Get Your Ass Off the Stage!!!

Nothing slows down the momentum of a show more than technical difficulties. A close second is a slow-moving band.

When you’re getting on or off stage, you need to be fast. If you take too long between bands, the audience will get bored, tired, anxious, and possibly gone. You wouldn’t want them to leave before you started, so show some respect to the band playing after you and move fast.

One of my favorite bands in the world, whom I sha’n't be naming here, is very guilty of doing this. Their music is absolutely amazing, but they move like molasses. The drummer takes the cymbals off the stands on stage. ON STAGE!!

Do you know how much quicker the change-over would be if he’d pull all his stuff off stage and then removed his cymbals? We’re talking at least five minutes here. Five minutes may not sound like much, but it could be the difference between the audience hopping to a different bar to get their next drink, or sticking around for the rest of the night.

By the time the band before you is playing their last song, the guitars should be unpacked and on their stands, the amps on top of the cabs, and the drums completely set up, with cymbals on the stand. All you should have to do is get everything in the right spot and plug in. This also gives you a little extra time for a nice sound check, which never hurts.

When you’re all done, wrap up all your chords and cables and pull everything off-stage and out of the way of the next band.

“But what about the guy who comes running up to the stage and wants to talk your ear off while you’re trying to get off the stage?” Just explain politely that you will talk to him in five minutes when your shit is off stage. Believe me, he’ll understand. You’re not blowing him off, you’re just showing respect to the next band and the rest of the audience.

A good momentum is key to a great show, and a happy audience.

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Hot Mic! Check..um…1,2

Hot Mic! Check..um…1,2.

I wanted to do a post with tips on doing a mic check, but since I’m not incredibly experienced with singing, I decided to give this post to a guest writer…

by: Paul Karcz – singer for Spiral Trance
Most of the time I bring my own mic which is a Shure SM 58, a pretty standard vocal mic. I use it because I know it sounds good for me and I know I won’t be swapping spit with the band before me.
Because I’m also playing guitar and piano, I make sure I do my sound check on my instruments FIRST so I get good stage volume with the rest of the band.
Then I’ll check the mics that I’m singing on (since it’s usually two different mics for either side of the stage). *In some songs Paul plays keyboards. During these songs he switches to stage right where the keyboard is located, and I move to center stage. So our mic checks are a bit more complicated since we have 3 vocal mics across the front, one of which changes from backing vox to main vox.*
The first thing I listen for is volume, and I always want it to be just above the stage volume mix. Too loud and I find that I’m not projecting my vocal enough, too quiet and I’m straining my voice to hear and risk blowing it out during the second song.
I also listen for enough eq in the monitors, making sure it’s not too bass heavy and muffled, and also not to “tinny” sounding or too much high end. Either one of those frequencies can cause major feedback on stage when stepping up to the microphone causing a horrible vocal situation. The eq should be relatively flat with minor boosts across the spectrum so no feedback occurs and you have ample headroom to play with volume.

On another note, turning the guitar cabs toward each other on opposite sides of the stage, called side washing, in a club setting can greatly help a sound guy eliminate feedback coming thru the mics and it also allows the band a little more stage volume for themselves. Keep in mind when you do this, you may have to require a little bit of your instrument to be brought into the according monitors to even out the overall stage volume etc. Remember though if you’re playing bigger stages and outdoor shows, side-washing is not suggested as it will create a “tunnel” like effect and you won’t be able to hear your instruments well enough over the monitor mix. The sound guy will have to really boost your instrument signals in the monitors which means that he’ll have to keep boosting your vocal mixes as well which can cause feedback. Remember, there’s no sound quite like the original sound of your amplifer cabinet on stage as opposed to an eq’ed signal blaring back at you through stage monitors half their size.

Lastly, make sure if you can, to run through a song or two, or even a part of a song. This is so important, not only for the sound guy, but the band as well. You will be able to hear everything that needs to be adjusted as the band is playing together. Everything sounds different when mics are not being checked individually! Volume levels do change as the band plays together, so make sure you work it out when you can!

Is Myspace Killing Music?

I recently received a comment on my Yes, We Sign Boobs post from someone named Scelza that looks like this:

I wouldn’t be so quick to put MySpace up on this page. If anything, MySpace is killing the music industry as we once knew it. Any 12 year old kid and his friends can now create a band in 10 minutes on MySpace and put their half-assed 4-track (if they’re lucky enough to know what a 4-track is) up on their Band’s MySpace and invite every single friend on their own personal MySpace page to “Add as Friend”.
Then if you are to search for a specific music genre or band name, etc., on MySpace, you’ll most likely come up with 20+ hits on a bunch of sites that have less than 30 actual fans on the list of people who’ve actually sat through and listened to the song that pops up as soon as you click on said band’s profile.
A totally different thing can be said however on bands that actually take the time and effort to put up a personal ‘.com’ for their music and info. This means that the band is serious, committed and ready to do whatever it takes to make a name for themselves. They ACTUALLY believe in themselves and what they are REALLY capable of rather than being some pre-teens who made a little 3 minute song that they made when they were bored and were fooling around on their older siblings instruments and equipment.
MySpace is killing music.

I feel that this comment has so much potential for debate that I’m making a post out of it.
Here’s my response:
No, Myspace is not killing music. It has made it easier for anyone to promote their music, no matter how poorly done it is. But guess what – just because there’s more music to sift through, doesn’t mean that the good stuff won’t get noticed. The cream always rises to the top my friends, and quality and originality will shine through. Yes, having a dot.com makes you look more professional and serious, but it’s much harder to get people to go to your website than it is to get them to your Myspace. Why? Because most people are on Myspace. A lot of bands who are serious can’t afford to hire someone with the design skills to make a website look great, whereas a Myspace page can look professional with just a bit of basic HTML knowledge.
I went to a seminar this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio where one of the reps said something interesting. She stated that you can have 10k friends and 100k song plays, but if your music sucks, it sucks. The A&R people and scouts who look on Myspace for new bands to sign no longer pay attention to play counters or friend counters, because they know that those things can be falsified through the use of bots. What they look for is quality music, and interaction with fans, and an attractive gig calendar. Yes, it’s annoying when shitty bands keep trying to add you, but that annoyance is not killing music. Good bands get attention by word of mouth. If you want to go out actively seeking new music, Myspace is not the place to do it, because Myspace won’t tell you what’s good, it’ll only tell you what’s popular. Everyone is on an equal level there, and I feel that that’s a good thing. I’ve also seen many bands with websites who weren’t serious and only got a dot.com because they felt they had to in order to look serious.
And here’s another question: what about the pre-teens who made a shitty 3-song demo on a 4-track who do believe in themselves and have dreams and want to make it as musicians. Should we criticize them and outcast them because they’re too young and inexperienced and can’t afford a good recording? When people put bad music on Myspace, it really doesn’t hurt the music industry, because the music industry doesn’t notice.
PLEASE: Leave comments about your opinions. Feel free to disagree with me and call me stupid if you like. Make your voice heard!!
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