dealing with a negative reaction

[MIMike]

all original material, Mike!

i was crushed!

That's always a tough sell in a bar or club setting…even mixing in one or two originals in a set can be hard.
Does the venue you played at regularly book all originals bands? Is the club open to the general public as a bar/restaurant/nightclub, where people might show up, not necessarily for the live music?
Do your songs go over better in a festival or showcase type of setting, where maybe your on for a 30 minute set?

 

[sonic boogaloo]

In all my years performing on stage, I've never received a hostile response.

i'm predicting that this will be the common consensus.

 

[2saddleslab]

If you're the sensitive type.

If not....

 

[Wasnex]

Not really enough detail to say. If I played my best, for the most part I don't tend to worry about it. However, if someone attacks me personally it may hurt my feelings ; or it may make me hostile towards them .

 

[sonic boogaloo]

Do your songs go over better in a festival or showcase type of setting, where maybe your on for a 30 minute set?

it was years ago, Mike!

 

[DJ Bebop]

reevaluate whether the music business is for you?

 

[bylar13]

Had stuff thrown at me, been yelled at by skinheads, been openly made fun of etc.

It comes with the territory. It rolls of your back and you continue.

 

[Watchootognbout]

If you had played this......you would've gotten a positive reaction.

 

[sonic boogaloo]

Had stuff thrown at me, been yelled at by skinheads, been openly made fun of etc.

please elaborate and thanks for exposing TB to the real world.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Had stuff thrown at me, been yelled at by skinheads, been openly made fun of etc.

It comes with the territory. It rolls of your back and you continue.

 

[fretno]

A hostile group for a music show. Either they are in the wrong place or you are. It's wrong on so many levels. Don't return to that place. Now I have seen poor and low class interaction between local bands. A attitude, that the fans have as well. For example a band clearing out and taking their fans with them before the other artists. Why ? Personally I don't care, I just play the bass and try to enjoy the moment but some musicians and fans are dbags. Just enjoy what you do and try to show everyone a good time. Cheers

 

[bylar13]

please elaborate and thanks for exposing TB to the real world.

Played a show at a private college where they provided the students kegs of beer and lots of soft pretzels.

Did not take long until it seemed like it was raining soft pretzels on us. I stopped mid-song and returned fire but finished the set.

Another time, we opened for Murphy's Law (punk band) at a place in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

Whole stage was wrapped in chicken wire. We started playing and the skinheads in attendance did not like us. They were hanging on the chicken wire screaming at us and threatening to hurts us in various ways. My response was to take all my clothes off ( left my underwear on) and continue the set.
It seemed to win some level of respect as I did not get the ever-living daylights beaten out of me after the set.

Once opened for the Bay City Rollers (early 1990's) and how we ended up on that bill was anyone's guess. Total mistake to put an aggressive, somewhat atonal rock band on that show.

We were booed relentlessly by 600, tartan clad, 40 something, women. The only positive reaction happened at the end of the se when I dropped my pants and mooned them in response.

Theses were all original bands.

 

[J Wilson]

I played places with a chain-link surrounded stage (chicken-wire wouldn't have survived), biker bars, all kinds of places your momma warned you about, all the way out to society weddings, beautiful, expensive clubs, clubs on Navy basses, and I've had some nights where they didn't even know we were there, maybe yelled a few song titles at the stage, some nights the place was grooving with us, but I don't remember any out and out hostility.

It's a funny business, but I will say I've seen bands who had no clue how to read a crowd sail into trouble playing four or five sets of stuff only the band liked and the crowd just didn't want shoved down their throat. Fortunately, I was never in one of those.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

I remember a wedding we played at where we played our hearts out and the crowd just sat. About 15 minutes before we were to finish the booze kicked in and they all wanted us to keep playing so they could dance. We said sorry, we have another job in a couple hours. By the way, where were you for the last 4 hr?

 

[jimmydean]

If the band and you played well , don't let it bother you more than a 30 seconds . Load your gear , get paid and roll on to the next gig or home .

 

[wilberthenry]

Indifference is pretty common at certain gigs where music is more of a background to conversations (winery and brewery gigs). I haven't dealt with outright hostility since my hardcore punk days in the 80's.

 

[sonic boogaloo]

We were booed relentlessly by 600, tartan clad, 40 something, women. The only positive reaction happened at the end of the se when I dropped my pants and mooned them in response.

jesus. sounds horrific.

makes my GRIPES seem inconsequential.

when you say pants, do you mean your underwear or trousers?

just trying to clarify for our American brethren...

 

[bylar13]

jesus. sounds horrific.

makes my GRIPES seem inconsequential.

when you say pants, do you mean your underwear or trousers?

just trying to clarify for our American brethren...

No clothing on the buttocks.

Even when things got crazy, it was still fun!

 

[JazznFunk]

I've had indifferent audiences, but never hostile or verbally threatening or heckling ones. I must not have ever played in bands where the crowds get like that. And that's fine with me. The weird thing is that one of my former bands had bad nights where everything on stage just felt off and we likely deserved to be heckled, but the audience was absolutely into it. I couldn't believe it. Then there were nights where it was absolutely on fire and the response was muted. All you can do is play your best, be genuine, and let the chips fall. You CANNOT control peoples' reactions, but you can certainly control your reaction to them. E+R = O (Event + Response = Outcome).

 

[Dincrest]

If the audience heckles/trolls us, we give it right back. That's the NJ-Philly-JerseyDelphia way. Audiences will throw poop at you, so you throw it back harder and dirtier. Show 'em you can hang. Then, you earn your stripes.

Like, there was this one comedy tour where all the comics were driven off the stage in Philly (because the audience was ruthless), but one comic came out swinging, started talking all this 5#1T about Philly and why it's a 5#1Thole city and what @55#0L35 Philadelphians are... and he was the only one who got any applause. The audience gladly gave him his stripes, because he could hang in "Hostile City."

Think of it like how The Rock, despite being an exceptionally skilled wrestler, did NOT get any "love" from the audience until he turned heel and became a legend. And he's apparently one of the nicest celebs out there.

I'm the nicest kid in town, but sometimes I gotta turn heel and turn up my "New Jersey attitude." I don't have a New Jersey attitude, I just don't suffer fools gladly.