I’d say most of the time…and i’ve been to thousands of shows…people use the fact that there’s a stage and humans playing music on the stage as a common focal point to dodge any sort of awkwardness or insecurity that could come about by interacting with the people around them…i.e. Dancing.
‘Looking at the stage’ is a safe place. (And it can be a wildly entertaining too.)
And people value their safety more than anything in the world.
So perhaps as it pertains to dancing at your shows, it would be good to play for the type of people who don’t necessarily need a safety outlet via the stage…People who didn’t necessarily come to watch the artists on stage all night.
Because I guarantee you…if you want your people to dance and they don’t want to dance, they ain’t dancing.
(Unless you have the magic, the juice, to cause people to change their minds…that’s an elite skill)
p.s. People who don’t want to dance need you to not need them to dance in order to put on your best show.
p.p.s. This is a repeat note from the last post, but worth mentioning again…a dancing audience is an audience that is not looking at you. Is this something you’re willing to work toward…to have the goal be that the audience looks at you less, not more?
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com