JW - First Show - 6/23/12

First show ever with this line-up, at the Horseshoe Pub in Honeybrook.  Overall results were encouraging.  We went over well, though the band members themselves agreed across the board that we made far too many mistakes.  Fortunately, most of those mistakes were minor enough that most of the audience probably didn't notice unless they were musicians and paying relatively close attention.  At this writing, I've listened to a recording of the first set, and few of the mistakes are noticable, which matches with the audience reaction.  I would attribute the mistakes to a combination of first show excitement and being thrown a bit by the different sound of playing somewhere other than our rehearsal space.  The good news is, the feel of most of that first set was incredible; the audience response makes sense.  I talked to some audience members who didn't know anyone in the band, and they were not only impressed, but particularly impressed to find out this was the first show for this particular group of people.

We did get into some trouble with management for being too loud.  It's a problem that can be fixed, but a matter of some concern because it's not new.  We practice relatively loudly and we know it.  Some of that is because we practice in a confined space, so no surprise there.

Hearing everybody else was also a problem for all of us, and may have contributed, if not flat out caused, some of our mistakes.  Some of that is that almost all that comes through the PA is the vocals and some minor drum miking.  Andy and I are on opposite sides of the stage and each of us couldn't hear the other at all, but we managed via visual cues and the other musicians as reference.  Each of us is hearing a completely different mix.  Lead vocals sounded fine; backing vocals were too quiet in general.

Some things about audiences are a lot different since the last time I played anywhere in public.  When audience members become bored, the cell phones come out and the texting begins.  If it happens with enough people, it's actually a very striking image from the stage.  It only happened a few times, but it was enough to observe the phenomenon.  And it happens on the opposite side of the audience enjoyment spectrum, too.  When things sound good, the camera phones come out.

Audiences are also generally less reactive than they were in the '80's.  It's not that this band wasn't going over; I've witnessed this same thing while going to see other bands, most of which are very successful.  I have no idea why this has changed, but it definitely has.

Same thing with how late people stay.  In the '80's, the bulk of your audience didn't even show up until at least half an hour into your show, and usually it was more like an hour.  You lost a certain percentage after the third set of four, and while people would often drift out over the course of the last set, you still had a fair audience by the end.  Most current bands seem to lose most of their audience after the third set, and play to a largely empty house by the end.  Again, seeing other bands, this isn't just us.  My theory is that most of the audience for live music is getting older and simply doesn't want to stay up that late.  One of the local venues has bands starting at 7 or 8 PM and playing until midnight, which I think is a great adaptation.  I've got to go there some time to see how that plays out.

Overall, a good start.  Hopefully we'll be booked to return and improve on it.