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Being a jerk to the audience?

#21
My band will occasionally mess with the audience. We have one song that has a sort of "Whoa-oa-oa" intro that we try to get people singing along with. Part of our schtick is our guitarist will pick one person in the crowd who looks like they're digging the music but who isn't singing along, and will drag them up on the stage and make them sing along. We'll mess with them a bit, getting their name wrong and such, then after the song's over, we'll tell them "You're out of the band, it's just not working out."

It's all in good fun and 9 out of 10 times it goes over pretty well, but some might view it as being jerks.
 
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#22
AmieLouHat said:
My band will occasionally mess with the audience. We have one song that has a sort of "Whoa-oa-oa" intro that we try to get people singing along with. Part of our schtick is our guitarist will pick one person in the crowd who looks like they're digging the music but who isn't singing along, and will drag them up on the stage and make them sing along. We'll mess with them a bit, getting their name wrong and such, then after the song's over, we'll tell them "You're out of the band, it's just not working out."

It's all in good fun and 9 out of 10 times it goes over pretty well, but some might view it as being jerks.
Click to expand...

That actually sounds fun; that's audience participation like a magician or hypnotist.

The OP's story however, if there were any justice in the world, bottles would have been thrown.
 
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#23
What about band members who pretend the audience doesn't exist? One reason I quit a band last year is that I got fed up with the singer's attitude. While onstage, she might as well have been singing into a mirror. When she got off the stage and people complimented her, she either ignored them or rolled her eyes, snorted "Yeah", and blew past them.

This charming embodiment of the lead singer stereotype told me on several occasions how beloved she is by so many. I found it particularly amusing when she said this about the president of the college she graduated from. I've been working there for 13 years and the guy barely knows me, even though he has an honorary faculty appointment in my department and I served on committees he chaired. He's pretty distant in general, so I was astonished how she could believe that she holds a special place in his heart above everyone else he comes into contact with. Delusion, thy name is Diva.

I have yet to hear anyone tell me of their love for her. Since I quit the band, I more often hear "I can't believe you put up with her so long!" Even people who have never met her have commented "That singer is a real you-know-what." I think she's a big reason we seldom got a crowd. The band replaced me and carried on, and I continue to hear the same evaluations of her behavior.
 
#24
I was with a cover band with a very proficient drummer who was good enough to command some attention from the audience usually reserved for the lead players. He was also an alcoholic who became very surly when he drank too much during a gig, which was often. I watched time after time, as fans would come up to us after the show and give us compliments, many of them directed toward him, when he would berate them for no reason. He'd tell them they knew were tasteless fools who knew nothing about real music and other truly insulting things. Yeah, that band ended badly.
 
#26
in the 90's i was in a cover band (of 90's music). we were an ok band but nothing to write home about. none of us had any ability to dance.
our lead guitarist, at least once a set, would go up to a mic and in the middle of a song would yell 'CMON PEOPLE! GET UP AND DANNNNCE!!' in a pissed-off voice.
we'd be butchering 'Brown Sugar' or some other AOR-oriented overplayed classic rock song with the enthusiasm of a snail orgy......***?
 
#27
I remember seeing a band named "Skitzo" play in the late 1980's. The singer had the ability to regurgitate anything he swallowed at will. Audience members, mostly young women, would line up at the front of the stage. The singer would drink a quart of milk or water - sing a few bars - and then regurgitate it and throw it up all over the girls in the front row. I remember seeing them play with GWAR and the Mentors and could not believe that fans would willingly endure this type of treatment - totally surreal.
 
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#29
Filled in for a guitar player a few years ago in a cover gig at an 18+ event, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist were really cool, the singer was a d-bag though.... couple of younger gals right up front who were on the far end of "curvy" and this cat started ripping on them after the 3rd song of the set... got so bad that they left, and several of their friends bailed with them... Heard from the guitarist that I filled in for that they booted the singer about a week later for doing the exact same thing at another gig....
 
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#30
Jake72 said:
Filled in for a guitar player a few years ago in a cover gig at an 18+ event, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist were really cool, the singer was a d-bag though.... couple of younger gals right up front who were on the far end of "curvy" and this cat started ripping on them after the 3rd song of the set... got so bad that they left, and several of their friends bailed with them... Heard from the guitarist that I filled in for that they booted the singer about a week later for doing the exact same thing at another gig....
Click to expand...

did they give HIM a stone cold stunner?
 
#33
I've seen Buddy Guy play with his back to the audience for most of a show.

I saw Joe Jackson refuse to continue playing until some ducktards stopped yelling stuff out during the soft bits.

This past summer. The whole family (5 of us from 15 to 57) went to see Dead Sara at Pershing Square as part of an evening concert series. It was about half their audience and half locals and people out for an evening downtown. They didn't really get across that well with the non-fans and Emily started saying c8nty things slightly off the mic about the back-line and the mix etc. Then at the end after a barely asked for encore, she said some more pissy stuff about it not being the right place for them. Nothing says pro like ragging the crowd for not liking your derivative, repetitive punk-light. I will say though that afterwards at the meet-and-photo table that she was very generous with her time towards my 15 year old who is a big fan.
 
#34
Part of our shtick is selectively being jerks to the audience. Heckling them for not singing along, nursing their drinks, etc. We play Irish punk-grass, though, so its slightly expected, and it goes over really well.
 
#35
The one time I got to see Oingo Boingo about 25 years ago, some guy up in front by the stage threw a plastic cup of beer at the band. He got Danny Elfman pretty good, and Steve Bartek caught a little of it as well. Danny clearly wasn't happy, but he didn't break stride at all and continued on professionally. About half an hour later, right at the end of a song, he reached around and grabbed an until-then-unnoticed full pitcher of beer and just nailed the guy with it.
 
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#37
Saw British band The Wonderstuff in the late 80s or early 90s.

Packed gig, the first time we experienced moshing, lol.

Anyway,they only had one or two CDs at that time and played pretty much everything. About half way thru,as most audiences do, someone yelled out their favourite song. The singer stopped, and yelled out "we're the f#cking band, you are paying US, we'll play what we f@cking well want to play!"

Funny how they never really made it past one or two hits, they had to do a song with Vic Reeves for one of them haha, KARMA !!


PS I played mainly originals,and always with my dearly departed mate, sometimes there would only be a few punters, but he ALWAYS put on the same show,with enthusiasm and banter. The guy was a pro,sadly missed :(
 
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#38
There's a difference between a general on-stage metldown and deliberately insulting your audience, although both are usually immature behavior. Sometimes it adds to the entertainment value to the crowd, but to the musicians it's almost always awkward and embarassing. I have been on stage with a guitarist who threw a hissy fit over some nonsense halfway through our last song and I just wanted to crawl inside my speaker cabinet and hide, and afterwards I was so pissed I wanted to smack the guitarist in the head. Fotunately he did not direct his fit towards anyone in the audience. Almost quit the band on the spot that night.
 

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