Audience Interaction

[jupiterjane]

Marty,
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make it to any shows in the past 5 months, so I've been nostalgic and watching a lot of videos of live performances. Do you ever watch footage of your live performances?

You have such a great duality of intense, high energy performances and laid back, intimate acoustic performance. The give and take of the audience is very different. But as a performer, I realized your vantage point of the audience is quite different as well.

Do you feel more engaged to try to connect with the audience during a full on show? What makes you decide to jump into the crowd? Other than Argentina w/LAG what has been the most unique encounter you've had from getting down and dirty with the crowd?

During the acoustic shows, it seems like the spotlight can be blinding and you can't really see the audience while you are singing. Does this make it easier or more difficult to sing those very personal songs?

Thanks again for rockin' our world....hope to get you to this crazy college party town for Little 500 weekend....that would be awesome!
We're Ready.....LET ME OUT!!!

[martinxavier]

Hi JJ,

You are right that the performances are different between the full on LIVE show with the band and a solo acoustic performance. That's the fun part about it. In the Full Band mode you get to really dive into presenting the visual of telling the lyrical stories and delivering the energy. It's about taking the crowd over the top and making them feel the music by conducting the audience as ell as the band. It's a performance art experience for me. How do I tell the story and the feelings of the songs with my body movements and sometimes posturing. I like that challenge.

Solo acoustic is letting the songs do the action for you. focusing on controlling your voice and delivering the emotion of the songs. When you are doing backflips across the stage it is hard to control your voice and the suddleties and the breath. The lyric takes center stage when you are sitting on the stool with only the guitar as the foundation. You have the opportunity to get into the story and let it move you and hopefully move the crowd. It's a big challenge not having other musicians to back you. When the song ends there is silence and you need to fill it. I like to talk to the crowd alot more than the full band show because the vibe os simply more intimate and people are cool enough to listen and make comments when they have things to say or things to ask.

I love doing them both. I'm still learning alot about the solo acoustic show and how to prefect it a bit more. When I learn something I also try to utilize it in the full band shows.

Marty