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What's wrong with 2023 audiences?

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#241
JimmyM said:
Good for you. I agree. Everyone gets paid but you can’t even get a meal? Uncool.
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I've experienced an extreme example of that. I was playing with two steel pan players at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, a very nice place. We were getting paid very well and there was an insane spread for the event, a convention of scientists. None of them touched the food and after three or four songs, they asked us to stop. We were told by the staff in no uncertain terms not to touch the food which was all going to be thrown away. I got home early, with a nice paycheck, but would have loved to eaten the amazing food which was going to waste.
 
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#243
Spectrum said:
This applies to me. If I go someplace where I expect to see a band, then I want to see a band. But often if I walk into a restaurant or a tavern / brewery to relax with a beer and be able to hear myself think, that loud band or the trivia guy on the PA makes me want to turn around and walk right out.

Since I am conscious of this, I also don't want to play a gig where live music is not wanted or appreciated. Standing in front of a bunch of indifferent annoyed people is awkward.
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Yep, I’m with you all the way.
 
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#245
Not a response to the OP; just a comment on this general topic:

The thing I’m least interested in hearing a band play - or in playing myself - is “oldies” music (even though some people might say I’m an “oldie”).

I love many kinds of music, much of it “old”, and I love hearing almost any good band play any style of music they’re great at. I like hearing a band do covers well in their unique style. But “copying” “greatest” hits of the 60s-70s-80s-90s-etc.? Not interested. Especially if disco is involved!
 
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#248
bucephylus said:
Yeah, I just rattled off a couple that came to mind. “Hey Ya” was before you were born?

Anyhow, the profile of older cats playing newer stuff just to stay relevant is part of the problem. Hip cats I came up with played everything and anything. RTF and the Archie’s could be played in the same set. It was part of our culture to be inclusive. So playing everything was an actual genuine thing. Not a put on. FWIW
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I would love to see a cover band segue Romantic Warrior into Sugar Sugar.
 
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#249
Interesting… I play in a couple of bands: my original funky 6-7 piece, my jazz trio, communal jazz quartet. On occasion I play with a 5 piece cover band as a favor to the leader. The first 3 get great response from engaged audiences and great tips. The cover band is good but gets a tepid response. Everyone says they love how the players in my bands are obviously enjoying playing and interacting and creating. The cover band, while playing good, never seems that happy, and get an appropriate response.
 
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#250
LBS-bass said:
Managing expectations is not a bad skill. In this situation I’d say a lot of expectations weren’t met, and it would be instructive to ask why.
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I have zero problem admitting I enjoy audience validation...that's where this particular statement came from. I've cooled down a ton since I OP'd this thread. The two big takeaways at this point would be; acknowledgement from the host family and what would have been a most helpful offering of food.
I've been playing almost as long as you have (albeit not full time) and have probably done around 100 benefits. Always gotten fed. I'd never have dreamed it would ever need to be a "contractual issue".
I've been taken to task a lot in the past 13 pages, I think I've maintained decorum.
I'm only human after all.
You're all entitled to think I'm dead wrong, but the sheer number of members who identified with the societal issues (as opposed to those playing the blame game) seem pretty dead even. Feels like a polarizing issue. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but at least 50 posts say otherwise.

Had zero intent to start a "featured thread". Just left hungry last night for the first benefit ever out of at least 100 benefits over a 30 year period. I suppose 3 decades of "help yourself to the buffet" is a Pavlovian expectation??
You know what would have been rude? Making a scene about it at the benefit.
Sometimes TB just needs to blame someone.
Gonna hang out with my awesome kids and play bass.

See yas all tomorrow (possibly).
LB
 
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#251
smurfco said:
These damn kids are slaves to their phones, cry the people with 10,000 posts on an internet forum.
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Definitely not just a young person problem! I've been working in the service industry since before the first iPhone and the change in the way people behave around each-other and the way they interact with their environment is not subtle. I can attest to very much having my own issues with it ever since finally grabbing a smart phone, and the OP's question was what has changed in the last 30 years. I am still amazed when I visit Europe (or even Mexico) to not see people constantly looking at their phones all the time. I need to consciously turn mine off or leave it at home to completely avoid the urge, but certainly some people are better about that.

Of course "oldies" are also not as ubiquitously loved as they once were either, so maybe just not the right band for the gigs. Then again, in my last decade in Los Angeles I could probably count on my fingers and toes the number of times I saw strong animated audience engagement with rock music of any sort (including tons of sold-out shows)
 
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#252
Heh, as much as my special ed high school and post-grad students love their phones, they will always put them away when there's a DJ or a musician, because they love to dance and cheer. They love being in the moment. The only time they'll have their phones out when there's music playing is to take selfies of themselves and their friends having fun.

The few times I've done "music & motivation" with them, they've been my favorite audience.

The youth ain't lost.
 
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#253
I went to a show last week where a pile of people that were mostly younger than me (i'm in my 30s) beat the crap out of each other while the bands were playing. It was awesome. Gonna go do the same thing this weekend.

Was kind of a crappy move of them to not at least let you get catering though.

waver said:
The thing I’m least interested in hearing a band play - or in playing myself - is “oldies” music (even though some people might say I’m an “oldie”).

I love many kinds of music, much of it “old”, and I love hearing almost any good band play any style of music they’re great at. I like hearing a band do covers well in their unique style. But “copying” “greatest” hits of the 60s-70s-80s-90s-etc.? Not interested. Especially if disco is involved!
Click to expand...

Seconding this completely. radio stations are so homogenized now, too, that i've probably heard all those greatest hits a million times, and hearing someone else try to carbon copy them? i'm good.
 
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#254
I'm wondering how much music you all regularly listen to that is less than 5 years old? I'm not going to deny that crowds have changed, but there's something about the post that really sounds like the problem might be that the band HASN'T changed. There's a lot more than just 5 genres of music. Thinking back to my youth and the acts I saw with 40-50 year old guys back then... That was like 1940's or 1950's music. It was NOT something I was interested in and I'd have stone faced the band too. Not out of disrespect, I just couldn't connect to songs that were way before my time.

Don't be like all the geezers who say "there's no good music anymore". "(insert popular genre) sucks", "it's all been done before." Whether those statements are factually true or not is irrelevant. If you don't evolve, you become a dinosaur. As a musician, it's your job to embrace as many styles of music as possible and find something to appreciate and be influenced by in everything. If you only play the stuff that you personally find pleasure in then you aren't serving the audience, just your own self. You are in a relationship with your audience. Even if your audience is the same age as you, it just means they've seen what you are peddling their whole damn life.

If you want to impress them then you need to be learning some new tricks.
 
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#256
About catering. I used to coordinate seminars and conferences for a major university. You have to give a headcount based on RSVPs to the caterer. If your band didn’t negotiate inclusion in this, the priority is always going to be the guests. There’s nothing worse than throwing an event and running short on food.

That’s just how this works. So next time be a bit more savvy and negotiate inclusion so that you are counted. It’s not a slight. It’s an oversight on the band’s part.
 
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#257
Lance Bunyon said:
I have zero problem admitting I enjoy audience validation...that's where this particular statement came from. I've cooled down a ton since I OP'd this thread. The two big takeaways at this point would be; acknowledgement from the host family and what would have been a most helpful offering of food.
I've been playing almost as long as you have (albeit not full time) and have probably done around 100 benefits. Always gotten fed. I'd never have dreamed it would ever need to be a "contractual issue".
I've been taken to task a lot in the past 13 pages, I think I've maintained decorum.
I'm only human after all.
You're all entitled to think I'm dead wrong, but the sheer number of members who identified with the societal issues (as opposed to those playing the blame game) seem pretty dead even. Feels like a polarizing issue. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but at least 50 posts say otherwise.

Had zero intent to start a "featured thread". Just left hungry last night for the first benefit ever out of at least 100 benefits over a 30 year period. I suppose 3 decades of "help yourself to the buffet" is a Pavlovian expectation??
You know what would have been rude? Making a scene about it at the benefit.
Sometimes TB just needs to blame someone.
Gonna hang out with my awesome kids and play bass.

See yas all tomorrow (possibly).
LB
Click to expand...

If not getting a $10 meal at a benefit is the worst thing that happens to your band this year, consider yourself blessed. I don't think people are blaming anyone, but your sense of entitlement is misplaced.
 
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#260
The most I’ve ever earned was for a corporate gig where the band was entirely ignored. We joked afterwards that it was the best paying rehearsal ever.

It’s the nature of ‘event’ gigs. Musicians are the ‘help.’ IME, however, I can’t complain, especially when I consider how catering crews and servers are treated at these events and how much they get paid
 
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