At gigs, I’ve seen bands and musicians talk in between songs the right way and some of them do it the wrong way. Keep in mind, that live audiences are human beings. They can hear every word you say on the stage and they aren’t stupid. If they don’t like what you say, they’ll let you know. If you don’t want to get boo’ed or get heckled by someone from the audience, here are some rules on how to play a successful gig that’ll make the audience walk out with a great night.

Things you should do, talking in between songs:

• Name the song title, and tell a little story behind it. What the song is about, how you wrote it and how you inspired it. Audiences like this kind of stuff.
  
• Try to be entertaining, funny, and smile a lot.
  
• Eye contact at the crowd, when talking in between songs.
  
• Talk to the crowd as if you’re in an actual conversation. I’ve seen plenty of local bands ignore the crowd when they try to talk to them on stage. If you want to win an audience respect, respond back to them.
• Try to teach them lyrics for sing alongs. This is hard to do but it can be done if done right. Give it a try.
  

Things you shouldn’t do, talking in between songs:

• Don’t be a jackass or an egomaniac.
  
• Don’t talk too long. I’ve seen musicians where they go on and on about stuff for about 10 minutes straight, just shut up and play the damn song already!
• Don’t be too negative and offensive. Swearing is okay but it depends on the gig and the venue.
• Don’t be confrontational toward the audience, if they don’t respond to your songs or they walk away from your set. I’ve seen it happen before. Big turn off.
  
• Don’t respond to the hecklers. If you are getting heckled, if someone shouts out,  “You suck”, just ignore it and play.
  

Talking in between songs is important, in my opinion. There are a lot of bands that don’t talk at all, some of them just play one song after another, but that’s okay. If you don’t want to talk to the crowd, that’s your decision, but you could get more fans if you interact with the crowd more.

If you’ve seen my gigs in the past, you’ve probably seen me talk to the crowd, check out some of my youtube videos of my live performances for proof on that.

Kev