Dealing with different audiences, and sober ones

Deacon_Blues · #1 11-01-2008, 08:49 PM

Hi,

Sorry for the long post, it's not really a rant, but about a gig I just came home from. It was with a band I'm not too interested in playing with because we don't sound nearly as good as another band I play in, and it pays less. Well anyway... Before today, I've proudly said that in the bands I've played in, We've always been able to keep the audience on the dance floor pretty well (I've been singing lead in addition to being the bassist most of the times, though I'm not a very active frontman speaking a lot to the audience). Occasionally on gigs I've played some songs nobody danced to, but before today I had never played a gig where the exception was that there was actually people on the dance floor.

In the two pauses, we spoke to some people in the audience (consisting of football players and other people involved in the football business) and a guy said we were the best band that have ever played on their yearly parties and a man. Many of them liked our mix of songs of different styles and age.

The people sat however mostly at their tables. On the more dancing-friendly songs (Take It Easy, for instance) a few couples were dancing, but on some general crowd pleasers (e.g. I Feel Good or Summer Of '69), nobody was dancing. However, we did get great applauses after many of those, and we could see that some of the people in the audience sitting down were digging the songs we played. Luckily, in the end of the very last set we got all the audience going, and then they didn't want us to stop and we played a couple of songs more.

There was one thing that was different from most similar gigs I've played so far: There audience was pretty sober. Most Finns just don't dance unless they have some alcohol in their blood. Generally, the more alcohol people have had, the more they dance.

Another possible factor to the low number of people dancing was that the football team had had a rather bad season and was passed back to division II. So the mood wasn't the best I suppose. Another possible reason was the room acoustics - it was impossible to get a tight and clear sound and we didn't have a soundguy controlling the levels either.

Usually I've been trying to find other songs to play when something doesn't seem to work, but with this band we don't have a huge repertoire so we couldn't do too much of that. And as we got compliments on out selection of songs we didn't want to change too much.

So... What do you guys do when you meet a challenging audience? And how important is it for you that the audience get enough booze?

seanm · #2 11-01-2008, 10:02 PM

I've never played a gig where the audience wasn't drinking. I have had some challenging audiences. We played a New Years gig where we where in the basement and the majority of the audience was on the first floor. It is weird basically playing to nobody. But they could hear us well upstairs and where more comfortable up there.

bassmodder · #3 11-01-2008, 10:07 PM

I just played one of these on Halloween. Granted I opened for a metal band so that really set the mood, but no one danced. They sat there and drank like fishes and watched.

Got loads of compliments afterwords though!

JimmyM · #4 11-02-2008, 12:28 AM

Sobriety doesn't encourage widespread dancing, that's for sure, especially in the guys. But to me, it sounds like you're worrying for nothing. If Finnish audiences don't dance until they've had a couple belts, so be it. The audience obviously liked you and that's what counts. But as a frontman, maybe you would want to encourage the audience to dance in a polite and friendly manner. And if that doesn't work, yell at them and scream, "Dance, you b*****s!"

Deacon_Blues · #5 11-02-2008, 04:04 AM

Yeah, actually I wasn't worrying about anything, as I noticed they did like the music at least. It was more a new situation for me with virtually nobody dancing, especially on this type of gigs. Good we got the crowd going in the end at least.

Most of them just weren't in the mood for dancing (or didn't dare when some people also had their parents there), but in the first set that started at around 10 pm I wondered what was wrong.... we asked the audience several times to come dancing but that just didn't happen. Well I'm an experience richer now again.

sears · #6 11-02-2008, 07:38 AM

An athlete might be really sore or hurt at the end of the season. I'm glad they appreciated it anyway.

tycobb73 · #7 11-02-2008, 09:07 AM

People are dancing less and less these days. But they still wnat to listen to the music. We have this guy who fololows us. Wants us to play Sweet Child O Mine whenever he's there, goes crazy for it. We play it. He doesn't dance to it but he listens to it and appreciates it anyway.

IanStephenson · #8 11-02-2008, 09:33 AM

One of the next towns over that we play(ed) at a couple of venues there, the whole audience would stand there looking miserable the whole night. Didn't even clap. Really hard work, and depressing.

Then at the end they'd all come up to us and say how great they were, and that we should come back more often. Feedback was universally positive, but it just was the sort of town where people went out to DRINK. If they were dancing they weren't drinking, and even clapping meant putting your drink down (seriously - if no one is clapping, check how many have drinks in their hands with no where to put them down).

The bar staff loved us, and we even got paid slightly more than the agreed fee. I now work on the principle that a good gig is one where you get booked back.

Venues are just different, and people enjoy themselves in different ways. It can make it hard work, but sometimes that's just the way the place is.

Lazylion · #9 11-02-2008, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

...on some general crowd pleasers, e.g. I Feel Good..., nobody was dancing.

Dang, that IS a tough crowd!

Sometimes you just have to get by on the fact that they are still in the room & haven't left.

Deacon_Blues · #10 11-02-2008, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazylion

Dang, that IS a tough crowd!

Sometimes you just have to get by on the fact that they are still in the room & haven't left.

Yeah, I was actually pretty sure a lot of the crowd would go partying somewhere soon after the official program, but I'm glad a large part of the audience stayed until the end.

Joe Nerve · #11 11-03-2008, 09:35 AM

In some clubs some people simply don't dance. In some clubs everybody dances. In some clubs people simply ignore the band regardless of how good they are. At just about every gig I've played with just about every band I've played with at least 1 person has told me we were the best band that ever played the place. Just like all the girls I've been with tell me I'm the greatest lover. I'm sure they've all told you that too. Some bars people clap. Some bars people just stare. Thank God I'm seeing less people lately who's parents are friends with owner of MSG who are going to get us a gig there because we're the best freaking band they've heard in their life.

If people are dancing to your bands 99% of the time I'd say be grateful and just smile when they're doing something other. Alcohol has tons to do with it, but sometimes it's just the vibe of the place and has got nothing at all to do with the band. I feel my job is to give 150%, 100% of the time and keep a good attitude (or at least keep my mouth shut) no matter what. I keep working at it.

awakefie · #12 11-03-2008, 09:46 AM

We struggle with this internally as a band at times. Some members think the only measure of success/failure is whether people are dancing.

I think it depends on the crowd and venue. Take for example a wedding, if we have an empty dance floor there, we definitely would worry. Community festivals, etc... most of the time people are socializing with the band as background music. A lack of dancers would be normal.

One acid test for us is to play either Folsum Prison Blues or Mustang Sally. If it's a dancing crowd, that usually brings them up (or Play That Funky Music - sigh).

Lazylion · #13 11-03-2008, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

At just about every gig I've played with just about every band I've played with at least 1 person has told me we were the best band that ever played the place.

And they usually follow that with "You're the drummer, right?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

I feel my job is to give 150%, 100% of the time and keep a good attitude (or at least keep my mouth shut) no matter what. I keep working at it.

Big +1 "Sincerity is key. Once you can fake that, you've got it made!"