show dread

a band from florida contacted us a month or two ago asking us to open for them at their chicago show. they sounded cool and they just had a single posted on pitchfork so we agreed. now the booking company is fucking shit up: they're having us headline (ie play at midnight on a thursday), with the band we were supposed to open for playing first and a solo singer-songwriter playing in between. the venue is way too big for us to headline and the booking company has been dicks with us about money before. supposedly they have been trying to book a fourth band for the show for the past month without being able to and tried to dump the work of lining up another band onto us. now i look at the out-of-town band's schedule and see they're playing three shows in chicago, so they're probably not going to draw anyone either.

i am regretting agreeing to play the show but it's in a week and a half so we're locked in. what do you do to make yourself more excited about shows that you are dreading?

Oh man I hate shit like this. I actually canceled a show just last week, which is I think the first time I've ever done that, because of a similar situation. If you're really locked in, I say treat it as a chance to experiment. You know, like Spinal Tap Mark II, a free jazz exploration. Try new songs, or learn a bunch of covers, or switch instruments or something. But really I feel like if you find out you've been misled or outright lied to you have every right to pull out of the show. Why do you owe these people anything?

what's the worst that could happen? you play a show for not that many people? i mean, i know it's a drag, but i always think that when i'm part of a tiny audience i still expect the band to play like they mean it. maybe the other band will be into you guys and be able to repay the favor at some point.

I think the worst part of playing/being an audience member at one of these booking error type of shows is feeling embarrassed about it, especially when it's a large room with very few people in it.

Can you guys do covers of random dark house tunes, like "Answering Machine" and "One Night In NYC"?

Another suggestion - try to play your regular set in half the time.

ah, the past-midnight "headlining" slot -- the worst thing is when the promoter/club tries to make this sound like a real privelege. We've had to do this on a few occasions - maybe in bigger cities there are big crowds after midnight but in Denver, things usually start to clear out around then. funnily, i think we may have played our best set during one of these nights ... to about ten people. So I don't know, just get out there and tear it up!

realistically we're just going to play our same set we had planned, we're not the kind of band/people to do some random improv thing or try an experiment. i guess i'm looking for ways to improve my outlook about the gig (and just to bitch about it).

usually what i try to do is try to forget about the audience (or lack thereof) and just try and have fun playing with and engaging with my bandmates on stage, almost like pretend we're in our practice space instead of on a stage. sometimes this works.

yeah, that's pretty much the way to go IMO

My suggestion would be to plan to play a shorter version of your set - kick more ass in a shorter amount of time - if the audience is pretty small, especially since you're on last. If they're still feeling it, then play the full length.

also, do not wear pants

i hear that works really well in chicago.

xp sarahel OTM

agreed it's not always easy to psych up but playing music with your friends is still a fun way to spend an evening, plus you might even get to know a band from another town which is not a bad thing

dude just fuckin rock it, wtf?!
drink as much free beer as they'll let ya and get up there and fuckin rock it. eat all the free bon bons drink all the free beer don't steal but maybe play a prank on the other band, ya know debauchery. i know it's only rock and roll but i like it.

nope, i'm thinking maybe throw a tantrum, and compose a wicked diatribe denouncing this.

wait nope, no tantrum/diatribe, just fuckin rock it!

in short, just rock it!

ha i like jdchurchill's advice, thanks. we will rock it.

feeling better about this show. it might be empty, fuck it.

HA! and now i get an email from the booking company that we have been moved to 2nd out of three (or 3rd if they ever actually book a fourth band), per our request. whatever.

but still dude: rock that shit.

ok

are you coming? to the show?

Has this happened yet? How'd it go?

And was it rocked?

it's tonight. still not really expecting many people in the audience but i'm pumped for our set, it's been sounding really good in practice lately, so i think we'll be able to just have fun. i might take our video camera.

I always really really love small shows that are just like some people with a basement + 10-15 of their drunk friends, though I dunno how I'd feel about that at a venue.

Sorry, that's kinda discouraging! I mean ROCK IT

i think we would be happiest mostly playing house/basement/art space shows, but the people we used to do that with stopped doing it and now we don't really have any connections to that scene anymore

This is all I can think about every time I see this thread.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4562/dreado.jpg

ugh

oh no

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did yz rock it?

oh shit i think the twitter music reviewer is trying to make fun of me

i've been playing in my friend's band for about a year, most of the time i play autoharp. last night we're playing a show, we're a fairly quiet band, and a drunk guy decides that the middle of a song is a good time to wander up and ask what the instrument i'm playing is called. i try to just stare him down, he says "you don't know what it's called? ok" and wanders away. kinda put me in an odd funk for the rest of the set.

"it's called a nightcap"
*smashes it over drunk guys head*

^ why I don't play folk music anymore

that's better than "can i hit your drum? hey, can i hit your drum?"

I have a concert on Sunday in which we are doing this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CsBGC8KlDo

it's going to be a hot mess, or maybe it will all come together at the last minute, I dunno

the club also arbitrarily pushed back the start of the music by an hour, literally minutes after we were talking about how we liked playing there because they're so professional

just rock it, DJP

that song is sick, btw

there's a video of a high school choir doing it from memory with random choreography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoK9X35LQyE

it is a fucking badass song when it works and a trainwreck and a half when it doesn't

haha yes i can believe that

omg @ that video

lol I know, right?

awesome

yessss

random choreography indeed! the boys stage right doing the beavis dance at :53 is great.

i'm in a band with some guys i know from high school, and this OTHER guy we knew from high school who is kind of a trainwreck, he's kind of got mental problems and he's an alcoholic, well, whenever he comes to our shows he makes a big spectacle of himself, saying things like "okay guys well i'm going to that OTHER show now, but you shouldn't care cuz i payed my cover" or "hey you guys see the members of the band you're opening for over there in the bar, they suck haha" etc in the lulls between songs, and i have learned to dread any show that he rsvps on facebook to.

Down here in the hinterland, the shite I dread is having to play gigs where you have to drag the PA to play a gig. The amps and such you got to do, but the PA on top is kind of a pain. Bars with live music are a bit more hit and miss like this in the sticks. The shows are usually pretty good and some we actually get a decent crowd over a night, but it is a whole lot more work.

last band of a four-band bill on a monday night = show dread
at least i took tuesday off work