Our recent advice from a big label. Your thoughts?

[highwaynine]

There's lots of good stuff here. I have a follow up question:

Stage presence seems to be easier if your singer isn't wearing a guitar. They can run all over, jump without dropping things, etc. But when the front man is tied to one spot, 'cause he's singing into the mic, which he can't hold in his hands...how do you overcome that?

 

[danvortex]

more presence from all the other members of the band

 

[highwaynine]

D'oh. Three-piece.

...and a laid-back bassist. :roll:

 

[danvortex]

ha ha
than just find 2 or 3 nice girls to dance naked on the stage while you play

 

[jaredrutledge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lxwlgyhhA

THAT'S stage presence

 

[moltar]

Recording and watching all your shows works awesome. I had completely forgotten this was something I had been doing with my last band. It helped me know how we looked and sounded and that anything I did had to be over exaggerated to be seen.

Heed the advice of your worst critics. If somebody tears apart you or part of your show, fix the problem. Once your band irons out the big issues all you have left is polish.

If you have a part in a song that is not difficult then you must take action.

Personal experience: I'm all about stirring things up in the crowd. I had one show where I started pushing into the crowd mid song. I tripped over the monitor and wasn't about to stop playing. The crowd caught me most of the way down and threw me back up without missing a note :]

 

[tremayne007]

be real. Don't jump if your not feeling it. As great as it is for the audience to be encouraged by the band totally loosing themselves in it and going off (no matter what that may look like), faking it is lame, and most people can tell.

We went through over a decade of music (based on MTV) with everyone trying to imitate Led Zeppelin (IMO), and the results were lack luster to say the least.

Check out an old Hendrix video, thats not just an act. Don't get me wrong, as it can be aptly named a performance, but its based on real emotion, not just doing something for the sake of the crowd.

If your not feeling it, get to the root of that. Even still, some people are just not that physically expressive, while others are. Better to stand stone cold still and put down the meanest (or funkiest, slickest, etc...) business you can than do some monkey dance that the crowd knows is BS.

just my 2 cents...

 

[Mr_You]

One of my biggest pet peeves is too much banter/preaching from the singer or band.

Majority of the time I'm thinking "just shutup and play some music, no one cares".

 

[jtb226]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lxwlgyhhA

THAT'S stage presence

I guess. It seemed really fake to me. There's a difference to me between stage presence (read: showing emotion through playing) and just thrashing all over the place. :roll:

 

[Mr_You]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lxwlgyhhA

THAT'S stage presence

Seems to me this type of "stage presence" could get you sued if someone gets hurt.

 

[Charlie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lxwlgyhhA

THAT'S stage presence

Seems to me this type of "stage presence" could get you sued if someone gets hurt.

A. If somebody ran over my face like that I would track them down after the show and knife them.

B. Sounds like crap.

 

[sjones]

hello - new here but thought i'd chime in.

after several years of playing and trying to play authentic-sounding covers i ended up in a throw together band for lack of something better to do. we practiced exactly once before playing (bass player had a gig but no band). at our second show my wife attended. it was one of the few glowing (i think) reviews she ever gave a band i was in. When i asked her what she thought she replied, "you guys sound terrible but you look like you're having so much fun everyone else is too. This is great!"

i learned a lot that night.

 

[Mastervolume]

I think that all you need to do is add a page from Steve Vai's book on chrisma.

in the middle of your set pull out a tripple neck and a chair and then have a seat and ****.


Actually some of the best moments of ANY show I have seen are when the band and the audience cross over that magic line that seems to seperate them.

I saw Cheap Trick and Aldo Nova (you might have to google them) in Minneapolis in the 80's. There was a blizzard and unless you lived close enough to walk to the concert hall you were not getting there.

Aldo Nova went on first and played their set complete with pyrotechnics and the obligitory " Good night Minneapolis we love you!!!" which was met with the scattered applause of maybe 100 people in a 5,000 seat venue.....silly.

When Cheap Trick came out they walked on stage and had them turn on the house lights. They looked around and then had everyone who was still sitting in their assigned seats to move down to the first few rows. They then talked to us and took requests. Rick brought out all of his guitars and told the story behind each. They bridged that gap that night Aldo didn't.

Figure out how to connect with your audience...every time.