Because You're On Stage!

There's nothing more annoying than watching a band on stage performing that has zero stage presence. It's even worse when the music is really good. You could shut your eyes and enjoy the music, but that's not why you paid the cover charge. If you only wanted to listen, you could just stay home and listen to the CD. There's a reason the band is playing on a stage instead of behind a curtain.

People want to see a show. Not just a bunch of dirty looking hippies jamming their hearts out. Sure, it's fun to jam, but until you're famous, most people don't want to pay just to watch you noodling with your pals. If you want to do that, then do it at home or in the rehearsal space. Don't do it on stage, unless that is your genre. If you went to Prince's 2004 tour you saw a top professional putting on a terrific show. Even if you didn't care about his music, you were entertained. That's the job of any act on any stage: Entertain the audience.

So, how does a new band do this? Some people have a natural charisma. If your act has a front person like that, you're in luck. The rest of you will just have to learn, and sometimes, even if you're the guy with charisma, you'll just have to fake it.

First off, remember that you are there to entertain. It doesn't matter what genre you're playing, country, jazz, rock, hip hop, whatever. The goal is still to entertain, to put on a show. There aren't really any rules, as long as the audience walks away feeling like they had a good time. Here's a few tips that anyone can handle:

• Have fun on stage, or at least pretend to. The audience doesn't know and doesn't care if you are having a bad day. So your wife ran away with your best friend and they took your dog, car and all your money. Put on a smile and pretend that this is the most fun you've had in your entire life. If you can't do that, it may be better to cancel the gig. Believe me, the audience can tell when you are not enjoying yourself on stage. If you are pissed off and angry, they will sense it and unless, you're an in-your-face punk act, it won't go over well. The more you play, the easier this will get, so practice, a lot. The best acts in any region can and will play under all sorts of adverse conditions. The difference between you and them is that they know how to fake having a good time. It's usually well rehearsed between song comments/jokes/banter that gets the crowd participating. Their audience may never know that the lead vocalist is having the worst day of his/her life and neither should yours.
• Dress for success. Do you wear the same clothes on stage that you wear at rehearsal? Don't. Always wear something clean and presentable. At the very least have everyone in the act wear blue jeans and the same color T-shirts. There are a few national acts that don't seem to care about how they look, but they are a very small minority. Even the 70 year old jazz cats playing in the smallest dives in the worst neighborhoods dress up when they play. Something sparkly or eye-catching that you would never be caught dead wearing on the street is perfect for the stage. If you have absolutely no fashion sense, ask a girlfriend, sister or fan. Many women will be thrilled to dress you up. If money is an issue, go to a thrift store, there's always something funky/cool there. If you notice the trends in music fashion you'll see that many new fads start out with something a hot new act bought at a second hand store. Examples: Torn up jeans, The Ragamuffin reggae look that came from Jamaican street urchins, blue jeans were not considered acceptable to wear except at blue collar jobs until Elvis and his contemporaries, started wearing them. Loose fitting pants that are way too big started out as hand me downs from older siblings. Outdated basketball jerseys were a lot cheaper than the ones current teams wear, until hip-hop artists made them became popular. You can start the next music fashion trend.
• Move around. Unless you are stuck behind a drumset or keyboard, you need to move around on stage. This catches the audience's eye and helps keep their attention. If you are a lead vocalist who just stands ramrod straight, you had better blow everyone away, because otherwise they'll be staring at your bass player instead. If you must keep stationary, then move your head, your arms, your booty. The more the better. If your guitar player is taking a solo, step away from the mic and dance a little. It doesn't take much and nobody will make fun of you. If your act has a horn section, ask them to all point their horns in the same direction and move them side to side in unison. Just a little choreography will go a long way. Lead vocalists who look at the crowd and hop up and down in time with the music will commonly see the audience doing the same thing. You know you're on the right track if your audience is on the dance floor. It means they are having fun.
• Play well. Know your material inside-out and upside-down. You shouldn't be looking at your hands when you play out. There are already enough distractions at a live gig. Don't require yourself to focus everything just on getting through the song without messing up. That means lots of practice and rehearsal. Lots and lots. You should be able to play your whole set with your eyes closed. This frees up some of your attention to focus on the audience, pick up on signals from your bandmates, or make your solo even better. It's tough to smile at the hot chicks flashing you their boobs if you are staring at your fretboard. Eye contact goes a very long way and will make the show a more personal experience for every member of the audience you connect with. I know that some bands in recent years have become famous with guitar players that wear their axe slung low around knee level and then hunch over, almost double the whole time they are playing. Not only does that look amateurish (to this author, at least), but it's really bad for your back, too. Most professionals prefer watching someone like B.B. King play with his guitar up high on his chest, his face pointed skyward, eyes closed as he hits exactly the right chords bringing emotion out in the song. B.B. knows his instrument well enough that he almost never needs to look at it in order to play well. With enough practice you can, too. Oh, yeah, and just because you saw your favorite band/player do something on MTV, doesn't mean you should, too. Watch what the old guys do. If they can last for decades, playing hundreds of gigs every year, they must know what they are doing and how to do it in the least painful fashion.

Related articles and podcasts can be found online at RockOnColorado.com

Why people don't come to your show

At some point every musician will ask him/herself: "Why didn't anybody come to my show?"

Every situation is different but we will attempt to describe some of the most common reasons nobody shows up and what, if anything, you can do about it.

Sooner or later, no matter how big or successful you are, you will have show that bombs. If you're successful and this is an uncommon thing, then don't worry about it too much. You're probably doing fine and you can just chalk it up to bad luck. If it's happening commonly, then you need to figure out why and try to do something about it. It could be a blizzard or a hurricane that ruins your show. Don't worry too much about the weather related problems. There's nothing you can do about them, so cowboy up and move on. Sometimes you may never figure out why people didn't show up, but if you can at least eliminate some common reasons, you may be able to avoid having a poor turnouts at all your gigs. Be aware, when booking, of things like holidays and the seasonal ups and downs of your particular market(s) and you can avoid some of those lousy shows before they ever happen. Check out our podcast/article called "Never Release Your New Album in December" for more details on seasonal and holiday bookings to avoid.

One common reason that people may not come to your show is simply competition. Maybe there's a huge national act in town that appeals to your audience and they're gonna go to that show instead of yours. This happens a lot and there's not too much you can do about it, except try to schedule your shows around the bigger ones. If you can manage that, then maybe you should also attend those competing shows and use it as an opportunity to hand out flyers and promote your act. After all, these are the same people that like your band. An ideal situation would be to get your band booked to open for that bigger act.

Another common reason people aren't coming to your show: They don't know about it. Have you sent out emails to your fans? Is it posted on your website? Your Myspace? Your facebook? It should be. If you don't have any of those, you need to make them and build up your fans/friends pronto. Did you make sure your gig shows up on any/all local calendar sites, news and arts weekly papers/magazines? Don't rely on the venue or promoter to advertise your shows. They should and usually do, but there's always more that you can do. The bottom line: If your fans don't know about your gig, they aren't gonna come. We've seen great bands playing wonderful music to empty rooms simply because nobody in the band could be bothered to promote the show. If you don't want to do it, then recruit your fans to help out or consider hiring someone who does it for a living.

Are you playing the same market too much? If you're playing in the same city every Friday and Saturday night, there are very few people who will be able to come to every show, much less want to. If your shows are spaced out enough, not more than once every six weeks or so, then it becomes an event when you play and your fans will try harder to make it to the show. If you need to play every weekend to make a living, then play different markets. In almost every part of the country you can drive 20-30 miles and find yourself in a whole new market. Rotate through as many markets as you can, so that you always have gigs, but never overplay in any area.

The last and hardest hurdle to overcome may simply be your performance. To put it bluntly: You might suck. You should be able to determine if this is the problem by watching your fan base. If it grows, you're doing things right. If it starts off big, with all your friends and family coming to your first couple shows and then drops off quickly, then you have a problem. What can you do? Practice more. Make sure all your band mates are playing as good as they can. If they can't cut it then maybe lessons are in order. Anyone can improve their performance musically and stage presence -wise. Maybe it's time to replace someone, try some different material or even quit. We hate to see anyone give up, but certainly, playing music professionally just isn't meant to be for some people. Sometimes, just changing the material can transform an act. We've seen new bands hit the road hard for a year and come back with a whole new confidence and understanding of how to capture and hold an audience. We've seen some bands, filled with highly talented players, insist on playing only their originals and no covers. Unfortunately, some great players aren't very good at songwriting and so the act never quite catches on and builds a following. Just throwing in a couple compatible covers here and there can excite a crowd and get people interested in your original music. People don't usually dance to music they've never heard before. In one case we know about a band that is very successful as a retro-1980s cover band and then under another name (and less cheesy costumes) plays all originals. They way they get the best of both worlds is to book both acts to play consecutively on the same night. A great example of this is Hank Williams III. He plays a set of old covers his grandfather made famous, then after a short break he comes back on stage with the same band plays a set of in your face punk. The set of covers provides income and brings in big crowds who then get exposed to his original stuff. To ease the pain, we've heard that some bands who must play covers in order to pay the bills will not waste time learning any cover songs that take them longer than 10 minutes to learn.

We hope this will help you understand and remedy some of the most common reasons people don't come to your show.

More detail on some of the above topics and related articles and podcasts can be found online at RockOnColorado.com