Gig Etiquette Rant...

[Pocket Dave]

That is annoying.
But it's also annoying when the previous band takes forever to vacate the stage.

Frustrating. I always tried to leave this to the stage manager as BL, though once, he was the one talking up the band up when they were trying to finish tearing down.

These days I'm grateful to be mostly a sideman; My job is to get my gear ready offstage and await further instructions.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I’ve had the opposite happen. Up in Connecticut- Band gets done playing, and instead of getting their crap off the stage, a couple members linger as if they don’t have anywhere to go. One guy (who we nicknamed Lumpy) literally sat in a chair in the middle of the stage, instead of packing up his gear. Finally, after almost knocking him over with my SVT, the dude moved. Get a clue bro!

 

[StyleOverShow]

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago, Labor Day Weekend festival End of Summer. Next band started load in to stage before we were off. Our KB stopped it with one line, “don’t you guys know how this works?”.

 

[Pocket Dave]

Best festival event I played had two roped-off areas backstage, one for equipment pre-staging and one for post-staging. Bands were given overall stage and drum riser dimensions and had to turn in stage plots on to-scale 1/4" graph paper weeks before the event.

Between sets, stage hands pulled off all the previous band's gear via stage left and placed everything including drums via stage right. Musicians were not allowed onstage until stage hands were done. Then we had to quickly dial in backline and adjust drum placement, throne height, etc. The entire turnaround took maybe 10 minutes.

 

[FunkHead]

Thank you! I was going crazy. and I felt crazy to think that.

I wanted to say something so bad but I was taught to respect my elders and always be a professional even though I'm 46.

In a way, You did the right thing by keeping silent. Not many people respect their Elders like they should these days. The older gentleman may have been nervous and not thinking clearly. Maybe he was just disrespectful in nature but how would you know that from just one experience.

You took the high road and you'll get some good karma for that. But at the same time, No one would have faulted you for saying "Sir, Please wait until we are finished to come on stage".

In the end, It's always better to think before yelling at someone

Our KB stopped it with one line, “don’t you guys know how this works?”.

Sure, But not all of us have a Kickboxer in the band.

 

[lermgalieu]

Not your job. Whomever was in charge of the stage area should have nipped that in the bud, but they were probably instead smoking buds elsewhere.

 

[friskinator]

I always would just love to go in the minds of people who are like this and act like selfish fools. I dealt with a person like this two weeks ago when I had the privilege of going to a broadway play. Noisey drunk lady playing with her kids at a expensive play and then getting bored at parts of the play.

You are in the right, I am a little irritable and I would of freak or told them to get the heck off. Good on you, I haven't read deep into this post or forum but I would of after went up and asked him more calmed down why was he on stage during our thing? I had this happen during open mics etc. I don't care if its a open mic or some small show everyone on stage deserve respect and not to be bother unless there is a very good reason and it's a pro fixing something. Also at least they could tried to hide smh.

Good on you for being chill, I def would of not been lol! My point, I can't take some people lol!

This sort of thing has happened to me at plays, concerts, etc., but I've found that any time I've said something to the offender, it somehow becomes me who is the a-hole. It's not worth saying something, especially considering how quickly people resort to violence these days. Not worth losing my life over.

 

[Low End Scum]

Yeah and thats usually what happens. Last time which was a few months ago, the guitarist in the previous band had the biggest pedal board I have ever seen. He took forever slowly unplugging and wrapping every cord so I had to start getting my stuff into place. The rest of their band was no better. So we waited a bit but then had to get going. I kind of felt bad because IMO its not great etiquette, but when you have no other choice. But, something like the OP? No way and I wouldve probably called Ringo out.

Absolutely. It's a toss up, but when push comes to shove (even though they always ran late), we're not gonna be dragging on my account. I'd have probably brought it up to the guy, but either after the song if he's still on or after the set. You can be totally right and still look like a jerk when the crowd or establishment doesn't have the context of why you're saying something to someone. Sorta like the whole "pedestrians/I have the right of way" idea. Cemetery's are fuuuuuuuull of people who were both right and also dead.

 

[bombpop14]

The second the drummer in a previous band reaches for the wingnut on a cymbal stand, I become an educator…

 

[oldcatfish]

I have been gigging for almost 20 years and one of the most important rules is, stay off the stage until the band before you has cleared all their gear before you start setting up.

Cut to yesterday - we are playing a festival spot and the drummer of the band going on next, starts bringing his kit on stage and is setting it up off to the side during most of our set. Half the time he is aimlessly wandering around making sure everything is there and keep re adjusting the location of items in his kit. So distracting!

Now, we are a single-mic bluegrass band and I have a DI. We are two inputs. Our setup and teardown is not even 5 minutes. The organizers were so happy about it because they were a little behind schedule. But this guy, who apparently is the BL thinks it's OK to be on the stage while we were playing. It was not a big stage and the guy was less than 10 feet from our guitar player.

It's not like this was a young player or new musician. He had to be in his 60s. And there was plenty of room right next to the stage as where the guitar and bass players were staging their amps and stands.

I kept my mouth shut as our condenser picks up everything on stage but, I wanted to say, "excuse me, this is an active stage right now. you know, with us performing on it."

Doesn't everyone know this rule of decorum when sharing a stage with another band?

Guess not.

Rant over.[/QUOTE

—My first thought is to agree with the consensus…very bad manners on the other band’s part.

But, you did say that the organizers were happy about your quick setup/tear down do to running late. Are you sure that they didn’t encourage the next band to “get ready and set up very quickly?” Maybe they were putting pressure on the next band to hurry.

 

[Gluvhand]

"How about a hand for the drummer of the band coming up here after we're done!"

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Yeah, musicians can be just as thoughtless as normal folks...

The Bar Band Bassman

 

[MichelD]

I was playing with a semi-acoustic band on stage one time and a very self-important but equally minor figure in the local folk music and festival scene came up and started a conversation with our mandolin player. In the middle of a song! That must have been 30 years ago and I have never ceased detesting the man.

 

[salmon256]

This sort of thing has happened to me at plays, concerts, etc., but I've found that any time I've said something to the offender, it somehow becomes me who is the a-hole. It's not worth saying something, especially considering how quickly people resort to violence these days. Not worth losing my life over.

Agree, I said under my breath to the lady we are at a play, and she started acting all sad, depress and offended then she took a sip of whiskey and acted all happy again. I have that exact same mindset, I'm only 22, life is too short to deal with that cr@p lol. I just stay quiet, she acted even more annoying but similar to your thought, I just said screw it and let them be, they will cross paths with someone much more vocal... I am very big on sticking to the guns but I will say to my point, if this was a concert, rock show, funk, shoegaze etc. I don't care about dancing or loudness, I mean can be annoying but that's different, those are music shows and people get crazy, they are fun, a broadway play though... I think a form of respect is deserve but it's just rich people so clueless and lost in their own heads...

But yeah I agree with your point, my long ramble was a vent I guess LOL!

 

[juancaminos]

From another angle, my band played a festival a few weeks ago and the band on before us took forever to get their gear off-stage. There was easy access off the back of the stage to an open area. The drummer, instead of carrying his kit to the open area off stage, tore down and packed everything on stage. The guitarist had a ginormous pedal board with two amps and also packed every item up before leaving the stage. I knew folks in this band and it was not their first rodeo doing the shared stage thing. The shows were already running late and this just made things worse.

This is my complaint. I've been taught to get your stuff off the stage and pack from there. In fact, out of habit, I do that no matter what. We play a multi band outdoor event once a month on a large stage with rear access. The bands before us are terrible at packing things while on stage. One guy backs his trailer up the the stage then slowly packs things and moves them to the trailer. Meanwhile the entire rear stage area is blocked until he is done. This really gets me, we have complained but to no avail.

 

[mdogs]

Played a festival on Saturday, we were the headliners with a band opening that was playing because they had apparently won a battle of the bands. They were young, but not that young, I would say late 20's. We are old, 50's and 60's. They had been specifically told to make the transition as quickly as possible. Apparently though, they were not taught the meaning of "quickly." After they were done (after they had gone over their allotted time by almost 10 minutes) they made their way around the crowd and pretty much ignored getting their equipment off stage. We had setup our equipment on the side of the stage and were ready to go. Finally, we just started moving our stuff on stage, intent on starting on time. I hate doing this, it is so much easier and quicker if the band done performing clears everything first. But, sometimes it can't be helped. To make matters worse, once we started setting up, they wanted to talk to us about our equipment. Umm no, you want to have that conversation, we will be right here in 2 1/2 hours when we are done playing.

Anyway, for all the people who want to blame this guy because he is old, blame him because he is an idiot and not because he is old. There are just as many young idiots as there are old ones.

 

[neddyrow]

No. The rest of the band was respectful of our space and setup off stage. There was plenty of room for him to do so on the other side of the flaps of the stage.

 

[lermgalieu]

I've been taught to get your stuff off the stage and pack from there. In fact, out of habit, I do that no matter what.

Drummers should totally do this. I pack my stuff up on stage, but (a) I do it as fast as humanly possible, immediately after the last song is over; and (b) I can accomplish it in about 3 minutes (bass into gig bag, pedal board into pedal board bag, amp into amp bag, fold up micro guitar stand and stick it in gig bag, coil one speakon, two instrument cables and two IEC cables). I find that carrying my stuff with wires hanging off, or unplugging the wires and going back for them, takes just as long, looks really unprofessional, and creates lots of opportunities to break or forget stuff.

 

[Minimalist]

I have been gigging for almost 20 years and one of the most important rules is, stay off the stage until the band before you has cleared all their gear before you start setting up.

Cut to yesterday - we are playing a festival spot and the drummer of the band going on next, starts bringing his kit on stage and is setting it up off to the side during most of our set. Half the time he is aimlessly wandering around making sure everything is there and keep re adjusting the location of items in his kit. So distracting!

Now, we are a single-mic bluegrass band and I have a DI. We are two inputs. Our setup and teardown is not even 5 minutes. The organizers were so happy about it because they were a little behind schedule. But this guy, who apparently is the BL thinks it's OK to be on the stage while we were playing. It was not a big stage and the guy was less than 10 feet from our guitar player.

It's not like this was a young player or new musician. He had to be in his 60s. And there was plenty of room right next to the stage as where the guitar and bass players were staging their amps and stands.

I kept my mouth shut as our condenser picks up everything on stage but, I wanted to say, "excuse me, this is an active stage right now. you know, with us performing on it."

Doesn't everyone know this rule of decorum when sharing a stage with another band?

Guess not.

Rant over.

Not sure if that was asked before but could it be that the festival organizers pushed him to do it? Since they were behind schedule?

 

[MultiScaleMale]

There could be situations where it is warranted given stage size and layout and being able to do so discreetly, but in general, no.