Gig chat

hotpickups

Just out of interest do you guys rehearse your gig chat to engage the audience? I think this is just as important as playing the actual songs.

RocknRollDave

I totally agree that engaging with the audience, talking and making them laugh/ feel part of the evening is very important.

What I don't agree with is the idea of scripting and rehearsing exactly what you are going to say.

There may be the odd line you like to keep the same - e.g. it may help to calm your nerves if you have a set patter at the very start of the gig - but if you script it all you end up saying the same thing every time, and you become Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics.

Maybe have an idea of the concept of what you want to say, or have points marked on the setlist for when you are going to take a pause between songs to say something*, but not word-for-word each time, that would be way too stiff.




*but don't overdo it and don't talk excessively. Keep time between songs to a MINIMUM!

digitalscream

Our singer does, for bigger gigs. If she's struggling or sounding stiff and rehearsed, I tend to join in for a bit of banter to relax things a bit.

hotpickups

Yes I meant not word for word scripted but a kind of patter loosely planned. I've chipped in before when the singer was flagging and funny enough some of the band members thought it strange that I did. Lol

RocknRollDave

For some people, it just doesn't come naturally. When I was guitarist/ backing vocalist in the band, I really struggled with chipping in and feeling like I had anything to contribute on that front, whereas now I am fronting the band - and I HAVE to do it! - it seems much more natural.

I find it really odd when bands don't do it. I saw Muse once (I went with a friend, honest! It wasn't my choice..!") and the most Matt Bellamy said all night was "thanks, good night" or "Thank you very much"....and it totally detracted from the gig and the engagement with the audience.

ESBlonde

I had a selection of stock jokes, the band would groan sometimes but remember the audience only see you once or perhaps once a year (functions mainly). So you can use the same schpiel over and over. If you only play the dog n' duck every month you need fresh patter. Topical banter within the band on stage works but address it to the audience and talk slow and clear.

eSully

RocknRollDave said:

I find it really odd when bands don't do it. I saw Muse once (I went with a friend, honest! It wasn't my choice..!") and the most Matt Bellamy said all night was "thanks, good night" or "Thank you very much"....and it totally detracted from the gig and the engagement with the audience.

I went to see Mark Lanegan before christmas and he didn't speak in between songs at all. Although the music was tight and well played we all walked out of the gig a little deflated. It wasn't a bad gig, just felt like he was going through the motions. It's really important to have some engagement with the audience.

hotpickups

I went to an Eric Clapton gig a few years back and he did just the same uttered about 3 words. Not on as we put him where he is now so it's the least he could do. Most boring gig I ever went to. Seconded was Bonnamassa but at least he talked to the audience

EricTheWeary

Our singer tends to say the same things, I'm not quite sure if he worked them out at some point. I do cringe sometimes and whilst I have access to a mic I figure getting involved in an argument on stage isn't the best idea.

On a good day I'm a fan of 'lending focus' - acting like your singer is saying something interesting even if you've heard it hundreds of times. Same with things like solos as well, if you don't look interested then your audience might take that as a cue not to find it interesting either.

I remember Fairport Convention as having almost every member of the band talk to the audience at some point and all funny. On the other hand Bruce Dickinson I remember as being very straightforward, none of the 'are you rocking tonight Birmingham' stuff, just little chats about the traffic and what the next song was which I quite liked. I think the dullest on stage chat I ever sat through was Frankie Vaughan (I'm so rocknroll) who read out dedications and requests between every song.

RocknRollDave

Conversely, I saw Andy Cairns from Therapy? do a solo acoustic gig once which involved lost of talking between songs, explaining song meanings, stories from the road etc and it really felt like I had been part of a special evening, which I felt involved in rather than a spectator of, even though I was literally just a spectator. To be honest, he could do a spoken word night and I'd go.

John_P

I think you can get away with very little chat between songs if you're putting on a bit of a show when playing and interacting with the audience that way - it's the music and performance we paid to see but no chat at all is a bit weird.      I saw Tori Amos years ago and she just ignored the audience to the point where people were shouting "Tori - say hello!"  etc and it started getting funny. 

I'm not sure about rehearsing what you're going to say but having a rough idea of some of the things you might say can help if it doesn't come naturally.     

hotpickups

EricTheWeary said:

Our singer tends to say the same things, I'm not quite sure if he worked them out at some point. I do cringe sometimes and whilst I have access to a mic I figure getting involved in an argument on stage isn't the best idea.

On a good day I'm a fan of 'lending focus' - acting like your singer is saying something interesting even if you've heard it hundreds of times. Same with things like solos as well, if you don't look interested then your audience might take that as a cue not to find it interesting either.

I remember Fairport Convention as having almost every member of the band talk to the audience at some point and all funny. On the other hand Bruce Dickinson I remember as being very straightforward, none of the 'are you rocking tonight Birmingham' stuff, just little chats about the traffic and what the next song was which I quite liked. I think the dullest on stage chat I ever sat through was Frankie Vaughan (I'm so rocknroll) who read out dedications and requests between every song.

Nearly as bad as my old singer who used to tell the audience which version of a song we were going to cover. Utterly pointless and as interesting as watching paint dry LOL

RocknRollDave

Oh, just remembered - Probably the best frontman I ever saw, and mostly down to his onstage banter, was the much-missed Stuart Adamson of Big Country. Superb stuff.

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave;1020375" said:

Conversely, I saw Andy Cairns from Therapy? do a solo acoustic gig once which involved lost of talking between songs, explaining song meanings, stories from the road etc and it really felt like I had been part of a special evening, which I felt involved in rather than a spectator of, even though I was literally just a spectator. To be honest, he could do a spoken word night and I'd go.

Bernie Marsden has a story for every song, his gigs must be half talking. But he does it well, I love seeing him. Not sure you'd hire him for a wedding though.

RocknRollDave

One more thing: Flattery goes down well

"I know for a fact that the people of Tunbridge Wells are going to be better at dancing than the lot we had last week in Chipping Sodbury....Let's see how you dance to THIS one...." etc



Not a good introduction to a slow one, mind.


And getting the crowd singing along usually lifts a gig - Brown Eyed Girl has a good opportunity for us in our first set to get people singing back at us with the "sha la la la" parts. Make it a competition, chastise them (nicely!) when they sing quietly, egg them on, tell them how wonderful they are when they sing loud etc.


And pick on the people who sit at the back. Goes down well with the ones on the dancefloor, and those are the ones who you need on your side. NB Avoid the people who were sitting at the back when you are loading out at the end of the night.

eSully

 It can depend on the Gig I guess. I don't mind if the band do or don't interact with the crowd or tell anecdotes as long as they act like they want to be there and at least appear to be enjoying playing you their music. Can't expect a crowd to get into it if you don't look like you're enjoying playing it.

In saying that, the gigs I've enjoyed most have usually involved a bit of banter with the crowd. Singer telling a funny story while the band is tuning up. Something like that, not over the top but definitely helps the crowd to get into it more.

hotpickups

We had a nice compliment at an end of the night's gig in an old band I was in which was we all looked like we are mates and like each other. In fact they weren't wrong we did like each other that is until we fell out LOL

thecolourbox

It is a difficult one isn't it. I did my first guitar/singing gig for strangers back in December and have been rebooked in mid April, and I thought long and hard about what type of banter or patter I should aim for. I was doing chilled mellow performances of quite simple introspective type stuff so I didn't feel I could do my usual natural repertoire of really bad puns as it would have been completely at odds with the music. In the end I opted for fairly vague introductions with bits of whimsical references to what the songs were about without saying what they were. People seemed to respond to stuff like "If you know this one please do feel free to politely and nervously hum along with your fellow strangers"

I only did one gag and that was totally unplanned, I cocked up my intro leaving the trem on from the previous song. Thankfully my joke bank duly obliged - I said "Sorry I've not introduced my backing band as yet ( I was solo), seeing as they can't keep up now's a good time to introduce them. They're called 1055megabytes, they've not got a gig yet".

When I accompanied my dad at a similar type gig recently his patter was too much, he want comfortable with it so rambled and seemed to start every into with " This is a song written in 1926..." (It was a jazz gig) which just seemed a bit wearying

Danny1969

I think some chat is a good idea. Just doing one song after the other with no chat seems a bit detached from the audience to me. What ever you do though keep it natural, not forced. I like an observational piss taking chat myself, one guy I work with is particularly good at that. 

PolarityMan

The worst one I saw was Mikhael Akerfeldt who did a long story about how he met Devin Townsend who told him to jsut be himself when talking on stage and since then it amde him really relax..whcihi i guess i fair enough, except he then preceeded to talk at great length about his clearly extensive catalog of minor prog rock albums that were released in 1983 for about 20 minutes.

thomasross20

I've said this exact thing before - I do think it needs to be at least thought about in advance, Same with throwing shapes and general stagecraft. Not that we're great at those!