What's wrong with 2023 audiences?

[Marko 1]

It wouldn’t matter to me how or who played Mustang Sally - my head would still explode like that scene in the movie, “Scanners”.

When my new project was building its initial setlist they scoffed at the idea of doing Mustang Sally.

I told them that it would certainly be requested, and if we say we don't know it, they'll assume we're disrespecting them.

Sure enough, every so often (including Yesterday afternoon playing a car show) it gets requested, and of course we do it.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Yep. Audience participation requires songs that everybody knows. I'd like to have more of this sort of thing in my band. We do a good job of engaging the crowd from the stage, we get them involved, we chat them up between sets, and we give them fun things to do. We take pictures of them from the stage area and encourage them do to the same for us, but we rarely- if ever- have guests join us on stage. I'm certainly not against it, though I know some folks like to mumble about other people using their gear.

We were doing an outside deck gig last year at our Irish pub when an older lady decided to sing with us. As a former drunk id wager she could have blown a .30 breathalyzer and also smelled like bad salami (somehow these things always go together lol!). I was kind of amused until I realized she was really getting too close to me for a married man's comfort. BL bad vibed her off the stage and all was well. Drunks are sometimes a handful to manage.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Another time early in my part time pro career a different drunk lady decided to slow dance with me from behind during a ballad. She was well endowed and I found it flattering and amusing until she pulled me down on top of her (at which point she left the stage in embarrassment). The whole time I was falling down on top of her I was majorly concerned about my early Ken Smith bass (and not missing a beat of whatever song I was playing). Thankfully I'm old now and really not the draw for women I was back then LMAO!

 

[5StringBlues]

Totally agree. The weird thing is, in Houston, nobody is playing hideaway. Except for the jam host band that I play in on Tuesday nights, which is in a club called the hideaway.

Yeah.

Problem with songs like Hideaway and Pride and Joy is not just that they're overplayed in the blues-jam-band idiom, rather that they're overplayed badly; without feel, complexity or dynamics.

I've come to believe there aren't as many boring songs as there are boring presentations.

 

[dune]

Problem with songs like Hideaway and Pride and Joy is not just that they're overplayed in the blues-jam-band idiom, rather that they're overplayed badly; without feel, complexity or dynamics.
I've come to believe there aren't as many boring songs as there are boring presentations.

Spot-on. It's all about the presentation. I saw a band in Vegas get a request for Mustang Sally and they just killed it. Clearly had spent a lot of time on a very slick and interesting arrangement and it showed in how much they enjoyed playing it. Just like great actors fully commit regardless of the script quality, bands can do the same. When I was working on cruise ships there was a headliner comedy juggling duo who I found to be amazing. I always caught their show every time I could because of their presentation. Blew me away how, even though they were doing it nearly verbatim every night, it always came across as if every word was ad-libbed on the spot, and they always looked like they were having the best time of anyone in the theater.

What I always wanted to do with the road band I was in was to put an old-fashioned cafe menu board up on stage behind us, with the most overplayed and over-requested songs on it along with a price. For instance: Proud Mary - $500. (That might be high today, but we played a lot in Texas during the oil boom, where it would likely have been a nightly occurrence.) Of course, when someone pays that much to hear it, you'd better have a killer version ready to go. I would also guess that this has been done before by many bands.

 

[hrodbert696]

I can't even imagine telling the venue how to run their business, or literally force those in the crowd to focus where I want them to focus.

There are too many gigs where the band is not the main/only focus, we're not rock stars doing concerts.

I'm doing two car-centered events this year; am I supposed to not play them, or tell them to get rid of the cars?

If it's literally background music, or music just to support something in the theatrical context, is that not a legitimate gig for musicians?

If I'm payed to play under a big TV screen, that's what I'm gonna do, full energy and a smile (or whatever weird face I might make)

I'm not going to disappoint whoever's paying, and those who do focus on the band, however many or few that might be.

I know this post is from a while ago, but I was away, so indulge me. I think you're talking about two different things.

There are definitely gigs where the focus of attention is NOT supposed to be the band and live music is an accompaniment to whatever the focus is. Obviously if you play a car show most people are there for the cars, if you play a wedding they're there for the happy couple, etc. If you take a wallpaper gig, be good wallpaper.

But I think the issue about "telling the audience how to act" was in the context of what someone called "mixed-use" venues, bars where there are TV sets and pool tables as well as the band. In a place like that the crowd has some choices and need to make up their minds, among their various options, what the best thing in the room to focus on is. When that's the case, the band CAN make it clear that THEY are. That's where the showmanship comes in.

How many disco songs include actual explicit instructions to the crowd - "get up and dance now!" I've seen performances where the BL literally said, "Who has a cell phone in their pocket? Take it out, hold it up, I want to see it - " and then walked people through how to follow the band on social media, right there and then, while the rhythm section vamped behind her. And did it in a way that it actually worked and people were into it.

There are also subconscious kinds of things. Put moonflower effect lights on any bare patch of floor in a darkened room and you've told people where they're expected to dance. My singer is always complaining about lights on her face - "that's blinding me!" - but the fact is that people's eyes are drawn to two things, brightness (or contrast, really), and movement. People can't help staring at screens because they're lit up and stuff is constantly moving on them. If I lower the light, it's focused on her chest, and everyone will stare at that all night without even realizing they're doing it, and if I point it elsewhere they won't look at her at all, and feel the band was forgettable. Learning how to function in the limelight is part of performing. Fashion designers and theatrical set designers and directors are very careful about drawing the viewer's gaze exactly where they want it.

 

[Jason Sypher]

I know this post is from a while ago, but I was away, so indulge me. I think you're talking about two different things.

There are definitely gigs where the focus of attention is NOT supposed to be the band and live music is an accompaniment to whatever the focus is. Obviously if you play a car show most people are there for the cars, if you play a wedding they're there for the happy couple, etc. If you take a wallpaper gig, be good wallpaper.

But I think the issue about "telling the audience how to act" was in the context of what someone called "mixed-use" venues, bars where there are TV sets and pool tables as well as the band. In a place like that the crowd has some choices and needs to make up their minds, among their various options, what the best thing in the room to focus on is. When that's the case, the band CAN make it clear that THEY are. That's where the showmanship comes in.

How many disco songs include actually, explicit instructions to the crowd - "get up and dance now!" I've seen performances where the BL literally said, "Who has a cell phone in their pocket? Take it out, hold it up, I want to see it - " and then walked people through how to follow the band on social media, right there and then, while the rhythm section vamped behind her. And did it in a way that it actually worked and people were into it.

There are also subconscious kinds of things. Putting moonflower effect lights on any bare patch of floor in a darkened room and you've told people where they're expected to dance. My singer is always complaining about lights on her face - "that's blinding me!" - but the fact is that people's eyes are drawn to two things, brightness (or contrast, really), and movement. If I lower the light it's focused on her chest and everyone will at that all night, and if I point it elsewhere they won't look at her at all. Learning how to function in the limelight is part of performing. Fashion designers and theatrical set designers and directors are very careful about drawing the viewer's gaze exactly where they want it.

Certainly. In my case I meant that the audience picks up cues from the venue on how they are supposed to regard the live music. If the venue, staff, performance space, band, act as if the music is important (this can be quite subtle) then the audience will follow. The general public need these cues. This doesn’t have to be a full ovation from the waitstaff after every tune, audiences can smell bs, but vibe counts for a lot. Presentation doesn’t have to be sequined jumpsuits, it can just be a designated stage that is well-organized and properly lit without two tv sets in the corners. The more I read this thread the more I realize how different my experiences have been in venues, cities, bands. Most of my life I’ve been in music towns, New Orleans, New York. But I’ve played the burbs here and there. I’ve seen a little bit of what you all are talking about.

 

[aero58]

….
Sure enough, every so often (including Yesterday afternoon playing a car show) it gets requested, and of course we do it.

 

[ChrisB2]

Mustang Sally ..... car show)

No irony here at all but there is quite the overlap with the MS crowd and the car show crowd.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Certainly. In my case I meant that the audience picks up cues from the venue on how they are supposed to regard the live music. If the venue, staff, performance space, band, act as if the music is important (this can be quite subtle) then the audience will follow. The general public need these cues. This doesn’t have to be a full ovation from the waitstaff after every tune, audiences can smell bs, but vibe counts for a lot. Presentation doesn’t have to be sequined jumpsuits, it can just be a designated stage that is well-organized and properly lit without two tv sets in the corners. The more I read this thread the more I realize how different my experiences have been in venues, cities, bands. Most of my life I’ve been in music towns, New Orleans, New York. But I’ve played the burbs here and there. I’ve seen a little bit of what you all are talking about.

NY audiences are hands down the best. I sometimes miss NY, until mortgage and tax time rolls around...

 

[Markmann]

Maybe you guys should learn some Taylor Swift songs.

Just kidding.... don't do it.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Maybe you guys should learn some Taylor Swift songs.

Just kidding.... don't do it.

We did Bad Blood for about a year. I concur with your thesis. Just...don't.

 

[Parzival]

Something I noticed is having fewer chairs helps. Weird, or maybe not. People that want to sit on their hands and hang out won’t come. People that want to party will be there. I’ve seen the same bands play at two different clubs near each other. The band that plays at the club with fewer chairs always has a more lively crowd, doesn’t matter which band it is.

 

[pepj]

Everyone knows Mustang Sally but thats got nothing to do with whether we will play it.
If its a good call and suits the vibe of the evening, then we might agree. Otherwise, we just tell them no. Have another pick.

 

[Pacman]

This was my gig last night. The audience seemed pretty into it as far as I could tell...

 

[SaucyJackBass]

In Europe is fine, and over here nobody goes to see cover bands.

Another reason to move to Portugal....

 

[HubbardsFate]

This was my gig last night. The audience seemed pretty into it as far as I could tell...View attachment 5126872

Holy crap, did you hop in a time machine back to '74 to play the California Jam?! That's a big crowd...

 

[MCF]

LOL I'm adding Wagon Wheel for a private party I'm doing next month. We're doing a whole mini-set of overdone country-ish songs that our all-ages audience will probably like, and I'm ok with that. I don't mind featuring a few songs like this as schtick, and that song actually has amazing harmony on it that my guys and I can pull off really well. But if I don't have three sets to fill, it's unlikely to make it to my list.

That’s what it’s about. You’re playing for the audience. Not yourselves.

 

[LBS-bass]

That’s what it’s about. You’re playing for the audience. Not yourselves.

Yep. And it came off so well that we're keeping it in for our two-set show next weekend. This audience loved it and some of the younger folk got up to dance around for it, too.



(I don't know why she loves to edit these and post half-songs, but it's OK. I personally don't believe in presenting my stuff that way, 'cause it screams that someone made a mistake.)

 

[MCF]

Yep. And it came off so well that we're keeping it in for our two-set show next weekend. This audience loved it and some of the younger folk got up to dance around for it, too.



(I don't know why she loves to edit these and post half-songs, but it's OK. I personally don't believe in presenting my stuff that way, 'cause it screams that someone made a mistake.)

Very nice!