Welcome back to DoStuff Monthly.
How was your August? ...In the absence of an answer, I’ll assume that you spent the past month in much the same way I did:
CELEBRATING NATIONAL CATFISH MONTH, BABY!
You, me, everyone we’ve ever met - we all absolutely love catfish. We’ve been fascinated by them for years. There’s just so many things about catfish to tickle the fancy and boggle the mind. How many species of catfish would you say there are in the world? If you answered over 3000, then you were right on the money and NOT a catfish poseur.
Plus - catfish live in both saltwater AND freshwater environments?! Woah, talk about a diverse life form! And that some species can grow up to 600 LBS?! That’s huge! I haven’t even addressed the elephant in the room; what the HELL is up with those whisker things they got goin’ on?
Well, that wraps up our catfish talk, because unfortunately, August is almost over. We’ll talk more about them next year. For now, I want to briefly address everything about this email in case you’re saying “I am very confused by almost all of this.”
What is DoStuff?
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What’s DoStuff Monthly?
DoStuff Monthly is an email we send out MONTHLY - it's right there in the name for Pete's sake. Each issue contains stuff worth reading and a big ol' giveaway for something awesome that you can enter to win.
Now that we’re done talking about catfish and we’re done explaining who we are and what this is, let’s get into the real meat of the email: stage banter.
There’s a thing comedians say about musicians and musicians say about comedians: every comedian wants to be a musician and every musician wants to be a comedian. My musician friends are some of the funniest people I know. I can’t really say that my comedian friends are equally talented musically, but hey, at least half of the truism is true.
Comedians make their living talking on stage. The best place a musician can show off their skill at talking is the parts in between their show when they’re not playing music. Granted, they’re not being paid to be funny (unless we’re talking about Weird Al, and we’re not), but the opportunity to engage the audience in some mid-show banter is a nonetheless celebrated part of the live rock and roll experience.
On stage banter can be a lovely thing. It also has the capacity to be annoying, trite, innocuous, or take the form of a self-destructive meltdown. It’s got range, baby. What interests me about stage banter isn’t just the highs and lows, or the weird middle ground it occupies at the heart of a live show - it’s how in addition to all those things, the spirit of banter was a surprisingly foundational part in the (re)birth of one of my favorite songwriters of the past twenty years.
Read this parting criticism from a 2009 Pitchfork review of J. Tillman’s Year in the Kingdom:
"...Tillman's intimate, close-mice’d voice, does lend Year in the Kingdom a lonesome, somber tone, one Tillman-- a funny, amicable dude, if you've ever heard him clowning on himself at a Fleet Foxes gig-- would do well to shake on occasion."
Josh Tillman, better known today under the definitely silly moniker of Father John Misty, is indeed a world class practitioner of on-stage bants. More importantly, his best songs are a masterfully mingled mix of the satirical and the heartfelt. By his own admission, his musical output only truly found purchase when he finally allowed his comedic chops to come out to play in his songs.
This isn’t just my opinion here. He explained it unequivocally in a Magnet Magazine interview from 2013:
“I just realized that there are all these things that I can do and that I haven’t been doing. It’s like, ‘You’re funny. You have a kind of a bizarre outlook. You can talk. Like, all these things are good things. Why do you feel such self-loathing about those things?’ That for me was unbelievably liberating. And it really was in a single moment, and it was this big realization where everything changed. And that’s part of the reason why I can’t play the J. Tillman songs anymore.”
To become Father John Misty, Josh Tillman had to stop acting all misty-eyed and start joshing around. So you see, banter can be an important thing. Read on below, where I’ve divided the different (non-transformative) kinds of stage banter into distinct categories. Some (or all) of these could easily morph into one other - that’s the nature of showbiz. And yes, there’s probably some other kinds of stage banter that are missing, but you don’t have all day and neither do I.
FUNNY STAGE BANTER
If living up to its highest ideal, stage banter is funny. A snappy observation that diffuses any collective tension while humanizing its speaker. In lieu of further academic descriptions, I’ll just relate a few funny things I’ve heard artists say at shows over the years.
I recall seeing Angel Olsen play an outdoor venue in 2017 - she had just finished a song when an ambulance drove by the venue with its siren absolutely blaring. Before anyone could say anything, she turned towards it, waved, and said “I’m right here!” into the mic. Perfect comedic instincts.
In June of 2018, I attended an LCD Soundsystem show at Malahide Castle, just outside of Dublin. Because of Ireland’s high latitude (and a bunch of other factors I don’t understand), that part of the world experiences a kind of extended twilight during summer. The result of this was a sunset that started at around ten o’clock at night, about an hour and a half into the band’s set. It then continued for what felt like a little bit longer than forever. Lead singer James Murphy was visibly confused by this, and said “How has this sunset lasted three days?”
More recently, I saw Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes play a solo show in a big, fancy theater. After singing a particularly beautiful number, a member of the crowd shouted “You sing like an angel!” He apparently misheard this, because his immediate response was “I look like a bread crumb?” The crowd found this image very amusing, as did I.
DRUNK STAGE BANTER
If you’ve seen more than one show, you’ve seen drunk banter. As with all things alcohol, drunk banter toes a treacherous line between charming and irritating - conditioned on how many drinks deep the talker happens to be and how well they can hold their booze. I’ve seen good and bad versions of drunk banter. I’ve seen good drunk banter turn into bad drunk banter as the scales tipped too far in one direction.
As an example of GOOD drunk stage banter, we’ll look no further than the recently resurrected Brit-pop powerhouse Oasis. To understand BAD drunk stage banter, we will also look no further than the recently resurrected Brit-pop powerhouse Oasis.
GOOD: The year is 1997, and Oasis is tearing through their Be Here Now tour towards a much-anticipated homecoming show in Manchester. Liam Gallagher, swaggering like a lad who’s had one (hundred) too many, takes the mic and slurs through the band intros, tossing a cheeky, “This one’s for you, you miserable git!” at his brother Noel. Turning to the crowd, he smirks, “You lot are too quiet - have another pint!” The fans lap it up, roaring back, ready for a night of PROPUH RAWK N ROWL.
BAD: It’s 1994, and Oasis is making their first noisy splash in the U.S. at the Whisky a Go-Go in Los Angeles. Liam, again, three sheets to the wind, decides mid-set is a really good time to muck about and possibly compromise a flourishing career. Mid-set, he twists the lyrics of “Live Forever” into an extremely mature jab about Noel picking his nose. Deciding that slice of kindergarten bullying was insufficient, Liam just straight up clobbers his bro on the head with a tambourine. As drums go, that’s probably not the worst one to be clobbered with, but still. After that, Liam says a bunch of shit to the audience and storms off stage. Not great!
POLITICAL STAGE BANTER
The problem with political stage banter is that it’s almost always preaching to the choir. Very rarely will you see a famous artist take the stage to deliver a political sermon that doesn’t align closely with the perceived values of their audience. It’s frequently cut from the same cloth as the pandering prattle you hear when an artist declares YOUR city to be their FAVORITE place to play. I ain’t buyin’ it.
On the other hand, political stage banter can be gutsy. The Chicks (then known to be from Dixie), courageously spoke out against the Iraq war at a concert on March 10, 2003, at the Shepherd's Bush (ironic) Empire theatre in London, England. During the performance, lead singer Natalie Maines said to the audience, "Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."
It’s easy to say you were against the Iraq war now, but remember, this was during a time when support for the war was directly linked to being a red blooded, patriotic American. The Chicks voicing their dissent was a legitimately risky career move, especially with their right wing southern audience in America.
CRASHING OUT ON STAGE BANTER
The year is 1978. Jefferson Airplane has long since reassembled itself into a Jefferson Starship, and they’re rocketing into the European leg of their summer tour. The band takes the stage at Sunset Festival at the Freilichtbühne Loreley in Sankt Goarshausen; a series of words which can only indicate a distinctly German locale.
Faster than two shakes of a schnitzel, lead singer Grace Slick is berating the audience for being Nazis. Yeesh. I won’t go into the details of everything she said, but suffice to say, the set was not a success. At all. To be fair to Slick, she was very drunk. To be fair to the audience, they just wanted to enjoy some nice rock and roll music without being called fascists. Slick was temporarily ejected from the starship’s airlock soon thereafter.
DOLLY PARTON STAGE BANTER
Dolly’s stage banter is so good she gets her own category. Alternatively, you can think of this block as Perfect Storytelling Stage Banter. Either way, it’s an example of someone who is completely and utterly adept at charming the pants off of a crowd. Take the following excerpt from a recent show:
"You know, I grew up in a big ol’ family, twelve of us kids, and we was so poor the mice was on welfare! We lived way back in the holler in the Smoky Mountains, and I used to dream about gettin’ out and seein’ the world. I’d sit on the porch with my little guitar, makin’ up songs, and my mama would say, ‘Dolly, you’re gonna get yourself in a heap of trouble with all them big dreams!’ But I’d just laugh and say, ‘Mama, my dreams are gonna take me somewhere, and I’m gonna wear sequins while I’m gettin’ there!’ And look at me now - still singin’, still dreamin’, and honey, I got more sequins than a disco ball!"
There's really no option but to love her.
HOSTILE STAGE BANTER
Sometimes a band can do everything right and still find their show thwarted by a shitty crowd. More often, though, it’s just one person seemingly intent on ruining the vibe with constant, nonsensical yelling. In these cases, it’s enormously satisfying to watch an artist shut the interloper down.
I was lucky enough to catch Radiohead while they were touring the now classic album In Rainbows at a big outdoor venue in Dallas. The band were in the middle of a quieter acoustic number, and of course, some guy took that as his golden opportunity to ruin the show with some good old fashioned screaming. Still mid-strum, Thom Yorke honed in on him, threatening "You're a funny guy. Can you come and be funny later? I'll show you what funny looks like." Luckily, this shut the guy up. Even more luckily, someone filmed the exchange.
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MORE STAGE BANTER FROM DoStuff
One of the great things about DoStuff being a national company is that I can ask my coworkers across the entire country for their personal experiences of whatever the thing I’m writing about is. In this case, that's moments of stage banter that have stayed with them ever since they happened.
Andrew Heep: I produced a show with Eddie Vedder once at the Chapel in SF. He told a funny story about Pfizer reaching out to them wanting to know if they could use the song "Alive" in their Viagra commercials. He said no... Then they called back a couple of months later and wanted to know if they could use the song "Rise Up" instead.
Chris DiGiacomo: I saw Wavves on the SLU college campus on 9/11/2010. They were an hour late for their set time, and when they finally got on stage (stoned af) and were about to start their set, they put their guitars down and told the crowd they were going back to the green room to burn 2 blunts in memory of the twin towers. They left, came back 30 minutes later even more stoned, and played the worst set I've ever seen.
Jess Gomez: Not that big but I saw Dasha at the Bluebird Cafe last month and she was talking about her hit song "Austin" and that it most definitely does not take place there but that nothing rhymed with Nashville. She also said that this one certain guy that inspired that song as well as most of her album was about someone she never even dated.
Mia Duffy: I also saw Dasha perform at the Moody Center and she said it was her first time in Austin???? Everyone was so confused considering the song that made her famous was about a place she has never been to.
Kristin Owen: Father John Misty at ACL Fest. - yelling at the photographer who was hired to shoot the entire set on stage, "Why won't this guy get off of my stage? Who are you? The son of the guy that owns this thing? Get outta here!... Zoom in on that guy so everyone can shame him." (Photographer just kept on doing his job whilst being yelled at)
The email is over but really quick, one more thing about catfish: did you know some of them are electric? We’ve all heard about electric eels and we’ve all heard the song of almost-the-same-name, but I bet you didn’t know that the catfish known as Malapterurus electricus can create electric shocks up to 350 volts to defend themselves. DoStuff Monthly will be back next month to talk about other things, but not about catfish.