Words to live by.

[fleetfootmike]

rfbooth on the subject of playing live:

"If you can get away with only playing stuff you like, good for you. If you have to play songs you hate, suck it up, that's life in a band. Enjoy the crowd enjoying it. These people are giving up their time and probably their money in order to be entertained by you. If you're up on stage being halfhearted, or incompetent, or just plain sulking, because you don't like the material or for any other reason, you're betraying your bandmates and showing total contempt for your audience, and you should be kicked soundly and sent back to play in your bedroom until you grow up and understand what you're doing up there."

(part of a longer rant here.)

Comments

[callylevy.livejournal.com]

*reads longer rant*

Yep, agreed wholeheartedly and passionately. I believe that if you're about to perform on stage to a bunch of people you should have made the effort beforehand to ensure you do as good a performance as you can - whether this means practice, planning etc.

That doesn't mean that every performance must be superb (I'm still waiting to do a 'superb' performance!) or that the musician themselves should be a brilliant performer - not at all - more that every performer owes it to their audience to be the best they can be, setting aside mitigating factors (e.g. illness, Devastating Real Life etc.).

In my eyes, not having made the effort is discourteous to the people giving you their time and attention. People's attention is valuable.

Cally (who decided to stop there!)