FEATURES :::: Why 500 capacity is better than 5000 capacity

I’ll explain. Frequenting small music venues and undergoing the micro-gigging experience are infinitely more rewarding than seeing chart-topping bands in high capacity venues for the following reasons:

1. Crowd/band interaction is fundamental for small bands as they all need a distinguishing feature to earn them a reputation. If your band name is Pink Floyd or Kings of Leon, playing a tight set of perfectly honed album material that everyone recognizes won’t enlighten anyone’s lives; they might as well stay at home and listen to the goddamn album. Gig experiences are made more unique if you happen to be asked to play an instrument along with a band, if you bring along your own instruments, if you are asked to come up
   

   The Bobby McGees

   with a new song title, if they accept your inebriated bellows for song requests or just give you dance moves to groove away to. If the headline act walks off stage and sits at thenearest table you can have a chat to find out who their influences are, who they’re shagging and even where the best places to buy instruments are.

2. Random memorable moments are the crux of all good nights out, and there are very few bands that can pull off an electro theme tune of The Antique’s Roadshow for their opening number. If you notice a band’s bass guitarist voraciously rubbing his cock into the back of his guitar you can be reassured by the fact that other bands are willing to throw sweets and party poppers at their devoted audience instead. Lyrics can be fairly abstract and obscure, like the tales of love based around the uselessness of Jar Jar Binks, and my favourite lyrics of the past week have been “You gotta pull your dick out at the restaurant in front of their aunt, and jerk off with your balls smackin the windows of the Mitsubishi Galant!” (f.y.i. this wasn’t Coldplay). A woman resembling Edith Piaf slashed a knife through the air towards my face at the previous gig as part of a French mock-cabaret act, whilst a close acquaintance of mine was being ordered to turn the pages of a flick book with obscene words on it. This is not the kind of experience you forget in a hurry.
3. Tight budgets and creative minds make for an interesting array of instruments being ‘played’, some of which I have see recently include ukuleles, a melodica (mouth-organ keyboard), banjos, a handsaw, flutes, spoons, shoes, guitars made with planks of wood, a cello with no body, a ukulele made with an ice cream box, saxophones, a big ‘ole jar with a hole, reel to reel tape, cowbells, flutes, a hang (type of Swiss steel pans) and a lesser-known instrument that I like to call the guitar.
4. Cheapness is of vital importance to students, and £3 on the door or free entry beats a £50 ticket planned 5 months in advance every time. Not only is entry cheaper, but booze is cheaper and more varied too. Small venues often have a bar or two on site and serve a wide variety of liquid meals, putting many large venues to shame with their extortionate prices and lack of choice (Wembley Arena only sells two types of beer!!!!!)
5. The general atmosphere is often very cool in small venues, with comfy seats to lounge around in, places to dance and improvised stages.

-Tom Jennings

~ by Tom Jennings on November 25, 2009.