Horrible gig.

[Cass]

I'm feeling fed up!
Just done a gig this afternoon ...(a charity gig that a friend was organising). 4 of us were doing a slot of 45 mins each.
Over the years, I've played in all sorts of places, big, small, acoustic, amplified. People are always appreciative, and I get good feedback. (I play guitar and sing folk songs/my own songs.)
This afternoon, I played to "pond life".
......actually, I've come across more advanced amoebas!!!!
Most of the audience were straining to listen, while a huge, very loud (very stupid??) family with at least 8 children, was screaming, shouting, laughing, heckling, and generally making total nuisances of themselves. I couldn't hear what I was doing....and I had a PA and monitor. The organisers asked them to "be quiet" 2 or 3 times, and gave up in the end. When their mate came on at the end of the interval to do karaoke, they were whooping and cheering!
Is this what music has come to????? Flippin' karaoke????
I cut my set list by 5 songs. I was fighting a losing battle.

.....right....I'm OK now...just felt I needed to get that lot off my chest!

I know that in the kind of places I regularly play, these kinds of people are....thankfully in the minority, but if they didn't want to listen, why, for god's sake did they come in the first place????????

I need a large glass of wine. Sorry for the rant....

Cass.

[chrisoff]

An old story, told a thousand times unfortunately. I've been to many a gig that has been ruined by idiots talking over someone I paid good money to listen to.

[Lambchop]

And ya'll wonder why we won't give up our guns????

I'm sorry to hear of your experience, Cass. Sorry I wasn't there to help you out, too . . .

[BillChin]

I'd say count your blessings if most of your gigs are where people are there to listen and compliment you afterwards. Unfortunately, that just isn't that common.

All a performer can do is play through it. If at all possible look at the humorous side. Where I live, karaoke is big, as are pledge bands (bands that look and sound the same as a popular group). Original music tends to be a hard sell and under appreciated.

Well, you survived it, and have a story to tell. It doesn't sound that bad as far as horror stories goes. Only one group in the audience was rude, and the sound system worked. There are far worse tales. Sometimes people walk out. Sometimes people feel free to hurl insults. I can imagine many worse outcomes.

[Caroluna]

Cass, when you mentioned earlier that you had a gig on Sunday I was soooooo envious! I thought "That must be so wonderful. I would love to share my music with an adoring audience! "



I'm not envious any more-- this makes it sound like playing gigs is a lot like learning to hang glide. Some exhilarating experiences....and some crash landings.

I'm glad nothing got broken :whew:

[KatieBell]

Don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of them.

Here's proof that you aren't alone!

[Cass]

Don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of them.

Here's proof that you aren't alone!

Wow...just goes to show.

Normally, I play specifically in folk clubs (where people come just to listen). Last week I had a gig in a very old club in Saddleworth (on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire). It was just me all night. I did two slots of 45 mins each with an interval in between. Every second of my playing, you could hear a pin drop. People waited until I had finished a song before getting up to get a drink, and it went sooooooooo well!
This is the good kind of gig that I enjoy doing!

As far as the rude people go....I hope their supper burnt, and hope they've all got REALLY bad hangovers this morning!! Ha!

Cass.

[mukade]

The above incident...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

Mukade

[Innocent Bystander]

Don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of them.

Here's proof that you aren't alone!

Yeah, but...

An acclaimed vioinist, with an acclaimed violin, is going to a place where people are going to work and to make money. They are not going there to listen to music. They're busy! The music is a distraction and an irriation. They have other things to think about. When you are busking you are taking your chance, and depending on where you busk, people are liable to be hostile. The heart of Federal Washington? Not my idea of a good place to busk. Although they're all probably too worried about their political image to actually throw rotten fruit.

[jim stone]

Here, from another venue, is my version of the worst
gig imaginable.

Professor:

As my mother was dying, she looked up at me. She said:
'Son, I see something now, as clearly as I see your face
before me. Love underlies all things. The universe is made
of love! And if we will only love each other, and allow ourselves
to be loved, we will understand life's true meaning.'

I'm not a mystical sort of guy, I'm one of these hard-headed,
scientific types. But she was seeing through me to something
deeper. She was seeing what she was saying!

Then she died.

He is overcome by emotion. He takes a deep breath, wipes
a tear from his eye, and continues more quietly:

I've never told this to anybody before, but we were talking
about the meaning of life and I thought you might find
it interesting.

Student's voice, whining:

Is this going to be on the exaaam?

Prof, confused:

What? I beg your pardon?

Student, again:

Is this going to be on the exaam?

Prof:

Everything we do in class is fair game. I mean, what do you
expect me to say?

Another student, deep voice:

Thas nah fair!

A female voice, nasty:

Yeah, our OTHER teachers don't treat us this way!

[izzarina]

Most of the audience were straining to listen, while a huge, very loud (very stupid??) family with at least 8 children, was screaming, shouting, laughing, heckling, and generally making total nuisances of themselves.

Kids are hard at these things...if the parents are attentive to them, making sure they behave, generally they don't. I know when I go to hear someone play, I make sure that my kids (all 11 of them) are sitting quietly and at least trying to be attentive. Well, they're not always quiet...we are a group that likes to participate in the music a bit by clapping with the beat and sometimes singing along when it's a tune we know And if it's not someone we specifically came to hear, then we are polite and listen anyway. It doesn't take much to keep them in line either. ..if they act up, I take them for a walk and let them blow off some steam. I always hate when people with lots of kids don't take care to ensure their kids are behaving...it makes those of us who do take care look bad

But anyway, off my soapbox. I'm sorry you had a bad time of it, Cass. Hopefully the next one will be so good, it'll more than make up for this last one

[Nanohedron]

One thing I've come to accept is that in many venues, my function is at the very least to provide aural "wallpaper", as it were; an ambience for people to live in while they listen or do other things. Which isn't to say that I don't do my best. Anything less betrays me and insults the audience. If they listen, that's nice. Great, even. If they don't, that's okay, but it does give me all the more incentive to try to break the spell of whatever's distracting them. Sometimes it works. But I don't care who you are, sometimes there's nothing you can do about that. I've seen times where absolute masters, brilliantly evocative players, were performing to a crowd where only one or two were actually listening and seemed to recognise that they were witnessing something rare and special while the rest missed the gift they were being offered. One such performer I asked about that was philosophical about it, and that's how I arrived at my own take on the situation.

Surprisingly enough, groups that seem not to be listening often actually are in some way. At one wedding reception I played at, it seemed I would have done just as well to have stayed home, but the positive feedback afterward was surprising.

And, to be utterly pragmatic about it, at least you get paid, right? So it goes.

[fearfaoin]

Kids are hard at these things...if the parents are attentive to them, making sure they behave, generally they don't.

Did you perhaps leave out a "not" here?
If not, then there's no hope for any of us...

[s1m0n]

Don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of them.

Here's proof that you aren't alone!

Yeah, but...

An acclaimed vioinist, with an acclaimed violin, is going to a place where people are going to work and to make money. They are not going there to listen to music...

Busking is a skill like any other, and successful busking requires much more than instrumental prowess. Hell, I've never had any instrumental prowess, and have done better at busking than this guy.

Smiling & making eye contact ups the take, as does salting your hat with the right kind of money--unlike beggers, people want to see that buskers have already made some money, because if other people gave, it proves the buster is good. How you dress matters. Playing the right kind of music for the site, your audience and the time of day also matters.

[sbfluter]

Out of curiosity, what kind of dress works? Do you have to dress down and look almost homeless or dress up but not look like you have a day job?