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Looper's Delight
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The following is a rant. The basic premise is: Respect your audience, do your best to make them happy. If you're playing out live for your own bad self, then you deserve an audience of 1. I (and all, I repeat ALL of my music loving friends) are in the category of folks who rarely go see live music anymore (compared to my younger days of 2-3 nights a week). I'll happily listen to one or two mediocre bands if I don't have to put up with the BS. My reasons for not going to see music has little to do with how good or bad the music is. My complaints with live music have not changed since my very first show: Clubs start bands too late: 11:00 - 11:30 is too late to start bands. London starts early and closes early and the bars still make money and probably a good deal more money then a comparable bar in the U.S. Local/small acts (or large well known acts for that matter) take too dang long to set up and get started: tune before you go on, and start when you're set up. I absolutely hate (and always have) waiting around for a band to start for no good reason. No one, I REPEAT, NO ONE likes to wait. When your set is done, tear down and get off the stage. Do not get a beer, chat with your friends for a half hour, nip out for a j, pass go or collect two hundred dollars (at least not of my money). If your band is next, then get set up and start playing. You are not God. I've never heard of you before (like most people in the audience), and you have not earned the right to waste my time. I'm not interested in how cool you are. Play your songs and impress me, otherwise I'm leaving. The Sound sucks (is too loud, bassy, tinny, etc.) Hire the best soundperson you can afford. Don't let your brother run sound just because he's got a four track. A lot of college clubs have decent sound systems and it's not that tough to get an acceptable sound. If your running sound and someone in the crowd makes a suggestion, at least consider it. They may be dumber then you, but they are the paying customer (they spoke up which means they care about it)- and sometimes they might be a whole lot smarter then you. I know paying the soundman more then the band makes - sucks. I've been there. But if the point is to make money then your best bet is to let people hear the music you want them to enjoy so they'll tell two friends .... Then you'll have a big enough audience to pay the band better then the sound person Smokers suck. They do, it's just a fact of life. You have to suck to enjoy a cigarette. I'll put up with a little smoke if the person smoking the cigarette doesn't hold the thing in my face when they're not toking. Hey, it's your cigarette, if you don't want the smoldering hunk of stench in your face what makes you think I want it in mine? If you got this far, thanks for listening. I don't expect this will have any impact on a single performer, but I feel better. d/-\\/e Frank Gerace wrote: > At 11:05 AM 2/13/98 +0000, you wrote: > >David Kirkdorffer wrote: > >> > >> I know SO MANY PEOPLE who feel this way. I think it's part of > >> why - at least in Boston - live music venues are shrinking or closing. > >> Less people are going out to see bands - I think they feel they're not > >> going to see anything new. They're mostly right. > >> > Another reason clubs are closing is that a lot of people don't >feel > like going to smoke-filled bars to hear their music. 'The sound live >isn't > as nice as the CD on their stereo, blah-blah-blah'. This also ties into >the > drinking age argument and musicians as liqour salespeople arguments. >Many > people I know, as they get older, (most of my friends get older) are >trying > to quit smoking, stop drinking etc. >