There’s a level of camaraderie in circus that I find has always been missing in rock groups. Yes, they’re two completely different animals, but really what you’re dealing with is a group of people that have come together in artistic expression with the specific purpose to blow people’s minds. Whether you’re launching your partner in the air off a teeter board or launching into a guitar solo we, as entertainers, want to turn our audience on in some way. That being said, I’ve seen that of all the ways to facilitate this goal there is one thing that circus performers have above rock musicians: a higher level of camaraderie. And it’s this camaraderie in circus, this heightened level of cohesion, that the audience picks up on and makes for a better show.
Now, I’m not talking smack about my rock band experience or anything; when you’re in a band you have to be all for one and one for all. But this deals with sound and audio performance: the drummer has to be tight to make the bass player groove right, and the bass has to groove right to make the guitars sound good, and everyone better be in tune so that the singer can sing in key. There are essential elements to live music that have to be just right for everything to come together. But circus performers deal in an art where they rely on each other to a completely different degree.
A trapeze flyer has to rely on his catcher; the teeterboard flyer has to rely on the catchers, the pushers, and the spotters; the flipper in a Risley act has to rely on his base. Pretty much every act in a cirque performance requires teamwork – whether we’re talking about setting up the act, making sure everything is safe within the moment, or quickly getting materials off stage. But there’s nothing like having to rely on someone to actually catch you to build a special type of bond.
There’s never been a time when I’ve had to rely on my guitarist to catch me from falling off the stage. In fact, I’ve seen many a video where some rock musician has fallen off the stage and his band members did nothing to help.
For the most part, musicians don’t regularly put their lives in the hands of the band mates on stage.
Instead, we get “selfish” in-ear mixes so the other band members don’t fuck us up. I know that when I play live I have the click track in my in-ear monitors, with the backing track, my vocal mix, lots of me on bass, and a bit of lead vocals. I don’t have drums because I stand right by the drummer and can hear him fine. I don’t have guitar either. The way I see it there’s nothing that I’m doing with the guitar so I should be doing my thing while he does his thing. Hey, we’re all following a click, right?
But I agree with what Victor Wooten says about playing in a band and playing as a unit. The bass player should lock in with the drummer regardless if the drummer has perfect timing or not. The bass player should lock in with the guitarist and the backing vocals need to hear the lead vocals to harmonize with them. That’s what I mean by a “selfish” mix. I have my own mix for me to play well but essentially I’m saying “fuck everyone else, you’re on your own.”
The best way to make a good live performance is to listen to everyone. If the audio were to suddenly stop you should be able to tell someone what the guitars, keys, and drums were all just doing. You should be able to do this because you were listening to the whole and not the part. By listening to the whole and listening to the music and not just yourself you’ll be able to lock in with the click, the drummer, the guitars, the singers and in effect play your own part better.
