The dont's of live performance

[apiss]

If you play guitar, please bring your own god damned guitar strap.

If you can afford a $200 pair of jeans, a "rare" pair of colorful-like-a-clown sneakers, and brand name shirts that looks like it's been a doormat in its past life, I'm sure you can afford a $30 good guitar strap now, yea?

Hipsters. How do they fucking work? Oh yeah, right. They don't.

 

[misingonestring]

Hipsters. How do they fucking work? Oh yeah, right. They don't.

My bro's a hipster and he's got a job... at a Target.

Sorry for going off topic.

 

[heineken_fretwalker]

I really hate it when bands introduce members, and I especially hate it when they tell the crowd who wrote what song. Drives me fucking insane, almost as much as when a local band has a half hour long set, or whatever, and each member has their own dedicated "solo". You aren't Metallica. Get on with it.

 

[Soubi7string]

I really hate it when bands introduce members

well I think that there is a grace period for that
like when they're a few weeks(3-4 shows) old on the "live" scene

 

[scottro202]

If you can, use your own equipment. Here's a little story.

So, a couple weeks ago, both of my bands were playing a show together. One of these bands, I play bass (Sam and the Sexpots), the other, I play guitar (Skittle Biscuit). I was riding with the band I play bass in, because we ran through all our stuff at the rehearsal spot the day of the show. So, I'm bringing all of my guitar stuff as well, with the gear for Sam and the Sexpots.

We get to the gig, and in the car I rode in, that of the lead guitarist's, we were a little shorthanded on bringing the gear, and it was a long walk from the parking lot to the venue. So, I told her she could use my guitar rig for the show. She was cool with that, and I didn't mind, because she's a bandmate and I knew she wouldn't fuck anything up (I also borrowed a guitar cable from her for the show which I haven't returned to her yet... But she knows I have it so it's cool)

See, this was the first time I was ever going to use my new Peavey Valveking live. So, I knew just about as much about how it would fare as she did. And Sam and the Sexpots was playing first.

The amp ended up being a feedback mess, luckily I had a noise gate on my board (which she was also using), which stopped it, but neither of us knew this was going to happen, and people DID notice the insane feedback.

So, kiddies, when possible, use your own gear, and have noise gates in your signal chain

 

[Milo]

I despise it when singers spit into the audience or just any member spitting at any direction. Its disgusting and although a small chance, can spread disgusting viruses, bugs or anything!

 

[Treeunit212]

I despise it when singers spit into the audience or just any member spitting at any direction. Its disgusting and although a small chance, can spread disgusting viruses, bugs or anything!

But.. But.. It's so METAL!

 

[Albionic]

just some tips for people who have yet to gig

dont turn up to a gig with the bear minimum amount of cables

don't throw your cables into a bag with the intention of sorting them out later(you almost certainly wont and next time you play it wil take half hour to untangle)

do realise that if you have never gigged before your first gig will almost certainly be shit it will take a few gigs for a band to find its feet so keep at it and don't worry

don't panic if you make a mistake act like nothing happened and in most cases the audience won't notice

don't expect a long soundcheck as an opening band (you won't get one)

only play stuff you are confident you can pull off. most audiences don't realize(or care)that what you are playing is difficult and therefore won't be impressed

if somone gives you a slot in their show return the favour most bands just want to play as much as possible so dont be afraid to aproach the headliner with a gig offer
my band used to healine a show one week the open at the same venue the next week (sometimes for the band the opened for us the week before) we never turned down a gig unless we were already busy

wich brings me to this pont don't quibble about your place on the bill it doesnt matter
sometimes a band would be before us on the bill but it would be clear they had a bigger following so we used to let them have the larger,later slot that way we got to play to their fans who would probably have gone home after the band they wantd to see finnished leaving us with a half empty room

 

[lookralphsbak]

Hmm danno about it being Mandatory.
I think someone else mentioned this and said ya its cool if your playing festivals or if the crowd do it without prompt but if someone tells me to do anything like that i yell fuck off or leave. instantly makes me angry danno why but it just does.

Wall of death isn't started by a miracle

 

[Treeunit212]

don't quibble about your place on the bill it doesnt matter
sometimes a band would be before us on the bill but it would be clear they had a bigger following so we used to let them have the larger,later slot that way we got to play to their fans who would probably have gone home after the band they wantd to see finnished leaving us with a half empty room

That's actually a very good point... Too many local bands complain about their spot, when in reality it doesn't matter. And besides, the headlining or later playing bands most likely drove many hours to get there, whereas you drove ten minutes from your parents basement. They deserve it, not you.

 

[Encephalon5]

Do not drive down here from West Virginia and push the one of the guys standing up front thinking it would pump him up. Also, don't come up and push me when I clearly am not interested.

 

[Albionic]

thought of a couple more

try and get the vocalist to keep his body between the mic and the backline as much as possible
ie don't let him jump into the audience during the guitar solo leaving the mic switched on facing your amp so it bleeds through the pa

do not grin and nod at each other like idiots when a gig is going really well

 

[Treeunit212]

do not grin and nod at each other like idiots when a gig is going really well

We do that when It's going badly...

 

[Murmel]

We do that when It's going badly...

I always do it, no matter how it's going

 

[Albionic]

I always do it, no matter how it's going

lol its hard to resist especially when you nail something that hasn't gone well in rehaersal

but you don't want to come across as shocked that its not a total mess

 

[JohnIce]

thought of a couple more

try and get the vocalist to keep his body between the mic and the backline as much as possible
ie don't let him jump into the audience during the guitar solo leaving the mic switched on facing your amp so it bleeds through the pa

do not grin and nod at each other like idiots when a gig is going really well

If your stage is set up so that you'd get problems like that, I don't think it really matters where your vocalist is standing.

And of course there's no need to look like an idiot, but smiling and interacting on stage is a great thing. It's a lot more entertaining to watch a band having fun and looking at eachother than a band staring at their intstruments and just looking incredibly serious about it.

 

[davidengel]

Don't let the inexperienced sound guy change your settings on both guitar amps when you and the rest of your band are off stage. This doesn't help when the "pre" and "post" volumes are at 3 and makes you sound like complete shit. (The other guitar player had his mids scooped.)

Luckily I was able to re-adjust after the first song.

 

[Albionic]

If your stage is set up so that you'd get problems like that, I don't think it really matters where your vocalist is standing.
point taken. but when you play on a tiny stage (or just on the floor in the corner of a bar) the luxury of proper positioning is something we don't all have and vocalists tend to move the mic stand around (no matter how carefully you position it)

 

[JohnIce]

point taken. but when you play on a tiny stage (or just on the floor in the corner of a bar) the luxury of proper positioning is something we don't all have and vocalists tend to move the mic stand around (no matter how carefully you position it)

True! Although then it's the position of the mic that's the problem, not the vocalist

I have another one that I actually caught from seeing The Haunted playing a local show here. At some point one of the guitarists was hearing something strange in his monitor, couldn't really tell what it was... and it didn't really translate to the audience either, it sounded like it had the whole night But about 3/4 into the set, with the audience really getting into it, the show is at a complete standstill while he and the sound tech are troubleshooting.

After a while of the rest of the band AND the audience standing around looking like asses, the singer finally says to him: "Hey, do you wanna play some heavy metal even though it doesn't sound perfect?" And after that the show was rolling again, and it sounded fine.

Bottom line is, unless your amp blows up or something, don't stop the show just because something is less than perfect. It's fine to ask the sound tech to change something in the monitor mix in between songs but stopping the whole show like that killed the mood completely.

- edit - Another one: Saying stuff off the cuff to the audience is all well and good if you do it well, but keep in mind what song you're playing... I've seen a lot of bands play and the singer shouts something like: "Let's see some fucking moshing!" and then seconds later they go into a clean part If you want the crowd to interact, do it somewhere in the song where they have some time to figure out what it is they're supposed to do, and then get to do it for a while. Having all of 5 seconds to headbang isn't too much fun.

 

[ZEBOV]

Don't trust the sound guy if he's in one of the other bands.

Why not? I'm a "sound guy".