Crowd Control Thought Experiment

[P. Aaron]

We all love the adulation of the crowd. It feels good when a crowd in any venue is into what we're doing and we seem to not play a 'wrong' song.

Of course in many of these venues, alcohol is served. Often in vast quantities that give our audiences the impression the good times are 'a' rollin' and it ain't gone end.

But it always does. The clock runs out, or the terms of the contract. The band's exhausted but the drunks seem to be on their 2nd wind.

As we wrapped up 6 4hr shows in 4 days (triple scale no less), the crowds in many places were unrelenting, hollering, nearly maniacally demanding encore after encore. As a 30yr onstage veteran, I'm having none of it. Many in the band still love the applause and calls for more. We know, none of these people are in the record/show business and they ain't inking deals with us. Mostly they wake up a day later remembering little, if anything.

I proposed to the band that we do this when we start, and reinforce this message thru-out the night:

Hello, we are {Band Name Here} and we'll be with you 'till X O'clock

And keep hammering that message. I'm not entirely sure how well this kind of verbal contract with the audience will work but, it's better than letting the drunks try & run one's show.

It's an attempt at setting an expectation with the crowd.

FWIW

Any of y'all have suggestions for crowd control?

 

[Oddly]

Probably wasting your time with that idea, to be honest. How about just before your last 3 songs letting the audience know that there's 3 tunes left and that's it.
Also, have the bar manager or your sound guy cut stage lighting/power on your signal.

 

[Goatrope]

I get it, but I suspect your target audience for the announcement is probably incapable or unwilling to hear it.

I'm the least sociable member, and as such, I typically start teardown as soon as the music stops. We usually do an encore or two (if venue management approves), but once we stop, we're done.

We have a very sociable band leader, so it's his job to entice the stragglers and askholes away from the stage, and clear of the load out pathway.

While BL has them distracted, me and the drummer get most of the big gear out of the building.

 

[buldog5151bass]

1. If they are drunk enough, they won't care.

2. If they offer enough green paper, I won't care.

 

[Beej]

Well, this is a problem my bands have not had for many years. If this were becoming an issue for us, I would probably suggest that we announce "this is our last song" about five songs away from ending. Then fake putting down instruments and ending the show with everyone leaving the stage. But then return less than a minute later and meet the encore demands with your last five songs. Problem solved, you played your bit and people think you did extra for them.

 

[great bleudini]

That happens to us frequently. We appreciate an engaged, dancing audience. We go in with the expectation that we will do an extra 10-15 minutes at the end if the patrons are still with us. The venues appreciate that too and it has lead to better pay for us and more frequent bookings.

 

[richntiff]

I think not going the extra mile to please the crowd (and by extension, your employer/venue) seems like a great business tactic.

 

[pepj]

The singer would keep playing as does not track the time during the set. The Gtr is more moaning about it and wants to be done as soon as possible..I dont think we handle it at all well.

Last gig, the drunks 'promised' a whip round of $30 to play on...so if they were as good as their promise, that could have been $300 extra but no one was interested.
It wasn't that great a night...

But I checked with the booker afterwards and she said ignore them, they'd keep drinking until 02:00 ...

We do our allotted time plus maybe 15mins extra if a really good night and thats it.

The days of 4hr gigs are long gone.

 

[john_g]

We have this happen at alot of our gigs too. The singer is younger than the rest of us and will keep going as long as people are asking. Guitarist wants to be done exactly on time but will relent, me and drummer are more in the middle of that. If its 4-5 drunks then im less inclined, but if its a full room and people are into it, we might do 1-2 additional songs but thats it. Venues have paid us to play another hour too which is fine some times too. My suggestion would be to tell them this is your last song and always keep 1 or 2 in your back pocket as the "encore". As others have said, they may not even remember much the next day and sometimes its good to leave them wanting more.

 

[voodoobassist]

I think this might work about as well as me telling my wife to calm down. YMMV , but I doubt it.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

We all love the adulation of the crowd. It feels good when a crowd in any venue is into what we're doing and we seem to not play a 'wrong' song.

Of course in many of these venues, alcohol is served. Often in vast quantities that give our audiences the impression the good times are 'a' rollin' and it ain't gone end.

But it always does. The clock runs out, or the terms of the contract. The band's exhausted but the drunks seem to be on their 2nd wind.

As we wrapped up 6 4hr shows in 4 days (triple scale no less), the crowds in many places were unrelenting, hollering, nearly maniacally demanding encore after encore. As a 30yr onstage veteran, I'm having none of it. Many in the band still love the applause and calls for more. We know, none of these people are in the record/show business and they ain't inking deals with us. Mostly they wake up a day later remembering little, if anything.

I proposed to the band that we do this when we start, and reinforce this message thru-out the night:


And keep hammering that message. I'm not entirely sure how well this kind of verbal contract with the audience will work but, it's better than letting the drunks try & run one's show.

It's an attempt at setting an expectation with the crowd.

FWIW

Any of y'all have suggestions for crowd control?

I think you start the first night. At the conclusion of the last song of the first set, announce you will be there for the next 3 nights, or I’d you are playing two shows that day, let them know when you next performance will be.

There is an old show biz saying, “Always leave them wanting more.”

 

[Spidey2112]

Any of y'all have suggestions for crowd control?

 

[Medicine Man]

Imho, the best way to control the lemmings is lighting. Having house lights off and just a light show coming off the stage all night keeps the party going. Off go the LEDs and up comes the house lights after the show and they blink and get the message.

 

[Pocket Dave]

With 50 years onstage experience, I quit trying to control that sort of thing. If I'm BL, I'll weight it out in terms of rewarding a really great crowd and excessively full tip jar vs "always leave 'em wanting more".

If I'm not BL, I leave that to the BL, even if we're on the tail end of a triple for the day.

If it's a 4-hour vs 3-hour gig, maybe he'll feel the same level of exhaustion as the rest of us, maybe not. Otherwise, one song's not going to make or break my bedtime no matter what time I have to wash/rinse/repeat tomorrow.

As far as proactively setting crowd control expectations goes? Good luck with that. In my experience that would run contrary to the goal of being there.

Seriously, the days of getting super-excited about applause and crowd response are pretty much in my rear view mirror too, but I still try to just roll with it. I come away with a lot more peace of mind that way.

And generally speaking, there are no rules other than "We're in the entertainment business; Act accordingly".

 

[Lance Bunyon]

I went through this Saturday night:
Irish Olympian: "why aren't you still playing music?"
Me: "contract was music from 7 to 10".
Olympian: "but why?"
Me: "town noise ordinance ".
Was I making that ordinance up?
Yes.
Have I used the same line in different cities for 30 years?
Also yes.

 

[Ellery]

Any of y'all have suggestions for crowd control?

Play 'em a bass solo. Thought should dampen the calls for an encore.

 

[Killing Floor]

Can it hurt to appreciate the singular reason you have the gig in the first place?

 

[Pocket Dave]

Can it hurt to appreciate the singular reason you have the gig in the first place?

Gratitude is a positive force.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

After the last song, just destroy all of your gear to the point of it no longer being playable.

Allegedly this is how Nirvana would end shows.

 

[coyote1]

To the OP: if you’re getting paid good money, and the crowd is into it, and you’re doing something you love - relish it. Because it will go away all too quickly. Just a thought.