Get Up, Get On And Get Off: The Early Bird Catches The
Record Deal!
By Sheena
Metal
Imagine this....you're
in the local hospital's pre-op ward waiting for the removal
of your pesky rupturing appendix. You wait and wait in side
splitting agony while your doctor chats it up with the
nurses, gathering phone numbers from the hot ones. After
what seems forever, he gets you prepped and begins the
surgery. What should have been a 20-minute procedure turns
into two hours. He cracks jokes and talks about his cherry
red Ferrari, while you're lying unconscious with your
abdomen split open. Finally, you're sewn up and ready for
recovery but super surgeon and his crack anesthesiologist
are having a heated discussion about the science of their
golf games and have seeming forgotten you're passed out
underneath them with tubes stuck in every orifice. If this
were your surgery experience, you'd freak out, sue the
hospital and your hot-shot doc would wind up cleaning
bedpans at the state convalescent hospital.
Sadly, like our skirt-chasing doc, many
musicians think that the consequences of their actions are
immaterial and treat their audience with the same
lackadaisical disregard that the before-mentioned doctor
treated his poor patient with. These selfish creative types
show up to gigs late, set up at their own leisure (roughly
the same pace that a 100 year-old tortoise would run the
Boston marathon), play as long of a set as they please
(regardless of their designated set time) and break
down/clear the stage at their own whim with little or no
regard to the club's schedule.
However, if you asked any of these artists,
they would say that they consider music to be their
career....and shouldn't a career be treated with the same
importance and professionalism whether you're a budding rockstar or an established surgeon? It should, but often
it's not and bands then find their reputations are tarnished
with labels like: slow, lazy, and irresponsible simply
because they seem unable to get their show on (and off) in a
timely manner. Get branded as a slovenly flake and watch
the music industry folks jump ship faster than the rich
ladies on the Titanic.
The following are a few tips that will help
you to get up, get on and get off in a timely, professional
manner that will impress the powers-that-be and leave you
fans wanting more:
1.)
Have Everything Set Up Before You Set
Up....It's not like you just found out you were playing five
minutes before. Gigs are booked days, weeks or months in
advance so there's no reason not to be well informed and
well equipped prior to your arrival and set up. Guitars and
drums should be tuned, drum kits and guitar pedals set up
and dialed in, and song lists printed and distributed so
that set up time is minimal. Once the stage is free, a
professional band will simply haul their gear onstage, plug
it in, and do a few last minute tweaks before they're ready
to rock and roll. The ancient tortoise rockers, however, will plunk the road cases down on the stage and then force
friends, fans and industry alike twiddle their musical
thumbs in anticipation while each piece of gear is pulled
out, unwrapped, wiped off, place into position and screwed
in slowly but surely. Truthfully, it's about as interesting
as watching paint dry without the guilty pleasure of getting
high off the fumes.
2.)
Sound Check/Line Check Is Not A Mini
Concert---You may view your sound check as the concert
before the concert but you're not making any friends
dragging out your sound check to an hour and a half while
bands are lined up out the door waiting to set up their own
gear and check their sound. Same goes for the line check.
You may be surprised to know that audiences aren't all that
excited to sit and listen to you work out your live sound in
front of their eyes and on their time. Save the lengthy
tune-up and checking for the Making Of The Band video. Get
your levels quick and get to rockin'!
3.)
Plan Out Your Set Time Well Before Your
Set---The key to a tight set is the prep work that goes on
before the night of the gig. Many artists believe that the
longer they're onstage the more the audience gets revved up,
but there is something to be said about "too much of a good
thing." Plan out your set, time it and then time it again
and make sure
that it comes in a few minutes under your designated set
list time. Little passive aggressive tricks like cramming
in two or three extra songs at the end of the set or coaxing
your friends into screaming for an encore only serves to
enrage your sound man and confuse your crowd and extensive
tuning and chatting amongst yourselves and audience members
in between songs is just plain tedious. The tighter your
set is the more professional it sounds to the ears of your
audience and the happier you'll make your bookers, promoters
and club owners.
4.)
Tear Down Should Be The Quickest Of All---If
you thought your set up was quick, your band's tear down
should be lightning fast in comparison. So much time is
wasted every night at a music venue as musicians dawdle
after their sets, drinking and chatting with friends, while
their gear lies piled up onstage, preventing the next
artists from getting set up. Pick up your instruments, haul
them of stage, and take them outside or into the green
room. There you can wrap your gear up, clean it off, and
pack it away into cases and into your cars. Then, it's time
to toss back a few beers and gab with the masses until
closing time, without interrupting the flow of the evening.
Imagine this---you're in a local club waiting
to check out an act your label has sent you to scout. You
wait and wait in growing more bored and more drunk while the
band you've been sent to see chats it up with the women in
the room, giving t-shirts and CDs to the really hot ones.
After what seems like forever, the bands takes the stage and
begins their set. What should have been a 30-minute
showcase turns into an hour or more as the band plays a
loose set, stopping often to tune, complain about the sound,
yell to the bartender for drinks and crack jokes with select
audience members; while you sit unimpressed trying to get a
feel for the band's style. Finally, their set ends and you
wait to approach the band on behalf of your label but these
super rockstars are still onstage wrapping up endless cords
and wiping down each piece of gear while they chat with each
other about how much their set rocked. If this were you're
A&R experience, you'd give up waiting to speak with these
lazy musicians, go back to your label and tell them to
forget about this particular band and these hot-shot rockstars will wind up working at Starbuck's until they go
on Social Security. This doesn't have to happen to you.
Learn to get up, get on and get off. You'll soon have the
reputation as an easy-to-work-with, professional, reliable
band. After all, you never know who might be in the
audience to see you on any given night.
Sheena Metal is a radio host, producer, promoter, music
supervisor, consultant, columnist, journalist and musician.
Her syndicated radio program, Music Highway Radio, airs on
over 2,400 affiliates to more than 126 million listeners.
Her musicians’ assistance program, Music Highway, boasts
over 10,000 members. She currently promotes numerous live
shows weekly in the Los Angeles Area, where she resides.
For more info:
http://www.sheena-metal.com
