The art of performing and working a crowd

[LiveMusic]

Surely, there is an art to entertaining people. Couple of days ago, I saw The Doobie Brothers in concert. It was awesome. But what blew me away was their showmanship. I did NOT expect that out of them. The music was INCREDIBLE. But they probably milked another 25% out of it due to their enthusiasm.

 

So, I'm wondering about tried and true ways of building an act. I think I saw a book on this subject. I'll have to look for it. Does anyone have any tips or know of any books about this?

 

I'm not necessarily seeking advice on putting enthusiasm into it. The kinds of things I'm wondering about at the moment are, for instance, my playlist. I have a HUGE list of songs I've catalogued that I like. Now, it's a matter of whittling it down to a reasonable playlist. It's going to be quite a task. A huge task, in fact. But it's a fun task. And experience counts. I'm sure you guys have experienced certain songs that just go over really well. That's why I asked (in another thread) about good acoustic songs.

 

Point being, so far, I have over 700 songs in my potential list. Songs that merit a look. I'll whack out 90% to come up with, say, 70. And those 70 will need to be good ones. AND... I assume there is an art to building the mix. Like, the ratio of fast to slow. Sad to happy. How many fast ones to play before you play a fast one. Then, how many fast ones? etc.

 

Edit: Well, I went right to it -- a book. Acoustic Guitar magazine (www.acousticguitar.com) offers a book called "Performing Acoustic Music." This thread isn't relegated to acoustic music. Rather, your typical pop/rock/r&b/country mix. Whatever that is. But that book does look interesting. Maybe there are others but I haven't found them yet.

 

This message has been edited by LiveMusic on 04-01-2001 at 06:57 PM

[aframe9999]

I would say that it mostly comes with experience. In our situation, we play a pretty big variety of tunes. Classic rock, blues, funk, oldies, Motown, even some (gasp) disco. Our experience has been that it depends on the venue. When we play bars, we play maybe 1 slow song per 60 minute set. Everybody wants to rock. We just did a country club gig over the weekend and we changed it up quite a bit.

 

I labor over set lists. generally I save the best songs for the last half of the set. I don't like to burn a top notch dance tune in the first or second song because ususally it takes a while for people get warmed up. The slow songs go in a little before halfway through. That way if nobody's dancing by then, they usually will on the slow songs. Then after the slow ones, hit em immediately with one of your best uptempo tunes. No slow songs for the last 4-6 songs of the set. End big.

 

That being said, set lists don't mean anything when you're trying to read the crowd. At this country club gig Satuday, we followed the set list only about 50%. You could just tell by the vibe in the room, that, for example, the crowd wanted another slow one. or you look ahead on the list and know that Blackfoot -- Train, Train isn't gonna fly. So you skip it or add something that will work.

 

Just be flexible and pay attention to what the crowd wants. And always play requests if you possibly can. This weekend, this girl was dying to hear 'New York, New York'. Well, the band didn't know it. But she kept begging to hear it. So we finally said, 'if you sing it, we'll play it'. Well, she said OK! much to the chagrinn of the rest of the band. so we picked a key and tried it. We managed it as best we could by memory, missed all kinds of chords, bluffed through the rest of it.

 

But that was one of the biggest hits of the night. Here's this half drunk woman on stage in front of all her friends singing Sinatra with a band that doesn't really know the song. It turned out great!!! The whole room went crazy!!

 

The moral of the story? Always have fun, play for the crowd, and don't take yourself too seriously.

[LiveMusic]

Hmmmm... your comment about one slow song out of a set. That's interesting. Around here, regardless of age group, seems there are more slow songs than that. (I don't doubt you, just making a comment.) I could be wrong but I'd say it's usually more like two or three out of 12.

[Tedster]

Aframe wrote:

 

>>>Just be flexible and pay attention to what the crowd wants. And always play requests if you possibly can. This weekend, this girl was dying to hear 'New York, New York'. Well, the band didn't know it. But she kept begging to hear it. So we finally said, 'if you sing it, we'll play it'. Well, she said OK! much to the chagrinn of the rest of the band. so we picked a key and tried it. We managed it as best we could by memory, missed all kinds of chords, bluffed through the rest of it.

 

>>>But that was one of the biggest hits of the night. Here's this half drunk woman on stage in front of all her friends singing Sinatra with a band that doesn't really know the song. It turned out great!!! The whole room went crazy!!

 

>>>The moral of the story? Always have fun, play for the crowd, and don't take yourself too seriously.

 

BRAVO! BRAVO!!! (Thunderous applause). We had the same thing the other night. Someone wanted the stupid "Chicken Dance". There we were, trying to be cool, and someone wanted the f*ing "Chicken Dance" IN A BAR. We've NEVER played it, but of course we've all heard that obnoxious thing at weddings. Just so happened though that the girl who requested it provided an unbeLIEvable "rear view"...so I (again to the evil stares of the other band members) started playing it. Everyone had fun, and we were mocking it, but having fun mocking it. The dance floor (which up 'til then had been rather underutilized) filled up. We'll probably never play that song again, but what's to hurt? And that was the weird thing. The girl with the hot ass who requested it looked far too cool to ever request something like that...which brings up another point...

 

One thing I think we as musicians tend to do is overestimate the "cool" of our audiences. We're musicians, most of us are "cool" by nature. But our audiences are like your Aunt Martha and Uncle Ray. Nothing is worse than to work up, say, something like the first side of "The Wall" or whatever, and play it perfectly, only to have the crowd stare blankly, and then someone comes up and requests "Release Me". The moral, go ahead and work up "The Wall", but keep a full reservoir of "stupid songs". You don't have to play that many of 'em, but they can be lifesaving icebreakers to toss in.

 

Toss a little bait out...see what gets the nibbles, then head in that direction. And sometimes you won't directly see your nibbles.

 

I'd say keep your seven hundred songs, and work it down to a workable playlist by seeing what flies. Offer slightly hipper alternatives to stupid overdone songs..i.e.:

 

Patron: Play Free Bird!

 

You: Don't do that one, but how 'bout "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe"?

 

Great topic, Duke. I want to see some other responses...as one of the hardest things to do is get your energy level up when the audience's isn't there. I guess, what you've gotta do, is make up your mind that you're playing for yourself, having your own fun, and invite the audience in. If they come along, great, if not, you're still having fun.

[LiveMusic]

Originally posted by Tedster:

 

Patron: Play Free Bird!

 

You: Don't do that one, but how 'bout "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe"?

 

[/b]

 

Heehee, you are hilarious, Ted. I laughed out loud.

 

Now, I gotta go see if I can find "Chicken Dance."

[aframe9999]

Hey Duke,

 

That 1 slow song per set thing is only a judgment call. We're a pretty much a party band, sing-along and whatever else. The slow tunes can be thrown in however you like. Whenever we play more than one slow song in a set, we usually play them back to back.

 

Tedster: Stupid songs rule!!! they are always the ones that get the crowd going. And what you suggested is exactly what we are doing right now. We picked the top 20 rock bands of all time whose songs we don't play and are learning 1 song from each.

 

that way if somebody says, "do you know any Skynyrd?" yeah how about gimme 3 steps. or how about aerosmith? yeah -- walk this way Stairway? nope, but Been a long time since i've rock &rolled etc.

[Tedster]

Well, I wonder, what in reality is cooler...playing "Close to the Edge" by Yes and having everyone give you the ol' "Deer in the headlights" look, or playing something stupid and having a bunch of hot mamacitas shaking their T&A in your face? (sorry Lisa and Lee...Chippendales in your case) Hmmm...tough choice, huh?

 

Like I say, you've gotta have a reservoir of stupid songs, but have some tricks up your sleeve so when the musicians come in and you know who they are, and they're giving you disdainful looks while you're playing Seger, you can pull something slick out and give 'em a little kick to the groin.

 

To that end, know thy strengths. If you're an SRV clone, use that to wow the occasional musicians. But don't play a lot of SRV if you're not. If you're a hot fingerstylist, have some of those. Our deal is vocal harmonies. Kinda hard to do as a solo act, but you catch my drift. I remember one time I was at an acoustic open mic, and this guy got up and started strumming average-Joe chords and singing average songs in an average voice. Kinda lost me, I stopped paying attention. All of a sudden I'm hearing a Segovia clone up there playing some Bach or something. Same guy. That was his trick! He had my total attention from then out.

[Skip_dup1]

An interesting topic, everybody.

My favorite open mike nights are those that mix music, spoken word, performance art, whatever. I`ve spoken to a lot of players who remark on the fact that bands, especially those with accomplished musicians, tend to get up and blast the music from start to finish. Why not mix it up, especially if people are giving you the `zombie dust` effect? have a one minute version of spoken dialogue from a play. Lead the house in an `OM` chant. Take a one or two song space and get away from the music entirely.

It takes the pressure off the band to come up with `the perfect song`, both from the general crowd and especially the musicians doing the Yoda act in the front rows.

[Tedster]

Oh yeah, that's what an ideal open mic night should be...a "mixed media" event...and indeed once in awhile you find one like that.

[strat0124]

The Moaning Lisas routinely pull stuff out of our arses for the drunks yelling out there. It's fun and unpredictable....makes every show an event. We are a three piece with a front man who knows how to work a crowd.....and handles the hecklers rather well. Check us out if you are ever in Hampton Roads Virginia or check out Moaninglisas.com.

Cheers,

Gene