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Crowds

#21
Playing to a large crowd is great!
Playing to a crowd that starts out big and then fades away really sucks.
I have seen it happen to other bands, and I have played in bands that have had it happen. Ouch!
But yes, a large and appreciative audience is very nice.
 
#25
There's no difference. My bass lines, strings, frets, and my fingers, are the same as they've always been. The number of people in the audience is irrelevant.

The "difference" exists only in your head.
 
#26
I've actually done very few gigs in my life compared to most people here, but the first one i ever did had 200+ people. It helps that it was a tribute band. this was also the only show i did that had 100+ people. I don't remember much how it felt like. Since it was my first gig, i was thinking of just about anything else but the crowd. The thing though is i'd rather get 50 that come see me playing originals then 500 coming to see me play covers. Not that there's anything wrong with playing covers, i just dont get much out of it personally.
 
#27
JimmyM said:
Big crowds are easy. Small crowds are what's hard.
Click to expand...

Yep, would rather play for fifty than five.

About the tenth gig of my life, a BL told me in advance that I would need to turn up as this would be a larger place with more people, and follow his clue on when to turn up and how loud to be. The event started with about fifty people, and we were our supper club level very low volume selves. The second set bloomed to about twelve hundred people. I was a tad nervous the first song, yet settled in real fast. That was the largest crowd I have ever played for.
 
#28
I don't care how many people are in the audience, it's how into it they are. For example, I played for about 500 people on the night before Thanksgiving the other night. First half of the night no one really wanted to hear a band, they wanted to see their old friends they hadn't seen in a while. Once they got a few drinks in them they were ready to party and the second half of the night was great.

But I'd rather have 50 people really into us than 500 indifferent people sort of into it.
 
#32
JimmyM said:
Big crowds are easy. Small crowds are what's hard.
Click to expand...

+1

I love playing to any size crowd that is into what we are doing....and love the challenge of getting the people who are not into it to get up and move.

I always feel like it is not the size of the crowd, but the energy is more of what I feed off of.

I have played to 3000 semi-intersted people in a small arena, and 30 furious kids in the pit at a house show...and the house show was WAY more fun. The camaraderie and vibe there is much more desirable.

I always say that a successful gig is one where at least one person there leaves saying that they had a great time. I have only had a very few gigs in my 25+ years of playing where that didn't happen. Sometimes it's 100 people saying that, sometimes it is just 1, but it is still the same goal. With that in mind, I play EVERY gig as if there are 100,000 screaming fans because it is my job. I hate seeing bands that get all "droopy-eyed" and "mopey-faced" when people aren't into them. And the worst are the ones who start insulting the crowd, or start begging for them to "get up here and dance"....it always seems like it is the Emo/Poser bands that do this too...:eyebrow:
 
#34
Yes, and it was a lot of fun. I doubt it will happen again because I don't really enjoy dealing with being in a band anymore and what it entails to play for bigger crowds. That said, I'd recommend you try to do it at least once.
 
#35
jmattbassplaya said:
It's pretty awesome. Though the best feeling is to play your own original music and have the crowd sing your lyrics back to you. Doesn't matter if there's 5 or 5,000 people in the crowd at that point; the feeling is pure euphoria.
Click to expand...

I agree totally! After a long time away from stages, I did a show with around 80-100 people, and they knew all the lyrics! The opening song, which was an old one of ours, I did the intro and suddenly everyone started to sing along, this caused a feeling inside which made me struggle to keep on singing!!


JimmyM said:
Big crowds are easy. Small crowds are what's hard.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. When the crowd is large, it is just a mass of unknown faces, but when it is a small crowd of people you know, thats when I feel the pressure!!;)
 
#39
Oddly enough, the biggest crowd I've played for was at my first gig. There were at least 200 people there if not more, packed into a warehouse. I was on drums and the crowd was totally into it, the pit was going and my adrenaline level was through the roof. It was exhilarating and exhausting. It was cool, I guess. Overall, I've never much cared for playing gigs or being in bands though. Just not my thing.
 
#40
I've played to less than a hundred much more often than over 100. Many of those over 100 shows were due to playing other people's music.

My first gig I ever played in NYC was 1996 at the Vampyre's Ball. Really great crowd and I had just joined a well-established band.

My best show just happened this past September at the ProgPower USA fest in Atlanta. Estimate about 1200 people in a crowded auditorium (Center Stage for ATL folks). All there to hear the type of music we play. What a great time. I made sure to enjoy it while I was doing it.

That said, we've played to many 30-50 people crowds who were really into what we were doing. Those are a lot of fun too.
 

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