Talk to me about your band's image and performance

Stringtheorist

Stringtheorist

Fractal Fanatic
With so many bands competing to play in the few music venues in my area, I'm interested in what bands to do make themselves stand out. By and large I see most bands doing very little with their image, and unless their choice of material and/or playing is outstanding (which is rare) there is little to distinguish one band from another. In most of the bands I've played in, we have tried to dress up and treat the gig as a show and not just a bunch of songs. One of my current bands dresses in camo gear and dogtags and has a WWII theme, the other has a burlesque/vaudeville theme and is fronted by a girl in a corset. Even so, I think there is always more one could do to put on a show and not just play a gig. This may involve a lightshow, fog, etc. or onstage activity besides music. I saw a band once who had a magician (yes, you did read that right) on stage, making things disappear during songs... it was hilarious. :D

I always loved theatrical bands, so maybe I'm just predisposed to wanting to be entertained visually at a gig, but it does seem to me that you go to SEE a band for a reason. If you just wanted to hear live music, you could save yourself a trip and stick on a live album at home, after all.

I guess that this is more pertinent to covers bands. Original bands usually rely on their music doing the talking but when you go out to see a covers band and they're playing the same songs as every other weekend bar band, as a punter I find I want more. I also want my own band to be memorable and entertaining besides being able to play well.

So what does your band do to stand out, or is good playing sufficient? If you don't dress up, what do you do in terms of stage performance to make an impact?
 
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Well my experience is, that there are bands with a very charismatic frontman or a very charismatic band as a whole. Those bands don't really need much show, their pure presence is show enough. This is very rare! On the other extreme there are bands, which aren't charismatic at all, the musicians are ugly and can't really connect to the audience. For them it's better to have the whole gig planned down to the smallest detail with show effects etc.

But I still believe that the best thing you can do is to write great songs and perform them well. With good equipment (shit in = shit out) you'll be able to sound pretty good and the audience will memorize this musical experience and love to see you again.

Maybe that's just my view, because if a band offers a great show, but plays like shit, it's just ridiculous.

edit: What's definitely important is, to LOOK at the audience! If you just look on your fingers, no connection can ever come up. Of course you have to practise to play blind. And yes, some parts cannot be played blind, but in this case just take a cool pose and show the audience how awesome you think it is what you are doing right now. They'll believe you! Don't be shy, don't ever feel embarrased. Just do your thing, but don't pretend to do it alone in a small room, share it with the audience and if they don't appreciate it, well then there's nothing you can do about it.
 
axifist said:
edit: What's definitely important is, to LOOK at the audience! If you just look on your fingers, no connection can ever come up. Of course you have to practise to play blind. And yes, some parts cannot be played blind, but in this case just take a cool pose and show the audience how awesome you think it is what you are doing right now. They'll believe you! Don't be shy, don't ever feel embarrased. Just do your thing, but don't pretend to do it alone in a small room, share it with the audience and if they don't appreciate it, well then there's nothing you can do about it.
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Yeah, that's something I notice about all really good bands. They're looking around them engaging with the audience, not just looking down at their instruments, and it definitely separates the pros from the amateurs.
 
I didn't want to respond but now that I thought about it a little longer: the shows that I remember -even after a long time- are the shows where the musicians are having fun, and it shows! This energy will transfer to the crowd, and thus they have fun too.
I remember for example Chickenfoot: Sammy Hagar (I have to admit, quite a showsman) told the audience that they don't need to do it for the money anymore, but that they are just a couple of friends playing, and that the whole tour feels like a vacation. If it was just an act, than, other than awesome musicians, they are very good actors too!
That is the attitude, IMO.
 
axifist said:
Well my experience is, that there are bands with a very charismatic frontman or a very charismatic band as a whole. Those bands don't really need much show, their pure presence is show enough. This is very rare! On the other extreme there are bands, which aren't charismatic at all, the musicians are ugly and can't really connect to the audience. For them it's better to have the whole gig planned down to the smallest detail with show effects etc.

But I still believe that the best thing you can do is to write great songs and perform them well. With good equipment (shit in = shit out) you'll be able to sound pretty good and the audience will memorize this musical experience and love to see you again.

Maybe that's just my view, because if a band offers a great show, but plays like shit, it's just ridiculous.

edit: What's definitely important is, to LOOK at the audience! If you just look on your fingers, no connection can ever come up. Of course you have to practise to play blind. And yes, some parts cannot be played blind, but in this case just take a cool pose and show the audience how awesome you think it is what you are doing right now. They'll believe you! Don't be shy, don't ever feel embarrased. Just do your thing, but don't pretend to do it alone in a small room, share it with the audience and if they don't appreciate it, well then there's nothing you can do about it.
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Sound advice!


Regards,
 
Having fun while playing is a bit difficult in my opinion, based on the music you play. Imagine a Black Metal band consisting of really funny guys. Yes such a thing is possible, I know at least two bands of such kind. Imagine them having a hell lot of fun on stage behaving like a Punk band. What would that look like? On the other hand, something like this would be something very different and new, which might also lead to an audience remembering you. In the end that's all that matters, they have to remember you, if in good or bad. You all know the saying "There's no bad publicity, there's only publicity" (I think it translates to something like that). Very true. But it's not that simple. If you take it too far, the bad publicity could actually become bad for you, e.g. if you take the Rock'n'Roll thing (like destroying hotel rooms ... OOOH we are SUUUUCH bad boyyyyyys ...) too far and behave just like gigantic assholes. Being a bit of an asshole can be a good thing, but you have to know the limits.

In theory those things are really easy to figure out. In theory it's also easy to play the guitar. You only have to be able to move your hands in a special way. But why is it so hard to be really good? It's the same thing with being a good performer, but being a good performer INCLUDES being a good guitar player PLUS a lot more things. It has to do with talent, hard work and of course there's always luck.

Talking about myself as an example: I'm very comfortable on stage, I've always tried to play blind (in some rehearsals I just look at the ceiling or play with closed eyes). I love to move a lot on stage, jumping, running, moshing. But I'm very tall, which makes all of this look really weird. Not just to me, I've heard it SO many times. That's one element of "luck" which I was talking about. There are so many more. If you're really not the on-stage type of guy, it doesn't say anything about your qualities as a human being in general, but - sorry to say - it does affect your success as a music performer.

That's why I like to shorten it up to => tldr:

Play the music you love to play (no matter if it's popular right now or not), play it together with people you love, show the world how much you love playing this music and the music itself. If it makes sense, add some specials, of whatever kind they may be. And of course, get some gear which you are comfortable with and which is capable to transport your skills out of your fingers as best as possible (comparison: The best painter, e.g. Leonardo, also has to have some nice colors to do his paintings. The artist's ideas can only come to life with the right equipment)
 
Good advice in this thread.

People go to see cover bands, not only to hear music but to watch the performance and enjoy it too.
And most of the people only watch the singer. So the singer HAS to have at least some charisma, in whatever way.

Also, energy and enthusiasm transfer from the stage to the people.
Have fun, laugh, make jokes on the stage, play together, don't stand still and it will carry over.
It's up to the band to create the mood.

Keep the pace up. Gaps between songs are boring, unless the singer can entertain the audience meanwhile.

Try to avoid cliches. Don't talk about the weather.

And no music stands or iPads.
If the singer must depend on lyrics, hide a cheap laptop or large tablet in a cardboard "wedge".
Put the lyrics in a presentation and use a remote or foot switch to switch through the presentation.
One singer I work with does this and the audience NEVER notices it. It's brilliant.
 
As far as making yourselves commercially viable, to sell records and promote label interest, labels are looking for three things:

Sound
Story
Image

Remember that you and in turn your music is a product and should be sold as such.
 
Put some effort in your appearance... ie no shorts and flip flops (for the love of god). Cannot understate the importance of lights, and someone to operate them. Look at any BIG band and imagine no lights or backdrop. Have your beginning and endings down tight. Little things add up real quick.

Saw a mediocre band the other night, but their lights were amazing, made them look at least 2x's as good as they were.
 
Fabio KTG said:
As far as making yourselves commercially viable, to sell records and promote label interest, labels are looking for three things:

Sound
Story
Image

Remember that you and in turn your music is a product and should be sold as such.
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Above all the things you mentioned, labels are only really looking for ONE thing: BUMS ON SEATS.

As objective as all the other elements are, you can sound amazing, have an (insert emotional adjective here) story and a killer image, but unless people are showing up to your gigs it doesn't mean squat from a record label's (read: commercial business) perspective. Like you said, you and your music are a product. If a horrible (to you) sounding band that has no 'story' and wears bike shorts and sandals on stage is pulling 350 heads to a show consistently, they're still WAY more attractive to (most) labels than the well dressed, uber cool, your-personal-sonic-utopia-band that plays to 20 of their friends every weekend.

axifist said:
Play the music you love to play (no matter if it's popular right now or not), play it together with people you love, show the world how much you love playing this music and the music itself.
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+1000

Premeditated image can help sometimes, but ultimately only go so far. People can tell when you're being truly sincere in a performance. The ultimate goal is for that sincerity to resonate with an audience long after the next band's "LOOK AT US!!! OOOOHHH, SHINY!!!" shtick has been thrust in their face.

Cover band wise though, make it as fun as you possibly can, and try to involve the audience as much as possible. The audience is your real employer, and their priority is to have a good time. If they're not happy and putting $ over the bar, the venue will go with the band that can win them over and keep them in a good mood.
Playing wise, OWN your mistakes, don't freak out. If you fuck up, do it with conviction and a straight face. Chances are, only you and your band mates will notice. Half the time they won't even notice, either. If it's a big enough screw up to be painfully obvious to everyone, make light of it (keep it fun, remember!) and soldier on.

I've seen some complete and utterly horrible, show stopping kind of musical train-wrecks happen by cover bands, yet the audience has remained totally on side, all purely because of the way the band handled the situation.

Keep. It. Fun.
 
When I used to play out, we would all usually dress in all black, which kind of made us have a uniformed look I guess. But mostly, playing originals, we wanted to let the music do the talking for us, and as quoted above, the singer does make a big difference in filling gaps on between tunes. If you have good gear, can engage the audience, and most importantly play your instrument, it's usually all good. I got bagged on by my ex-drummer for not moving around enough, but I told him I could either play my guitar skillfully, or do jumping jacks and screw up some parts. If we were playing 3 chord music I could probably move more, but the music was in most cases very technical. I dunno, just go out and have fun. My biggest peeve has always been the house's stage monitor not working, or being really weak.
 
The best piece of advice I can give is whatever it is you do, sell it. Stick to what you do best.

I play in two bands, one original and one cover. Both are top bands in the area and they only have 1 thing in common: we don't compromise what we love.

The cover band plays 90's rock and the occasional 2000's song, but every song was a top 40 hit. When I started pitching this idea 5 years ago, no musician wanted to do it because they didn't think you could be a band without "the staples". Eventually, I found the right people and now everywhere we go we get rave reviews. No country. No hair bands. No compromising our vision just to appeal to a wider audience. Even our agent tried to talk us into adding more recent material or "a few staple songs". We didn't. We were just nominated for "best cover band" by the premier music/art publication in Fargo/Moorhead. Bars tell us "it's refreshing to hear somebody play something different and fun."

My original band does only original music. We played a few covers early on, but we found that people were requesting the covers more and more. Instead of appealing to that and adding more covers, we drew a hard line in the sand and cut them completely. We didn't book for a few months while we wrote more material. When we came back, people still requested the old covers and we refused to play them. Jump a few years later and now we get the call when national acts come through town. We have a full album and just last night we packed a normally empty bar as the headlining band. We've played with 12 Stones, Eye Empire, Texas Hippie Coalition, Digital Summer... The list goes on. Several of those bands asked us to go on tour with them.

Stick to your vision. Period.
 
Lots of good advice in here.

Cheap trick (not the band) that my first band used when we were starting out in bars and small clubs many years ago was to make sure our girlfriends dressed up and showed up with a bunch of their girlfriends - they loved to dance and could kickstart any party.
As any bar owner knows, bring in the best babes and the guys will follow and spend handsomely at the bar.
We had the music together, dressed right, had good lighting, and a good sound tech that we always used and we made sure to have a blast and engage the crowd.
Very quickly the word spread that when we played the party was ON and guaranteed, from that point on we had a strong following in our local and near local venues.
 
I'm actually interested in what you guys would suggest for a band that plays modern rock with progressive elements but also easy-listening components.
Basicly Muse, female fronted.

No cover material, only self-written. We're playing small clubs and bars and can usually get a full house there, but we can only get the occasional gig once in a month.

Not that we wouldn't be totally satisfied with the current solution, but you know, you can always expand...


Any suggestions?

I think it's very hard for an original band to progress after a certain point. The Cover band thing just works, but that's not what we are interested in. I actually have friends who play in a cover band that just got HUGE in no time and needless to say, I'm terribly envious of that.
 
Sidivan said:
The best piece of advice I can give is whatever it is you do, sell it. Stick to what you do best.

I play in two bands, one original and one cover. Both are top bands in the area and they only have 1 thing in common: we don't compromise what we love.

The cover band plays 90's rock and the occasional 2000's song, but every song was a top 40 hit. When I started pitching this idea 5 years ago, no musician wanted to do it because they didn't think you could be a band without "the staples". Eventually, I found the right people and now everywhere we go we get rave reviews. No country. No hair bands. No compromising our vision just to appeal to a wider audience. Even our agent tried to talk us into adding more recent material or "a few staple songs". We didn't. We were just nominated for "best cover band" by the premier music/art publication in Fargo/Moorhead. Bars tell us "it's refreshing to hear somebody play something different and fun."
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This is my approach to my covers bands, and like you we get accolades for the same reason. Basically, I want to play the kind of music I'd like to hear when I go out to see a band. You wouldn't believe the number of acts that play the same tired old s**t everywhere. I've always tried to avoid that, even though it can be risky.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
Any suggestions?
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There's no general approach which always works. But what I've leant over the past years is, that if you don't really get many gigs, you have to go out there and be the organizer yourself. Look for bands, which don't live in your nearby area, sell them as being something like "The big thing from $TOWN, $COUNTRY" and make sure you'll get a gig from them as well, get a gig in return (german: Austauschgig). This way you'll get new connections.
 
I pretty much wear blue jeans and tee-shirts. Same for the rest of the band (a cover band). I've even worn kaki shorts with black socks and a white tee-shirt. I often look in the mirror in the green room thinking "I look like shit". But we still do ok. No costumes. No themes. No gimmicks. I'm not saying that image isn't important, but it isn't everything. But who knows? If we decided to go there, perhaps we'd do even better. Plenty of bands in Vegas have gimmicks, to the point where it seems that not having one is a gimmick in itself.
 
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