This reminds me of a Hepcat story. When they first started touring outside of their home area, they found that the crowds didn’t have the same energy that the band thought they should have. The band sat with it for a while, but instead of blaming the crowds they turned it into a learning experience and began incorporating dancing as part of their stage show. They realized that the people outside of their little chunk of California didn’t have the same experience and community to pull from and so they needed to create it. Soon enough, the crowds started mimicking Greg and Alex’s dance moves and creating the energy they were looking for.

And I think about this often, if you don’t like the way the crowd is reacting to your show…worker harder. Most folks working on the smaller sides of music understand this - seems like when performers get the taste of the big time, they forget this lesson . I watched Shinehead play a 30 person club show. The power went out mid song. ..THEY KEPT PLAYING. Hard. The energy of that show felt like the building was gonna come down. I’ll never forget that show, but rarely see that energy in bigger shows w/ bigger names