Best Compliment from an Audience Member

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paradiddle pete

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What is the best Audience Member Compliment you ever Received ?
 
The best compliments from an average audience member is in regards to an emotional response.

I don't really respond much to specific technical things as that's someone talking about things they don't know. Their own emotional respons that's real and something they should be the expert at, so that's a nice thing.

Actually, the gigs I remember most are some very intimate gigs me and another guy used to do as a duo. It were sort of close arrangements, but there was no theme that should elicit that type of response just local group meeting or light political thing.

I remeber escpeially one such event. It was the local rheumatism group. About 300 people. About 2 mins into the song I look up and everybody's crying. Everybody. After the song everybody just sat there for a couple of minutes. Noone said a word. The deal is that it was just the performance. There was nothing else that led up to it. Just a short musical break between speakers giving failry dry practical information.



We had a simiiar experience with the same group at a mess hall. You know the deal. Total chaos, noone cares about the bands on stage, kids shouting, babies crying, ice cream on the floor. We just got up there and played and suddenly, for those 45 mins, complete silence. Lots of complments afterwards.

Now the reason

We played quiter. 50% of our stuff is stuff most people have at least heard. The performance was dynamic, we very fully into the performance and every arrangement had something extra. The other guy sang and played acoustic guitar and I had both my electric guitar with stereo rack and my alto saxophone.
 
A similar experience - our band played a dinner for returned servicemen who were suffering from post traumatic stress in various forms. Some of them never leave a chair or bed, even though there's nothing 'wrong' with their legs.

Anyway, we played at their dinner, and several of them got up and danced with their wives and sang along to our songs. We didn't realise the significance, but the wives and the organisers thanked us so much at the end. They were in tears just seeing the men up and enjoying themselves and forgetting about their demons.

That was ten years ago, and still a highlight for me.
 
paradiddle pete said:
What is the best Audience Member Compliment you ever Received ?
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Played at a gay bar in Hayward ,CA called Big Mamma's,the audience threw flowers at me during a drum solo.
I would call that a nice compliment.
 
After a gig in 2006, an unknown to me female patron walked up to me and told me that my playing was decadent.

That was the best compliment I ever got.
 
I divide the compliments I get, or my band gets, into two columns: Comments from people who are themselves musicians or in the music business, and those who are not.

In column A, the best compliment I've ever got was from a friend who studied jazz vocals and music business management at Berklee. She said we did a great job, grooved well, and would stand up against the best of the bands she'd heard while at Berklee (you can imagine how chuffed I was to hear that last bit).

In column B, they all blend together after a while. But I have noticed I have gotten far more positive comments when playing modestly and focusing on the groove using a smaller kit, than when I was flashing a bunch of chops on a larger kit.

Probably the very best compliment I have ever gotten from a non-musician in that respect came after a sit-in for a blues gig at a winery a few years ago. I had agreed to sit in with this band for a handful of gigs one summer, and had only rehearsed with them twice before setting out. One patron came over and said, "it's very obvious you guys have been together for a long time. You all know each other so well." Little did he know.

And the obvious: When I was a much, much younger drummer and took my shirt off for an outdoor summer gig in California. I was, ahem, paid the ultimate compliment by an admiring young fan afterwards, shall we say.
 
From a woman that looked like a bag lady:

"Honey, you're gonna be gorgeous when you're 50".
 
One of my best after show experiences was talking to an older guy who had just randomly come in during the gig. He was totally gushing about the performance and especially our groove and the drumming. And best of all: He didn't even realize I was in the band while we were talking!!
 
One of the best compliments I've had was that my volume fit perfectly with the rest of the band (at a smaller gig with no mics)... this stuck with me for a long time
 
it was my first gig playing guitar with my new band after gigging drums for years with other bands. 6 mos. had lapsed since I had done any show, so I was kind of out of the loop already so to speak. this old very well dressed guy in his 70's? walks up to me during load out and say's "you know, you should really stick to drums because it is natural for you" then he walks away. I had never seen nor met this dude EVER, so I asked the other guys in the band if they knew him to which they said no. this was around 1986 and I have thought about that guy all the time since then, his voice comes to me when i'm trying to learn a guitar part. just this strange old dude who apparently knew my limitations better than I did. not really a compliment I guess, but it did make me realize some things and I thank him.
 
It was 1968--I was 14--and a loose knit group of friends were asked to perform a short set at a convention out of town.
Details were sketchy so we didn't know much beyond time and location. We were running a bit late due to car trouble
(1960 Nomad wagon) but got there just in time to set up on stage behind closed curtains. Guitars and keyboards had
short stack amps. Drums weren't mic'ed at all. Vocals fed through house PA. No monitors at all. Curtains opened and we
couldn't see squat past the stage . . . it was pitch black. Shortly into the first song we heard a steady series of "thuds"
echoing we presumed off the back walls. Towards the end of the last song the house lights slowly faded up a bit and we
were stunned to realize it was a packed house of 3200 adults in a campus theater. Everyone was standing up, stomping
their feet and clapping along. Left the stage to a standing ovation. Steady stream of compliments from a number of adults
following the performance. Lots of encouragement.

It was a surreal moment that left us stunned.
 
I don't know if it's the best compliment, but it's my favorite so far...

I play in an Americana band, and we played for a bunch of college kids a couple of years ago. After we were done, a kid comes up to us and says, "Man! Y'all sound like the mountains!"

That made me smile for days.
 
From a non musician but an LZ fan after we played 3 LZ songs. "John Bonham would be proud!"

I'll take it but not agree with it!
 
Had one gig where the band and horn section had arranged a pretty clever and sudden stop, right in the middle of an ensemble figure with the horns. The band was super tight and nailed it, to a packed room of about 2000. The first time through the phrase, the stop was so well-done, you could hear the crowd literally gasp amidst the brief silence, and then collectively go "oooohhh!" when the band came back in.

That was cool.
 
Not an audience member, but one time a guitarist was sitting in with my surf band and told me that I reminded him of Hal Blaine. I started to protest and explain how I wasn't even Hal' league, but then I decided to just shut up, smile, and say "Thank you."
 
Do neighbors count? Right after I satrted playing again in 2007, I got a knock on the door at about 9PM and thought ut oh, pissed neighbor. They live behind me and because they hadn't heard the drums before thought I was new to the neighborhood. They told me I sounded good, wanted to know what band I was in, and when I said I wasn't they said, I should be. Really, you sounded great. They both had a beer in their hand so I don't know if that had influenced their perception or not. We chatted a bit and they said keep up the good work. pretty cool.
 
A very nice person came up to me and said "thanks for grooving us, keep doing what your doing".

That had to be the best - normally I get lots of compliments on chops, which I'm not proud of. Watching people move to our music is the best compliment for me now.
 
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