The dont's of live performance

[JohnIce]

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

Indeed, the sound guy wants to be invited back for more work another time, why would he sabotage your sound?

 

[mothmantis]

Indeed, the sound guy wants to be invited back for more work another time, why would he sabotage your sound?

Maybe it's just my (admittedly limited,) experience, but there's this one guy out here that insists on using his system on any show his band plays at ("Nah, guys, trust me, I'll have you sounding cherry!") He's notorious for 'bumping' the low end way up three minutes into the opening act's set or 'accidentally' dialing the vocals almost out of the mix and then wandering away from the board for the rest of the set ("What happened up there? Oh! You should have said something!") Then when the crowd starts getting large, drunk and restless, his band comes onstage to save the show, much to the delight of the crowd and management. THAT'S how he gets invited back for more work. He's not in the band with the quiet singer or the wall of mud.

 

[Soubi7string]

I would strike up the management with the other bands and request said jackass be over ruled and defeated

 

[mothmantis]

I would strike up the management with the other bands and request said jackass be over ruled and defeated

Yeah, but it's just small-town politics. This dude's band is actually pretty good, not good enough to compete in Austin or San Antonio, sure, but there's no reason he should feel threatened by the opening acts. But if he wants to be the big fish in the little bowl, let him. Most acts around here just learn not to play shows with him after the first one. Complaining to the management just seems like such a crybaby tactic. I just took the high road: smile, be polite, thank the Management, and never share the stage with him again. He knows he boned us, he knows we know he boned us, and he knows that if any accusations start flying then we end up looking as unprofessional and petty as he is.

And to any sound guys on here, please, I do not mean to impugn your honor or motivations, as the vast majority of you are competent, ethical and professional. I'm just saying that the majority of struggling musicians put their music ahead of everybody else's, and not everyone you work with will be your friend. It's the same as any job. Anyone that's had a co-worker take credit for their work to get a promotion knows what it's like: you can make yourself crazy with resentment or you can accept it and learn from your experience.

 

[ZEBOV]

Maybe it's just my (admittedly limited,) experience, but there's this one guy out here that insists on using his system on any show his band plays at ("Nah, guys, trust me, I'll have you sounding cherry!") He's notorious for 'bumping' the low end way up three minutes into the opening act's set or 'accidentally' dialing the vocals almost out of the mix and then wandering away from the board for the rest of the set ("What happened up there? Oh! You should have said something!") Then when the crowd starts getting large, drunk and restless, his band comes onstage to save the show, much to the delight of the crowd and management. THAT'S how he gets invited back for more work. He's not in the band with the quiet singer or the wall of mud.

He's probably just changing 1 or 2 things on the mixer board. You should learn how to operate it so that when he wanders off, you can quickly fix it. It's easy as long as you don't let the numerous rows of knobs and faders intimidate you. When you learn how to operate 1 mixer, you already know how to operate most of them.

 

[mothmantis]

He's probably just changing 1 or 2 things on the mixer board. You should learn how to operate it so that when he wanders off, you can quickly fix it. It's easy as long as you don't let the numerous rows of knobs and faders intimidate you. When you learn how to operate 1 mixer, you already know how to operate most of them.

I really think you might have missed the point. I know how to operate a mixer. I'm not an expert, probably not even good, but like I said, this happened with us one time when we were first starting out, and I wasn't gonna interrupt our 30 minute set to climb off the stage and turn the singer's mic up. We were naive and new to playing live shows and weren't taking advantage of helpful forums like this. I've seen this guy pull the same tactic with other bands and thought it might have been a common occurrence. Guess I was wrong in that assumption.

Probably I should have picked a different 'for instance.' I was attempting to use what I thought was a common gripe to illustrate a broader principle. So for the sake of clarity, allow me to change that particular 'don't' to: "Don't expect strangers to have your band's best interests at heart." There. That can apply to record execs, club managers, other musicians, and, yes, underhanded local celebrities that will throw you under the bus to make themselves look better by comparison. I hope that helps, because I'm done trying to explain this s***.

 

[scottro202]

dont come on shirtless. If you really feel the need to show muscles do it at least halfway through.
unless female

I'm gonna take this a step further.

I'm going to play in my underwear halfway through my band's set at our EP release show in the spring

 

[Lives Once Abstract]

Oooooh ooooh oooooh, another one. Don't, please please don't, dedicate the next song to your girlfriend. No-one else sees the beauty in your saggy, mole ridden walrus of an attempt at human likeness. Just don't. really.

Unless your gonna say "i dedicate this next song to a girl name 'so and so"
and then the first words of the song are like F*** you or something that would be insane

 

[Lives Once Abstract]

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.

haha yeah, and also, i mix our bands music mostly when playing gigs, because the sound guy doesnt know how to mix super heavy metal very well usually. And another thing, it looks horrible when every member of the band is head banging differently, and sometime they loose focus and either their head bangs are out of time or their instrument or both, it looks better when every one can do it at the same time the same way it looks so cool when we, and other bands do that.

 

[josh pelican]

Unless your gonna say "i dedicate this next song to a girl name 'so and so"
and then the first words of the song are like F*** you or something that would be insane

How do you figure?

 

[JohnIce]

haha yeah, and also, i mix our bands music mostly when playing gigs, because the sound guy doesnt know how to mix super heavy metal very well usually. And another thing, it looks horrible when every member of the band is head banging differently, and sometime they loose focus and either their head bangs are out of time or their instrument or both, it looks better when every one can do it at the same time the same way it looks so cool when we, and other bands do that.

Oh it was their own sound tech, but the in house PA and monitors. The 2 opening bands were tech'd by my one of my Sound Engineering teachers and he's top class, aswell as used to the venue and PA, so both the opening acts sounded better than the headliners

However, I hate "sound techs" who are really just record spinners but have their own PA so they get hired as sound techs. They show up with a bunch of mics and cables, set them up in some ridiculous way, check if they're all getting signal and then that's a sound check to them. Then when you're onstage playing your songs they decide "Hey, look at how loud my subwoofers are!", crank the bass and the whole room becomes a pile of shit and standing waves. Especially catastrophic if you detune.

Ah fuck, old memories making me angry again.

 

[Treeunit212]

How do you figure?

I've screamed this in public with friends on many occasions.

 

[13point9]

I've screamed this in public with friends on many occasions.

as have I lol, I'm usually under the influence though

 

[Lives Once Abstract]

How do you figure?

Like say " i dedicate this song to a girl very far away from me now" and then play Sleep with one eye open, by bring me the horizon

 

[avenger]

I think its perfectly acceptable to dedicate a song about slashing up human flesh to a skank ex.

 

[gs_waldemar]

- Don't go play live if you're a studio pussy
Some bands, admittedly most of them better & commercial ones, nowadays are extremely overproduced. SO when playing live, they're far below their studio level. Sometimes so far below - they could actually be their own fucking teenage-coverband!! That sucks if you paid a fortune of a ticket...

So one should always try to write stuff that they can actually play/sing/whatever

 

[13point9]

Make sure you practice extensively so that your a tight unit as a band. Don't rush into live shows, it will invariably blow up in your face if your not prepared properly...

 

[Treeunit212]

I think its perfectly acceptable to dedicate a song about slashing up human flesh to a skank ex.

Amen.

 

[GeoMantic]

Don't run in place. Ever.

 

[Lives Once Abstract]

Don't run in place. Ever.

HAHAHAHAHA! what!? has some one done that on stage? thats hilarious