A Groove Cannot Be Purchased, You Have to Dig For it.
One way to be a great audience member when you’re enjoying a live band.
I just got back from a small music festival called Welcome To Nowhere. On Saturday I took a quarter dose of LSD and a double dose of attitude and had an unmitigated good time. I played beavers in the river, made some new forever-friends, and danced for hours and hours and hours to really loud music.
When I feel enthusiastic, I often want to talk at length about the ideas in my head. This kind of ranting does not mix very well with loud-music dancing (because physics), so many of my favourite party ideas never get expressed. I’m going to try writing some of these unborn rants, to see if they hold any sparkle after the moment has passed.
This first rant is: one way to be the best audience member when you’re enjoying a live band.
So, context. I used to play in bands. Mostly loud, noisy, hopefully interesting, psychedelic, experimental, electronic, swampy bluesy melodic stuff.
I don’t play in bands any more.
The last time I played a show was in 2011. After the Occupy movement, my priorities shifted, and I got super obsessed with my work outside of music. So for a couple of years, I would go to gigs and have a lingering feeling of envy. I love being on stage, sharing my creativity and feeling people’s attention and encouragement. I know what it is like to be up there, so it is easy for me to feel envious of the performers.
My friend Harriet says you have to mourn your choices. When you choose something, that means you’re not doing something else. You need to let go of the option you didn’t take, or it can leave you bitter or partially committed.
So eventually it dawned on me: if I want to be on stage, then I need to put the time in to practice, keep a band together, and book shows. If I’m not prepared to do that work, there’s no point feeling grumpy about the people who are. So instead of grizzling about not being on stage, I shifted my attitude to focus on having the most fun possible in the audience. If I’m not going to be a performer, I want to be a great audience member instead.
How do you become a great audience member? I have never heard anyone talking about this. Sometimes you’ll hear musicians make vague comments about feeding off the crowd’s energy, but it’s never been very clear to me how this actually works in practical terms. I’ve been working at this question for a few years, and I get a lot of positive feedback on my partying skills. So I’m going to share my understanding and hopefully some of y’all will add your harmonies.
If you’re in a band, you can put in a lot of practice and preparation, but there’s no way to guarantee a great show. A great show requires many factors, some of which are out of your control. Your gear might break, the acoustics might be wacky, or the audience can be really dull. So when you start your set, there’s some uncertainty which can easily interfere with your performance. Maybe you’re a bit high or distracted, whatever the reason, it can take a couple of songs before you find your groove. Groove is a funny thing. Often, the bandmates can’t hear each other clearly, so it is hard for them to synchronise. Audience participation is crucial.
In most music, the drummer is laying down a fundamental beat with one hand or one foot. When everyone is confident about that beat, that opens the field for the wildest expression of creativity, syncopation, triplets, polyrhythms, swinging, shuffling, delaying and anticipating… When the beat is solid and dependable, mistakes are just nutrients for the next improvised exploration.
The thing is, grooving is a game for two or more players. It’s a lot easier for the drummer to hold the beat down if they are getting visual and auditory feedback from other people. Ideally, this feedback comes from other people in the band, maybe someone playing bass or keys. If the different parts of the rhythm section can’t see or hear each other properly, you can help a lot as an audience member.
Pay attention to the drummer, and listen for the one most reliable repetitive sound, probably the kick drum, the snare, or a cymbal. Now move. Tap your foot, wag your finger, bob your head, jump up and down, swing your hips, whatever you feel like, just synchronise with that one simple beat the drummer is holding. If they can see you, your movement will make their job easier. Probably other people in the crowd will be moving to the same rhythm, either because they are following the drummer, or because they are copying you. Dancing (like all human behaviour) is mostly just mimicry and mutation. When there’s a critical mass of people on and off stage are all contributing to the same rhythm, all of the musicians can relax and have maximum fun.
Maybe it takes a while for everyone to sync up. Just be patient, listen for the easiest most reliable rhythm, and keep moving. When you see someone you vibe with, you can tell them “right on!”, so they know their movements are right on the beat.
You’ll often hear musicians inviting you to get low and get down, and they might ask if you can dig it. This is because they’re trying to get to a very deep groove, and they can’t reach it alone. In a good party, everyone contributes. So go on, pitch in and do your bit.
Sometimes a groove is so heavy, it takes five or ten people to lift it. That’s why we have to work together. Ya dig?
