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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!
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.
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.
"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.
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
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