Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
Exactly. Once upon a time there was no such thing as a stage and performers performed right at the same level as everyone else. Then one day someone got fed up with with not being seen by their audience and had the clever idea to build a platform so that everyone had a better view. Whoever that person was, they had come up with a really, really useful invention. Why shun it?
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This. So much this.
For my 2p, if you're playing a gig and you have a stage to use (Which would usually denote that you're at least attempting to be either professional or reach a larger audience than "The ten people at the front"), you should be using it. Its there for a reason, it makes EVERYONES lives easier, from fans through band through sound guys (Yes, amazing as it sounds, some people expect to be able to hear the music at a show, rather than aimless noise, as happens in a lot of small gigs even WITH the benefit of a stages acoustic assistance), it sounds better because your gear is being lifted off the floor and won't reverberate as wildly, and your gear will feed back less.
But hey, if you want to ignore all that and sound like **** and have only the biggest burliest *******s at the show actually see you or have any fun, be my guest. I won't be going to your terrible pretentious elitist "We must do things this way otherwise people will think we are not truly into our music" show anyway, so whatever.
Theres also a great invention that the manchester Apollo stumbled upon almost by accident - Its a sloping floor. Place used to be an old cinema. They have a stage AND a sloping floor, so everyone in the ENTIRE AUDIENCE can *always* find a place from which they can see the whole stage, rather than being stuck with the tall dude at the front blocking everyones view. Now thats progress, and more venues should be doing it.