Playing shows can be one of the most rewarding experiences of being in a band, there’s the instant feedback of the crowd, their energy mixed with yours, the chance to get out there and do what you love in front of an audience and maybe make a few new fans and a few bucks in merch sales, but unless you video record yourself and watch the playback of every show to analyze yourselves, there are certain things that you may not even know you’re doing that could be leaving your stage show as less than it could be. The following are three of these things, that your band can and probably should avoid on stage, if you don’t already:
- Talking too much – This is usually on the vocalist of your band, but this can go for anyone, guitarists, bass players, keyboardists, even drummers if they can get to a mic – and of course your backup singers are the biggest potential candidates for committing this crime, next to your lead vocalist. Unless you have something revolutionary to say, or it’s really a big part of your stage act and who you are as a band to tell the audience something, stick to telling the audience who you are, thanking them for coming down, shouting out the other bands, mentioning (and only once or twice mind you!) that you have CDs or other merch for sale or upcoming shows/albums, and maaaybe, just maybe, announcing the name of your songs as you sing them and the name of the album the song is from. Other than that, you want to keep it short and sweet, interact with the crowd yes, connect with them, let them know you know they’re out there and that you appreciate them, but really they’re here to hear and see you play music. So give them a show, play them a song, give them what they came for and blow their minds while you do it. But please try not to talk their ears off while you’re at it – if you really can’t help yourself, maybe you should start pursuing other avenues to see if you can release this ‘talent’ and put it to better use, after all, that’s what stand-up comedy is for.
- Taking too long to get on stage or too long between songs – This kind of follows on from the not talking too much thing, people want to be entertained, they want you to play. They do not like downtime, whether it’s filled in with someone in your band talking to try to fill the silence, or because your guitarist can’t figure out how to tune down to drop C, the moment you get too much downtime, the moment nothing is happening, is the moment you begin to lose people. To avoid this, soundchecking earlier in the day/night (where possible) helps, as well as being prepared with back up guitars, picks, drumsticks, cables, whatever it might be, with water ready on stage, towels to the side if you think you’ll get sweaty, and of course the mental preparation – you have got to know what you’re doing, personally and as a cohesive unit, before you get out on stage. There must be no surprises, and if there are you must be ready to run with them. Everyone should have a copy of the setlist in front of them somewhere that they can see it, though really it should be burned into the back of your brains already or easy enough to learn if you know your songs. The setlist should also be optimised for minimal tuning and changing around of things, to avoid downtime. Having techs or just a friend or two who know what they’re doing help you on the night with mving gear in and out and switching out your electric for your acoustic guitar for you for that final song really helps things move smoother and quicker too.
- Having low energy – People paid to see your show, or perhaps they didn’t but the sentiment remains the same, you are here to knock their socks off, you want them to leave this place unable to wait to tell their friends how amazing and awesome this band they just saw tonight was. You want them tweeting and facebooking it before they even leave the venue. Now even if your songs are the best songs ever written in the world, and they are delivered with ultimate technical precision and musicianship, and sound absolutely incredibly amazing, this is not a CD, it’s not an audio-only experience. It’s about the visual as well. What that means is that you’ve got to have stage presence, you’ve got to own that stage. And you can’t do that with low energy. You can’t look bored, or not into it, you can’t be standing still. You need to move, you need to be excited, you need to feel it, and you need to make the audience feel it too. That doesn’t mean you have to go all Glee on everybody if you’re in a post-hardcore ambient noize band or whatever, but this does mean that you’ve got to have energy, and you’ve got to put on a show. If your music is heavy, then get heavy, if your music is dark and brooding, then be dark and brooding, if your music is straight country, give them a show that’s the most straight country thing they’ve ever seen. Before you step on stage, take a moment together with your band, or by yourself if you’re a solo musician to steady yourself and draw that energy that you have within you, from wherever it is that it comes from, and then get out there, feel it, share it and be it, give your audience everything that you’ve got and you will always keep them coming back for more.
