Summer time is festival time! And how good it is if your name is on the posters of the relevant open-air events and you appear in the running order. In contrast to a club concert, you share the stage with several acts. You are more limited in your playing time and you may perform in front of an audience that doesn't know you yet. Sloppy Joe's have experience with that. The band just got back from Rock For Animal Rights and have already played at many festivals in their band history. We asked singer Jesse Garon what festival performances are all about.
The most decisive element of your gig is your sound. Therefore, long before you set foot on the festival grounds, it is best to clarify what requirements your performance requires. The is most easily done with a technical rider, which you send to the event organiser. It describes what your set-up looks like. Then the sound engineers and mixers can later see at a glance which instruments you are bringing with you and what equipment you need on site.
“We always have a printout of our Technical Rider with us. Because it can often happen that the sound engineer was unable to take a look at it beforehand."
In addition to the technical rider, you can also work with a light rider. These stage instructions tell you what the lighting should look like for your performance. This is helpful if:
Check if and how you can hang up your backdrop. Then the audience can see immediately which band is currently on stage.
Both festivals and bands are different. Depending on the size and timetable, there are bands that watch the performances of other musicians beforehand, who roam the festival and make as many contacts as possible. Or those who immediately disappear backstage and don't appear again until their playing time.
Sloppy Joe's are the first to explore the festival grounds. This way, they get a feel for the festival and can soak up the atmosphere. After that, they inspect the stage and see where they can get food and where their backstage area is located.
The merchandise stand is also an important part of the site. Here you can present your items, talk to the fans and earn some money. Sloppy Joe's always have their shirts and CDs ready to hand on the tour bus.
“That's the first thing we do before we actually attend to the music, we set up the merchandise stand. Or we find out where it is and hand over our items so they can be sold there."
If you're familiar with the festival grounds, you'll also know where to unload your tour bus or car. Stagehands are the people who help you with this. They also know where things can be stored until the performance takes place. And they keep track of what belongs to which band. This is important. Especially when it gets dark in the evening and things get a little more hectic during the conversion phases.
Singer Jesse explains that Sloppy Joe's always bring their own vocal microphones because they feel most comfortable with ̈them. They also bring their own stands. They set up the microphones and stands beforehand. So they then only have to place microphone stands on the stage.
Conversion breaks or changeovers at festivals have to happen quickly in order to keep to the tight schedules. That's why bands usually share equipment, especially the drums. However, they usually swap pedals, snares and cymbals.
At a festival, you often introduce yourselves to a new audience. That's why your sound is crucial when performing live. Also in order not to make a bad impression compared to other bands. It's best to clarify who is responsible for you: Is there an FoH sound engineer who adjusts your sound? Or is there a monitor technician who takes care of your sound on stage? Good monitoring is important so that you can hear yourselves well on stage.
Depending on the circumstances, you perform a regular sound check before your slot. Sometimes a sound check is not possible, then a line check has to do.
“For a sound check, we are often at a festival early in the morning before it starts in the afternoon. The sound check gives us a good feeling. Because we feel most comfortable when we know that our monitor and the sound to the outside sounds good. If sound checks take place, then the conversion breaks are shorter later during the festival.“
“The line check means: the band before us has finished. We bring our equipment onto the stage, check our instruments and play something for the sound engineer. And then it starts straight away. That's always very strenuous and sometimes a bit problematic, because the sound isn't exactly what it should be at the first notes, but only develops over the course of the set.“
“For a sound check, we are often at a festival early in the morning before it starts in the afternoon. The sound check gives us a good feeling. Because we feel most comfortable when we know that our monitor and the sound to the outside sounds good. If sound checks take place, then the conversion breaks are shorter later during the festival.“
“The line check means: the band before us has finished. We bring our equipment onto the stage, check our instruments and play something for the sound engineer. And then it starts straight away. That's always very strenuous and sometimes a bit problematic, because the sound isn't exactly what it should be at the first notes, but only develops over the course of the set.“
When you play a festival slot, it's almost like a sporting competition: you have to be there from the first second onwards.
At club concerts, the audience is there (exclusively) because of you. Club concerts are more of a guarantee that you pick people up faster and integrate them into the show. You are (still) unknown to audiences at festivals. Of course, you also want to win them for yourselves. At Sloppy Joe's it works quickly and well, says singer Jesse. They then go full throttle because festival slots are always shorter ̈than a normal club show.
It is a well known fact that you should stop when things are going really well. This is particularly difficult at a festival when the mood among the band and the audience is at its peak. And you would like to play a few more songs to make it a complete performance. But then someone at the edge of the stage holds up a sign and says you only have five minutes left. Adjust your set to the playing time in advance. This gives you the security that you are on time and will not delay the ongoing procedure. Keep in mind that event organisers notice when bands don't stick to agreements or simply play for too long.
Singer Jesse adds: “It's extremely important to be disciplined about respecting the timings. I always look to the side and know: OK, five more minutes, we'll do exactly one more song. Ideally, at the end of our set, we'll have a photo with the audience if they were in good spirits.“
At club concerts you can leave your equipment on the stage after the gig. Unfortunately, that doesn't work at festivals when there are other bands after you. This is also a stressful moment for Sloppy Joe's: “That's why we try to calm down a bit before the performance. Afterwards it's often like this: the set is finished, the show was great and it was fun. Then we leave the stage briefly and basically go straight back on for dismantling. Unfortunately, this takes us straight back to a stressful situation. So there really isn't any time to wind down. That only happens later when we meet our fans at the merchandise stand.“
Unexpected things always happen in live business despite all the routine and professionalism. At open-air events, not only visitors but also bands have one or the other festival story in store. Sloppy Joe's even played a festival under difficult circumstances, which later turned out to be a special experience.
“Last year we experienced a situation that was unbelievable. We thought we would go from headliner to deadliner. That was at a huge festival with almost 10,000 people. There was no running order to be found and there was no stage moderation. We were supposed to play at 10:30 pm. The band before us needed forty minutes just to dismantle their elaborate stage setting. The entire changeover therefore took forever. During that time, the audience left because they thought nothing else was going to happen. When we finally came onto the stage, it felt like we had died a little. I thought, this can't be true. But then we said, OK, it doesn't matter at all now. We will take a little more time with the sound check, so that the gig will be really great. And then we'll captivate the people who are still there. We can do that, and we did it! We had this amazingly huge stage with an incredible system. We then played in front of only five hundred people for two hours and pulled them in right up close to the stage. The audience was totally enthusiastic, so that after the show we sold shirts straight out of the pit into the crowd.“
As you can see, festivals are always something special. Not only for the audience, but also for bands. It is precisely the unforeseen things that stick in your memory later. And also provide for entertainment as festival stories after the performance.
Thanks to Florian Welzbacher for providing the pictures
