number' tempo, but these don't need breaking up with chat...

[Nail Soup]

3 hours ago, Doctor J said:

utilise the likes of intros for the talking.

You are Tony Blackburn and I claim my 5 pounds 😉!

[odysseus]

As Frank Zappa was heard to say, "Shut up and play your guitar"

[Oddly]

I've been to a couple of memorable gigs (and not in a good way) where I left feeling I might've just as well stayed at home and put on the record...Dire Straits and Chris Rea being two that spring to mind.

It's nice to think that the band up on stage that you may have paid good money to see at least acknowledge your existence.

 

It's a good idea to have some little bit of banter prepared in case of tech issues, just as much as it's important to keep the flow going.

[Nail Soup]

4 hours ago, Doctor J said:

utilise the likes of intros for the talking. They can be scaled down, stretched out, used to to build tension and be a part of the show but they can still be musical and engaging

Actually my last band did do this during each gig.

We'd play Sound of the Suburbs near the end of the gig, and in the bit where it goes to quiet bass and stripped down drums we would carry on with the quiet instead of the instruments building back up. Then the guitarist would introduce the band before going back to the regular song. The guitarist did it even though I sang that song... it doesn't have to be the singer and he did a good job of it.

[mikel]

If you only have half an hour just play the music. It's different for headliners, they have the time and the audience have, in the main, come to see them. More so if you are a covers band. 

[Mykesbass]

I'm closer to the drummer than the singer on this. You are there to please the audience, if that doesn't please you you are in the wrong job.

 

As a compromise, I've always used the occasional segue to maximise number of songs, but allow a little bit of chat.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

For festival gigs we crow bar as much in as we can. The penultimate song is usually the one that gets earmarked for the chop should there be any timing disasters.

That way we can end with the song we want to end on.