If there is anything that can be traced to anti-depressant perscriptions and the reasons musicians are so miserable it is the immense dissapointment of night after night of playing to small crowds. It even happens to well-established major label bands. Last summer, I went to see one of my favorite bands play at a venue that holds 800+ with only about 60 people in attendance. A competing show had wiped them out despite major label cash and extensive promotion. Despite the lackluster turn out, they killed it anyway and made me and everyone there to see them an even bigger fan. After the jump I will tell you how they did it and many other ways your band of any size can make a small show into one of the most important ones you play.
Socialize
The number one thing to remember is the saying "it's not how good you are, its who you know." While not always the case, many bands get opportunities because they are in with another band. So how do you become "in" with another band? BE FRIENDLY! The single best thing you can do at an empty show is get together with the other bands and discuss real things. Is the other band on ReverbNation? How is it working for them? Which of the tools are they using? Do they know that skanky groupie ho your drummer slept with from their home town? Gross! The guitarist has that new Dr. Z amp, how does it sound? You just bought the new Line 6 pedal, tell 'em what you think! Just talk! When you make friends with other bands and they think you are a nice, cool person they want to help you, whether it is getting you on shows, or when they get signed they may show your songs to the A&R etc. etc. It pays to be friendly in these situations, even to bands who are terrible and have no fans! You never know who is going to get huge, even when you think they suck, that band could get a whole lot better in two years and take you with them. If you don't know it by now, being a dick doesn't make you seem like a rock star, it makes you seem like a dick.
Fans
It's not just the band you can socialize with, you can talk to the fans too! Something weird happens when you walk into a bar and it is filled to the brim with people, where as if you walk into the same size bar and it is kind of empty all of a sudden everyone starts talking to each other. This is the same thing at shows, it is totally acceptable to hang out and make good friends with the people, and in an empty venue it's welcome more then ever. Trust me, they will like you for it as long as you don't try to sleep with anyone's significant other.
Impress
True story! Once, a long, long time ago, I was in a band. We rolled into a desolate town and played a show to a dozen people. There were more people in bands than people in attendance. Despite this fact, we went on stage and did what we always did, gave it 110%. After the set, about ten of the dozen people in attendance came up to us and said they had never seen a band go so crazy despite no one being around, and we were rewarded with everyone in the audience buying tons of our merch, to make up for the fact that their town was so lame that no one came to see what they found to be an amazing experience. It gets even better! It turned out in attendance that night a girl was in the audience whose brother was A&R at one of the largest Indies in the country. A label we dreamed of being on, with our favorite bands all over their roster. After listening to our demo, the girl called her brother and said she just saw the second coming of Christ and even though no one was there to see us, we destroyed the stage and had the most amazing demo ever. The next thing you know we are on the phone with an A&R man being wined and dined. Nothing ever came of it for other reasons that will be discussed in a lengthy tell-all blog in the future, but playing our asses off for no one really made us worth talking about, and it gave us an amazing opportunity that could have been life changing.
Word Gets Around
When you give it your all live in front of a small audience, it isn't just about the sibling of a famous A&R person. When I have seen bands play their asses off to small crowds, I tell everyone. The thing is, the less people at a concert the more powerful this feels. I am sure you have heard someone talk like it was the rapture when a band gave it their all to a small crowd. That's the thing, if you play great, the 8 people in attendance will tell 16 more people how great you are and the word will keep spreading. The next time you roll into town the show won't be so empty.
Keep It Clean
I am not one to say you should play every show sober. I have seen some of my favorite bands play some of the best sets I have ever seen, intoxicated out of their minds. What I will say is this - do not use the show where no one is there as the time to test if you can really drink a whole bottle of absinthe and still get through the set. As we stated above, this is an opportunity to blow some people away, not become a meme on the internet after someone posts the picture of the vomit all over your drumset on Flickr and then the kid from Hipster Runoff turns it into a post. This is the night to get 8 people telling everyone of their friends "I saw ____ and even though no one was there they blew me away with how amazing they played." Save the drinking contest for practice or the next time you play a party.
Take Requests!
If you are in a band and some of those 8 people are actually people who like your band and know your music, make it fun and engaging for them. Like I said at the beginning of the article, I went to a poorly attended concert of a semi-popular band. What they did to make it amazing for us was bribery. If we reacted well they would play whatever we asked. They had a tambourine and said if we rocked out hard on the next song whoever danced the hardest got to play it in the chorus. The crowd went crazy! They even attempted to play a song they have never played live to mixed results. I was so psyched and told everyone I knew about how great it was. Because of that some of my friends got into their band and they made new fans. Don't look at an empty room as disappointment, but instead as good practice and occasionally an unforeseen opportunity.
The number one thing to remember is the saying "it's not how good you are, its who you know." While not always the case, many bands get opportunities because they are in with another band. So how do you become "in" with another band? BE FRIENDLY! The single best thing you can do at an empty show is get together with the other bands and discuss real things. Is the other band on ReverbNation? How is it working for them? Which of the tools are they using? Do they know that skanky groupie ho your drummer slept with from their home town? Gross! The guitarist has that new Dr. Z amp, how does it sound? You just bought the new Line 6 pedal, tell 'em what you think! Just talk! When you make friends with other bands and they think you are a nice, cool person they want to help you, whether it is getting you on shows, or when they get signed they may show your songs to the A&R etc. etc. It pays to be friendly in these situations, even to bands who are terrible and have no fans! You never know who is going to get huge, even when you think they suck, that band could get a whole lot better in two years and take you with them. If you don't know it by now, being a dick doesn't make you seem like a rock star, it makes you seem like a dick.
Fans
It's not just the band you can socialize with, you can talk to the fans too! Something weird happens when you walk into a bar and it is filled to the brim with people, where as if you walk into the same size bar and it is kind of empty all of a sudden everyone starts talking to each other. This is the same thing at shows, it is totally acceptable to hang out and make good friends with the people, and in an empty venue it's welcome more then ever. Trust me, they will like you for it as long as you don't try to sleep with anyone's significant other.
Impress
True story! Once, a long, long time ago, I was in a band. We rolled into a desolate town and played a show to a dozen people. There were more people in bands than people in attendance. Despite this fact, we went on stage and did what we always did, gave it 110%. After the set, about ten of the dozen people in attendance came up to us and said they had never seen a band go so crazy despite no one being around, and we were rewarded with everyone in the audience buying tons of our merch, to make up for the fact that their town was so lame that no one came to see what they found to be an amazing experience. It gets even better! It turned out in attendance that night a girl was in the audience whose brother was A&R at one of the largest Indies in the country. A label we dreamed of being on, with our favorite bands all over their roster. After listening to our demo, the girl called her brother and said she just saw the second coming of Christ and even though no one was there to see us, we destroyed the stage and had the most amazing demo ever. The next thing you know we are on the phone with an A&R man being wined and dined. Nothing ever came of it for other reasons that will be discussed in a lengthy tell-all blog in the future, but playing our asses off for no one really made us worth talking about, and it gave us an amazing opportunity that could have been life changing.
Word Gets Around
When you give it your all live in front of a small audience, it isn't just about the sibling of a famous A&R person. When I have seen bands play their asses off to small crowds, I tell everyone. The thing is, the less people at a concert the more powerful this feels. I am sure you have heard someone talk like it was the rapture when a band gave it their all to a small crowd. That's the thing, if you play great, the 8 people in attendance will tell 16 more people how great you are and the word will keep spreading. The next time you roll into town the show won't be so empty.
Keep It Clean
I am not one to say you should play every show sober. I have seen some of my favorite bands play some of the best sets I have ever seen, intoxicated out of their minds. What I will say is this - do not use the show where no one is there as the time to test if you can really drink a whole bottle of absinthe and still get through the set. As we stated above, this is an opportunity to blow some people away, not become a meme on the internet after someone posts the picture of the vomit all over your drumset on Flickr and then the kid from Hipster Runoff turns it into a post. This is the night to get 8 people telling everyone of their friends "I saw ____ and even though no one was there they blew me away with how amazing they played." Save the drinking contest for practice or the next time you play a party.
Take Requests!
If you are in a band and some of those 8 people are actually people who like your band and know your music, make it fun and engaging for them. Like I said at the beginning of the article, I went to a poorly attended concert of a semi-popular band. What they did to make it amazing for us was bribery. If we reacted well they would play whatever we asked. They had a tambourine and said if we rocked out hard on the next song whoever danced the hardest got to play it in the chorus. The crowd went crazy! They even attempted to play a song they have never played live to mixed results. I was so psyched and told everyone I knew about how great it was. Because of that some of my friends got into their band and they made new fans. Don't look at an empty room as disappointment, but instead as good practice and occasionally an unforeseen opportunity.
This is really good stuff. It's also good for folks running the venue to view a slow night as an opportunity to look or new opportunities. Sure, they may not make a lot of money off the doors or alcohol, but perhaps they can, just like the band, interact with the smaller crowd, make an impression, come up with unique ideas for future shows that will draw a larger crowd.
We've found getting your audience drunk works better than getting yourself drunk. As long as they remember the show the next day, they'll have a great time.