In our last installment (Issue 213) I talked about the challenges of playing on small stages, where you might not even have room to move more than a few inches in any direction. If you’re in a local band, you’re going to have a lot of gigs playing in cramped quarters. Don’t resign yourself to a career of claustrophobia, though: many bars and venues have some kind of dedicated performance space, whether on an actual raised stage or an area of the floor that’s cleared for bands. You’ll have room to move, and typically, be able to set up all your gear: amps, pedalboards, keyboards, full drum sets, guitars on stands, and stage monitors. (An aside: I have no experience with the use of in-ear monitors, or IEMs. But I've never seen anyone use them on local gigs; just in concert situations.) You’ll also have room for multiple guitars and instruments and backup gear.
The stage at the Freeport Memorial Library, Freeport, New York. It's not Madison Square Garden but there's plenty of room to set up a band.
Having room to move is liberating. And there’s another advantage of playing in a modestly-sized space: you’re still close to the other band members and can pick up on their body language, off-mic talking, and subtle non-verbal cues. It feeds the musical telepathy that builds when you’ve been playing with people for a long time – and conversely, makes it easier to have on-the-fly communications when you’re playing with a pick-up band, a sub, or just jamming. On the other hand, when you’re playing on a large stage – which I’ll discuss in the next installment – having large distances between yourself and the other players can be disconcerting and even throw you off your game. Still, conserve room and be mindful of other peoples’ space, especially the lead singer – they should have room to strut their stuff.
This goes for any gig: if possible, check out the venue beforehand to see how much room is available for setting up, and to get a feel for the amount of equipment you can or can’t bring. Admittedly, this will be impractical or impossible in some situations, especially for touring bands. Some well-known music spots have surprisingly small stages. Don’t think that just because you finally got to play Birdland or the City Winery you’re going to have lots of room. Back in the day, our band, the Lines, played famous venues like CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, Kenny’s Castaways and many others, and some of them had surprisingly small stages, smaller than the myths surrounding these places would have you believe.
Original Gossip at the Memory Motel, Montauk, NY, June 2024. The place is world-famous but the stage isn't large.
The Frank Catalano Quartet at Birdland, New York City, August 2024. There's plenty of room to move, and note the ultra-clean stage, with all the cables impeccably routed away from the performers.
On medium-sized stages, you may or may not have a person doing the sound. On most of the gigs I play, there is no sound person so the band has to handle their own sound. Usually, one person winds up being the “sound guy” (or gal), but everyone should help with setting up the PA. You’ll need to do a sound check before the gig if at all possible, so try to allow yourself extra time before hitting the stage.
After a few gigs, you’ll get a feel for where to set the volumes for the vocals and instruments like acoustic/electric guitars that typically run through the PA. It’s up to the instrumentalists to set their own amplifier volumes, and again, experience counts. And you don’t want to be the guy who is egotistical or oblivious to the other players and who turns up too loud. Trust me.
Sometimes the band won’t have time to do a sound check, which can happen if you’re playing in a music festival where multiple bands have to set up and tear down, or if you’re in a restaurant where the management won’t let you bring your equipment in until a certain time. In that case, you’ll have to use judgment in getting an initial balance, and then can ask a friend in the audience to let you know how the balance is after the first song, or give you signals while you’re playing.
Pro tip: ask the owner or person behind the bar if the volume is good or if you’re too loud. Unless you’re in a dedicated music venue like Brooklyn Steel or 89 North (Patchogue, Long Island) or First Avenue (Minneapolis) or Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill (Las Vegas) where the music is the focus of attention and expected to be loud, be mindful of the fact that the patrons are there to eat, drink, and socialize as much as they’re there to listen to music.
Accept this as a fact of onstage life: you may or may not be able to hear yourself and the rest of the band properly. Even if you’ve played a venue before, you might not be set up in exactly the same spot, or the room may be more or less crowded, or the stage monitors might be in different positions. You may not be able to hear yourself or the other band members clearly, or at all. Every room has different acoustics and the onstage sound will be inconsistent from one gig to the next. Don't let it rattle you.
On some gigs, you’ll have the luxury of a sound person or crew to do the mix and mic up the amps. When they know what they’re doing, it’s a beautiful thing. You don’t have to stress over whether the mix is good. You don’t have to adjust the volume of your guitar or instrument or turn it up during a solo. You will have separate monitor and front-of-house mixes, and everything will be clear and balanced. It’s a whole different ballgame than doing your own sound, and the mix will be far better than anything you could possibly achieve. The audience will have a much better listening experience.
Unless the sound people suck.
No offense to the wonderfully competent people out there, and I know many who are sheer geniuses behind the mixing console (hi Woody and Dennis and Richie and Jessica among others) but some of the sound people I’ve worked with have been inexcusably terrible. I’m a nice guy and don’t like to say bad things, but, real world, I’ve had one too many gigs sabotaged by idiots. Like the time our band did a live radio broadcast after another band had finished their set, and the sound guy could not figure out how to un-mute the mixing console...for five excruciating on-air minutes. This isn’t to say that you should expect everything to run smoothly, especially on multi-band gigs where the time pressure on the sound people is extreme, but the good people will be able to handle all sorts of setup mayhem. Just be aware of the possibility that you might run into people who can’t. (I’ll have more to say about this in a future installment about when gigs go bad.)
Whether you have a great sound mixer or are doing the sound yourself, the rule of thumb is that it takes three songs to get a good mix. This is true even at professional concerts. No matter how long and careful the sound check before the show was, the acoustics of the hall change when people come in.
Store your instrument cases, cable bags and so on off the stage, or at least on the sidelines where they’re hidden from view. You have enough room for a clean stage setup. Why clutter it up with putting all your crap on it? It looks unprofessional. The same goes for routing cables. No one likes to see a rat’s nest of cable all over the stage – to say nothing of the fact that a band member might trip on one of them in the heat of the performance.
Keep this stuff off the stage! Open mic night at 1683 Sports Bar and Grille, West Islip, NY, October 2024.
You will probably have adequate lighting – but not necessarily. Most bars, clubs, and restaurants are going to be anywhere from OK in this regard to having dedicated stage lights – but not always. This is especially true if you need to read music off a stand. If the lighting is dim, you won’t be able to see your music. Get a music stand light. It might save the gig. And many bars and restaurants have nothing more than the standard house lighting, and your band will look a lot better if you have some kind of even rudimentary stage illumination.
Many bars won't even have this much lighting. Society Road at Twisted Cow Distillery, East Northport, NY, September 2024.
I’m going to have much more to say about performing in a future column dedicated to the subject, but for now, be aware that on a medium (or large) stage, you’ll have more freedom to do stage moves. As I’ve said previously, once you get on stage, you are no longer just a musician, you are a performer. The main thing to be aware of is movement. Theater people know that you have to exaggerate your movements and to a lesser degree, facial expressions. You may think and feel that you’re moving and grooving to the music, but when you watch yourself on video you’ll realize you’re moving far less than you think.
Not to say that you should go overboard and jump around and not be true to yourself (and some people like Bill Wyman and Roy Orbison made standing still a thing in itself), but emphasizing your body language and moves and hand and arm gestures will go a long way. Choreography can be very cool. Interact with your fellow band members and with the audience! Roam the stage. When it’s time to take a solo, step out front. Put your heart and soul into it – and isn’t that what you should be doing anyway? When you’re feeling it, it comes naturally. You’ll dig it, and so will the audience.
The Soul Jam Revue at an outdoor festival in East Northport, NY, September 2024. They're playing on a Showmobile, a transportable stage for outdoor events. If you pursue a career as a gigging musician, you'll be playing on one of these at some point.
Here's another Showmobile shot, of the School of Rock band at the Lindenhurst Summer Concert Series, Lindenhurst, NY, July 2024. Spot the typo!
Header image: Doxy at Sayville Summerfest, August 8, 2024. The sound was superb, a musician's dream – thank you, Danny!
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