Turning the topic on its head, anyone see Bill Bailey live?
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Great band, but when they scold the audience for being too rowdy it’s comedy gold
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…ooops…played more than 6000 shows in my life and never heard the term “banter”…!
from what i was reading here, i’m guessing u talk about the talk between songs/tracks…
so my opinion on this is…it’s an essential part, for performing concert shows with songs…
aslong it’s not…hey crowd, clap ur hands…
and it’s an absolute no go if u perform for a dancefloor or do ur thing in a club and play tracks…especially instrumental tracks…no stage banter please, thanx…
and any uberexpressive ego yaaays on top of even already sonically pretty crowded genres like dnb and jungle…well…it should be officially banned foreva…
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not that I hear him up and down, but just happened to see it and had to think of your question - I think with such an artist it is appropriate to speak in between.
I went to see Shellac a few years ago in Paris. In between song the bass player used to ask the audience : any questions ? I thought that was a lot of fun.
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I get it, but I prefer musical performances without banter or personal anecdotes.
Interesting that this is a regular thing they do. I wasn’t aware.
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most acts ive seen have been dance related, so they dont tend to stop for a breather and a bit of banter while setting up another guitar.
e.g. underworld, modeselektor, orbital, plaid, 808 state, chem brothers, kraftwerk etc
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I saw the Flesh Happening in Brighton some years ago. The singer puked on stage half way through their set. His weird weedy voice in between songs
“Sorry about the vomit, I’ll clean it up later”
I didnt mind that for stage banter.
Mostly I like bands that dont talk.
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I once played a a gig and another band on the bill was a local 8 piece acid-jazz ensemble whose trumpet player was necking a bottle of Glens Vodka (the exciting vodka!!) beforehand and he had a similar experience except he used his trumpet to avoid messing up the stage… no banter as such. Memorable nevertheless…
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Entertaining a crowd with only words is extremely difficult. That’s why everyone who does it prepares in some way or another, and at the same time is great at improvising. I have a lot of respect for stand up comedians, story tellers and university lecturers. — And that’s what you have to be, with a bit less to remember.
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Not really banter, but one must always thank the crowd, say a few words of appreciation, even if they didn’t specifically come to see your band.
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I think you gotta have some - not much, no monologues, but I think it engages the audiences. Like - I saw the pixies once - they came out, played the songs, perfectly, loads of them and left. And while it as great it was a bit like listening to an album with a few hundred people. Great, but also like they could have been anywhere and didn’t know where they were.
A little bit of chit-chat let’s you know they know where they are and maybe give a shit. For local bands the best ones often have the best bants
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Our lead singer puking on stage after the last song and styling it out. It was our first gig so we renamed ourselves Rainbow Sigh.
Also of note: hairy woman (who looks like the girl coming outta the telly in The Ring) screaming between ‘songs’ in the Glastonbury gabber tent.
#topbanter
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I had seen a headline this week about the smashmouth lead singer calling it quits after an odd performance. And there it is! Thanks for posting
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It’s been a long time since I saw Shellac, but at one gig I was at, Albini told off a woman in the crowd for slamdancing. Actually stopped the song IIRC and said “please stop the f—ing slamdancing. We’re not really a slamdancing kind of band.”
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the only band I’ve seen who have great banter is The Lovely Eggs. their show was probably 1.5x as long as it could have been except for the between song banter and anecdotes, and I didn’t mind a bit.
Yeah, I think at least some acknolwedgement is good. I saw Gold Panda (maybe at Glastonbury?) aaages ago, and he basically hid under a hoodie the whole time, didn’t even look up. It was a bit weird. I saw him again at a couple of years later and he was loads more engaging with the crowd, it was much more fun, so maybe it was nerves the first time, it would have been pretty early on for him I think.
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Intentional, or accidental gold?
Just filling the gaps with blood curdling screams.
It was more memorable than small talk.
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I had exactly this impression of seeing Pixies every time.
Shellac on the other hand are great in-between song banterers; sometimes even quizzes. Also, you can go and play poker with them afterwards at festivals (and lose, because they practise a lot).