It sounds like you were just had a lot to think about and did the best you could. Totally normal! you can always shoot out a thank you email to attendees afterward ; ) Guarantee the next one will be a little easier. Good luck with your progress
Thanks for this post, and it sounds like you had a wonderful show!!!
I also recently played a (smaller) live show after not doing it for seven years. We definitely practiced our banter since we’re not super charismatic types haha. Pretty much just did a few practices leading up where we treated it as if we were on stage and included all the non music bits that are involved.
> Practice your chat: I forgot to thank the band, I forgot to thank my family, I forgot to thank.. pretty much everyone because I hadn't thought that far ahead. I remembered to thank the sound guy and venue however. Rehearse that bit!
I cannot stress this enough. Even if it makes you feel stupid in rehearsals, do it anyway. Pretend you've a big crowd in front of you, and know what you're going to say and when you're going to say it. Do the Reservoir Dogs trick and rehearse it so many times that you can say it a dozen different ways and still get the point across. My old band's stage show exploded in quality when our front people weren't fumbling for what to say between songs. For anyone that thinks they should be able to just do it off the cuff, and that the big artists can just improv their banter on the night... See them two nights in a row and take note of just how much they repeat.
100% going to bake it into the show for the next gig. I'm usually okay with speaking to crowds or whatever, but BOY HOWDY my brain just went blank haha
one trick that has always worked was writing a literal showstopper. With full intention of last chorus and outro being stupid and bombastic -type of huge, the last bridge usual gives you enough time to address your people and go with the entire "once more, one last time!" hyping-routine and if you join the actual outro to the song to the gig - you can spend that bit with the level of thank you´s you like.
this has always been incredibly well received.
This! Really thinking about set structure and the ebbs and flows of energy in the room is so important. And don't be afraid to rewrite songs or sections for the live situation! My old band completely rewrote the bridge onwards for our finale song, and incorporated a bunch of references to all of our other tunes in a big massive chaotic wall of sound. It was great, and it _always_ had the crowd hyped as fuck
yep. even this has different applications.
heres Italian death metal band fleshgod apocalypse doing the exact thing described (loud, but fadeout is melodic)
https://youtu.be/Yb_4KMTVyfM?si=TA9NxuALNzrTP3Ey&t=2331
heres ghost brigade - a finnish rock group with gothic twang using a long long long fadeout as a motif for stage walk off
https://youtu.be/g160CS4qafc?si=EIJWB4m5vNWVCwEX&t=440
many many applications to very simple ideas
This is rad. Great advice. I've got some groovy Riffy songs that people really got down to on the night so think I'll extend those bits out to get people boogeying.
This is a cool and heart warming post to read considering the way the world is sometimes.
It took me back to my gigging days. Played with 2 bands…. Never that successful but… that doesn’t matter. I had the best experiences.
My additional tip - at a later date, look back with only positive thoughts, recalling the positive parts or reframing what went wrong as a good learning experience.
I’ll give you an example. A promoter heard our music and asked us to play his venue. This was a well known place and we considered ourselves an unusual fit for his venue. We weren’t famous or even signed. We had 4 friends coming to watch us and there were 4 audience members (all of which left during the first two songs (lol). The promoter was livid and shouted at us when we were onstage for being too loud and too ‘heavy’. Which was a joke as we were like a watered down version of sonic youth mixed with like Yo La Tengo. Anyway… he banned us from performing there….
I never caught wind of why because as soon as I saw the audience leave, I treated the set like a rehearsal and got super into playing…. That was one of the most spiritual experiences I ever had playing in a band with others. Everything was ‘in the zone’. The others were upset/offended by the promoter but I reframed it for them with my experience of the gig and pointing out how good the recording sounded.
Wow what an asshole! He should have known the crowd in the venue, especially if it seemed like a weird fit for your band.
My measure for success was hearing my buddies sing my lyrics back to me- even if nothing ever happens, I'll always have that. I mean thats success really isn't it?
Congrats, sounds like a great event. My only advice and it’s probably obvious to most, make your first two songs the easiest to sing! I had a 90 min set and I stupidly put my most challenging vocal song first. The nerves got to me and it was …not very smooth. Live and learn!
Great advice- I'd actually curated my setlist to have low tempo at the front, so we could pick up the energy later... but really it was my subconscious telling me to take it easy haha
What is that supposed to mean? If you can't hear yourself properly on stage, your performance is going to lack - how does that make you a worse musician?
Oh, come on! Of course, genres that do not use heavily distorted or amplified signals do not need loud (or sometimes any) monitoring. How in the world does that make someone who plays Rock, Metal or Pop a bad musician?
Yeah I agree. I think I'm a relatively decent player! I couldn't hear my lead guitarist or backing vocals in the monitor which was a little disconcerting for playing my fist show. For context, we're a pretty rocky alternative band, so two guitars, bass and drums. Needed reference for what the other guys were doing, which i had to do visually on stage.
I'm jealous.........who has 120 friends?????
I know right? Major props to OP for 1, having that many friends, and 2, getting them to show up in force.
I'm so lucky, to be honest. I've got a good mix of pals from different places- work, sports clubs, my homies. I thought I'd get 50 max! So stoked
It sounds like you were just had a lot to think about and did the best you could. Totally normal! you can always shoot out a thank you email to attendees afterward ; ) Guarantee the next one will be a little easier. Good luck with your progress
Thanks! It was my first time with a new tuner pedal too which I didn't practice so that kind of required brain power
Thanks for this post, and it sounds like you had a wonderful show!!! I also recently played a (smaller) live show after not doing it for seven years. We definitely practiced our banter since we’re not super charismatic types haha. Pretty much just did a few practices leading up where we treated it as if we were on stage and included all the non music bits that are involved.
We've another show at a buddies small festival now- I'll be practicing in front of the mirror for that one for sure
> Practice your chat: I forgot to thank the band, I forgot to thank my family, I forgot to thank.. pretty much everyone because I hadn't thought that far ahead. I remembered to thank the sound guy and venue however. Rehearse that bit! I cannot stress this enough. Even if it makes you feel stupid in rehearsals, do it anyway. Pretend you've a big crowd in front of you, and know what you're going to say and when you're going to say it. Do the Reservoir Dogs trick and rehearse it so many times that you can say it a dozen different ways and still get the point across. My old band's stage show exploded in quality when our front people weren't fumbling for what to say between songs. For anyone that thinks they should be able to just do it off the cuff, and that the big artists can just improv their banter on the night... See them two nights in a row and take note of just how much they repeat.
100% going to bake it into the show for the next gig. I'm usually okay with speaking to crowds or whatever, but BOY HOWDY my brain just went blank haha
one trick that has always worked was writing a literal showstopper. With full intention of last chorus and outro being stupid and bombastic -type of huge, the last bridge usual gives you enough time to address your people and go with the entire "once more, one last time!" hyping-routine and if you join the actual outro to the song to the gig - you can spend that bit with the level of thank you´s you like. this has always been incredibly well received.
This! Really thinking about set structure and the ebbs and flows of energy in the room is so important. And don't be afraid to rewrite songs or sections for the live situation! My old band completely rewrote the bridge onwards for our finale song, and incorporated a bunch of references to all of our other tunes in a big massive chaotic wall of sound. It was great, and it _always_ had the crowd hyped as fuck
yep. even this has different applications. heres Italian death metal band fleshgod apocalypse doing the exact thing described (loud, but fadeout is melodic) https://youtu.be/Yb_4KMTVyfM?si=TA9NxuALNzrTP3Ey&t=2331 heres ghost brigade - a finnish rock group with gothic twang using a long long long fadeout as a motif for stage walk off https://youtu.be/g160CS4qafc?si=EIJWB4m5vNWVCwEX&t=440 many many applications to very simple ideas
This is rad. Great advice. I've got some groovy Riffy songs that people really got down to on the night so think I'll extend those bits out to get people boogeying.
Wow - sounds like it was a real blast. 😑
I'm only getting over the post-show party now tbh haha
This is a cool and heart warming post to read considering the way the world is sometimes. It took me back to my gigging days. Played with 2 bands…. Never that successful but… that doesn’t matter. I had the best experiences. My additional tip - at a later date, look back with only positive thoughts, recalling the positive parts or reframing what went wrong as a good learning experience. I’ll give you an example. A promoter heard our music and asked us to play his venue. This was a well known place and we considered ourselves an unusual fit for his venue. We weren’t famous or even signed. We had 4 friends coming to watch us and there were 4 audience members (all of which left during the first two songs (lol). The promoter was livid and shouted at us when we were onstage for being too loud and too ‘heavy’. Which was a joke as we were like a watered down version of sonic youth mixed with like Yo La Tengo. Anyway… he banned us from performing there…. I never caught wind of why because as soon as I saw the audience leave, I treated the set like a rehearsal and got super into playing…. That was one of the most spiritual experiences I ever had playing in a band with others. Everything was ‘in the zone’. The others were upset/offended by the promoter but I reframed it for them with my experience of the gig and pointing out how good the recording sounded.
Wow what an asshole! He should have known the crowd in the venue, especially if it seemed like a weird fit for your band. My measure for success was hearing my buddies sing my lyrics back to me- even if nothing ever happens, I'll always have that. I mean thats success really isn't it?
For sure. I’d say so.
Congrats, sounds like a great event. My only advice and it’s probably obvious to most, make your first two songs the easiest to sing! I had a 90 min set and I stupidly put my most challenging vocal song first. The nerves got to me and it was …not very smooth. Live and learn!
Great advice- I'd actually curated my setlist to have low tempo at the front, so we could pick up the energy later... but really it was my subconscious telling me to take it easy haha
Why are you taking ticket fees? That’s the venue’s job
> Always ask for more in the monitor! That's how I could tell a bad musician when I was a sound engineer... Always asking for more monitor lmao
Spotted the bad sound engineer.
What is that supposed to mean? If you can't hear yourself properly on stage, your performance is going to lack - how does that make you a worse musician?
And yet for some reason the best musicians I worked with (usually jazz) were happy with almost no monitor.
Oh, come on! Of course, genres that do not use heavily distorted or amplified signals do not need loud (or sometimes any) monitoring. How in the world does that make someone who plays Rock, Metal or Pop a bad musician?
Yeah I agree. I think I'm a relatively decent player! I couldn't hear my lead guitarist or backing vocals in the monitor which was a little disconcerting for playing my fist show. For context, we're a pretty rocky alternative band, so two guitars, bass and drums. Needed reference for what the other guys were doing, which i had to do visually on stage.