Getting Through A Show When Everything Goes Wrong
Guest post by Patrick McGuire. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper
The thought of playing a show fraught with performance mistakes, sound problems, and an unengaged crowd is one that keeps musicians of all stripes awake at night. It makes perfect sense, too! After spending god knows much time, money, and personal sacrifice writing and creating great music, you feel a lot of pressure to deliver a flawless live show every time you hit the stage.
But here’s the rub: Things go wrong in live shows constantly, and the problems you’re likely to experience aren’t always predictable or preventable, nor are they abnormal in any way. Especially when you’re on the road playing night after night, with different sound in different rooms with different support acts and different audiences, it’s a miracle we’re even able to perform well at all!
Here are a few ways to get through shows where nothing seems to be going your way.