On The Cinder
SPB: What is the smallest crowd you’ve played to? How did you approach the show?
Mike: I did a call with my guys last night and we compiled some of the more tragic memories of our time touring over the last 13 years as a band. A big crowd can forgive the more upsetting things that can happen behind the scenes at shows, but when the crowd is slim to non-existent, that's when the experiences can be most heartbreaking.
These are the hits, haha:
- We once played an all weekend, cross town, multi venue festival in Buffalo in the very last slot at 1:30AM to 1.5 friends (1 left mid set)
- Early on, we played a bar called The Lucky Dog in Worcester, MA. There were bar patrons but the show room was very separate from the bar. Our show was incidental, to say the least. The sound man actually stopped doing our sound check to go drink at the bar while we set up the mics ourselves (1 other band, and 2 people in audience)
- We played Paychex Lounge in Hamtramck, MI to the soundman/lights operator who absolutely went off with the fog machine and the laser show. If a single person was there to witness it they would have thought Pink Floyd was on stage, but there was so much fog you probably couldn't see the stage anyway.
- A notorious story we've shared over the years is our drummer Tyler's "Sad Birthday Show" in Daytona, FL. We arrived to load-in and the very nice bartender honestly stated "We don't have anything on our calendar. Oh, that ____, I hate when he does this." So the venue had no idea we were coming, but there was a flyer in the window...We proceeded to get hammered drunk, then set up, played for over an hour everything we knew and then ad-libbed some songs, and then when the alcohol, frustration, and exhaustion finally overwhelmed us we decided to stop. As we struck the last chord, 3 kids walk into the venue and shout, "Oh, it's over? We were here to see you guys." We were spent.
To quote Bilbo Baggins: "It's a dangerous business going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
Most bands only last 2.5 years on average, not sure where I got that number but I didn't make it up, haha. You only have a finite amount of shows in your life, or even time being alive. So when it comes to the mentality of going into a show with little to no audience, you have to keep perspective on why you are out playing said show in the first place. You're out with your friends, you're playing the music you love (hopefully), you're exploring the world on tour, and wherever you go you represent yourselves and the name your band plays under. Reputation is everything in music. Playing great to an empty room will prepare you to be amazing in front of a big crowd. Just hopefully it doesn't happen to you as much as it has to On The Cinder, lol.
