Your Gig is now on Facebook, in Living Color

I’ve have a running argument with other musician friends about any given audience’s use of smart phones or other such connected devices to record live gigs, which they then post to social media.

Often, the quality is shaky and the audio stinks. My bigger fear? That future employers will see such low quality clips and not hire me, or, that the recording will catch me at a weak or sloppy moment, or that a potential audience might be satisfied to just watch at home and not go to a live show.

It got to the point when I was playing last week at a big festival and I looked out into a sea of smart phones waving in the air, stopped the band, and asked that people put them away and simply enjoy the music.

Their response? They got up, each of them, and they left the venue.

And me?  I felt maybe two inches tall. Righteous indignation is a true audience killer.

Later that same day, at the music store where I teach music, the managers jokingly suggested I make a banner with some embarrassing wording on it and hang it behind the band to thwart such live recording.

I half thought about doing it.

That’s when it occurred to me that we live in an age of entitlement. People now feel free to use their smart phones to record anything and everything, and social media has given them a free platform to share their whereabouts with the rest of the digital world.

Most important? This is how our fans want to enjoy music. 

 

I had to make an attitude attitude adjustment or stay home:  no more sloppy dressing, and no more trying things out on stage that may or may not fly. From now on, I play like I’m at Carnegie Hall no matter the gig, and I save all else for private jams and rehearsal.

It’s the only aspect that I can control:  me, and my performance. And if people are recording, I want to be spot on.

I brought this same subject up with a friend and mentor who happens to be a first rate blues guitarist and jazz composer named Robin Henkel. His perspective was both refreshing and enlightening:

“When I see someone recording, I invite them to get closer so they can get a better picture. If they’re going to post my music, I want it to be the best quality possible.”  He views such posts on social media as free advertising.

Meanwhile, that cranky sax player who yelled at people to put their phones away?

He has left the building.

Good riddance.

cell phones, recording, live performance, bootleg recordings, social media