What's wrong with 2023 audiences?

[Lance Bunyon]

I've been gigging for about 30 years. I cut my teeth as a super young guy in an oldies band playing doo wop and Motown to upstate NY audiences who danced and clapped and smoked their butts off.
While Boston audiences were more reserved in the oughties and tens, still lots of clapping and dancing.
I've been living in North Carolina for over 8 years. Metro Charlotte. Banking, not that different from Boston.
Lately I've noticed that audiences are going stepford. No clapping. No interaction. No dancing. About half the gigs I'm at are at some level "Wallpaper Gigs"...where the band might as well be a potted plant designed for ambiance.

We are all mostly top players in our 40s and 50s. We play a bit of everything in order to please a wide selection of people from all demographics -rock, pop, disco, country, R&B.
We're not ugly. Sure the singer could use to lose 30 lbs but he wears his soda belly well.
Something happened to society between 1993 and 2023. In 1993 everyone would at least golf clap after a song ended. It's polite.

Last night my trio was asked to play a benefit for leukemia. Someones daughter had actually survived and they were doing a fundraiser. We were all but ignored, they didn't offer us any of the communal food...the family of the girl didn't acknowledge us.
A paid wallpaper gig is one thing. I get a Benjamin to be ignored.
A wallpaper benefit gig is actually unacceptable. I've been honing my singing and playing skills for 40 years! We donated our time, skills, and the use of $10,000 in gear to a good cause.
I'm disgusted. I'm sure I'm just an old man yelling at clouds- but I think I'm done playing benefits unless there's concessions made for the band (FOOD FOOD FOOD!).
I worked half a day at my day job and lost $$$ to be a hothouse flower centerpiece?
I can't wait to make a hundy this Saturday getting ignored. It's so much better than volunteering for it...

 

[ChrisB2]

 

[crguti]

In Europe is fine, and over here nobody goes to see cover bands.

 

[Admiral Akbar]

electronic hypodermic instant dopamine. Sedation of the masses…

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Agreed. Even dudes with hot dates sitting right across from them stare into the zombie machine ™...

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Update. We got a communique from the matriarch of the Leukemia survivor (her mother) that kinda apologized..."wow last night was so great! We were upstairs at the second level talking about how good you guys were! It was so hard to move around or interact. We can't wait to see you at your other engagements!"
Lame. So she couldn't take a trip downstairs and give us a fake society kiss kiss between songs? Also NO FOOD! As a former fat guy this is simply unconscionable. I'm gonna stuff this gig in the hurt locker with all my childhood alcoholic home trauma and concentrate on the hundy I'll make Saturday.
I'll probably feel better by tomorrow after all I'm a relatively healthy person and forgiveness is usually my code...

 

[Tanner5382]

What type of places are you typically playing, and to what demographics?

 

[James Flowers]

Went to Dancing on the Cooper last Sat night. Shem Creek Boogie Band was play classic oldies and beach music. Dance floor was packed and the seated crowd clapped for the band regularly. Not a wallpaper gig at all. Wonder if the difference was the age of the crowd, oldies and beach, you can probably guess the demographic.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

What type of places are you typically playing, and to what demographics?

Good question. For the most part we play hipster microbreweries. Early gigs, with family and dog in tow. Charlotte (the whole metro) is a microbrewery mecca. The layout is usually a warehouse brewery, an indoor drinking/stage area, AND/OR an outdoor drinking/stage area. There's young bankers and their wives babies and dogs.
It's a scene that really didn't exist when many of us were coming up. These are generally not drunks. They drink a few obscenely overpriced IPAs and eat from an obscenely overpriced gourmet food truck.

Most of these places have moderately polite audiences. The gig averages between 18:30 to 21:30-ish cause officially these places arent BARS. They have "tasting" licenses which differ from other beer and wine places and must stop serving way before 23:00.

Last night was particularly bad. It wasnt a microbrewery but it was an automated tap house. They prepay and get a code to tap various blueberry IPAs etc.
Honestly we could make a better visual presentation. I've talked to the boys about clothing, but you can lead a deadhead to Harvard but you can't make him think...

 

[ebo]

I posted a few months ago asking if cover bands were going to go extinct. Both because most of the players were aging out and because the audiences who actually enjoy them were too. TB had mixed opinions of course. There are many factors including everyone being glued to their phones. DJ’s versus live bands. Style of music not connecting. Local bands vanishing won’t happen in my lifetime and I’m going down swinging. My lead singer is really good at engaging an audience and we try sticking to places were people come to see bands, but occasionally we’re wall paper. It makes for a long night.

 

[mazdah]

It is simple - nobody needs us anymore

 

[Lance Bunyon]

It is simple - nobody needs us anymore

I fear you may be correct.
Rock and roll was a unique element 70 years ago. All of a sudden we didn't need 16 instruments and musicians to rock the house. Add the disruption of WWII and we had the perfect storm for rebellion.
Kids today don't seem to HAVE rebellion. Even hip hop has mellowed.
People have 75 inch TVs, handheld networked computers, 1000 likes per hour to jolt the oxytocin. 20 something's may be far too numb and jaded to even know how to react to a non virtual real life situation.
The Post Human Experience ™

 

[ebo]

Try this song at your next gig.

 

[JRA]

A wallpaper benefit gig is actually unacceptable.

try a contract with a clause requiring a certain amount of 'appreciation responses' from the audience! you could even offer discounts for standing ovations!

seriously, you could try re-orienting your take on entertainment in general, and the audiences that you think you're currently encountering = hint: the audience is not your enemy!

you say you could make a better impression ("visual presentation") --- maybe start there! good luck!

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Just for the record, I MC our shows. I'm pretty good at it. I learned from the best, a seasoned front man from the Delaware Valley that I disliked so will remain anonymous. He was great at crowd interaction tho. Always engage. Get familiar. Make them laugh. Tell stories. "This song is about love and redemption". If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b*llsh!t. It usually works.

 

[landrybass]

I got yelled at all night at a Jack White show because my elbow touched some old lady in front of me. Lol she’s lucky I wasn’t in a moshing mood. People suck really bad. I guess she and her friend thought they were at the library or something.

 

[bassGtar]

Top players, seasoned front man, bored audience…the future doesn’t sound bright.

Maybe try focusing your music to a particular audience (instead of a bit of everything), since people seem to be siloing themselves according to the algorithms. And for god’s sake, negotiate some appreciation in advance.

 

[King Harvest]

I don’t know man— usually when I do something out of the goodness of my heart, I don’t expect anything in return.

 

[Tanner5382]

Good question. For the most part we play hipster microbreweries. Early gigs, with family and dog in tow. Charlotte (the whole metro) is a microbrewery mecca. The layout is usually a warehouse brewery, an indoor drinking/stage area, AND/OR an outdoor drinking/stage area. There's young bankers and their wives babies and dogs.
It's a scene that really didn't exist when many of us were coming up. These are generally not drunks. They drink a few obscenely overpriced IPAs and eat from an obscenely overpriced gourmet food truck.

Most of these places have moderately polite audiences. The gig averages between 18:30 to 21:30-ish cause officially these places arent BARS. They have "tasting" licenses which differ from other beer and wine places and must stop serving way before 23:00.

Last night was particularly bad. It wasnt a microbrewery but it was an automated tap house. They prepay and get a code to tap various blueberry IPAs etc.
Honestly we could make a better visual presentation. I've talked to the boys about clothing, but you can lead a deadhead to Harvard but you can't make him think...

I fear you may be correct.
Rock and roll was a unique element 70 years ago. All of a sudden we didn't need 16 instruments and musicians to rock the house. Add the disruption of WWII and we had the perfect storm for rebellion.
Kids today don't seem to HAVE rebellion. Even hip hop has mellowed.
People have 75 inch TVs, handheld networked computers, 1000 likes per hour to jolt the oxytocin. 20 something's may be far too numb and jaded to even know how to react to a non virtual real life situation.
The Post Human Experience ™

I figured I would just respond to both of these quotes. It seems like the microbreweries and that demographic definitely aren't your place. Your band, based on what you've described, and these locations/demos just seem to be two different worlds. For example, the rock and disco especially seem very out of place for that demographic. On average, the younger person just doesn't want to see a bunch of old guys playing old songs that they (the younger audience) doesn't care about or have any connection to. Are there any other locations you can play that might be more fitting, where you will be better appreciated?

As a 20 something, I've heard and read that "don't know how to react to real life" stuff a lot, and trust me I know it's at least partly in jest, but there is still a huge scene of 20s people going out in general and socializing, as well as going to see music. It's just not the same music anymore/the music you are playing. That is in one sense a type of rebellion that is indeed happening amongst younger people. They simply do not want to go out to see cover bands of guys playing the same songs they've been playing for 40ish years. And there is plenty of both mellow and non-mellow music in the younger demographic. Heard any modern metal variants? Anything but mellow. Things are more fragmented now than they have ever been. There's lots of stuff out there, you just have to find it.

Honestly, I see just as many people who are up into their early 60s who are as addicted to their phones/social media as any other age group. It's not just a young person thing.

I have also talked to many people these days who do not want there to be a band when they go out to a bar or out to eat. They view it as an annoyance, a distraction and a turn off and I've heard it compared to annoying trivia at places, where people will choose to go somewhere else without for their night out.

I don't mean any of this to be insulting, just in case it came off that way. I'm just trying to offer you a different perspective. I definitely understand all of your annoyances with the way things are. I hope you and your group are able to find some local places that you can play regularly that will have a more fitting, appreciative and interactive crowd for you. There's nothing worse than a wallpaper gig.

Good luck!

 

[bulldean]

On the subject of benefits, we do two a year. It's easy to be known as a benefit band, and the requests are numerous. There is a sales saying that is something along the line that if you charge nothing for your product or service you are thought of as not being worth anything.