Part of supporting your favourite bands comes down to seeing them play live whenever they go on a certain tour, whether it's to promote a new album or just to remind everyone that the frontman isn't dead yet. Most of the time, bands get it spot on. They come out, they rock the house and leave to play again another day. However, there are a few bands that manage to successfully fuck it up and it pains me to say that it's often the older bands that think they're too famous to make mistakes.
This blog post is designed to highlight the parts of live gigs that bands SHOULD and SHOULDN'T be allowed to get away with. As always, it's all opinion based but it'd be great if some bands guilty of the Don'ts take these on board before their next performance. Let me know if you're one of those bands or if you just agree/disagree with that I've said.
DO engage in banter with the audience between songs
It's not exactly the main reason people go to gigs but it's a great break in between songs if the band has a frontman with charisma. It can be as simple as telling them brief stories about songs or asking if any of them have been to one of their gigs before, as long as it's not just "Here's one of our songs. Here's another song. Thank you for having us. Here's our latest single". I would say that the banter should be kept outside of the songs but I saw The Darkness recently and they frequently stopped tracks to tell jokes and piss about with the audience. It actually made the show more entertaining than if they just came out and played a set, so I guess it can work on occasion. However, I doubt it'd go down well at a Genesis or Opeth gig.
DO pick a good warm-up band
I'm sure I've mentioned it on this blog before but I have a theory that only "old" bands have good warm-up acts. Any time I go to see a band that started around the 70's or 80's, they always get a great warm-up. Iron Maiden got Sweet Savage, Deep Purple got Cheap Trick, Judas Priest got Saxon. However, whenever I see a band that became popular within the last 10 years or so, the warm-up is ALWAYS terrible. The Darkness got some twats playing the same boring Blues song over and over, Tenacious D got an annoying cunt dressed as a Sasquatch who thought he was incredible, Muse got about three different Indie acts who rocked about as hard as a used snot rag.
I'm not saying that bands like Royal Blood could get AC/DC as their opening act but surely there are better bands than all the ones that seem to be picked. I should also mention that sometimes older bands do pick shitty warm-ups, like the one before Motley Crue and Alice Cooper. I suppose the message here should probably be Don't Pick Bands Your Kids Like/You're Mates With If They Sound Nothing Like Your Music.
DO play an encore
I suppose I should add "unless the audience fucking hate you" but assuming the show goes well and the audience give you well deserved applause at the end, an encore is a must for any headline act. Not sure how many songs to perform? It's always 2 or 3, but here's a handy guide detailing the quantity of tracks played and a translation of what it represents:
No songs/encore: "We couldn't be fucked to do the thing that's kind of expected from every band by now because we don't care about you as a paying audience".
1 song: "There, we've done your precious encore. Now fuck off so we can go home".
2-3 songs: "Thank you, have a great night! We certainly did!"
4+ songs: "We could've included these in the main show but decided to include crap off our recent albums instead and had to put a bunch of tracks you wanted to hear after the main show finished".
2nd encore: "AREN'T WE THE GREATEST BAND IN THE WORLD?! TELL US HOW GREAT WE ARE SO WE CAN MASTURBATE SOME MORE!!"
DON'T neglect fan favourites
I can understand the reasoning behind bands choosing to omit some of their signature songs after decades of playing them. However, these bands need to remember that some of their fans will be experiencing them playing live for the first time. Sure, the venue will contain seasoned concert-goers but some of those will be bringing their kids along and some of them may even be adults who have recently discovered their music thanks to Spotify or some other music streaming service. They may have better songs but part of seeing a band live IS hearing at least one of their big songs performed there in person.
Bands that decide to cut songs that audiences love to hear just because they're bored of playing them or want to swap them out for new singles that they're plugging have forgotten the main reason they're playing live in the first place, or at least the reason they should be playing. It's understandable if the band doesn't enjoy playing 30-year old songs anymore but I'm pretty sure they can stomach one song in a 90 minute set.
DON'T make the audience do all the work
We've all heard anecdotes about bands/frontmen who get the audience to sing along for the majority of the chorus, the kind of egotistical twats who can only get off when they hear a stadium full of fans chanting their name or lyrics. In fact, it's probable that most of us have been to those gigs. For me, it was a Judas Priest gig where Rob Halford sung literally none of "Breaking The Law". I paid to hear a talented Metal vocalist sing the song, not a stadium full of drunk wankers! Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with the vocalist pointing the mic towards the crowd every now and then, especially if the audience are as loud as the band anyway. My problem is vocalists who do it for every bloody line.
DON'T get cute with your performance
I'll admit that I could be in the minority here but when I see a band live, I want to hear them playing the song off the album. I don't want to hear them playing a new solo, I don't want to hear them trying something new with the vocals and I definitely don't want to hear a fucking acoustic rendition just so the drummer can have a piss. There are some examples where adding some backing vocalists or maybe speeding the tempo up slightly can improve the song but when bands actively think "Hey, let's try something different with this one" and experiment by mixing another song into the middle of it (e.g. Whitesnake covering Deep Purple's "Burn" with "Stormbringer" clumsily wedged in the middle or David Coverdale/Glen Hughes screeching "AH! AH! AH! AH!" before the solos), it sounds less like a band performing for a crowd and more like a band performing for themselves so they don't get bored.
Coming soon: REVIEWS! There's quite a few albums coming out this month so if you want to read lots of reviews on here, keep checking back every weekend! If you want me to write other posts, request some on Twitter or the comment section!
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