No one showed up yesterday -.-

Iv@N · #1 08-03-2008, 11:13 AM

My band played yesterday in a pub. we were gonna play with 3 other bands. Not a single person of the other bands showed up and we had to play with no crowd, maybe 10 o 12 people.

It was pretty sad

HashbrownCOBM · #2 08-03-2008, 11:26 AM

It happens. I've played to 3 people before. But you still give them the show you'd give 300 people.

Word of mouth is the best advertisement you can get and if you go off like that for 3 people they'll tell peeps and shows will get bigger.

alembicguy · #3 08-03-2008, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HashbrownCOBM

It happens. I've played to 3 people before. But you still give them the show you'd give 300 people.

Word of mouth is the best advertisement you can get and if you go off like that for 3 people they'll tell peeps and shows will get bigger.

+1

mario222 · #4 08-03-2008, 11:32 AM

I've had gigs like that. The best way to look at it is a really loud rehersal with a few people present. The weird thing is that sometimes these gigs are really good peformance wise and not many people get to hear one of your better shows.

JimB52 · #5 08-03-2008, 11:35 AM

I started a gig a couple of years ago playing to literally nobody. The staff had all gone outside to smoke. 20 or 30 eventually showed up, so it was kind of a paid practice. It is kind of depressing or humbling, but everybody's been there before.

baalroo · #6 08-03-2008, 11:43 AM

A few years ago I was in a noise-rock band and we had this one guy who really loved our stuff who was going away to boot camp and he begged us to play his going-away party. It turned out to be in a barn in a rural town, full of about 500 drunken rednecks... when we started playing we cleared the barn out except for a couple of buddies who came along, this guy, and a couple of just-outta-highschool girls in a matter of a minute-and-a-half. We played our ***es off for these 6 people... I cut my finger on the high E (was playing guitar at the time) and was flinging blood all over the floor, we were covered in sweat, jumping around, and at the end completely unrehearsed and not because it was staged or we were a "at the end we smash our stuff" kind of band our lead singer/guitarist threw his guitar, I fell over into my amp out of exhaustion, and our bass player ripped the string right off his bass...we jut absolutely gave it everything we had. The dude stood there the whole time with the BIGGEST ear-to-ear grin I've ever seen in my life the entire show and those girls were shrieking and flipping out. THAT show to those 6 people is one of my best memories with that band.

The moral of the story, every show is what you make of it. Make your music because you love it, and share it with anyone who will listen as if it's a treasure and you won't care if it's 1 person or 100,000.

René_Julien · #7 08-03-2008, 11:45 AM

I once went to see Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (not everyone's cup of tea) at a metal festival.

It was at noon and they were the first band to play that day (not on the main stage,... and it was raining).

I was in a crowd of about 20 or 30, wich was very small considering the band is very well known in the european metal scene.

Well, they delivered a very enthusiastic performance.
They interacted a lot more with us, the crowd.
It was a very good gig.
I respect that band more after that.

They were happy to see a few faces show up so early in the rain especially to see them.

Point is: don't care if you are performing for 10 people or for a couple of thousands.

Better to make a crowd of 20 to go wild than to let a very big crowd stand there indifferent to your performance.

baalroo · #8 08-03-2008, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C'thulhu

I once went to see Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (not everyone's cup of tea) at a metal festival...

I was in a crowd of about 20 or 30, wich was very small considering the band is very well known in the european metal scene.

Well, they delivered a very enthusiastic performance.
They interacted a lot more with us, the crowd.
It was a very good gig.
I respect that band more after that.

They were happy to see a few faces show up so early in the rain especially to see them.

The point is proven since now they've been mentioned on a world wide forum as being a band with a lot of heart and a good show because of that performance to those 20-30 people. I know I'm gonna check'em out now.

Gubna · #9 08-03-2008, 11:53 AM

yeah, I always thought that you should perform the same, and try to put on the best show possible whether there is 10,000 or 1 person.

I saw White Zombie before they broke big (back when it happened), and there was maybe 30 people in the club - a fairly big club - they still played like there was a packed house putting on a great show.

Iv@N · #10 08-03-2008, 12:05 PM

Yeah , I know. before we played i told the other band members "ok guys, lets do a rehearsal with people watching" my friends told me it was pretty cool but the sound guy seemed to be deaf cause no one could hear the guitar and the vocals. He said they were "perfect" (lol). On the other hand the double bass drum sounded really cool and my bass too.

We'll play again in another pub on 15th Ag.

René_Julien · #11 08-03-2008, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baalroo

The point is proven since now they've been mentioned on a world wide forum as being a band with a lot of heart and a good show because of that performance to those 20-30 people. I know I'm gonna check'em out now.

warning: might not be your cup of tea.

(Musicly is very good, vocals I don't like)

They are not one of my favourite bands, but like the issue here, they've made a spectacular impression on me.
I would definatly go see them live again, chance given.

René_Julien · #12 08-03-2008, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gubna

they still played like there was a packed house putting on a great show.

Perhaps it's a little bit childish of me, but even when I practice I always imagine I'm in front of a couple of thousand metalheads going wild.

Even if a friend comes over and happens to want to hear me playing something, there I stand headbanging.

The passion is already in the musician, it's not feeded by the crowd. Although a good crowd is the nicest feedback you can have.

Iv@N · #13 08-03-2008, 12:42 PM

When practicing i imagine myself playing at Wacken lol, and we all headbang, its pretty funny

René_Julien · #14 08-03-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iv@N

When practicing i imagine myself playing at Wacken lol, and we all headbang, its pretty funny

Actually, I don't think it's all that silly and funny.

In my former bands we, each band member, performed to each other.

Your own personal fans must include your band members.

Are you from Germany Iv@n?
The best metal bands come from there.

Respect, be proud of it.

KsToaDangr · #15 08-03-2008, 12:54 PM

A few years ago, at my first show with a band after I replaced the old bassist, the guitarist told me that he'd be happy with about 15 people showing up, but it would probably be more like 5. We went on stage, and sure enough, there were 5 people in the audience...the 5 guys in the band we were opening for. By the time we were into our 3rd song, people had started coming in, and by the time we got off of the stage, there were about 40 people around. The guys in the band we opened for liked our performance enough that they got us a spot on the bill for their next 6 shows. What started as basically a loud rehearsal ended up becoming a 3 city micro-tour.

Dave R · #16 08-03-2008, 10:15 PM

That's happened to us once or twice. We just call it a "performance rehearsal" and play for ourselves. And it winds up sounding GREAT.

dogbass · #17 08-03-2008, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HashbrownCOBM

It happens. I've played to 3 people before........

Best time I ever had was with only three people. I was one of 'em.

Sneckumhaw · #18 08-03-2008, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dogbass

Best time I ever had was with only three people. I was one of 'em.

If the other two were Bea Arthur and Betty White, then you have my respect.

fourstringdrums · #19 08-03-2008, 11:43 PM

It's happened to us. We played a joint that usually had a decent amount of people from the band's experience before. But this last time we played, the only people there were the owner, bartender, our singer's sister and her b/f, and one or two guys drinking at the bar.

The reason for no one showing up, and I kid you not, is because a cheese place opened up and everyone was there. This was in Newfane, VT. Apparently not a whole lot happens in Newfane, VT.

Mike Shevlin · #20 08-03-2008, 11:49 PM

it happens in the middle of busy Las Vegas casinos all the time - for whatever reason the lounge will have less than 10 people in it. sometimes 1 or 2. the sight of hundreds of people nearby but ignoring you is little consolation.