From The Garage to the Stage Part 3: Segues and Speeches

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES

Last week we discussed the concept of writing a killer setlist and my advice was to break the set into three sections. While this is a technique that works perfectly just to get the songs down into an effective order on paper, this structure can exist within the show itself, creating a set that comes across as a half-hour performance rather than a 'stop-start' affair.

STICK WITH THE SECTIONS
You only have a limited amount of time in the set so stopping for a chat and a tune-up after every song is not an efficient use of anyone's time. Without planning beforehand, bands tend to meander between songs. It’s not engaging as an audience member to look at a group of musicians whose heads are scanning each other from left to right with the singer mouthing ‘are you ready?’ This doesn’t have the same sense of performance as you can achieve if you have your transitions organised. In my experience, a crowd can enjoy two or three songs played back-to-back quite comfortably so the perfect time for a chat or a breather is between the setlist sections outlined last week. So, for that half-an-hour-length, seven-song support set, leaving a gap between songs three and four, then between five and six, and finally saying a goodbye during a breakdown in the last song is a great way to lay the set out in terms of 'breaks' (you can revise your understanding of this standard support-set structure in my last blog HERE).

On SB6 setlists, our we denote the section breaks by drawing a line between the songs. Between the songs that have no line on the setlist, there is no break in the set. We may drag out the last note of the song before and start the next song immediately. We may have a backing track bubbling underneath and just say a few words over that to introduce the next song. The important thing is that the flow keeps going until we see the line on the setlist. Only where there is a line do we know that we’re free to relax, have a drink of water and address the crowd in a free-form way. It’s worth noting that having these gaps after playing three songs or so back-to-back is as important for the crowd as it is for the band. They need to catch their breath too and it’s amazing how the atmosphere of the room can change from exhausted to expectant in something as small as a thirty-second breather.


See how Muse structure their sets with sections divided by breaks.

BANTER IN THE BREAKS
Some bands are natural comedians and turn their bluff and banter between songs into a charming feature of the set. Most of us aren’t, or at least have to work very hard at it, so it’s great to have some tricks up our sleeves. If you’re a little shy with the crowd, that’s a perfect reason to define where in the set you are going to chat and what your subject is. It's a good idea to write a subject down next to the section-break line on your setlist to denote what to speak about. The main thing that this avoids (and I see it all the time) is bands repeating themselves. A way you could do it could be cheat-sheet style notes such as ‘thank previous band’, ‘chat to crowd’ or ‘mention merch / website’. You could even leave the notes as just a word to inspire or remind you of your subject and let yourself wax lyrical from there. This might feel contrived to some but I’m not suggesting you script anything, in fact it's best to avoid over-scripting. Not only does scripting sound unnatural in execution, but scripted setlists grabbed by members of the crowd may end up the source of much amusement and ridicule if the fan posts them on the internet, which genuinely happened to some friends in a leading UK punk band some years ago (but, to be fair, even for a control freak like me, having 'spray beer' on the setlist was too much information!)

When playing a support slot, as a rule of thumb, the less breaks the better, but remember that every break doesn't need to taken after three songs or more, particularly on a longer set. You can see on the example below that SB6 choose to break after song six, then again after song seven. The point is that we all know where we are going to break, and Laila has a subject to chat about, because it's laid out for her on the setlist.


Laila's SB6 setlist, complete with break lines and banter notes.

HAPPY TALK
There are several common errors to avoid when talking to crowds. Saying the exact same thing after every other song is the most usual mistake that inexperienced bands make. It conveys nerves and a lack of sincerity. The most glaring example I can give that many support bands fall back on (I’m sure we all have) is to continuously thank the main band. During the breakdown of the last song is a great place to thank or ‘big up’ the main act. It’s so tempting to do it throughout, because the fans are waiting for them and you’ll get a cheap cheer, but to most people in the room it comes across as fawning and amateurish, almost as if you can barely believe you’re getting to play with your heroes. That’s not how your potential fans want to see you. Once, or twice at most, (once at the start, once at the end if you absolutely must) is more than enough.

Much more of a cardinal sin of onstage banter is the behaviour of bands who attempt to scold the crowd for not reacting to them the way that they want them to. I’ve seen support bands call crowds ‘lazy’ for not dancing to them, I’ve seen hardcore bands call crowds ‘p*****s’ for not moshing. This is not the way to deal with these situations. As far as playing a support set goes, you really are on an emotional knife-edge with a room full of strangers; they want to like you, but you shouldn’t give them reason not to.

Hands up who is ready to see the MAIN BAND! WOOOOO!

EXPECTING TOO MUCH
Also in the ‘expecting too much from a support crowd' category is a peculiar no-no I used to see a lot, especially among punk bands. Bands would attempt to guilt-trip the audience into buying their CD based on the simple fact that they had made the effort to play a gig. Politely suggesting that the crowd might want to buy a CD or support the scene is one thing but saying ‘we’ve driven 500 miles to get here and we have no money and the only way that bands like us and the ones you will see later tonight can keep going is for you to buy our merch’ is just a downer. No one twisted your arm to join a band. We paid our money to get in. Entertain us! There is a more positive way to get that notion across than to come out and say it in those terms. Rock the crowd as hard as you can, come across as affable and positive, tell them about your merch and let them work it out for themselves.

If the room does turn against you, it’s far better to come across as blissfully ignorant of a contemptuous venue, lost in the joy of your own music, than it is to discuss that elephant in the room. Those fans paid for their ticket. It’s not the crowd’s duty to dance to you, to shout your name, or to like you. This isn’t just a one way conversation. Often the crowd will answer back… but that’s a story for next week where we will discuss the subliminal discourse that goes on between crowd and audience at every gig. That might sound a little like psychobabble but I'm simply talking about the unspoken contract between performer and onlooker that goes on in every kind of performance.

Until next time…

Barney

Cheers to Theo Araby Kirkpatrick for the SB6 setlist shot.
Crowd shot courtesy Chad Cooper's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.