Tell us your show moves and stage antics.

[Cosmic Pig]

Any of you guys do anything organized as opposed to spur of the moment improvised?

Any choreographed steps? Any mic stand tricks? Running around on tables?

I saw a band once bitching about the bass player being late to the stage after a break. Said he was in the can having a dump.

After more bitching they said fuck it and went to get him. Then they'd wheel the bass player in on a dolly, sitting on a toilet with his pants down playing the intro. Was funny. They'd do it every night and people would come just to see that.

Cos.

[bunnerabb]

I used to front a band in the '70s and I had an antique, silk, collapsible top hat that I'd flatten out and frisbee into the audience and when they'd frisbee it back, I'd catch it on my mic stand and it would pop pack open and then I's toss into the air, off of the stand, and catch it on my head.

[ggunn]

In a band my brother and I were in, we did a spoof on a blues tune. My bro (who sang it) would go offstage and don a trench coat, sunglasses, and fedora hat. We would introduce our "special guest", Mr. Blind Cauliflower Sixpack, and I would lead him onto the stage (he's blind, doncha know). He would stumble to center stage, where he would stand up straight and throw his arms up over his head - with his back to the crowd. I would turn him around, and we'd start the song.

[archtop]

I have this over the top stare at my fretboard. (blue steel 69)
I can do it with you behind my back. It's a real showstopper.

[AxeSlash]

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary here:

- Foot On Monitor (love the classics)
- Synchronised headbanging during the slower, heavier bits
- Synchronised windmilling during the faster, more brutal bits
- Pulling faces during pinch harmonics and solos
- Jumping on big chord strikes etc

I used do a trick where I played half of one of our riffs with my left hand over the fretboard rather than under it a la Steve Vai/Michael Angelo. But I'm too lazy these days. It increased the "error rate" dramatically.

Our vocalist and drummer once invaded the headline band's set (a pretty hefty death metal affair) wearing just their pants and some tinsel, and can-canned across the stage to much applause.

We also have a habit of climbing onto anything within easy reach - I played most of our set stood with one foot on a stool and one on a table years ago. I very nearly fell off, but meh, nobody noticed :P And if there's no "front row", we go to the audience. there is always a front row, it just depends how far back it is...

In related news our vocalist used to have a bad habit of wandering past the stacks with his mic. He was soon cured of that.

[Droolbucket]

I've got a whole laundry list of stage moves that DIDN'T work!

Years ago, I got my first wireless, and decided to stroll down the length of the bar during a solo. I was picking my way between glasses, head down, so I wouldn't knock anyone's drink over. (Nobody would notice if I screwed up the solo, but if I spilled someone's beer.... THAT would be a guaranteed ass-whuppin'...) I was about halfway down, and the crowd was trying to decide whether to be impressed or amused, when WHAM! I cracked my forehead on something. Looked up, and I was about an inch away from a ceiling fan... I'd walked myself right into the motor. I moved back and hopped off the bar, went back to the stage and whispered to the bass player, "Why didn't you yell at me? I could have gotten my head cut off!" He said, through tears, "We were going to warn you, but we were laughing too hard to talk!" We had to take a break after that song because the band was laughing too hard to function.
I was trotting across the front of the stage one night and accidently stepped on the footswitch that triggered the flash pots (don't ask). I didn't injure anyone, but it was sheer dumb luck. Kind of a strange place for a flash pot, too, in the middle of a Creedence medley...."Dooot, doot, doot, lookin' out my back door *POOOOOFFFF!!*"
We stacked up road cases one night by the drum riser, so I could climb up and stand on top during my big solo. About halfway up, the light guy screwed up and hit the blackout button. In the dark, I tripped over the top case, and when the lights came on, I was on my back on the top case just about to fall over the edge onto the drum set. The drummer reached up with a stick and poked it into my back to keep me from falling on his drums. Another un-smooth moment.
The good part about all this is that when I play now, and something goes wrong, I just laugh and keep going. I'm pretty well bullet-proof at this point.
Droolbucket

[Swafford]

My best stage move is remembering how the songs start and end and I predictably tell at least one drunk every night to shut the fuck up, though after Monday night, I'm thinking of skipping the profanity and just sucker punching them.

Rock on brothers and sisters, rock on.

[eagan]

I used to front a band in the '70s and I had an antique, silk, collapsible top hat that I'd flatten out and frisbee into the audience and when they'd frisbee it back, I'd catch it on my mic stand and it would pop pack open and then I's toss into the air, off of the stand, and catch it on my head.

You want some mustard with that, bunner?


:lol:


JLE

[Starfucker]

I have this solo in one of our songs where I use my mic stand as a slide. The result isn't much of a solo anymore but it works better and I've never seen anyone else do it.

[pounce]

i made a great move once leaning towards the small crowd with one leg on the wedge when i got the balance all wrong and the wedge rolled dowstage where i promptly fell into the first row. nice. i remember this move so well because i have a few buddies intent on making sure i don't forget "the time i fell over the wedge into the first row ha ha ha". assholes. even at the time i was laughing my ass off over it. seriously, there is no other way to deal with that kind of silliness. just laugh it off. from here on out, i'm no longer in charge of "stage antics". i guess i lost the right to provide any input on the matter.

[Fulcrum]

I have a bit of a handicap as a keyboardist, in that under the best of circumstances most of me is hidden behind a two-tier keyboard stand. And when Fulcrum was a band, my three bandmates were resolute in "letting the music do the talking" and basically spent the entire show staring at their instruments or their shoes. As far as I'm concerned this is fine when you're at home listening to the CD and don't have the visual element to contend with, but is poison when people are actually staring at the band waiting for them to do something.

My solution was to sway in place, ostensibly to a rhythm that may or may not have had anything to do with the song we were playing but definitely to a rhythm.

I'd start the show wearing sunglasses and in order to drive a certain lyric home would fling them off my head and over my shoulder, once hitting either my drummer or one of her cymbals, and fixing the audience with an accusing glare. The accusing glare went over fairly well, I have to admit.

Once as a sideman during a showcase gig, the leader gave me a chance during the show to stretch out with a jazzy piano solo. On the night, set up on stage left, I decided to pull a Jesus Jones and gave my keyboard stand a mighty yank 90 degrees clockwise to face the band... knocking my mic boom over in the process... right into the foldback. The first several seconds of my sensitive piano solo were therefore a feedback fest... not even in the same key with the song... not even close to the same key.

Needless to say I wasn't asked back for future showcases-- they replaced me with a third guitarist.

[MudCat]

I have this over the top stare at my fretboard. (blue steel 69)
I can do it with you behind my back. It's a real showstopper.


:grin: :lol:


You and me both, arch.

[Goes211]

I have this solo in one of our songs where I use my mic stand as a slide. I've never seen anyone else do it.

Jean-Marie Aerts, young Padawan.
:D

Him and many more.
But a well-revisited classic can work wonders on a good night.
:Coolio:

[bunnerabb]

You want some mustard with that, bunner?


:lol:


JLE

I don't get the mustard joke but.. sure. Stadium or Bertmann's.

:very happy:

[dwoz]

we used to ask the girls in the audience to show their breasts, and they'd do it.

...worked better third set than first.

dwoz

[rockdart]

We have a home made coffin built out of 3/4 plywood and 2x4's (freaking HEAVY; takes 4 people to lift it) that looks really sharp that we use for bigger shows. It has a fog routing system and lights built in. We'll sneak the singer in behind the banners and he comes busting out of it in time for the vocals on the first song - goes over like gangbusters.

My bass player and I were huge KISS fans growing up and can just naturally fall into rythm together - including when to move to the front of the stage and when to move backward. It looks choreographed but it isn't. He's a mix of Nikki Sixx and Gene Simmons on stage. I grew up watching Prince as well and have always like the smooth dance moves - I found as a young man that being able to really dance well equated into a female companion for the evening. I still encorporate all of that; the spins, the steps... but it's weird trying to balance that with playing metal.

Nobody in my band plays and just stares at their feet though. We all know that movement, stage attire and other visuals grab the people and get them into you immediately while giving them something to remember you by. We also practice a lot - 2 to 3 times a week always. Well, when possible.

Funny story about flash pots though - the first band I was in, we played the old gym at a school and being really young and dumb, no distro's... everyone plugged into every freaking wall circuit we could find, light board with just switches running yard flood lights... I hit those flashpots - that I had WAAAY overloaded - I had dual 13 foot walls of flame on each side of the stage and BOOM! All the breakers blew. 2 emergency lights on the far end of the gym came on and the cloud of smoke from the flashpots (flash powder? what's that - we had gunpowder) soon overwhelmed the whole gym and rendered those lights useless. So, all the crowd got to hear was the intro to Detroit Rock City and the night was over. Hilarious!

[Johnny]

I think the way I play drums is semi-interesting to watch. Other than that, watching me is pretty boring. I'm okay with that. Most of the bands in which I've played have been "sit down and listen" bands.

[Barska]

Hmmm...

I usually go standing right in front of audience and after glancing them for a second take bottle of beer from behind my back and start splashing it all over them. I love to see people dodgin in packed front row :lol: I'm fuckhead:Confused: Another thing is stop playing in the middle of a song and do something totally unmusical like scratch my ass... This is not to make audience laugh but to make my bandmates play harder/check if they're listening to me at all.... Yes - I'm an asshole. I also like to put other end of my bass on the wedge and other on the stage and do couple skating tricks. Kinda fucks up your tune... This I usually do after song number two... Stupid huh?

[tammikuu]

I've been told that I look scary (or as a possessed corpse) when on stage. I don't know how I do it, I just let go. Usually when there are people that are not listening to us I keep on staring at them. They'll start listening within one song.

Funny thing is, I'm small and a female. Regardless, even big metalhead guys get scared when I look at them. I don't know if it's a virtue or a flaw though :Twisted: :Twisted: :Twisted: