Are rock musicians living jukebox machines?

Yeah, I'm considering advertising for a real singer with a tenor range. I'm nervous about upsetting the good balance of personalities we have right now.

 

You might get lucky -- We did!

 

A paid venue is irrelevant to what constitutes performance art, I think you missed my point.

 

The only people who don't clear a dance floor when an unfamiliar song is played are personal friends of the band, who dance to anything they play. For everyone else, they want to be entertained with music they know. The exception I suppose would be in places like coffee houses, where people want to see new and unique music.

 

ahhh so yer playin fer free
got it, and, nevermind. obviously people who play for free can pretty much make up their own rules, regarding the rest of it

For the people who play and get paid for it, simple economics do apply

 

Okay, I'll play the cheesy game.


Is it possible to do a regular gig, nail the songs people want to hear, and still have the audience not get into it?

And, more so, is it possible to do poor renditions of a track yet be able to get people on their feet?


If either of these concepts exist in reality...you are therefore a performance artist and not a human jukebox.


Simple **** here, playing music for people is an act of the performing arts.

 

OK. Still don't get how a paid venue is irrelevant to what constitutes performance art.
That's okay though, I'm sure I don't need to understand that. It seems way too complex

 

In the sense of gettin' gigs that **** matters, we all know that. I just mean in terms of the definition of art getting paid doesn't define what is or isn't art.



I mean, a lot of musicians here. Regardless of what kind stuff we're into I'm sure we've all been to gig/show where the cats on stage didn't hit a single clam but you felt totally underwhelmed at the end??? Like, you could tell someone wasn't on their A game? They could have been doing nothing but their own tunes or nothing but standard tunes.

That's what makes it a performing art, we're never jukeboxes, jukeboxes got it easy.


I did a series of gigs a while back through sickness, worsening and worsening for two weeks. Before I recovered the last gig was on a holiday, weeks later we're hanging and drummer says "hey man, I know you got family, sorry we made you play then." I replied "what, was I that bad?" He says "No, you sounded fine, but I could tell you was off."

It was funny cause I told the guys I was sick but that didn't register with them and it was a crazy hot outdoor summer day gig. I didn't play anything wrong, but they, and the audience could probably see I was peaked. The smallest things effect others, I still hit my parts just fine.


IMO, if WE don't accept it's a performing art we belittle ourselves and moreover give fodder for those who are greedy with the who/what of what you're allowed to play.

 

Play a bunch of AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. People will enjoy it, but it won't keep them from drinking their drinks and leaving when they're done.

Play "Play that Funky Music" -- Every girl in the place in the place will literally JUMP off their chairs and start dancing and no guy is going to leave while the girls are shaking it on the dance floor.

It's not just about music they know, although that's important. It's about making it fun and getting girls to jiggle on the dance floor. That's not the most eloquent way of saying it, but it is absolutely true.

 

I stopped doing those kind of gigs. I did it for years and realized I hated it once I got sober (felt like a rock star with enough whiskey and other stuff involved lol). I decided three years ago that I would only take gigs I want and play what I want. I just can’t bring myself to choose songs to play based on making people dance or whatever. I didn’t work this hard at the instrument to have play Sweet Home Alabama for the 30,000th time.

No one even calls me anymore unless they want “my thing”. Less money per gig for sure, but I teach lessons to make up for that, which I enjoy as well.

That’s not to say there’s any shame in doing the party band thing. You can’t really suck and do any of this stuff for a living. It’s just not for me.

 

I guess Jaabs is right. It is performance art. If you didn't create it you don' get no credit for it. All the credit you get is in your performance, or perhaps credit for the selection. You try to provide what you're paid for. Whatever you think that is. If you're wrong, you're gone. Woody Guthrie said "I can sing while I'm walkin'". But you gotta have shoes.

 

We're doing the Juke Box thing. We're in demand it seems. 7 times in the same pub in 2 months. They keep asking us back. Too many times in the same venue, I sometimes think. People are singing along in en masse as we pretty much play, feel good, sing-a-long songs. The audience is really into it. They stay, eat and drink. We are getting approached to play other venues and we ain't looking for more gigs. When a song gets overplayed we will cycle it out with a new one. I do one song for me, Sultans Of Swing, on acoustic. It's a challenge, and warms up my fingers. There are usually no dancers and few singers during the first song of the night anyway. Just a warm up for the band, but the audience does know the song. Yep, we're a cover band. We get no credit for the songs, we just do our best to cover them well and entertain the crowd.

I've done the "songs I wanna play for me" band thing. I have gigged original music. I've rocked out Super Reverbs and Twin amps. Slogged heavy PA gear in and up stairs, set it up, tore it down and packed it back out. It was fun. It was a work out. It was bringing me happiness at that time. This time around I wanted to build an acoustic, classic rock type cover band. No drummer. No PA. Fishman amps and a Cajone. We're as busy as we want to be and it seems we could do a lot more gigs. Yep, we're hore-ing ourselves out covering sing-a-long cheese. It has been fun and rewarding. The pub owner treats us like special guests and we get awesome gig time slots. I can't complain. At this point in my life it brings me joy. A little extra pocket money won't hurt me neither.

Bass and Cajone players are retired. I am the youngest at 47. My wingman is 50. it works.

 

I'd like to hear what you guys sound like. Do you have any videos out there?

 

People in the audience keep taking iphone videos. I suspect we may have been shared on social media. I have not seen any videos though. No I don't have anything yet to share. At this point we're too busy trying to learn new songs between gigs to think about marketing material.