Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I've come to the conclusion that my audiences are kinda dumb about most things musical. The same ppl have been coming to my shows for 25+ years around here. They've heard me when I was in great form, when I was drunk, when the sound guy was flooking up, when ppl accompanying me were out of tune, in short - under nearly every possible situation. They don't notice a flooking thing.

All that hard work I had put into my playing, the little sweeteners & accents, all of it was prolly for naught, cuz they just don't hear it. They hear the song choice & the voice.

I switched to light gauge strings yesterday, but I didn't adjust the neck, like a big damned dummy. So there was this little rattling in the sound. I had ppl commenting to me about how did I get my axe to sound like a 12-string without effects pedals. They loved it, while I was playing softer than usual to keep the crappy stuff from coming through & sweating bullets.

Due to the hand stuff, I've had to dummy down nearly all of my songs. But for some reason, ppl kept coming up to me telling me I sounded better than ever. These weren't friends being nice, either. I'm talking about ppl I see once or twice a year, who seemed to really get into what I was doing.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't suck last night, but it was a far far cry from what I could do in my heyday, which seemed to end about 3-4 years ago as the hand went floopy. Perhaps they were just in need of a good party after all the rains & economic woes & such.

I mean, I know what's good & what ain't. On a 1 - 10 scale of my work over the last 20 years, I'd hafta say that last night was about a solid 4. I took out all the lil hammerin' suspended fourths, the pull-offs I used to do, even had to change some chord voicings to accomodate my reduced abilities, yet no one, not even the wife, seemed to notice.

It was pretty exhausting, having to change so much on the fly, & I feel kinda burnt crispy this AM, with the fingertip blisters & all. Why won't my callouses grow playing bass?

Eh...I guess I really AM my own worstest critic.

Philby its good they appreciate your talent.

Someone once told me if you ever thought you were it musically it was time to do something else.

I know how you feel, Ive run into the same thing at gigs. Im sweating bullets over some little issue Im having and the people there say Ive never heard you sound better. As far as all the little add ons, maybe you have overplayed songs in the past. I know I have!

When they start yelling out "Play... Stairway to Freebird!!!!" you know you can play pretty much anything and get away with it. The more they drink, the better I sound!

Whitesel wrote:When they start yelling out "Play... Stairway to Freebird!!!!" you know you can play pretty much anything and get away with it. The more they drink, the better I sound!

hahahha i bet that would be a badass song though

OMG! I DID play "Stairway to Freebird," by the Rev Billy Wurtz, last night! And yeah...they loved it!

Now THAT's funny!

Like most any endevor, those outside the endevor have no clue what goes into the creation of the final product.
I was amazed and baffled by the guitarest jargon (sometimes I still am) a year or so ago, I didnt know the difference between delay, phaser and a plain old crunch. Do you think our audiences know any different?
If they enjoy themselves "you guys are awasome" if they dont "those guys suck" The conversation about your intonation wont come up unless there is a musician in the crowd, and no one else has a clue what he's talking about.

On my worst nights, I've had people come running up after the show, can't wait to tell me how great it was. Same on my best nights.

99% of the time nobody will notice the little things, the slight chord or vocal changes to either enhance the music or give your fingers/vocal chords a break. The only ones who will notice are the musicians.

I watched a band a week or so ago in a casino in Vicksburg Mississippi. Guitar player barely moved at all the whole time, keyboard and drummer (3 piece) both dull and lifeless. The audience was dancing on every tune, some applause, nobody seemed to notice the guitar on ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" was not only a clean sound, no distortion at all, but a quite obviously processed clean sound. Sounded horrible to me, but they loved it.

Overall, a very lame band, no energy, no character, barely any signs of life at all. They are supposed to be there this weekend according to the flyer I just got in the mail, I'll be checking out the other band upstairs, but won't bother with this band again, if I go at all that is...

Everybody else? Yeah they'll be there, dancing in blithe ignorance...

I did some casinos 15 yrs ago when they opened in N MS. Those were the worst gigs. There was always a guy with a db meter running around telling you to turn down. Lot of fun with a 100 watt half stack on standby! Probably what that guys was doing. But play the right tunes and the folks will dance all night.

Its crazy but some of the better players I know play these gigs, but they are boring as hell to watch from a musician viewpoint.

How many times have you got done with a song or set that you thought was awesome and got no response and then how many times have you thought you absolutely sucked and the crowd went crazy? There's no rhyme or reason to an audience. I'm not critical at all about myself any more. I just play and whatever happens, happens. It's all we can do. I think the crowd is more into the music if the band looks like they are having a good time. The audience for the most part really doesn't know anything technical so just play and have a good time.

Yeah, bob. Learned that years ago. I play & smile & crack jokes & make sure they're having fun, but still it never ceases to amaze me how little they know about what's really going on, how different a single song can be from one night to the next, or between one artist & another. These days I figure I'm a little more than 1/2 the guitarist I was just 5 years ago, but they don't seem to notice or care...

How many times have you got done with a song or set that you thought was awesome and got no response and then how many times have you thought you absolutely sucked and the crowd went crazy?

My point exactly, well put Bob.

Last time I played in fact, was one of those. I sat in with a local band, brought my Cort and it didn't have time to get to room temperature so it wouldn't keep its intonation well, I didn't have a chance to warm up, and was playing through a Peavey Trans Tube amp that just didn't do what I wanted it to, and my playing was rough all the way through all 3 songs.

Crowd still liked it, I got more applause than the band did all night, which kind of made me feel bad for them. But that's because I moved around, put lots of energy into it and tried to be a performer, not just a guitar player. It helps a lot. Several people came up to me afterward and said "Man you played the F*&^ outta that guitar!". I just told them thanks, I appreciate it. What else can you do? Can't see telling them I think I sucked...or that they have to be too drunk to think I played that well when I Know I didn't...so I just said thanks and moved on. I didn't do that bad, but I didn't do my best either. They loved it anyway...

I did enjoy it though...

Whitesel wrote:The more they drink, the better I sound!

When playing a bar gig, I always tell them, "Drink up out there. The more you drink, the better we sound. The more we drink, the better we THINK we sound."

The more I drink the better I sound!

Pretty Funny, I was just guessing on the Stairway to Freebird, didn't know someone finally wrote a song like that, that's been a running joke I've had for over 30 years.

I think the funniest thing was, We played this big Harley ralley years ago and the crowd had us play "Born to be Wild" over and over again. When a group of 300 lb drunk Bikers with colors tell you to play it again...you just do it.

One of the first bike rallys I played years ago we played Born To Be Wild over and over along with Freebird, and yea we played it even thou we hadnt rehearsed it.

Funny everyone says they wont play these songs, but push comes to shove and everyone can play them.

We played a gig a few monthes ago and a guy kept hollering FreeBird. We took a break and I talked it over w the guys and we played it, first time in years. After the gig the guy came up and said Im not yelling that again, I was just messing with you, I didnt think you would play it.

Want to have fun, I know some guys that play in soem punk rock venues, Go to a punk show and start yelling FreeBird!