#BLOGTOBER DAY 25: So you want to write a concert review?

I review a lot of live shows, and I have a very specific routine that I go through each and every time I settle down to write.
Last night I saw VANT and You Me At Six for the second time in two weeks, and because the shows were practically identical I didn't want to write a standard review.
So instead, here is my step by step guide to writing a concert review.

Step 1: Buy tickets

Oh, you've already bought tickets? In that case I guess I should start a little further along in the procedure...

Step 1: Make notes

I'm not expecting you to take a notebook and pen into the show. The lighting in concerts is not usually the best, so physically writing notes would be difficult. I open up the calendar on my phone and create a new event, and I put all of my thoughts and observations in there stream of consciousness style, with a simple forward slash to separate things about different songs. 

What kind of notes should I take?

• Direct quotes. If the lead singer of a band says something inspirational, jot it down as quickly as you can.
  I'm lucky, because I can type extremely fast on my trusty Blackberry, so I can normally get very accurate quotes. If you can't type as fast, just get a couple of words and write around it - it gives the gist of what was said, but you won't be putting words into someone's mouth.
• Setlists. Getting a complete setlist is invaluable.
  If you're attending a show that's early in a tour, getting a setlist helps people who are going to a later date, especially if you upload them somewhere like setlist.fm. But it's also good for your personal records: you can compare and contrast setlists from different tours, and because you made it you know it's 100% accurate.

What if I don't know the song that's being played?

We all go to shows where we don't know every single song, and this is where step 2 begins...

Step 2: Google lyrics
I pay very close attention and jot down some lyrics during the show, then Google them when I get home.
For example, last night during VANT's set I wrote:

'The Answer / Man on the moon shot JFK / Peace and Love / immigration laws / everybody's gone baby / twisted heartache surrounds me / wait a minute cause your heart's not in it / alien / get this feeling that I'm all alone'  

So, when I open up a new post to start my review, I automatically input:

Setlist:
The Answer
-
Peace and Love
-
-
-
-
-
-

The hyphens are the songs that I need to search.
Typing in 'VANT Man on the moon shot JFK lyrics' into Google automatically fetches the song 'Welcome To The Wonderful World of Berners Lee'. Ding, we have a winner! So in it goes.
Repeat this for the rest of the setlist, and by the end of your searching you have:

Setlist:
The Answer
Welcome To The Wonderful World of Berners Lee
Peace and Love
Birth Certificate
Parasite
Karma Seeker
Parking Lot
Fly-By Alien
Do You Know Me?

Easy as that!

It's even easier if you already know the band well. During You Me At Six, I jotted down:

'wwwy / bite / fsf / Loverboy / safer / Stay With Me / Little Death / Plus One / Reckless (snip) / forgive / lived / Swear / win some / Underdog / too young / no one / Room / night'

And that ends up being:

Setlist:
When We Were Younger
Bite My Tongue
Fresh Start Fever
Loverboy
Safer To Hate Her
Stay With Me
Little Death
Plus One
Reckless (When You Were Young snippet)
Forgive and Forget
Lived a Lie
Swear
Win Some, Lose Some
Underdog
Too Young To Feel This Old
-
No One Does It Better
Room To Breathe
Night People

In this case the hyphen indicates the split between the main set at the encore.
If you know the band you're reviewing very well, taking notes is even faster. You can properly enjoy the show, and still have enough material for a review afterwards!

Some advice on getting setlists:

• It's harder if the band is local, because they're likely to be too small to have their lyrics on Google. I find that sometimes just asking them helps, which is how I got a full setlist when A Way With Words supported Fort Hope: I mentioned that I was writing a review, and they gave me a setlist so that I'd have the song titles!
  In the past I've had to spend two or three hours trawling through a local artist's back catalogue on Soundcloud to get a full setlist. It paid off, but it was very time-consuming.
• It's also tricky if they're a hardcore band with screaming vocals, as it can be very difficult to decipher lyrics. I don't normally attempt to get setlists for bands performing in this style, as it's frustrating and detracts from the enjoyment of the show.
• The biggest problem is when a band is performing a brand new song. The majority of artists introduce songs that are new, so you might be able to get the name of the track that way, but if they don't just grab a lyric and refer to it using that phrase. When it gets released officially, you can edit it in!

Step 3: Begin procrastinating

There's a reason my concert reviews are always uploaded in the late hours of the day, and that's because I am brilliant at procrastinating.

If you can skip this step, good for you! Celebrate your productivity and get on with step 4! But if you're anything like me, you'll need some time to get your thoughts in order about the show, so that your review isn't a flailing stream of OH MY GOD IT WAS SO AMAZING THE BAND WAS GREAT I LOVE THE SINGER THE BASSIST IS BEAUTIFUL OH JEEZ OH WOW.

Step 4: Choose an image
I wish I was better at concert photography so that I could use my own images on my reviews, but instead I run back to Google and scroll through until I find a recent photograph of the band that I like. This could also be step 3.1, because it definitely helps with the procrastinating - especially when the image I like links to a tumblr dedicated to the band...
(One day I'll learn how to link this blog with Instagram, and then I might upload more of my own live shots!)

Step 5: Decide what's important
Before you start writing, read through your notes and decide exactly which bits you'd like to talk about. You don't need to go into detail about every single thing that happened, so some of your notes are going to be obsolete, but it's better to have more than you need than not enough.

Honestly, I normally forget about this step!
I sit down after my many hours of procrastinating, start typing, think I've finished the review, check my notes at the end... and realise I've missed a load of really awesome stuff.
I start editing. I put in all of the stuff that I've finished, then I'm definitely 100% finished, fingers cramping and eyes burning because I forget to blink a lot when I'm writing. (Should that be one of the steps?!) I sit back, relax, press publish... And my review is a mile long, coming in at almost 10,000 words.

(Okay, I'm exaggerating! ...a bit. My worst was my review of Funeral For a Friend's last ever show, which was near 4,500 words.)

Step 6: Rein in your inner fanboy or girl
If you like a band enough to go and see them live, they mean a lot to you. You wouldn't buy tickets to go and see a band you hated, because that would be a huge waste of money!
But you can't be biased when you're writing a review. It's not possible to just say "I loved this show because I love this band". That wouldn't be a review.
Even your favourite band can play a bad show. I've had to write critical reviews for You Me At Six, All Time Low and Bring Me The Horizon in the past, and while it's difficult, constructive criticism helps everyone grow.
(There's an exception to every rule, and in this case mine is Waterparks. I can never say a bad thing about Geoff Wigington.)

 

Step 7: Find some good in everything
In the same way that your favourite bands can play a bad live show, the bands you hate can always surprise you in a live environment. If a band you really don't like are announced as a support act, don't just skip their set - go along and see if they'll surprise you.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Marmozets, Milk Teeth and Ashestoangels in the past: all bands that I'd completely written off, and was irritated to be seeing live. 

Reviews need to be balanced, and I'm sure it'll be easier than you think to find some good and bad things to say in every post.

Step 8: Re-read and publish

I'm normally tired when I write my concert reviews, because the excitement from the night before wears off and I feel drained for a couple of days. But I push myself through it, and that sometimes results in some terrible grammar and abandoned sentences that I've started before my brain jumps off to another point.

You always need to re-read your work before you publish it. It's possible to edit it afterwards, but it's a lot easier to get it completely polished in the first place. 

Then click 'Publish' and you're done!

Step 9: Spread the word

Tweet your review, post your link in a caption on Instagram, upload it to Tumblr... Whatever you want to do, get your post out there!

But there is some etiquette with this. 

Tag the venue, and tag the bands that you've said good things about, but if a review is more negative than positive DO NOT SEND IT TO THEM. 

It sounds like common sense, but a lot of people forget this in their excitement. My Fort Hope review yesterday was quite critical. Did I tweet it to them? NO! It's not worth it, even if putting their @ name in the post might get a few more pageviews on your post. 

Step 10: Sit back, relax, and get ready for the next show

I like to have some downtime between concerts, because it gives me a chance to write a review and then get into a good headspace for the next show. 

You wouldn't think it based on how many I write and how frequently I post them, but I find reviewing shows very stressful! It's difficult to find new things to say, particularly when you've seen a band multiple times before, and I don't want to repeat myself. 

So after I've written a concert review, I'll watch TV or films for a little bit before I go back to reading and writing my book reviews. It's always good to treat yourself to some downtime. 

That's my step by step guide to gig reviewing. I hope it helps!