Local bands - Prepping for a gig and giving a bad performance

flatfourfan

So I was thinking about posting this and thought that I can't be alone on this.

Saturday night we were at Hard Rock cafe in Menlyn and a local chap was touring SA, solo player, jonny luck , talented, mean set of lungs and I enjoyed his selection. The band that followed him.........oi vey.................

They get on stage and spent a good amount of time going through doodling until they were ready to start. They weren't bad, until the lead singer piped up. I think that he had a lisp as well as trying to front a fake US accent. They were about a minute into the session and he just stops, "sworry guys, I"m nwot hearing mwself here, can we have mwore vwocals??"

So they stop and then make adjustments and then start again for about 20 seconds and he stops again, "yes, I'm stwill not hearing mwyself here"

And he switches to playing another song, cause I guess the first one didn't work out for him.....at this stage we left.

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but shouldn't guys come prepared for a gig and if things don't go according to plan, you make it work? The performance they gave was dismal and the front man was more interested in flying around the 2m stage and grand standing than putting the patrons first.

Anyone's thoughts on this?

Jazzman105

What you're describing sounds like a mix of nerves, poor musicianship and lack of experience... Things rarely go exactly to plan and you gotta roll with whatever's thrown at you. This is however impossible if your nerves are shot.

As far as "a good amount of time going through doodling until they were ready to start" is concerned, I won't fault them on that. Most of the time it's simply necessary, especially if circumstances did not allow for a solid sound-check. Our bands unspoken approach is simply that we stop for nothing and no-one.... If the vocalist have a problem, hand-gestures to the sound-guy usually fixes that. If not... the guitarist and/or keyboard takes a solo while she sorts herself out. If she needs to leave the stage, then so be it. We'll simply do an instrumental or a tune that is sung by another band member until such time the problem is fixed.

Stopping in the middle of a song is inexcusable. Cutting it short with a dramatic ending is a much better option.

flatfourfan

I don't actually have an issue with the doodling, in fact, it's part of what makes a live gig, live. It came across as me being harsh on that one, It wasn't really my intention.

But the vocalist just seemed totally out of place with the rest of the band, everyone was kinda laid back and relaxed, he just seemed like he was brought in at the last moment as a fill-in.

Stopping in the middle of a song isn't on...........and stopping twice is even worse.

Jazzman105

flatfourfan wrote: It came across as me being harsh on that one, It wasn't really my intention

I hear you. It wasn't my intention to lambast you on it either. "Humble apologies sir" (in my best Indian accent, for some reason) ?

Jazzman105

My experience tells me that a vocalist who addresses the band, or the sound-guy over the mic is insecure. Dangerously generalized statement, I know. But that is in my experience

flatfourfan

Jazzman105 wrote:
flatfourfan wrote: It came across as me being harsh on that one, It wasn't really my intention

I hear you. It wasn't my intention to lambast you on it either. "Humble apologies sir" (in my best Indian accent, for some reason) ?

No insult taken......... ?

G-Man

Although I am not a vocalist, I do understand the the sheer horror, dread and loathing that comes along with not being able to hear your instrument through the mix when playing live. I can only image how horrific it must be to not be able to hear yourself sing above the rest of the live mix as the vocalist. Trying to increase your volume can also present unintended consequences like timing and pitch problems so performers will often not be able to hide their frustration, unless they have a cool head and lots of experience.

As far as stopping a song halfway through, it might just be a lack of gigging experience and stage presence on the part of the band. I think vocalists and frontmen in general have it pretty tough as they often bare the full brunt of the audience's disapproval when things go tits up, so they can sometimes come across as being a bit dickish when trying to get their mix right.

A big problem with small venues and organizers is that there often no formal times set out for sound checks, and bands often have no idea what sound will be provided because of poor communication. This leads to bands being unprepared when they hit the stage and suddenly realize that there is only one monitor and nobody can hear each other.

V8

flatfourfan wrote: So I was thinking about posting this and thought that I can't be alone on this.

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but shouldn't guys come prepared for a gig and if things don't go according to plan, you make it work? The performance they gave was dismal and the front man was more interested in flying around the 2m stage and grand standing than putting the patrons first.

Definitely not alone here - though I'll sound like a hypocrite grumbling about unprofessional musicians - I can't say I've only had flawless gigs :?

I went to watch a established (20+yrs) Cpt band play, heard such good things about them. I almost walked out during the first set, it was like watching a bad jam session that went wrong-er. Rather irritated that I paid R140 to watch them and they seemed to be ignoring each other on stage and it spilled over to the audience...grrrrr. But...The guitarist and drummer are mates, so had a word with them during the break, (along the lines of..."I paid for both sets and I'm cheap...step it up or I'm going home"). To their credit, 2nd set was great and I'm glad I stuck around.

Last gig I played wasn't great, in our defense, it was a last minute debut gig - we all made a boo-boo (or in my case many more than two). Drummers sticks went flying, guitarists pedal board played up, monitoring on stage wasn't helping either. Vocalist was great though ?

But we agreed to play through any issue and had a set list practised - Once we started, it was kinda being on a out-of-control train waiting for the smash that never quite happened! Off stage, people didn't really notice the mistakes - guess that's a nice thing about playing originals ?

The way I see it, locally, there are plenty muso's and not enough audience. So when you do have a chance, be professional and do your best. Shit does happen, but 95% of the time it's either avoidable or you can deal with it in real time. Sure, crappy venues don't help...but - imho - if you are practised and gig ready, you still can have a good show.

Pirate

Only responding to this thread now, as I now have something to respond with...

On Friday I had a gig from hell... Our band played at a church's youth meeting (don't judge me for that). Our standard drummer is a session drummer, and he wasn't available on this weekend, so we had to find a stand in. We contacted 2 other guys we've jammed with before, but none of them were available. As we've already postponed this session, we didn't really want to cancel. So we found another session drummer who was available... that is until his dad was admitted to hospital on Wednesday in a critical state (he did say he'll be playing with us). So, the events on Friday was planned as such
1. work until 17:00
2. drive to unknown location without getting lost (only had a venue name and a town)
3. Setup and soundcheck
4. Rock the session

How it happened was:
1. 2 hours before the gig started stand in drummer let us know he won't make it.
2. Finish last half hour of work until 17:00 all in a stressed out state
3. Phonecall with vocalist to sort out electronic drum backtracks - no time to rearrange the songs for acoustic setlist and gear isn't prepared for acoustic set
4. Vocalist accesses his software at home through TeamViewer from work, builds basic drumtracks so we have at least some drums, while
5. I drive to unknown location, arrive at the location GPS listed as the place. Take 15 minutes to identify this is in fact NOT the case and to find out where to go to.
(3,4 and 5 sort of happened simultaneously)
6. I arrive (first) at new location (even before their sound guy, just as caretaker was unlocking).
7. I unpack and start to setup. No accessibility for using my amp. They do have an awesome pedalboard that I was able to use, pre setup with their system, but I am unfamiliar with it. Received some assistance for basic tone, and how to make small changes in delay etc. (I have a strat so controlled tone mostly with my axe itself)
8. They use in ear monitors - I don't have, but I have a decent set of noise cancelling headphones I use for practicing and had that with me. Takes a bit of setting up, and feeling like a chopper pilot we finish the soundcheck.
9. We go off stage to hang around/do what we do/ meet the crowd before we go on stage.
10. Set starts. Crowd is exactly the demographic we expected - 15 - 23 year olds, albeit a small crowd of +- 30.
11. I have no sound in my ears, though my guitar comes through the FOH. (turns out my headphones got switched off somewhere between soundcheck and set)
12. Drum tracks fail periodically, especially towards the end of the songs.
13. I completely mess up 2 guitar solo's (think I didn't do too badly, seeing as I was practically deaf).

Sunday morning we had another gig - different venue, different town. Different setup. Vocalist and I built drum tracks on Saturday night - essentially building a backtrack (after my pedalboard - another story in another thread). Gig went 100% as planned, no snags, no issues, nothing! Crowd of roughly 50 people aged 8 - 80 (yes, all round).

So yes, musicians should be prepared, and if things fall apart, make it work. Friday night I learned some valuable lessons... (such as insisting on using familiar gear). Sunday we looked like pros. ?