Your Stage Persona?

[wolf7883]

I'd like to hear from some people--mainly from original bands but cover guys can chime in too-- How does your band represent themselves on-stage..

Like:
Are you crazy jumping around everywhere?
Do you make full contact with the audience all the time?
Are you shoegazers?
Do all your members act differently?

Any special stage shows?

[Drop-the-One]

All differently. I'd like to be in a band where image and stage presence was important to them.

In a perfect world, we would at least own the stage, project our energy, and do a couple choreographed guitar flips and gimmicks.

[Drop-the-One]

There's a band here called Incura... and the singer gets his entire background from theatre, so that totally projects through his voice and movement... pretty cool.

What about you?

[Stingray_EB]

My stage presence is like that of John Entwistle, totally focused on nailing the songs, now if only I could play like him

[MarkMcBass]

Enigmatic but approachable haha

[Jimbob Jones]

I jump around like the floor's hotter than Jennifer Anniston in a microwave, try my best to get the crowd going. It's great when me and the guitard rock out in unison at the front of stage, either side of the singer/guitard in who's in a powerstance. Rock n roll!

[FunkMetalBass]

All differently, with me being the craziest. I get the attention I need, and the rest of the band looks like they are backing me up. It's really win-win-win (the audience wins too, for being in my presence).

[otis_thick]

Not mine but I am going to use it for a show when I get it worked out. Many many years ago there was a band called Truc Of America...they played the TUBES to Stevie Wonder they all dressed as various tv characters...the keyboard player dressed and talked like Mr Haney from Green Acres, one guitarist dressed as Slim Whitman and played a toilet seat guitar...but the stand out was a guy dressed in black that wore a big cardboard television over his head and shoulders that was lit from the inside and used a headset mic...he stood in the shadows in front of a black backdrop....the effect was, it looked like a floating 40" tv with a singing head from the audience...it was very cool...you had to be there! As far as what I do now, I don't look like I just got of bed but I kind of go fo unique clothes that are just a little flashier than what most guys are wearing in the audience. I just recently added to the standard basic black outfit a black denim mid-sleave shirt that has leather and expanded chrome steel on the pockets and across the back. I also have a pair of Bootsy Star sunglasses and am not above doing the P funk thang...I did one gig and we wore tuxes we were play Progressive Rock\Funk

[Atticus]

I'm conservative with crazy antics (power slides, guitar flips) but I've done enough theater that I'm willing to play up a power stance or rock with the rest of the band to get the audience going. Playing the song well takes priority over playing up the crowd, though. I'd rather look straight at my fretboard and nail the My Generation solo than flaunt it at the crowd and totally screw it up.

[wolf7883]

We make props and hotwire little keyboards and paint them up in blacklight paint. We try to put on 'Big' shows at small venues. We make giant blacklight masks and play a few songs in those. But when not doing the theatrical kind of thing me and my guitarist do a lot of shoegazing and occasionally move about in a really intense part of the song.

[wolf7883]

Originally Posted by MarkMcBass

Enigmatic but approachable haha

+1 lol!!!

we also have a back story that we are time travelers from Atlantis and my drummer is from another planet. ..It works.. anything having to do with space travel and psychedelia, we jump on it and use it for our persona.

[Phalex]

We're all doing our own thing.

I tend to have my eyes shut and though I tend to stay planted in one spot (I can't see where I'm going anyway with my eyes shut.) I tend to move, make faces like my face be a big old jellyfish, and get into the rhythm.

My drummer is almost as animated as the guy in the gold lame' jacket that's been going around. He tends to ham it up a bit.

The guitar player has been nicknamed "The Mighty Oak". He plays one hell of a guitar, but he tends to not move around a lot. He stands in one spot and sweats a lot while playing two guitar parts at the same time.

The singer has a wireless mic, and he's all over the place. Singing to the pretty girls, dancing on tables, getting molested by old ladies..... (He's a really good sport about that.)

[wolf7883]

Originally Posted by otis_thick

Not mine but I am going to use it for a show when I get it worked out. Many many years ago there was a band called Truc Of America...they played the TUBES to Stevie Wonder they all dressed as various tv characters...the keyboard player dressed and talked like Mr Haney from Green Acres, one guitarist dressed as Slim Whitman and played a toilet seat guitar...but the stand out was a guy dressed in black that wore a big cardboard television over his head and shoulders that was lit from the inside and used a headset mic...he stood in the shadows in front of a black backdrop....the effect was, it looked like a floating 40" tv with a singing head from the audience...it was very cool...you had to be there! As far as what I do now, I don't look like I just got of bed but I kind of go fo unique clothes that are just a little flashier than what most guys are wearing in the audience. I just recently added to the standard basic black outfit a black denim mid-sleave shirt that has leather and expanded chrome steel on the pockets and across the back. I also have a pair of Bootsy Star sunglasses and am not above doing the P funk thang...I did one gig and we wore tuxes we were play Progressive Rock\Funk

Re: the t.v. head guy---That is awesome!!

Re: clothes--Yea man..u gotta look different from the other schmoes in the audience. Jeans a bit tighter, Sunglasses at night, Hair all wild, SOMETHING to separate u from the audience i think is necessary. Bootsy Glasses-U got it covered!

[somegeezer]

I generally just have my usual Metal stance and a bit of headbanging. Sometimes when both guitarists start playing side by side, I'll go up front and do the whole Steve Harris thing, pointing the bass forward and get a leg up on whatever is there. I do a lot of looking round at the band too, making contact with the drummer a lot especially.

[jive1]

Here's a link to my stage persona:
http://www.kingcomfy.com/index.php?o...&id=2&Itemid=2

[JmJ]

Originally Posted by wolf7883

Re: the t.v. head guy---That is awesome!!

Re: clothes--Yea man..u gotta look different from the other schmoes in the audience.

I did a gig where the band leader asked us to wear all black, I wore a black button down and black jeans. The servers at the club wore the same uniform. I was flagged down by a patron and asked for the bill. I told the guy "I'll be right with you after my bass solo" and hopped up on the stage to play. The joke was on him - there was no bass solo!

I used to apply the philosophy that no matter what kind of day I was having the audience would never know as I was there to entertain. One night I had a gig where my girl friend did not show up, (her friend convinced her to go hear another band)
I was so pissed that I was stomping around the stage and scowling. Afterward my friends in the audience told me "you put on a great show" After that It felt more natural to project what ever I was feeling to the audience. Basically I do whatever I feel like doing, Gosh!

[bluewine]

Our 26 year old lead singer is out there singing and dancing and engaging the crowd with her wit non stop.

Me, while she is the front person, I have my ways of letting the crowd know I am up there too.

At 57, I am not going to be dancing and acting like I am 20.

I have some standard/clasic moves that work, very suble but cool. I try to dress cool. I dye my hair black ,distressed jeans, trendy boots, white long sleeve taylored military style shirts, tails out and dark pin strip dress vest.

[sonic assassin]

we are exaggerated versions of ourselves. i get to let all my crazy out and no one will question it. my hatred of wearing a shirt is celebrated so long as im playing. we get to jump around and be loud. scream at people if we like. dick jokes will fly, no one cares. theres not really an act. we know what is and is not cool on a stage. the couple times in our set list where we get to talk, its just us talking. we dont gruff up our voices or yell at people.

its incredibly honest, we feel. if we were up there ACTING cool instead of the natural coolness of performing, we feel like it would come across phony. ive seen those bands, and they are ridiculous. we dont have scripted jokes or anything.

hell, me and my co-guitarist just played an acoustic show at a church. it was 90% covers since our songs are too aggressive and complicated to play acoustic, so it was already a throw away. we spent half of the time changing/forgetting lyrics, calling each other names, and talking to the crowd. it was a more a comedy act that anything else. they loved it. we are just ourselves. my singer dropped out while i was in mid super high harmony to make me look stupid. we laughed. i broke/dropped my pick into my guitar (at the same time.. no idea how that happened), so i stopped playing and took his.

honesty is our thing.

[JimmyM]

my persona onstage is having fun, hopping around, smiling with my giant white new teeth, and occasionally stumbling on nothing for no apparent reason.

[Muaguana]

I usually stand stationary and concentrate on the music, but if I really get into it I can start thrashing about subconsciously (staying in one spot, so it looks weird.) In both of my bands the guitarists are also the singers, so they mainly stand in one spot. Drummer in one band is grooving, the other drummer is totally bats*** crazy. Pretty much all different.