Ins and Outs of Playing a Support Gig
Being an opening act, an intermission or a warm-up is not all sunshine and roses. In order to make the best out of each gig, musicians need to follow a few basic rules.
We talked to Ukrainian musician, singer, and songwriter, former frontman of INDT Dan BG about playing supporting gigs and insights on how to best leverage this type of performance.
In a nutshell, here are the topics we touched upon within the interview:
- making sure your band’s name is remembered by the audience,
- establishing a good relationship with the show organizers, promoters, managers, the headliner, and other acts,
- ensuring you get compensated fairly,
- compiling your setlist and deciding on the stage costumes.
Most musicians play supporting or warm-up gigs not for the money. Most of the time they are lucky to get paid at all, shares Dan. This is why making sure to use this opportunity to build connections, meet new people and attract new fans is crucial.
Dan advises announcing the name of your band from the stage during the performance a few times to make sure anyone who loved you set can look you up.
But beware of getting obnoxious about your place in the show and self-promotion. Most supporting acts don’t get to set up their own merch table and any attempt to upstage the larger acts or the headliner is heavily frowned upon.
You simply might not get invited next time.
Support artists sometimes make the mistake of thinking that this is their own show and audience. This is completely wrong. If you are a support act, show respect. Don’t show the audience you are upset by the lack of attention to you as this is absolutely OK.
Yet it’s important to live up to the level of the event: dress nicely, bring stage costumes and equipment to make your show a fun event, and form your setlist in accordance with the style of music of your headliner, advises Dan.
Finally, Dan touched upon the sensitive topic of declining supporting gigs that just aren’t going to bring you any income or exposure to speak of.
Use your better judgment and weigh the pros and cons.
‘Earlier this year, a local promoter invited us to play with Blue October,’ he shares. ‘We were ready to play, but he told us to provide everything on our rider fully on our own, with all the equipment and not offering any help with this,’ Dan outlines the bad offer.
‘Moreover, we’ve already played in the same club with a bigger band, so we’ve decided to decline this invitation. Just use your best judgment and weigh all the pros and cons!’ he concludes.
Dan also shared more tips on the challenges of working a stage designed for a different act, getting noticed, assessing supporting gig offers, and more. Check out our interview on Show4me blog here for full insights!
