Members n9ne Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 For the dollar-tipper, maybe one could explain it in terms he'd understand. "Sir, our band is getting paid $1000 dollars to perform tonight, and we'll be playing roughly 40-50 songs. That works out to roughly 20-25 bucks a song, or approximately six dollars a minute. Given this rate, one dollar is worthy roughly ten seconds of our time. I thank you for your generosity, and if you have a favorite song that lasts ten seconds or less, we'll do our very best to play it for you." Okay, not really. But I'd love to see the look on the guy's face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Clearly...1) Some folks in this thread feel that BECAUSE you're on stage, you're equivalent to no more than an organ grinder's monkey, and your job is to DANCE MONKEY, DANCE!!! when told to by any chump who asks...2) And some folks feel that because they are on stage, THEY'RE the show, and while they may give a nod and/or attention to someone in the audience who's out of their element, it's still THE FOLKS ON STAGE who make the call on doing so or not. Yes, the band is there to entertain the crowd, but there is such a thing as an audience member crossing the line; once they do, too bad for them. People play music for all kinds of reasons, and attitudes will vary accordingly. I don't see any of them as being 'wrong'. What I do when people make a request is try to be gracious and say "you know, there's just so many great songs out there, we can't possibly cover them all. I'll write it down and try to have it for you next time", even though I know I probably never will. They get to feel like they had some input into the show and I get to keep from pissing an audience member off. My rule is never give the audience a reason to say anything bad about you. To mangle an old quote, a bad comment about you will fly halfway around the world before the good ones put their shoes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wardjames Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 People play music for all kinds of reasons, and attitudes will vary accordingly. I don't see any of them as being 'wrong'. What I do when people make a request is try to be gracious and say "you know, there's just so many great songs out there, we can't possibly cover them all. I'll write it down and try to have it for you next time", even though I know I probably never will. They get to feel like they had some input into the show and I get to keep from pissing an audience member off. My rule is never give the audience a reason to say anything bad about you. To mangle an old quote, a bad comment about you will fly halfway around the world before the good ones put their shoes on. Agreed. As long as the request is made in a nice manner, I think you throw out a "Darn, we don't do that one, but that's a great song, so we'll learn it for next time" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jamesp Posted August 5, 2011 Members Share Posted August 5, 2011 Last night a guy hovered a buck over the tip pitcher, raised his eyebrows and said, "Another solo?" Yes, I was his monkey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted August 5, 2011 Members Share Posted August 5, 2011 I used to have a singer who would tell people their song would be coming up in the fifth set. We played four set shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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