[HN Gopher] Prove It All Night: With no fame or fortune, what ke...
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Prove It All Night: With no fame or fortune, what keeps a band
onstage? (1999)
Author : NaOH
Score : 45 points
Date : 2025-12-02 21:36 UTC (9 days ago)
(HTM) web link (chicagoreader.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (chicagoreader.com)
| stronglikedan wrote:
| passion, of course! not everyone is chasing fame and fortune.
| most musicians I know play just because someone is listening, and
| often times that someone is only them!
| recursive wrote:
| Performing is fun.
| dwd wrote:
| Played in a thrash metal band during the Halcyon days doing
| covers of the likes of Anthrax and Metallica and trying our
| best to write original material. Performing is fun but only a
| small part of the experience. Our band was one of a 1/2 dozen
| metal/speed/punk bands in town so when not playing we would be
| at each other's gigs. Many of us had rented sheds for
| rehearsing (decked out in secondhand carpet) so could often
| drop in on each other. Very much a community and something
| overlooked.
|
| I believe the SF metal scene and the NY scene at the time was
| very much the same.
| MengerSponge wrote:
| Performing is fun. Making music with other people is
| transcendent!
| alexjplant wrote:
| I've played in bar bands (doing covers) for 12 years now. My
| current project is going on hiatus due to some members leaving
| and us having to find new ones. We played our last show very
| recently and were talking about how we have an actual fanbase
| that's grown through friends, spontaneous discovery, and social
| media primarily through my bandmates' doing. Before the show and
| between sets I'm always going out of my way to do something in
| service of the performance instead of talking to people in the
| crowd that are watching us.
|
| It then occurred to me that a decent part of the reason that I
| perform live is a selfish one - on some level I'd rather
| demonstrate social utility by being a human jukebox than have to
| interact with people normally. Apparently I'd rather chug water
| and double-check the setlist after getting off stage than drink a
| beer and introduce myself to people. As ironic as it sounds
| there's a certain security to being on stage that insulates you
| from having to hang out with people while still scratching the
| itch to go out.
|
| Maybe I'm psychologizing myself too much but it's a thought.
| Definitely something I'm going to work on regardless.
| fipar wrote:
| " As ironic as it sounds there's a certain security to being on
| stage that insulates you from having to hang out with people
| while still scratching the itch to go out."
|
| It does not sound ironic to me, and it reminded me of "To know
| them" by Eric's Trip. If you don't know the song, I think you'd
| feel at least partially identified by the short lyrics,
| regardless of what you make of the music.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I knew someone who played guitar in the band at their
| daughter's wedding, and at least part of it was getting out of
| having to socialize after dinner-- and in particular to
| participate in a father-daughter dance.
| cyco130 wrote:
| I celebrated my 25th year on stage almost three years ago.
| Mostly playing covers in bars.
|
| There was a time when we were hoping to "make it" and we did
| release an album but it wasn't very successful, of course. That
| band broke up a few years later but I kept going with different
| bands.
|
| I can't do it every week anymore, let alone every night. It's
| very physically demanding, so once a month is plenty in my age.
|
| But it's still fun. A lot of fun. I can't imagine ever stopping
| it until I can't physically do it. It's part of who I am. Long
| live rock'n roll \m/
| zeruch wrote:
| Some people can make a living doing something they enjoy.
| "Success" is not fame, and vice versa (they are wholly orthogonal
| to each other), and I remember reading an interview with a member
| of Canadian group Saga, who in the US had like 1 top 40 hit in
| the early 80s and a few more minor ones in their home country,
| but ultimately they sell a few thousand records a year, and tour
| regularly in two "big" markets for them : Puerto Rico and
| Germany, and they seem to make roughly a middle class lifestyle
| doing so.
|
| Beats being an accountant or urologist I suppose.
|
| I suspect there's a similar vibe for cover band folks.
| cainxinth wrote:
| Really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing.
| niccl wrote:
| I had a gig last night. Small local band with a bit of a
| following that hasn't performed for a few months. Audience of 120
| or so. Great fun. My occasional hobby is lighting live music so I
| have to take what bands I can. Fortunately I really enjoy working
| with these people.
|
| After the show two of the band (40 and 37 y.o.) were talking
| about what next. They realise that, sadly, they're probably not
| going to make it big, but aren't sure that the occasional local
| gig with audience of 120, or supporting someone bigger but where
| the audience don't care, is enough. What should they do? give up?
| change mental focus and do something completely different (one
| thought about being a counsellor, the other about going into
| visual art). I'm older, so they were asking whether I'd had
| similar thoughts. Sure have. I long ago realised I could never
| make a living lighting live music unless I moved to the US, or
| possibly europe. For reasons, neither were practical, so I
| consciously decided that desgining hardware, writing software,
| and doing the occasional hobby lighting gig were enough. But for
| those two? No idea.
|
| Not really sure where this is going, but the tone of the article
| really resonated with the discussion with those two last night,
| and my tiredness this morning.
|
| I still think live music beats the pants off recordings. And show
| in smaller venues where you can really see and interact with the
| band are _way_ better than big shows where you just have loud
| television
| ilamont wrote:
| "People don't want to come out and drink anymore. They'd rather
| sit at home and get drunk, or surf the Internet."
|
| There's also the question of what kind of music people want to
| listen to. Rock music seems to wax and wane according to youth
| preferences and other pop culture and social trends. Bars and
| clubs that fail to adapt will usually fail.
|
| In the late 90s dance/rap/electronic was rising while guitar-
| based rock seemed to be fading, or splitting into niches like nu
| metal. By the early 2010s rock really seemed to be in a deep
| trough ... at that time I saw some bands that had once been
| considered big rock acts in 90s like Deftones, Helmet and Kula
| Shaker playing much smaller venues and neighborhood clubs in
| Boston.
|
| But 10 years later the pendulum seemed to swing back to rock. I
| saw Deftones once again on their 2022 tour, now playing a
| 4,000-seat arena.
| modzu wrote:
| the nookie?
| compiler-guy wrote:
| This is essentially the same story behind Dire Straight's
| "Sultans of Swing". A band playing for next to no one, but for
| the fun of it.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultans_of_Swing
| And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene He's
| got a daytime job, he's doing alright He can play the
| honky-tonk like anything Savin' it up for Friday night
| With the Sultans We're the Sultans of Swing
| tekla wrote:
| Bands are composed of people who like to eat.
|
| Its a shame visa laws make it hard for European bands to come to
| the US
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