Karaoke is a different monster than performing music you wrote. Over the years my relationship with karaoke has evolved drastically. Yesterday I found myself at a birthday party for the homie JLB at McLean’s Pub on Peel Street.
Most of the time when I go out it’s related to the hustle. I’m trying to sell tickets or merch, gain Instagram followers and generally make my presence felt. Karaoke hits me different, I feel more of a need to fall back and just be in the crowd.
The truth after performing my own words, watching people barely care unless I rap Eminem is boring. I’d rather be in the crowd singing along to Toxic.
This is a key experience to have given our mission is to push entertainment. The big question is always, how do we get more people to care? One starting point is to attend events that are outside your comfort zone.
Vibes attract tribes
It seems pretty evident that if you make the vibe dope, people will come. The problem is that unless people come, the vibe tends to feel less dope. Even when the vibe IS dope.
You can have the grungiest or nicest place, and if it’s packed with people the memories will be perceived better. This is especially true if women are there. My theory is that with enough women, the testosterone levels are offset. More sex potential and less aggression.
The time of day also contributes heavily to the vibe. The 7-11 timeslot and the 11-3 timeslot produce very different audiences. The after-hours version is on a completely different wave.
The genre and branding of an event also have impact. An experience where I show up and rap can be called many things:
Concert (People will perform music)
Show (this one always feels the vaguest to me)
Showcase (Probably far too many people will perform music)
Party – Dance or otherwise (yes, they stop the party part for performances)
Karaoke (Hip Hop Karaoke basically taught me to perform)
BBQ (Expect bad sound quality and at home experiences, probably one of the funnest)
Experience (Usually these people tried harder)
There are more, but the point is that depending on which of those words you see on a flyer different people will be interested.
The vibe has to be fun
I wish I understood fun better. I’m the guy that in the throes of pleasure can be stone faced and hiding emotion. I have seen this is impact my approachability and better emoting is a personal project.
For real, I interview Iron Solomon. The entire time I had fun. I smiled once in the 2 hours.
You want people to be smiling at your event. That is a great metric to make sure your audience is having a good enough time to come back.
I used to care more about things like if they were dancing but you can’t force people to dance. Plenty of people have a great time in seats. That’s why the Nas & Wu Tang show have floor seats, old people don’t want to mosh like that.
You still need to curate a fun vibe. Part of that is clear communication. As you promote the event there needs to be promises of fun made.
I wish I could give you clear answers on how to achieve this. Having food on deck, interesting drink options, novelty gimmicks (live painting, clothing vendors, etc) & punctual entertainment all increase your chances of cool. I haven’t figured it all out yet.
Our next event is at a place with pinball machines. We’re going to include a pinball machine contest with a cash prize. Will that work? Whatever I write April 22nd will have the answer to that question. Here’s our first sample flyer:
Events Need Some Trendy
Underground events where the most hardcore fans go are a vibe I love. I feel the most comfortable in the underbelly of the music scene, which may be the least populated part.
The other day I ended up at Muzique (club with young’uns) and realized how much more lit the energy can be. I think it’s more than the dance music. The entire vibe is curated for 2 AM drunken turnup debauchery.
The lighting, the way the room is setup, the placement of the bar, the attractiveness of the bartenders, the VIP booths. All of these things play into making young pretty people want to waste their carefree dollars.
I’ve been to other events where the band improvises music on the spot catering to the energy of the room like a DJ would. The interactive ambiance creates a fun experience, each person knowing this shared musical moment exists only for now. Loopers do a similar thing on Twitch.
The very first concert I performed at mixed comedy and Hip Hop while a live painter added each performer to a canvas. (Sharon Epic painted this).
Lately you can see bars are trying harder to add niches that attract vibes. On St. Denis there is a board game bar, next to an esports bar, next to an arcade bar, across from a live music venue. None of these are competing for core audience, they exist to create the variety that makes that block more lit.
Community support matters
Once you find your niche and branding you will still face uphill battles. Typically, you will either live where no events happen, which limits your audience potential or you live where all the events happen, which is fierce competition.
You may find that your first few events are not drawing the numbers you want. That is 100% what happened to us. As I write this, we have yet to make profit on a single event.
I believe the real sauce that makes an event pop is to find a core community and show love. This part is bigger than a small team and is mighty difficult to pull off. When there are 100 people in the room outside people are more inclined to want to pull up.
When the venue has a good amount of people in it the footage looks better. When the core community knows your songs and sings along, it adds power. The first timers see the love and want to become ingratiated into the movement.
Participating in that community means going to shows. Listening to local music outside of those shows. You should probably be able to pick one or two songs from your peers that you like. Or at least think are bless enough to show other people.
I find it strange how weird people are about preferences. If I don’t vibe with your music, I will make sure to bring it up when I meet folk that I think will vibe with your music. Maybe hater energy is prevalent but it’s weird how people shut people down over stylistic preferences.
I don’t like everyone’s music. I still go to your shows -shrug-.
Inclusive is sexy
When I go to events, I listen to what the audience says. I pay attention to the energy in the room. People tend to want to feel included and safe.
Let’s be real, women are a lot more likely to come to your event if it is a safe space. Part of safe space is the behaviour of men in the room.
One time a young lady I know went to a show. I saw about 5 guys my age hit her up in a barrage of “come by me, I want the pussy I can give you this”. Sure, it was less blunt, but it was in my face.
This does not make women want to come back to the events. Growve MTL attracts a predominantly female audience. Shem G. told me they make an active effort to get rid of creeps. When the men who show up behave correct and let the women be, the women appear a lot more likely to come back.
I can’t act like I haven’t gone to events to prowl for women. But if we’re talking about how to create a vibe that is better, we need to focus on making sure we act as gracious hosts.
There is so much more to inclusivity, but this is just one example to illustrate the layers of what we need to care about.
Karaoke let’s people sing along
Another part of inclusivity is including the audience. Karaoke is bless because people go through wedding songs everyone knows and rides a nostalgia wave together. The drunker people become, the more of a crowd experience it becomes.
When people do the abstract weird songs, everyone knows a Bohemian Rhapsody is coming next.
I think most of the events I go to aren’t focused on audience interaction enough. What makes Will E. Skandalz a great host is that he forces the audience to play with him. He makes them do silly things for prizes. He understands his role is to lube up the crowd so the artist can make some sweet love … and it works.
Something that we need to figure out is engagement and gamification tactics that keep the audience hyped. I won a projector at a raffle. I put 5$ into that raffle. I could not leave until the raffle had happened. Shoutout The Hu$tle Podcast.
I’m sure if we pool ideas, we can come up with some dope stuff to keep people entertained. Imagine Montreal Hip Hop trivia nights. Or Coolman Logan did a Street Fighter tournament, had tacos at one of them. That kind of stuff makes it more than just a show, but also gives people who are not performing a way to be involved.
Final Thoughts – I got tickets for sale lolllll
This journey is something I am going to write about. As I learn and gain experience points it will all be shared. As Natasha Marie pointed out in voice notes as I wrote this, I do know things about live shows.
I throw them, participate in them, and attend them. I have already hit 13 stages in 2023. I am performing later today. As the month goes on, I get to open for Paul Wall and Jeru the Damaja. I get to perform in Toronto for the first time later in March.
My life has reached this point where I say a lot of things with the goal to stimulate growth. I take my creative pursuits seriously and dream of a utopian state I want to contribute to creating.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone