Live Show Etiquette

[spawnofthesith]

For me the typical stage moves/presence at a metal show all blend together and don't stand out much either though. For the "show" side of things I'd rather a band have an LD working as a visual extra member of the band than any sort of sweet choreography or crazy antics. Which I guess is one of the reasons I attend a lot more jam shows than metal/hardcore shows these days lol. I'm also speaking strictly as an audience member. I know for a fact that my stage presence is something that needs work, and I'm not making excuses for myself in that department. but I do think there is a happy medium in there somewhere that I see get passed over all the time on forums. Fortunately for me, our bass player has tons of stage presence so that takes some pressure off me when I'm up there staring at my board trying to make sure I don't fuck up the 3 layer polyrhythmic live loop I'm making




Also:

 

[Screamingdaisy]

I see this as sorta similar to arguments over midrange. When I say scoop the mids a bit, what I mean is 6/4/6, how it reads on the internet is 10/0/10.

That said, we have a local band who's live show is the equivalent of 10/0/10 in terms of over the top stage presence compensating for underwhelming musicianship... and they have a lot of fans as they're fun to watch and they know how to party.

 

[JimF]

Similarly, a music scene near me consists of bad bands where all the members know each other, play in each other's bands, and just have a good time together whilst playing awful shitty music. From the outside the scene looks lively and promising, but its literally just a friendgroup circlejerk members club.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Similarly, a music scene near me consists of bad bands where all the members know each other, play in each other's bands, and just have a good time together whilst playing awful shitty music. From the outside the scene looks lively and promising, but its literally just a friendgroup circlejerk members club.

I won't say that the bands are necessarily bad, but there is definitely a bit of that "cool kids club" circle jerk in some of the scenes here. What I've found here though fortunately is that if you peel back that layer there is a whole cool scene that is a lot more interesting, and I'm way more down to be a part of. Even if the "cool kids" are trying to insist that they're all thats here

 

[GunpointMetal]

I won't say that the bands are necessarily bad, but there is definitely a bit of that "cool kids club" circle jerk in some of the scenes here. What I've found here though fortunately is that if you peel back that layer there is a whole cool scene that is a lot more interesting, and I'm way more down to be a part of. Even if the "cool kids" are trying to insist that they're all thats here

The actual cool scene around here has almost nothing to do with the "cool kids" scene. But for some reason the local entertainment press only wants to cover bands that have at least one of five people in it from that one band that almost did something like 14 years ago and somehow each of those dudes has ~5 separate projects at all times.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I’m glad our scene got a reset, everyone who is gigging now knows what it was like when there weren’t places to play at all and everyone is remarkably supportive of each other.

I don’t think I’ve been to a gig at my favorite watering hole where there wasn’t a group of us still shooting the shit in the parking lot after the bar locked up. Just this Saturday I was there until nearly 3AM doing exactly that with guys from both bands that played that night.

There’s a lot of talent down here, the bar is decently high or getting onstage with other bands. The competitive aspects of it all went away when “making it” the traditional way of getting on a label went away in the 00’s. Anyone dumb enough to find a bucket of beer and a couple hundred bucks worth being competitive over is going to get ejected from the scene all on their own at this point.

 

[spawnofthesith]

One of my biggest pet peeves is bands that intentionally don't promote the whole show/other bands. Make their own flyer with only their name on it and don't give any insight on to who else is on the bill. 99.9% bands we play with are cool AF and I've only personally played with a band that does this once or twice (and that will be the last time) but its something I've been noticing recently. Talk about ego

 

[GunpointMetal]

One of my biggest pet peeves is bands that intentionally don't promote the whole show/other bands. Make their own flyer with only their name on it and don't give any insight on to who else is on the bill. 99.9% bands we play with are cool AF and I've only personally played with a band that does this once or twice (and that will be the last time) but its something I've been noticing recently. Talk about ego

We had a band around here a couple years ago that would do this. They would even post links to their special event in the actual page on FB. At least a couple of promoters straight up kicked them off shows because they were doing it for touring bills that they were opening for. Of course they split up within about 8 months of starting to play shows and I don't think any of them have even appeared anywhere in the scene since.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Similar vibes here, trendy "indie kid" scene gets most of the coverage/attention with the same few bands playing the same few venues/local festivals.

But, a friend laughed at me a few years back when I said I was going to make a scene for loud music and noise/drone here and it lit a fire under my ass. I got to give him a big fat atodaso last halloween after melting the faces of a packed bar with nasty drone and my Killer Bob cosplay.

Realistically, good instrumentalists are abundant. Especially given that youtube gives you access to bajjiions of expert shredders at any moment. I'm not paying for someone to prove they can sweep pick and stay in time, I'm paying for an experience. If you're sooooo good that just witnessing the craft is seeing something exceptional in itself, then sure. I'll watch Guthrie Govan for his chops, not for his stage moves. But you're probably not Guthrie Govan, so I'm going to remember the guy who almost kicked me in the face during his set long after I've forgotten the 100 bedroom shredders who stared at their knees and avoided eye contact.

It's your show, play it the way you want. But I make no promises as an audience member that I'll remember you two days later. I legitimately have seen so many bands and so many guitarists at this point that they all blend together into one amorphous blob of slightly bobbing long hair and so much gain that I couldn't tell what was being played in some random dive bar anyway.

I'm here to tell you all that it's possible to play shoegaze and dance

 

[TedEH]

I'm here to tell you all that it's possible to play shoegaze and dance

I'm on fire and I dance!