As you might have noticed, Mike Luno Band has just made its first video available online. Frankly, I enjoyed the whole video-making-posting process (although in fairness, I didn't have to edit it - that fell to the artistry of our own Trevor Andres), and was pleasantly surprised by the results - especially as this was our first effort and very much a do-it-yourself operation. The next pleasant surprise was how the video posting increased the band's exposure and visitor traffic to the website. 'Though I'd been told by many experts how important a video presence is for promoting a band, I guess I didn't entirely believe the extent of it. A bit strange, as I love to watch good musicians almost as much as I like to hear them, perhaps like most people. A lot of brain space goes toward processing eye-data, after all!
I watched a Bobby Darin bio ('Beyond the Sea') a couple of years ago, and tho' I wasn't too crazy about the film, one can't deny that Darin (perhaps best known for 'Splish Splash' and 'Tossin' and Turnin') had a very interesting career. In the late sixties, he cast aside his old sharp-dressed pop icon and movie star image, joined the counter-culture and started writing folk music. He hit the stage wearing a buckskin jacket (with obligatory fringe, of course) like a good folkie - and he completely alienated the audience that had come out to see THE Bobby Darin. Dismayed and discouraged, he was offered this observation by his wife: 'people hear what they see.'
That's a phrase that has stuck with me.
In the movie, he performs much of the same music at his next concert, but the tux is back. The show is a smash.
Jimi Hendrix and Ace Frehley both experimented in concert settings by playing a few songs in 'musician' mode (standing still, focusing exclusively on the musical element of their performance), then in 'performer' mode (jumping around with their guitars like madmen). Care to guess which approach was the overwhelming audience favourite? In fact, many audience members swore that the musical performance was better in the latter instance, when the performers themselves believed the opposite.
For better or worse, I have a few years of classical training on various instruments (though ironically, zilch on guitar), which is a school that generally frowns on extraneous physical movement...let alone leaping around the stage a la Pete Townshend. Years ago in my early rock performances, not only did I often fail to move, I'd notice my contact lenses drying out after guitar solos - I was forgetting to blink! For a couple of years there, I made John Entwistle look like Angus Young.
Granted, audiences usually know the truth when they see it - and I believe an audience prefers that a performer remains sincerely still than artificially animated - but for best results, the audience sees a performer who is physically inspired by the musical moment. It's a pleasure to perform that way, too.
I'm sure we've all seen bands who we wish would relax, look up from their instruments and move on to genuinely expressing something - and there are some who appear to have studied old music videos far too carefully and whose every little movement is a contrivance or a cliche. I'd tend to see both approaches as fear-based; and fear is definitely the enemy of good musical performance. Even if the audience is putting more stock in what they see than in what they hear, the musician must be motivated to move by what they hear - not by fear of not moving. Perhaps Jimi and Ace really did have better musical performances (albeit more technically flawed) when they got crazy onstage, just from allowing themselves a more primal connection to the music. At this point, I can only guess - and blink. Must remember to blink. Better go set my alarm as a reminder...dang, just can't see where I'm going...
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I watched a Bobby Darin bio ('Beyond the Sea') a couple of years ago, and tho' I wasn't too crazy about the film, one can't deny that Darin (perhaps best known for 'Splish Splash' and 'Tossin' and Turnin') had a very interesting career. In the late sixties, he cast aside his old sharp-dressed pop icon and movie star image, joined the counter-culture and started writing folk music. He hit the stage wearing a buckskin jacket (with obligatory fringe, of course) like a good folkie - and he completely alienated the audience that had come out to see THE Bobby Darin. Dismayed and discouraged, he was offered this observation by his wife: 'people hear what they see.'
That's a phrase that has stuck with me.
In the movie, he performs much of the same music at his next concert, but the tux is back. The show is a smash.
Jimi Hendrix and Ace Frehley both experimented in concert settings by playing a few songs in 'musician' mode (standing still, focusing exclusively on the musical element of their performance), then in 'performer' mode (jumping around with their guitars like madmen). Care to guess which approach was the overwhelming audience favourite? In fact, many audience members swore that the musical performance was better in the latter instance, when the performers themselves believed the opposite.
For better or worse, I have a few years of classical training on various instruments (though ironically, zilch on guitar), which is a school that generally frowns on extraneous physical movement...let alone leaping around the stage a la Pete Townshend. Years ago in my early rock performances, not only did I often fail to move, I'd notice my contact lenses drying out after guitar solos - I was forgetting to blink! For a couple of years there, I made John Entwistle look like Angus Young.
Granted, audiences usually know the truth when they see it - and I believe an audience prefers that a performer remains sincerely still than artificially animated - but for best results, the audience sees a performer who is physically inspired by the musical moment. It's a pleasure to perform that way, too.
I'm sure we've all seen bands who we wish would relax, look up from their instruments and move on to genuinely expressing something - and there are some who appear to have studied old music videos far too carefully and whose every little movement is a contrivance or a cliche. I'd tend to see both approaches as fear-based; and fear is definitely the enemy of good musical performance. Even if the audience is putting more stock in what they see than in what they hear, the musician must be motivated to move by what they hear - not by fear of not moving. Perhaps Jimi and Ace really did have better musical performances (albeit more technically flawed) when they got crazy onstage, just from allowing themselves a more primal connection to the music. At this point, I can only guess - and blink. Must remember to blink. Better go set my alarm as a reminder...dang, just can't see where I'm going...
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