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GIGS SHOULD BE MORE LIKE FOOTBALL GAMES
26 March 2006
A big part in my recent decision not to do gigs anymore (at least not for a while), and concentrating
instead on recording and promoting via the internet, was to the element of repetition which I find boring.
I don't like the idea of rehearsing the same stuff again and again. For me, this means missing the point of
being creative in making music. When I repeat the same thing, I'm not being creative and it feels like a
waste of time.
It's like the argument about films and theatre. Films are a concentrated creative effort. You capture your best takes and you move
on, exactly like recording an album. Theatre, on the other hand, demands the actors to do the same thing every night for a few weeks
(sometimes months, sometimes years) Monday to Saturday. This is just like any other job. The glory? The love of an audience? I need
something more permanent than that and more than a few programmes and reviews to take home with me when it finishes.
That’s why gigs should be less like theatre and more like football games. 90 minutes, two halves, a break, and perhaps some extra
3-4 minutes for the time wasted on changing strings or tuning the guitar. A bit of planning in advance - just in general and in
relation to the circumstances (home or away) - and then leaving the rest of it to chance, improvisation, inspiration, and sometimes
the lack of it.
Like in football, the audience might get 20 minutes of pointless, or unsuccessful searching for a goal, they might have to suffer
some garbage time, long balls that go nowhere, aggressive defence, but they're there for those magical moments when things comes
together beautifully to produce a memorable one-off experience. People that watch football, watch their team every week. Gig goers
will see the same band a few times at most, but who will go every week for 30 years to see one band?
Gigs are not football games, but gigs also lack the element of surprise and adventure. You might say that this is what they do in
Jazz, but often the magic in Jazz is too complicated, too sophisticated. If you want, Jazz is like Cricket. But rock 'n' roll
rock 'n' roll can be like football. I think Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd used to do their gigs like that, but you need to take out the
psychedelic atmosphere and noises, and instead go for gigs that though they are 100% improvised, also include songs with lyrics, and
some immediate, and catchy elements (later Floyd?).
In football they practice. This will need practicing too. But practicing to be better in improvisation, so not even one moment -
in rehearsals or gigs - is ever the same.
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