To me, a gig is not just about seeing one band or artist. It’s about the whole experience of getting lost in a crowd, meeting new people and possibly discovering your new favourite band. Love at first sight? Rubbish. Love at first listen? That is when it’s possible to fall head over heels.
The whole premise of support bands is brilliant. At one point or another, almost every band will have had their time being a support group who relied on the crowd of the headline act to respond to their music. There are always those people at gigs who only arrive 10 minutes before the main performer, or just hang out at the bar. If you first hear the support band and don’t particularly like them, that’s fine, but at least give them your respect and don’t raise your voice to your friend as you speak to them simply because their music isn’t to your taste. If a band is supporting an artist you like enough to pay to see live, then they are more than likely in a similar genre anyway, so be sure to give them a chance before just assuming they will not be worth seeing. After all, you never know, you could discover a new favourite band.
There is always the argument that “these kids will never get anywhere in the music industry!” Well to that, there are so many examples of bands who have come from nothing and were probably told that they would never amount to anything as well. There is no point in being pessimistic about something that someone loves doing, as most of the time it spurs them on to prove people wrong. Never underestimate a local band. Especially nowadays with all sorts of social media and music sharing websites, it’s much easier for bands to get their music out there for people to listen to.
The ‘classic’ artists will always be referred to when hearing new material from indie and rock bands because it’s what we know and like most people we like to stick to what we know. But you can’t live the whole of your life spinning Unknown Pleasures and The Queen is Dead. Let yourself be open to new rhythms, solos and vocals. Don’t always go into a new song wondering if they’ve copied a Strokes riff or emanate Liam Gallagher vibes. In a recent interview with the NME, Slaves’ guitarist Laurie Vincent said “why does our generation always try and relate everything back, when there’s an opportunity there to do something new and original?” If more of this attitude was spread in the place of ‘pigeon hole-ing’ groups into others band ‘wannabes’ and ‘knock offs’, it would allow people to find their sound amongst the bits and pieces of the old and new to create something of their own.
At the end of the day, your favourite band would not be where they are now without having received support when they were just starting out. No, not every small band you go to see at a local venue will be an Arctic Monkeys at The Grapes defining moment, but you’ve probably still made their day by showing up. One day you will find a band that you know will become something and when they are touring and ‘making it’ in the music industry, you’ll have that card in your pocket to whip out as a party anecdote that you were there at their first gig. These people devote most of their lives to their music and it really is a wonderful moment when you witness a support band turn into a headliner.
Words by Jane Taylor