IME if you can figure out how to setup tracks and splits you can figure out how to not go online with your show computer until it’s needed. It’s pretty much never the tech’s fault shit goes wrong, lol. Poor carpenter that blames his tools or whatever. That being said, you should probably still know how the songs go without the tracks.
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Track record so far has been that out of the 4 or so bands I've seen in the last couple months who needed a laptop for a set, three of them had to grind (not in a good way) to a halt waiting for their cursor to stop spinning while the audience just stood around and twiddled their thumbs until they could restart their project and keep going. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That sounds unbelievable honestly unless you’re playing basements with teenagers. I’ve played with at least a dozen bands over the last three weeks, probably at least 8 of which had a laptop integrated in some fashion, with zero stoppages due to computers.
Thanks for that
Stage banter is a hard one for me. Rehearsed stuff always is noticeable and comes off as corny to me.Another for the list, is good stage banter. Like anything it takes time to figure out what works and what makes you look like a fucking dork, there's a certain art to working a crowd. Jokes especially require some finesse. IME standard "jokes" with setup like you'd make in conversation are a no, but in-the-moment cracks about equipment malfunctions, being out of tune, riffing on stuff the audience says etc, can really land and make people feel like a part of the show. Be gracious, be nice, don't be afraid to be fucking adorable.
I got invited to play a little show last night, couple firsts for both of us (2pc with me and a bassist, he's new to bass and I'm new to singing). Between watching another friend who is a veteran performer but new to electric fuck with their misbehaving pedalboard in a somewhat clueless manner, and having my entire setup torn down and packed up while our other half was still chatting with the crowd, definitely showed me how much I've learned and internalized over the years. I react instinctively to "everything is on but no sound comes out" at this point, I've pretty much made every mistake there is in that regard 10x over and there really aren't that many points of failure at the end of the day.
Thanks for that
I'm probably a luddite but I would never trust a laptop in a live setting and 100% agree that if you're using one, you should be completely ready to make the show go on without it. If my pedalboard somehow catastrophically failed (I sincerely doubt it, but if), I could still finish my set. It wouldn't quite be the same set, and I might have to drop some stuff, but it would be a set and I would finish it.
Two cases were scene regulars, and one was a touring packing coming through town.
Wild.
To add to this, don't do unexpected encores that no one asked for. Maybe you won't pay for it, but every band after you likely will. It has happened to me before unfortunately. One of the worst feelings after traveling over 24 hours without any sleep is being told your set is getting cut short due to the band before you going 15 minutes over.
If there are bands after you on a bill you shouldn't even be considering an encore.
Common sense isn't so common I guess. To be fair it was at a festival and I doubt they knew the result would be us getting our set cut short.
I stopped having time for this shit like 10 years ago. I just start moving stuff until somebody says something to me. I've told more than one drummer "move your shit or I'm throwing it down over there".
Same energy as "sorry we suck!" Thanks for the warning fellas. I think I did both of these at my first band's first show in high school.Definitely call the crowd pussies for just standing there and not getting brutal
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