The big gig.
A normally laid-back guitarist friend of mine was in a panic. His band had been picked to open for a headline act in front of a couple thousand people and it would be their biggest concert to date. He was no stranger to performing live and always felt it was the best part of his life as a musician. So, why the stress this time?
It’s pretty common for emotions to surface at inopportune moments before big shows. Fear or nervousness fueled by the realization that maybe your career is actually progressing, and the reactions of this particular audience to you onstage may somehow determine your future, “The higher you climb, the further you may fall” mentality. You can easily obsess about the myriad of things that might go wrong for the big concert.
The solution? Have fun.
Many of these incidents are uncontrollable, however your reaction is. Yes, strings break, drummers lose time, vocalists forget lyrics, monitors sound terrible, and PA’s go out. Next. To an audience, the technical problems that are your worst nightmare are rarely an issue for them. Most of the time they don’t even notice something is amiss (for better or worse.) What they inevitably do notice is how you are reacting on stage. Suck it up and plow ahead. You are presenting an energy on stage and the audience is highly sensitive to it. After all, that’s why they are out seeing you live instead of listening to your music at home on their couch.
When a band visibly implodes when a guitar string breaks it is their reaction that pulls the crowd’s attention away from the music much more than the compromised guitar sound. Conversely, I’ve seen a band lose their entire PA sound on stage, make a joke about the problem with the audience and then turn their set into an unplanned acoustic evening that left thousands of people roaring with approval. Such response was aided largely by the crowd’s admiration for the band’s dedication. They were sharing their music live as best they could under difficult circumstances. The band weren’t going to let details get in the way of time with their audience and this gesture resonated deeply.
The more you are able to mentally pre-acknowledge mistakes as an occasional part of the live experience, the better you’ll be able to deal with incidents as they occur which, in turn, will help keep the audience focused on your music, performance, and energy. Remember, your best live performances are the culmination of continual feedback between the you and the crowd. You are partners, dependent on each others energy to elevate one another. Do your part, problems be damned, and dare to laugh along the way. Your audience has your back.
Tags: Touring