....or embarrasingly low turn outs at gigs.

I was at King Tuts to see The Thermals last night and it was a reasonable turn-out about 150 or so in a 250 capacity club. However, the two support bands were both local and after they had played about a 100 people upped and left, leaving the floor, it has to be said, embarrasingly bare.

Now I know The Thermals aren't ever going to trouble the pop charts but they're a name band on a high profile label you'd think they could attract 200 people out of a population base of 1,500,000 but apparently not.

I have to say I felt kinda sorry for them. It pretty rude of all those people just to leave like that. Especially as The Thermals put on a decent performance too. I realise as musicians they are probably hardened against these sort of scenarios but I felt bad!

Any low turn out tales of your own?

The most embarassing display of audience disrespect was at a NIN / David Bowie concert. Upon NIN leaving the stage, so did two-thirds of the audience. I couldn't believe my eyes -- c'mon, people, it's DAVID FUCKIN' BOWIE, what's wrong with you?!

In college.... Old drummer says "I know this guy in rock hill south carolina, and he's throwing this HUGE block party, and wants us to play it." It's about a 3 hour drive I think from Athens, but we decide to do it after hearing promises of beer flowing like wine and loose women ... also flowing like wine.

We load up the vw's and camry's and drive 3+ hrs to get there, and it's some crapball little shack on a dismal road with maybe 7 other houses tops, and the "block party" is 6 people standing around this dude's kitchen, pumping on a keg of bud lite. That's it. Nobody else shows up, nobody else wanders in, and the 6 of them walk out into the yard after 30 seconds of music.

[Hindsight] Why the fuck didn't we just turn around and leave, without bothering to unpack and play for nobody? Why did we in fact stay until 3am drinking their crappy beer? Why did I talk Bloor into riding with me all the way home at 3am?[/Hindsight]

i saw beep beep a few months back and i think there were about 10 people there watching them. there were more people on the other side of the club and i think it was on a sunday or monday night. they put on a good show.

then there was the time i saw centro-matic and there were about 7 people total in the whole club. it's understandable that not a lot of people showed up though because the show was on 9/12/2001. it says they played with the deathray davies but i don't remember them being there. hm that was a weird night.

the first chicago show we've ever played was to the guitarist's brother and the bartender. then after the show I went outside to find that our van had a window smashed and stuff stolen. made for a long hour ride home on that frigid january night.

Tim Reynolds did a solo acoustic set in Denver back in 2000. The crowd talk was louder than he was. A bit annoying.

Also saw Dread Zeppelin once at Emory College in ATL. Skipped marching band practice to go (taboo). Got there and they're playing on a stage facing a field, and the college kids are sitting back like over 100 feet away, nobody's watching or paying attention. So the 3 of us got right up front, got to strum Carl Jah's guitar, talk to the band, and got signed posters. It was the disco tour, so songs were disco-sounding Zeppelin covers with a Barry Gibb impersonator singing, Mr. Gary Bibb, aka Buttmon. It was awesome.

6 people showed up for our record release last year.

but don't forget about that kickass kazoo player

It will become a legend... like the Loch Ness Monster: heard of, but never seen. And the only people who claim to have seen it are half-insane.

i don't know if I ever told you, but that Dan Sartain guy that played after you was incredible. and, to go along with this thread, played to me, miah, and the sound guy.

I saw him, too.
I felt badly for him.
This thread is not making me feel any better.

I remember seeing John Hammond and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown both in situations eerily reminiscent of that scene in Ghost World.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, BLUES HAMMER!!!"

it was very, very depressing. I always feel bad for bands with low turnouts, but even moreso when they don't suck. I really like that last Thermals album, too.

i wonder if i was there. i saw "Gatemouth" Brown at some crappy Blues Fest in Philly and there were a few people milling around.

i also saw Half Japanese with about 5 other people.

Gatemouth!! That guy amazed the living shit out of me once in athens. I heard he was playing, and was told not to miss it, but wasn't really enthusiastic about it... he was like 80-something years old. But I went anyway. I walked in and got alongside the stage (players' backs to the street), and looked over and saw this thin, frail, tiny little grandfather of a blackman playing the shit out of an old Gibson Firebird with a leather pickguard on it. It was surreal. He was tearing up blues standards, and then played Take the A Train. My jaw was hanging open.

And then he sees me staring at his hands, and he smiles at me, like "yeah, bitch, you didn't see that coming, did you?!" No sir, I did not. Guy couldn't even stand for more than 3 songs without needing to sit. Phenominal. Makes BB look like that chick from the other thread.

deservedly so.

I often feel bad for bands when this happens, but I have to think that in the end, it's the band's responsibility to bring the crowd. It's kind of rude to leave after the opening band, but then if nobody came out to see you, why are you headlining/closing?

This was in Pittsburgh, 'bout 5 years ago. I also saw Half Japanese at a free show that was more or less abandoned. a Week later that band fel playes the same exact free space and people were packin' it in. sad.

and squirrgle, that's more or less how it hit me as well.

We've had a couple of low turn-out shows over the years. One of the last ones we had we pretty much ended up playing for the other band on the bill... and vice versa. It was actually kind of fun.

One of my bandmates has always told the story of seeing the Dears play millions of years ago to a room of about 4 friends and that they didn't slack for a second---they put everything they had into it as if they were playing to a stadium and that it was one of the best shows he's ever seen.

I think of that when we have bad turn-out. It's really a good test of a band.

oh they weren't THAT bad. i've seen bands i've enjoyed a lot less than them.
(strokes, ted leo, the anniversary, lake trout, death cab for cutie, incubus)

I agree that that's a factor, but you also have to include elements like lack of promotion, etc. The last time I saw Jason Ringenberg ( of Jason And The Scorchers ) live, I heard about it only a couple of days before the show. And I follow the man's career pretty closely. Hadn't heard a peep, & barely got to get my ducks in a row quickly enough to see the show.

heh.

I've seen Sloan tons of times, usually to a packed crowd, at least 3/4ths full. 13 people were at their last Philly show.

The Mission Of Burma show I went to a few weeks later at the same venue couldn't have had more than 100 people there.

is this a Philly problem???

i hope you don't think i actually paid to go see them? they were on a bill with mr. bungle opening and system of a down headlining and sitting through incubus was the worst experience i've ever had at a concert. the low point was when the singer started playing a djembe.

nah i just forgot all about thoat band. Remember like 3 years ago when all the corporate rock rags were creaming all over these guys and the Deftones and Papa Roach and whoever the fuck else (P.O.D.?) as the next great thing in music. and now all those bands have fucking disappeared or just outright suck. beautiful.