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Stage presence

Eric Iverson

By Eric Iverson
in Guitar Forum

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Eric Iverson

Eric Iverson

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Well, this of course has been addressed before. It's a spinoff on something A-string just posted.

 

I think there are many types of effective stage presence.

 

Not everyone is a comedian, for example. Some musical situations are more serious than others, too; you might not want to dress and behave like a clown at Alice Tully Hall before playing Bach pieces.

 

OTOH, you might not want to wear a tuxedo to a rock'n'roll concert....

 

Certain basics seem to apply... you can let the audience know you appreciate the fact they came to see you without pandering to them!

 

And yes, looking at them once in a while is nice... being a little sociable is acceptable I would think...

 

Reminding me of how I read that Buck Owen's guitarist played the fiddle well, but much preferred playing guitar. He'd say, "no chief, not the fiddle!" And Buck would reply, "I'll make you tell jokes..."

 

I saw Chet Atkins once and if anybody could just play great guitar and "screw the audience" it would have been him surely. But he was actually nice to us! Go figure. He must have been having a bad day!

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Dr. Ellwood

Dr. Ellwood

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We try to be as professional as we can while still keeping a interaction going with the audience. We run our show sort of like a radio DJ back in the early days of FM under ground radio...we tell interesting stories about the songs and the artists who made the songs we play famous. Only takes 30 seconds or so to give them a little history and maybe some info about if the aritist is still touring, or circumstances of their deaths or just little tid bits that allot of the audiences might not know. Many times when we do this I can see the people talking about what we have said and it just brings more to the song. I know this is a good method becasue we have lots of people approach us to find out more facts about the songs. Out drummer is a collector of famous musicians posters, he has had prints made of these and many times he will put up quite a few of these covering the artists we are going to cover on a particular night, people like that kind of thing. We tell them the years that the songs came out and other facts like that.
http://www.thestringnetwork.com
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Guitar55

Guitar55

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Our lead singer is a great showman. He works the crowd really well and leads the band the same way. This is definitely reflective of his personal interactions. He makes friends everywhere he goes, just a natural I guess.

 

We like to display a certain amount of physical energy to match the musical energy we generate. The sax player and I will often stand on the PA stacks (where possible) while soloing, our drummer sometimes stands up while playing and our backup singer, when he steps up for a lead vocal, will really get into it, doing things like dropping to his knees (i don't know how he can even walk any more).

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Kramer Ferrington III.

Kramer Ferrington III.

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I think stage presence has a lot to do with body language. It has everything to do with being confident and self assured and really "owning" that stage space.

 

It's funny but, when you finally see a headliner come on after the support bands... well, it's weird. Even though they are using the same stage as the support, the headliner (if worthy of being that) will have a presence, a confidence that makes the stage look different.

 

And if you have that self-confidence, pretty much anything you do or wear will be ok. Sure, if you wear the wrong clothes or do the wrong spiel you will have to work harder. But unless you are really trying to be offensive, people will come to accept you over the course of the set.

 

But you have to have that confidence.

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My snazzy t-shirt empire

 

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Hardtail

Hardtail

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Stage presence is something I'm going to work on a great deal in the next year. It won't be easy... I'm not really a yakker between sets nor am I the kind of guy who draws a crowd with my charming personality. LOL!

 

But... I can sing and play guitar.... that's a start. LOL!

 

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marvar

marvar

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One thing that bothers me about most of the bands I see (my own band included) - wear what ever they happen to put on when they roll out of bed,- sometimes they look like they just came in from plowing the north 40, or ARE wearing what they slept in.

Personally, I like to dress with a bit style, I have "stage clothes" that I like to wear, no, not spandex and/or sparkley stuff, but something to set me a bit apart from the audience. Heck, back in the 80's we used to change clothes every set!

I feel that I'm getting paid to present a show of sorts, and the audience expects we should be portraying a certain image, and yes, sometimes, I get accused of trying to be a 'rock star', but hey, my average with leaving the show with a honey or two is much better than the rest of the guys in the band!

"Who's gonna teach the children about Chuck Berry?"
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Dr. Ellwood

Dr. Ellwood

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One thing that bothers me about most of the bands I see (my own band included) - wear what ever they happen to put on when they roll out of bed,- sometimes they look like they just came in from plowing the north 40, or ARE wearing what they slept in.

Personally, I like to dress with a bit style, I have "stage clothes" that I like to wear, no, not spandex and/or sparkley stuff, but something to set me a bit apart from the audience. Heck, back in the 80's we used to change clothes every set!

I feel that I'm getting paid to present a show of sorts, and the audience expects we should be portraying a certain image, and yes, sometimes, I get accused of trying to be a 'rock star', but hey, my average with leaving the show with a honey or two is much better than the rest of the guys in the band!

 

+100 :thu:

http://www.thestringnetwork.com
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Griffinator

Griffinator

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Ok.... let's talk about stage fashion.

 

One of the first things I want to get are some kick-assed Tony Lama boots.

 

I have a pair of ancient knee-high moccasins that I've been wanting to wear onstage, but the rest of my band refuses to allow it.

 

So I wear a pair of knee-high jackboots with camo cargo shorts instead. :freak:

A bunch of loud, obnoxious music I USED to make with friends.

 

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Strategery

Strategery

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Stage presence... It's the story of 5 sweaty mens, gyrating & playing music on stage.

You know you just can't wear sweat pants on stage....I know that's right! :grin:

Today's story is brought to you by JEWELS...the gum that explodes in your mouth. Bet you can't eat just one...and WHO'D want to? :eek::P:rawk: :grin:

 

http://image.com.com/tv/images/processed/thumb/29/4a/5780.jpg

"Just play!"
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Strategery

Strategery

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Man, I remember those days.

 

My daughter is 25 now, married to a great guy, has her Masters degree and is getting ready to go back for her doctorates.

Those were the good old days.

We still get along great! :)

 

When she was real young, we had our favorite little Christmas cartoons & movies that she and I would watch together.

And even now when they visit, she still has to sit down with me and DEMANDS that we watch those again. :) :grin:

 

Man, where does the time go?

 

Scuse' me....I need a Kleenex. ;) :grin:

 

Randy

"Just play!"
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Billster

Billster

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Presence can be genre related. I said in the other thread that there is a sub-genre of the indie scene known as "shoegaze", so don't rule anything out.

 

I've seen bands where the singer is pouring out a torch song and the bass player and drummer are grinning at each other about some sort of in-joke or because they hit the downbeat right for once. It looks inappropriate for the context of the song. This is what it looks like:

 

:grin: :grin: :cry::tired::rawk:

 

On the other hand I've seen too many dour looking musicians who look like they are about to have a root canal. I don't think it's appropriate for a guy playing jazz standards to be prancing around like David Lee Roth, but a little interaction with the other musicians would at least give the impression that they enjoy being there for the audience.

 

I've also seen rock bands playing little hole in the wall clubs and acting like they are playing at Madison Square Garden. It looks ridiculous. OK, have some fun on stage, play with the crowd, go for it; but are you really interacting with the audience that is actually in front of you by pretending it's a 30,000 seat arena?

Buy my CD on CD Baby!

 

Bill Hartzell - the website

 

MySpace?!?!

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The Bear Jew

The Bear Jew

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Good sense in stage fashion and stage presence only come with experience.

 

Obviously, there are some pretty basic things that should go without saying (don't show up for a formal wedding band gig in cut-off shorts, a tank top and sneakers, etc) but, for the most part, learning what works for you onstage is a process of trial and error.

 

An important element is for the whole band to be on the same page, both musically and visually. I'm not saying every band should look like the early Beatles, in matching suits, etc, but if everyone in the band has the same attitude towards performing and stage look, there should be no inconsistencies amongst band members as to what is acceptable and what is not.

 

And, as Bill has mentioned, the appropriate presence and fashion for performance can indeed be genre-related, but even that has interesting exceptions. In an era where all the really heavy bands were leather-covered hair farmers, Helmet came out sounding about 1000 times heavier than anyone else and looking like a gang of dudes from the accounting department on business casual day. That whole "average dude" look (as well as the powerful nature of the band) definitely carved it an immediate niche by bucking the trend for heavy music at the time.

 

But yeah, it's definitely a matter of experience...

\m/

Erik

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

--Sun Tzu

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Billster

Billster

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And, as Bill has mentioned, the appropriate presence and fashion for performance can indeed be genre-related, but even that has interesting exceptions. In an era where all the really heavy bands were leather-covered hair farmers, Helmet came out sounding about 1000 times heavier than anyone else and looking like a gang of dudes from the accounting department on business casual day. That whole "average dude" look (as well as the powerful nature of the band) definitely carved it an immediate niche by bucking the trend for heavy music at the time.

 

Helmet is a great example of being comfortable in your own skin. It would have been easy for those guys to dress in black leather and heavy boots, but they probably would have felt odd and been held back by their costume.

 

Me, I've played pop-metal but I've never worn spandex pants.

Buy my CD on CD Baby!

 

Bill Hartzell - the website

 

MySpace?!?!

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