Photo courtesy of Scott Robinson via Creative Commons on Flickr.
A small ray of light reflects into the audience. You gasp and step back.
You see nothing but dead eyes staring back at you. The faces are drooling and mindless.
That’s when you realize your audience has turned into zombies.
An audience of zombies
This may sound like a horror story, but it happens all the time. You are boring the shit out of your audience and turning them into zombies.
They won’t eat your brains, but they will leave your show to go get something to drink instead. They will not by merch. They will not add you on Facebook afterwards.
But there are ways you can avoid this.
Practice interaction
Usually, you think your rehearsals are just to get your songs sounding great live. But that’s only half of it.
You should also be rehearsing crowd interaction. You should be practicing talking to the audience between songs.
This is awkward when there isn’t an audience in front of you. You feel silly at first. Your bandmates look at you and laugh a little bit.
But work through that initial awkwardness. Get used to talking to your audience during your rehearsals so it becomes second nature when you play live.
Nothing can kill the mood like awkward silence between songs. Even worse, you spew senseless ramblings between songs that don’t get the crowd worked up.
Song interaction
In addition to talking between songs, make your songs themselves include the audience.
Can any of your songs have the crowd sing along?
Have everything but the drums drop out. Teach the crowd how to sing your chorus. While they are singing along, gradually bring back all the instruments.
Have everything but the drums drop out. Teach the crowd how to sing your chorus. While they are singing along, gradually bring back all the instruments.
This builds excitement and gets the audience into your song.
Go off script during a song. During a quiet part of the song, talk to the audience and let them in on what the song is about. Or just talk to them and get them excited.
The point is to use parts of your songs to have a dramatic moment where you can connect with your audience. You don’t need to do it every song, but every few songs really makes a difference.
Smooth your transitions
Is your guitarist spending one minute tuning between every song? Is your bassist too busy drinking beer?
Empty moments between songs can really kill the buzz with an audience. It’s okay to have the occasional beer, and you know you need to tune every now and then; but those moments should be planned.
Instead of random moments of awkward silence between songs, build transitions so one song flows directly into the next.
Any DJ that’s worth anything knows to beat match and build upon beats. Beat matching keeps the audience dancing from one song to the next. A dramatic new beat will cause the audience to lose their rhythm.
With a band, the concept can still be applied. Your songs need to build off one another to keep the audience going.
Instead of rehearsing one song at a time, try chaining three of your songs together. Rehearse this way so when you play live, you have an awesome flow from one song to the next that keeps the audience engaged.
Yes, you need to learn how to keep your guitar in tune for three songs. You might not be able to drink as much as you wanted on stage. You might get more sweaty than you wanted to be.
But your audience will love it. And that’s the point.
So try these methods out and prevent your audience turning into zombies.
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