You are in the middle of a solo on stage. You feel confident and full of ideas.
Your eyes are closed and you become one with the music. All of a sudden the audience is roaring with applause and cheers. You think you've reached them.
Your eyes open and you notice they aren't looking at you. They are looking at some ball player on tv making a great play.
Yep, the cheer of victory and the agony of defeat playing in a sports bar.
I sat in with a friend's band Friday night and that happened to him. He was lost in his low volume guitar solo and as he brought up the volume the audience at the bar started to cheer. I looked up to see the Philly score in a game they ended up losing later that night. The rest of the band was looking at the guitarists so they got caught up in the excitement and not the game. The band put everything they had into it but they lost the audience attention by then.
I laughed and told the guitarist about it after the gig. He said that happened at another bar he played. He had his video set up to show the band and some of the audience. The audience made lots of cheers but not necessarily for the band. Since you couldn't see them looking at the tv's around the room it looked like they were cheering on the band in the video. He used the video to get gigs at other bars telling the owners the fans loved them. Great way to make lemonade from lemons.
Btw, I opened my eyes a few times at gigs to see the cheers weren't for me either. bummer.
Michael Easton www.harmonicarepair.com