[MUSIC]
Playing live is important.
It's what musicians do.
I think it's what a lot of us live for and why we make music,
it's so we can perform for people and feel
the crowd's reaction and feel that energy on stage.
It's weird these days with a lot of music being an online platform.
I've definitely heard people say that it's more important to have an online presence,
and it's so important to have an online presence, but I just really,
really believe that live performance is where
you really create a strong connection with the audience.
I feel like also,
audience members are looking for a personal connection.
So when you go to these shows and you talk to people afterwards,
and you stay at their house, and you eat their food,
it really creates a really beautiful relationship with these people that you
never would have met if you weren't touring and playing music for them.
Honestly, it's really difficult to capture a live performance on recording.
So people that are listening to CDs and music
online are going to have
a completely different experience musically when they see you live.
My favorite gigs to play are festivals.
They are the most exciting to me because, well, first off,
you get in front of people who didn't come there exclusively to see
you and otherwise who may have missed you the last time you came through town,
and not just that, but you really get to feel like there's
a community of people out there who are doing the same thing that you're doing.
You get to meet some of your heroes sometimes
and maybe even sometimes embarrass yourself in front of your heroes,
but it's just really cool to know that there's this support group out there,
all these other people who have done
this thing and may be a little bit further on their journey than you are.
You can talk to them.
Carolina in the Fall,
the Kruger Brothers through that festival,
we played that for the first time literally the week after I got married.
It was so much fun.
They are just so open
and welcoming and warm, and they jammed with us.
On my birthday.
On Joey's birthday.
They didn't have to do that,
but they do that with everyone.
They treat you as the first timer there,
like you're Jerry Douglas doing them a favor or something.
It's amazing.
So festivals are definitely my,
you also get to see a whole [inaudible]
When it comes to playing shows,
I also think that house shows are really
important especially when you're first starting out.
It's a really easy way to, like I said before,
really create a really strong nice bond, like
an intimate setting rather than going to a venue in and out.
Honestly, a lot of those people at house shows are really,
really excited to have you there.
So they'll tell their friends
and friends of friends will tell them.
We started playing house shows in Madison, Wisconsin,
and we just call them our Wisconsin's family.
They've become like family to us, and they just open their homes to us.
Those events are some of our favorite gigs as well.
Yeah. I love festival gigs so much.
[inaudible] getting more and more into festivals.
I'm starting to learn them more.
But there's just something great about having
just a sweaty rock gig where
people are right here standing at the edge of the stage, you know what I mean?
Just having that kind of electricity in the room is just really something magical.
I have to say, Roanoke, Virginia.
Roanoke, Virginia.
[LAUGHTER]
When we first went to Roanoke, we were like,
we don't know what they're going to think of us because
none of us are from Roanoke, but we're called to Roanoke.
Right.
It's another place we played, the Spot on Kirk.
That's another one of our favorites.
They always treat us like family there.
So we love it there.
Playing in a primarily empty room,
there's a term for it and it's called paid rehearsal.
Sometimes paid.
Sometimes paid rehearsal.
[LAUGHTER]
Me personally, I have a really hard time playing in empty rooms.
These guys are amazing.
I don't know how a solo artists do it,
but I have a tendency to get into an empty room,
which thankfully we're playing less and less of those.
But in the beginning, that happened quite a bit,
and you hope and you hope people will show up,
and then you walk out and there's nobody there, and your heart just sinks.
Thankfully, these guys are great about like, "No,
it's still going to be fun," and we can
play off each other's energy on stage, which is great.
Yeah, one thing I would love to say about
empty room gigs is those are great shows to try out new things, you know what I mean?
If you have a new song you're working on,
you don't really feel a 100 percent confident on playing in
front of a big audience yet or if
there's some crazy outfits you want to try out
or just whatever you want to try out, those are the gigs to do it.
Yeah, it's true, and it's
honestly one of my gigs that comes to mind when you ask like what.
Well, they say least favorite gigs are like playing for a room with nobody in it.
The second show in London,
Kentucky last year or just outside where [OVERLAPPING] we played
midnight in a Pavilion to maybe eight people including the band that played before us.
That was the second show we did that.
I had a blast.
[LAUGHTER]
It's easier to be in the back line,
to be not right up front.
Most of my connection comes from the band and from the music as opposed to
the audience where the singers, that's who they connect with.
Some of those empty shows have just been the
most free and the most fun and like you said,
we try new things and won't even talk about it.
We'll just extend the sections and outros,
and you just look at each other and just start laughing on stage,
just like, "Who cares."
Yeah.
Yeah, and honestly, that's to me, some of the best times that I've had playing music.
Also, if there's like eight people in the room,
they're going to remember it.
We did a festival I think somewhere in Pennsylvania.
It was raining, and there was one dude in the middle of the field.
We were like, "What's your name?"
He's like, "Justin," from [LAUGHTER] way out in the back.
This is for you, Jus.
We played that show in the rain for Justin,
[OVERLAPPING] [LAUGHTER] and he loved it.
It was great.
What's coming to lead in the band,
this band is a different animal than another bands because we switch singers,
you know what I mean, and because there's so many writers in the band,
a lot of the songs will have a different vibe than the other ones.
Taylor does a set list, and she usually runs
the set as far as like audibles and things like that, you know what I mean.
But as far as musical cues or stuff like that,
the band will be on top of that.
We don't really have an MD,
an assigned MD in our van,
but I guess it really all depends on how you work together.
For better or for worse.
[LAUGHTER]
We don't know yet.
We've never had one, but maybe one day.
Yeah.
[MUSIC]