Great Performances

This update covers an important topic for artists. Live Performances. If you’re a manager I hope you can find some useful information to pass along to your roster.

Live performances are one of the most important aspects of an artist’s career and you should take them seriously. By all means have fun, but remember that in this business you are there for the audiences entertainment not the other away around.

Body Language

Never ever ever ever turn your back to the audience. I have seen this over and over again and it is the first sign of an amateur. It distances your audience from you in psychological and emotional ways that feel very real to them. You want to engage them. Which brings me to the next point on body language.

Look them in the eyes. If you don’t feel comfortable looking at your audience, you need to grow your ego a bit or find a different career. People with stage fright don’t often end up superstars or even mini stars for that matter.  Don’t look at each other a whole lot either. You are not there for each other either. It’s always about the audience.

Speak

Talk to your audience. Don’t say cliché and insincere things like “It’s great to be in Cleveland” and “How’s everybody feeling tonight”. Be genuine. Tell some personal details about a song before you play it. Make them feel like you are sharing a piece of yourself with them. If the audience doesn’t feel that you are emotionally connected to your own music, then why would they want to be emotionally connected to it?

They don’t need to know if a song is about your dog but if there is something unique or interesting about a song or you have a funny, but non-incriminating, tour story then tell away.

There’s also the topic of swearing. It’s honestly not a bad idea with certain audiences like those at heavy metal shows. But if Taylor Swift got on stage and started dropping F Bombs every other sentence, it might not have such a positive affect.

Rehearse

Above all play your songs well. I really know it’s annoying to hear this but you have to practice, practice, practice and after you’ve literally passed out from exhaustion, practice some more. Don’t just rehearse for the sake of doing it either. Listen to what’s happening. Find what’s wrong so you can fix it. I suggest you record video footage of your practices in order to see what you need to improve before going out to play live. Shoot, video of your live shows too for that matter.

Put On A Show

It’s a party and you’re the host. Put on a great show and make sure everyone is enjoying the event. Avoid weird gimmicks like throwing flaming cheeseburgers into the audience.

Above all esle be confident and genuine.  If you can do that, most of the little stuff will fall into place.