That End-of-Gig Etiquette
While out seeing 'burningpilot' last night, the question once again arose as to how you treat the announcement "This is our last one." To cheer and whoop makes it sound as if you're saying "Thank god! I don't think I can take much more," rather than "Great gig, shame it's come to an end." Read more...
On the other hand a "Boo," or general noise of discontent at the thought sounds fairly negative and is also a blatant lie. After all, you've already sat through 25 mins of their stuff and frankly you're probably fairly glad this is the last one. Nothing against the band, but gigs over 30 mins are always going to start stretching you unless these guys have been around for a while, churning out musical gold after musical gold and you have all those releases back home.
Actually scrap that. I've enjoyed the close to two-hour big gigs I've been to, but if I was honest, all of those bands could have banged out every track I really wanted to hear inside 30 mins. I'm trying to think, but pretty much every big gig was about waiting for those few short minutes of bliss which signified the tracks you really wanted to go nuts to in a crowd of fans.
Anyway, I digress. The point I was making before is that a positive or negative response to the "last song" announcement isn't the best option. So I stay silent and so does much of the crowd, with the result that everyone appears to be so disinterested in the band, they don't care either way.
Well there are always a few who make it clear they want more at this point; and then further afterwards asking for "encores". I could cheerfully brain these people: Have they no understanding that some of us want to get home? Don't they realise that there maybe other bands to play after? Of course, nothing is worse than a band who do go ahead and hold everyone else up with an encore. It's not an easy thing to do and normally involves being just bland enough to appeal to the sound engineer's love of shit. More importantly, why the fuck have they got any songs left worthy of an encore? Stop filling your 30 minutes with, well, filler!
Of course, this is probably the point to admit that we've done just that in my 'second' band Even iF we Fail, but when we put the setlist together we hadn't really thought it through. And we were the last act. And there was an act that pulled out so there was time.
And to be honest, when I've been the one announcing "This is our last song," I've not given a damn what the audience said. What's going through my head is "Don'tcockitupdon'tcockitupdon'tcockitup..." :D
etiquette schmetiquette
When someone announces it's their last song I say "yay, hooray" if I hate them (that way they think I like them but I know I don't and laugh at their stupid foolish hope that someone might actually be into their fetid arse-swill music [like that first bunch of losers at the BP gig]), I say "Awwww, schucks" if I am sad that they are finishing, like when I went to see Tanya Donelly and she announced the last song at 10.30, and I keep schtum if I am not bothered or if I just want to go home (like for burningpilot, who I would happily hear more from normally, but it was very late).
As far as encores go, I think they suck, when Tanya Donelly announced the last song, I went "Awww, schucks", but in my head it was like, "oh really, I can see on your set list the three songs written under the heading encore", what's the point? Why can't the artist just play four songs and save me the clapping and foot stamping? Mind you, at least people wanted an encore, I have been to gigs before where the band have just run back on stage because they had it planned even though no-one asked.
Mary Lou Lord had it right, she played until 11 and said "ooops I'd better go because the licence doesn't allow for any later" but then the promoter of the Borderline was so chuffed to have her there that he let her back on for an encore and she just carried on playing, taking requests, until she wanted to stop about 45 minutes later. That's the way to finish a gig.
You're going to kill me but...
Who's Mary Lou Lord?
Still, that does sound pretty cool, even if the promoter had to get fined to do it! Yes, I will now be guided by you and only leave the cheering for bands whose heads I am determined to fuck with! :D
Never yet been to a gig where the band had to sneak back on for an encore, though I do remember a Frank Skinner video where he claimed that one time he came back to find everyone leaving and had to pretend it was the way he went home. I'll keep that up my sleeve for when I have to play a really big gig with proper full-on encore. :suspect:
TheoGB
http://theogb.com
A Performer's Etiquette
Well, additionally, I'd like to point out that performers have to be courteous when people come up and say "That was great" and of course, half of them are just being sycophantic and/ or lying. Then you have to put on your nice face and say "Thank you. Thank you for coming." Which gets a bit tedious.
Not saying that I'd rather people told me I was crap, I'd just rather they told me when they meant it
Re: A Performer's Etiquette
We're definitely still talking about performing on stage, right? :suspect: :norty:
Well it's true that the world is blessed with few people honest enough to tell Jake Shillingford "Your old band were shit, your new band's shit and you're shit!" (though of course that story me be mere legend...) :D
The Offender in Question
I am indeed seeing the Jake Shillingford mud-slinger tonight. The same night he also mistook me for Dicken from Fosca.
Please. My hair has *never* been that white
skeletons
that was a long, long time ago. i've matured a lot since then.
Re: skeletons
Yeah but it was only a couple of months ago you told Simon Bookish you thought he was shit, when he came off stage. :D