Gigs are shit: Discuss. (1 Viewer)

[Space]

So you're saying gigs are shit or gig in Dublin are shit? I think there's an answer to your problem in there somewhere. Play more gigs outside of Dublin.

 

[egg_]

I've only played one gig in the last couple of years and I miss it

You know what I want from music nowadays? Physicality. I don't want to emote, I want to dance

 

[hermie]

If I had the money and no other obligations I'd go to a gig every night of the week. Slight exaggeration maybe but there's nothing I love more in the entire world.

 

[GO]

Music is the only thing I know how to do.If I'm not doing that,I'm not really doing anything.

And everybody has to do something.

As for going to gigs in general..I like them if the sound is good and the music isnt shite.

 

[mark]

Just not feeling it much anymore. Supporting bigger acts is nice but most people just want you to shut the fuck up and let the main act come out. Smaller gigs I'm playing to the same 30 Dublin people who are also in bands that I've always played to. I have enjoyed playing gigs but I don't generally enjoy them anymore. It's different buzz when I play in another town or city though. Gigs in Belfast and L'Kenny were some of the highlights of my dismal 2012.

Ireland is tiny. So is Dublin relatively speaking. You're lucky enough that pretty much all you need to do what you do is a guitar and to be pointed at people. If the best gigs you've done lately were outside Dublin, do more gigs outside Dublin. Nothing stopping you from booking some UK or European shows either. You don't need to worry about gear, and transport won't be that much of an issue for you either. Get out there, meet new people, get complimented. Record an album with the London Philharmonic.

I love playing gigs, but I love rehearsals as much to be honest. Increasingly rehearsals are my primary social outlet.

Don't attend that many gigs these days, at least not as many as I'd like to.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

I love playing gigs, but I love rehearsals as much to be honest. Increasingly rehearsals are my primary social outlet.

Don't attend that many gigs these days, at least not as many as I'd like to.

I'm pretty much in this boat too. I'd go to more gigs if I could afford to but unfortunately I'm no longer working.

I'd also be in about a dozen bands if I had the time.

 

[hermie]

Gigs are like rides.

If you don't like playing gigs in your band it's probably because you are in the wrong band. It's like riding in a way (isn't everything). Your first few gigs, like rides, are usually awkward affairs that you have vague memories of. They're exciting but ultimately a bit nerve wracking. Then you get a bit better at it and enjoy it more remember more and loosen up more. Maybe your band breaks up and you form a new band and the first gig and it's a bit odd but generally you're a bit more confident. Maybe the other people in the band are a bit more experienced than you and you feel a bit intimidated but as you go on you gel together and if everyone is happy, sure then grand. If not then you just have the wrong sexual/band partners. Maybe you're playing the wrong type of music altogether or sexually ; perhaps you are gay. If you're not enjoying it then do something, sort it out.

And then there are singer song writers who are basically just having a lonely wank in front of a room full of people because no one likes them enough to let their genitals anywhere near them or because they don't like themselves enough to put their genetalia near people or because they fucking love themselves and just love seeing people oggle them while they bash the knob of themselves or flick the bean of themselves which ever you prefer delete as applicable. Either way watching a singer songwriter is basically watching someone while they self congratulate / self flagilate.

Some people fuck to further their careers, maybe they enjoy it maybe they don't some people fuck for money, some people just like fucking.

Then there's the act of going to a gig. If a gig is good it's like being at a deadly orgy and everyone is getting what they want. Afterwards there's a communal spoon and hug session. You feel invigorated and a little tired

Maybe everyone except you is getting what they want, perhaps you're at the wrong orgy.

Bad gig, you get the picture

And then there's the massive public spectacle. This is the equivalent of watching porn or hiring a prostitute. You pay you stand or sit and you watch as professionals do what they have to to get you off. Nothing more nothing less. You are present but you are not important. You are a living.

You gaze at the glazed over look in their eye as they run through the motions for the 5 millionth time. You can nearly hear themselves saying "It's a living" as they pump it out trying to pull a face that resembles what a human face looks like when it's enjoying itself, but it's not even close, it's a faded facsimile, some impersonation of a distant memory of a facial expression. Muscles contorted, vaguely distant and repressed.
"5 more shows 5 more costumers and then I can go home and see my kids. But hey the moneys good"

And why wouldn't it be at these prices ? But you can't go on forever. You don't want to end up like the cautionary tales. The Bob Dylans and the Neil Youngs still working the same corners because they don't know what else to do. And there's always some young buck trying to make it in the work a day world of sticky floors and sweating punters.

Of course when your young every gig is good, you're just glad to be there. In your adult years you can separate the wheat from the chaff, and then sadly as you age you're just gald to occasionally play beatles covers in the bathroom to yourself and sneak away from the kids to see the fucking Eagles in an amphiatheatre for €150 and oooooh I love it when you stroke it that way Don....aaaaaahhhh well worth it. I won't tell anyone younger than me about this because I'll feel ashamed and old .Now back to the drudgery of normal life for another year.



P.S I'm sure Joanna Newsome is a shit handjob off a parapalegic using her prosthetic who won't stop telling you about her boyfriend in a high pitched whine which resembles that sound they use to keep teenagers from loitering shopping centres in the freezing cold behind a skip full of rotting Tescos horse lasagne

And as for Animal Collective analingus and french kissing.

Had to dislike this. Not because of the lazy analogy (riding is such an over-wrought subject it can be compared to basically anything). Nor is it because Joanna is a master masseuse who'll finish you off at no extra charge. But for your outright dismissal of anyone who chooses to write or perform by themselves. I couldn't do it personally but that doesn't mean that a certain few talented individuals can't be just as inspiring and/or entertaining as those performing as part of a group; not least the person who started this thread.

Now I know there's a certain brand of earnest wet handkerchief, strumming minor chords, crooning about a teenage girl with bulimia or whatever that deserve special kind of derision. And that very little can compare viscerally with a well-oiled group of component players working in unison. But my point still stands.

 

[GO]

+1 on reheaesals.I fucking LOVE rehearsing.

Guaranteed great sound,great crowd and plenty time for coffee and snacks between sets

 

[hermie]

washingcattle; all the fight gone out of ya?

Good to be talking music on thumped for a change.

 

[washingcattle]

washingcattle; all the fight gone out of ya?

Good to be talking music on thumped for a change.

I don't really have anything else to say. I do think that there is an exhibitionist/masochism involved in all solo performers. I certainly wouldn't do it.


Fitting that the lad accusing me of being lazy only wrote 7 lines and likes Joanna fucking Newsome though.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

I can't imagine wanting to play gigs solo. (possibly terrifying?) But as a band it's the best.

 

[hermie]

I don't really have anything else to say. I do think that there is an exhibitionist/masochism involved in all solo performers. I certainly wouldn't do it.


Fitting that the lad accusing me of being lazy only wrote 7 lines and likes Joanna fucking Newsome though.

Who called you lazy?

Ok put it this way. This person is a solo performer:

This person is in a band:

 

[hermie]

And what browser are you using, I count 10 lines.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Is that second lad the Welsh nu-metal nonce?

 

[hermie]

Is that second lad the Welsh nu-metal nonce?

The very one. Both an exhibitionist and (no doubt) a masochist. How could he not be?

 

[washingcattle]

Okay I thought of one more thing to say.

As another analogy which is probably more accurate in my experience but perhaps not as universal to everyones experience and therefore more esoteric and certainly less humorous.

It's not quite the same as a sport because there is no opposition.

I played on a team for years and when I quit, a band basically replaced that experience and bands are in many ways similar to teams. Now here again is the part about singer songwriter solo performers.

if we take a band as a team then a solo performer is not playing a team sport, and since there is no opposition the sport he or she is playing is closest to golf or gymnastics, so lets chose golf as our example. Essentially a golfer takes on the task of navigating A. a course and B. His or her own limitations as a golfer. Now a soloist is essentially doing the same thing lets say the course is the set of songs and the limitations are of their ability to perform said songs. Golfers will tell you that in spite of the proximity to possibly hundreds of people there are times that you are never as alone as while playing golf. If you win, great but you win alone, if you lose it's the same. I don't dismiss these people (though it is funnier if I do) but what I'm saying that I don't understand the mentality it requires to work in that way.

Of course solo performers talk about communicating to people and this is their way of doing so and that's fine.

And Golfers routinely say their supporters made them play better and they couldn't have done it without them etc.

Ultimately it takes a very specific type of character to want to perform alone, especially since there are so few art forms are as open to or virtually dependent on collaboration in the way music is.

Finally no matter what way I describe solo performers whether it's as public masturbators or as golfers someone will say "oooh that's not fair you're dismissing them" I'm not, but I don't understand them and furthermore if any soloist types want to come on here and explain it better fire ahead.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I'd prefer to be thought of as a public masturbator than a golfer.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Big gigs are rubbish. The Olympia, Vicar st, Whelans ect... those are the type of venues to see bands in.

 

[snakybus]

I love playing solo gigs, gigs with a band, or gigs with one other guy.

It's an immense privilege to be able play your songs and for people to listen to them. There aren't many privileges in life, I reckon, so if yer not enjoying it well then....

I saw a Slade documentary the other night. You know the sparkly guy on guitar, he looked like he was enjoying every minute.

I love going to gigs too, there's good ones and bad ones but enjoying the good ones are worth going through the not-great ones.

So in short, yeah. No.

 

[ogy]

I don't go to enough gigs or play enough gigs but when I do make the effort I love it.

I sometimes think that because records are a relatively new invention, performing music yourself, or hearing music being performed live, is what music really is. I heard a guy talking about jazz once and saying that a jazz record is like a photograph of a thing, not the thing itself.

I know they are pretty airy-fairy ideas that ignore classic 'studio' albums and the fact that most of my own relationship with music has been through records, but they sometimes encourage me to make the effort!