Keeping the Audience Engaged

We used to make fun of each other. The singer/guitarist broke a lot of strings, so the drummer and I would launch into VERY accesible but very fun to play drum and bass things.

 

Our frontman's a real character. If he needs to stop for a second and tune his guitar he'll announce this is the case and instruct the audience to talk amongst themselves.

The hyperactive horn players take care of the rest.

 

you could always release something dangerous into the crowd, like a poisonous snake or a rabid monkey, that would keep them busy.

 

Oh, you guys mean you think stage presense and doing a tight show might actually be important to the audience? Don't tell that to some that posted on the "Is stage presense extremely important" thread.
I love a drummer that takes the show by the balls and keeps it moving, helps a show tremendously i think. Drummers that look around seeing if "everyone is ready" drive me up a tree. Those few seconds of nothing are awful to me. I'm often, but not always, the "frontman" of a band, at least as far as addressing the crowd goes. If i have a drummer who does take charge, i will tell him before the set where to give me time to say a few things. I do love going from one song to the next quick for a few songs, then telling a few quick jokes, then moving on. I do alot of comedy, but usually in small doses. Sometimes i'll do something like the dyslexic fairytail "Rindercella", which takes maybe 2 minutes, but that's rare for me, i save the longer stuff for when there's some kind of a technical problem and i might have to kill time.
I hate when bands say tired old crap like "Were up in this house" "Who's getting drunk" "Is anyone ready to party" ect. That stuff is just totally unorigional and bores the hell out of me. If the crowd is dead, sometimes i'll say "Gee, thanks for that insincere smattering of indifference". I have a ton of quick little one liners in reserve to either break the ice, keep things going, or handle a heckler/idiot if need be. I do agree that watching yourself/band on a video tape can be a painful experience indeed, but is also invaluable. I hate watching myself, but try to learn from it what works, and what dosen't. I also firmly believe in singing new songs i do into a tape recorder playing bass at the same time then listening back to see what i liked and what areas i blew chunks on. It helps me tons have more confidence on where i actually am with it when it's time to do it live. Trent

 

Hey whats that suppose to mean I started that thread??

 

Most of the time our band would wait for the cheering to die down then launch into the next song. Occasionally we would wait for quiet if we were doing something soft/slow. Right after the first song Megs would intro everyone, while we were playing this kinda quiet fill. Then we would jump back into it.

If we had tech problems, we would resort to phyical humor, cause you don't need a mic for that. I would fake getting mad and go over and kick the lead guitarist or something, then we would get into this really fake fight. The audience loved it.

I miss my band.

Rock on
Eric