Im curious to whats a good way to show stage presence? I play guitar and do vocals so i cant move around alot, but id still like to have some presence, any suggestions?

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do cool moves. or just totally freak out, haha. if you have to sing, well that sucks

Try making metal faces and get a cool stance.
Headbang your ass off when your not singing too.

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While stage presence can be acquired.. most people either have it or dont.

Just have fun man, if your enjoying the show most likely he crowd will.

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You could always wear boxer shorts and a white button-up shirt with a tie and be all stiff when you play and sing, only to tilt your head at times like a robot as you bend your knees in a polka fashion.

...just a thought.

But seriously, you might want to go the opposite of what most people would see at a metal show. I assume by stage presence you mean something more aggressive and badass. Instead of headbanging or having a mean look on your face, try skipping around on stage. A tutu wouldn't hurt, either. Also, you might want to try humping the mic stand. Maybe do a head bobble too--along with a Jay Leno voice. Okay, I got alittle off track. But no kidding, the weird and "non-metal" shit really does go great with the atmosphere.

Cephalic Carnage are good inspiration, check them out live.

Light your headstock and hands on fire, then at the end of the show, piss them out.

im sure rammsteins done that

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HAHAHAHA. Spin ur guitar around ur body, I don't even wanna try that cuz I know I'll get impaled somehow.

do not do that, you'll look like a poser hippie.

just bang your head and try to connect, look people in the eyes, talk a little between songs (not too much ofcourse)

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Headbanging will always fill any void.

A while ago, I went to a Agent Steel show. The singer was great with crowd interaction; as he would make these kind of funny looking faces, look at you in your eyes, and if you did something with your face or eyes, he would do the same. Rad show and bands that was.

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dont cencentrate on being cool or tough man
take some tips from james hetfield, you may not like tallica, but he had great stage presence

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Put on 10 kilos.

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and call yourself D

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Spin in circles while playing. Eric Peterson look
ed cool doing it Headbang though, thats for sure, jsut try not to lose your balance or train of play.

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Slaughter cows on the stage with your guitar, then in between 2 songs get a little barbeque going. Then hand hamburgers out to the crowd.

Don't makr faces. Talk to the crowd a bit and just have a generally good time. e.g. Talk about where you go the lyrics from:

eg. This song is about .......... Or something like that.

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Whatever the fuck you do, DO NOT do synchronized headbanging. I swear that's the cheesiest thing to do.

Eh fuck you, synchronised headbanging rules!

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Damn straight!

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synchronised windmills are better!

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Agreed! See Yattering.

And bring on the metal faces, cheesy as they may be!

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Pfft... youngin'

Watch the new Amon Amarth video for "Pursuit of the Viking" synchronized windmill's rule!

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Also, wearing a big cape and feeding the crowd worms out of a Goblet seems to work too.

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Mmkay, Viking freaks doing synchronized headbanging, let's picture that (yeah I saw the video). I mean like.......BON JOVI STYLE. I swear I saw the cheesiest thing the other day, Metal Mania on VH1 Classic had this video by this chick band "Vixen", and right before the guitar solo, they all whipped their heads back in sync with their hair going all "whoooosh", and to add to even more of the effect, it was in slow motion.

Vixen was hardly Metal.......they were a singing hairspray ad.

Tis true. He is what made $$$ellica as great as it was, and I still say, is today. If you ever see them in action live they will make you believe you are seeing them 20 years ago. Age, or for that matter the outside world, has no vise while on stage. It is all about you and who is right there in front of you.

Ozzy is another crazy bastard with great stage presence. There is nothing really spacial about him, but he can really pump everyone up and get them to enjoy themselves. He is full of energy while on stage. Again, another example that age has no effect on you while on stage, if you got presence. Doesn't matter if you are 14 or 60.

Edit: Danzig and Slayer also have amazing stage presence too.

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I don't know about that. I saw a video clip recently of Metallica playing at the Big Day Out (Australia, Jan 2005). They played Master Of Puppets, and it was really quite terrible. They were terribly sloppy, in fact I'd say that Lars was the only one that seemed to be playing properly. He still looked like an absolute tool though. James was off key with his singing, it was really quite shit. From clips I've seen of them in their older days, they really did look a tiny tiny shadow of their former selves, at least on this performance anyway.

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Slayer is the same thing, for the most part, they just stand there, on War At The Warfield Tom admits that alot of the time he just stands there smiling between songs. For these bands, it is more the attitude of the fans that make the gigs exciting to be at, but boaring to watch live on some kind of recording.

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when you are not singing good band interaction is a must, especially when doing harmonies (you better do harmonies....) etc. just watch power metal bands, then tend to have the best over the top stage show!

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Maybe, just maybe...You could get a miniature model of Stonehendge and have little midgets dressed as elves dance around it...

Oh wait..

Kalmahswamp just reminded me of something -- the Misfits. I've got a DVD of a live show of theirs and must I say that they don't have to do much because with the whacky costumes/makeup and halloween props all of the stage, nobody gives a shit if they don't look badass. So maybe you could use extra props or even make yourself and the others look pretty damn weird and/or scary (as long as you don't do the mask thing).

It was supposed to remind you of something besides The Misfits

SPINAL TAP!

Sorry, never seen 'em. I've heard of them. But aren't they, like, power metal or something?

(and if they're not, holy shit I'm gonna get my ass kicked)

its a band from an 80s parody movie

I'm confused, was that a joke? I saw the DVD in a store. I thought it was a concert. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get all of those braincells back...


hmmm....if I smoke weed backwards....

You could toss gifts into the crowd......people would say, "Wow....did you see the stage presents?"

it was a huge joke man, they took a stab at the whole industry you should really see it

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Like a hard rock version of the monkees? Shit, if it didn't work with davy jones it won't work period.

I watch Spinal Tap prob once a month......know most of the lines by heart....

Get the DVD where only a couple years ago they get together and do a speaking commentary through the flick......it's like a whole other movie.

Dude.....just stop while you can haha

*GRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNN*

Look, this is all rather silly. If you're a big flapping pussy, you won't have no steenkin' stage presence. You need time in front of a crowd to work on something like this, period.

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Funny..........
Just do what you feel.....and feel what you do....

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Or you can just be like the old classic rock bands and just stand there doing absolutely nothing but playing ur instruments or singing. Like literally no head boppin' no poses of any kind, just standing there like a manican(how the hell do you spell that?).

Put a foot on one of the stage monitors and lean forward while you're playing cause it looks cool. When you're singing there's nothing you can do about that...

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mosh and shit, u could also get a wireless guitar system and a wireless mike attached to ure head, then u can move anywhere ya want, it would prob look stupid though, u'd look like ure in a pop band

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Lemmy looks badass singing into that mic about a foot higher than his mouth.....but that badass Bass he's thumping makes up for alot of that singers presence.

lemmy's always drunk awell, which helps

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I think Lemmy is a classic example of how to look good but not do a damn thing for show. The propping up of the foot on the stage monitor sticks an imagine of Mark Tremonti in my head. I don't like that image.
Just as long as you don't always have your head down at your guitar and have your body bunched up and uncomfortable like a 13 year old kid at his first show, anything should do.
Being a mannequin would look cool if everyone in the band was doing it, but just all by yourself you'd look pretty damn stupid.
And to be cold about it, I'd have to agree with far_beyond_sane and say don't worry about it -- just get out there and learn from your mistakes. Obviously different performers must take different positions.

I think its cool when people prop up their foot on the stage monitor. Zakk wylde does it all the time

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Look at Video of Iron Maiden from "Killers" and Murray and Smith are locked onto looking at their playing.....Video from a few years later......they are walking...strolling around stage never looking down....it's cool to see that evolution of expertice (sp?)

Steve Harris is big on propping a foot on a monitor and thumping the hell outta that Bass.....he also mimicks all the vocals as Paul/Bruce sang......since he writes all their lyrics.....it always looked cool to me....to see his devotion to the song.

Reminds me of Iron Maiden's Aces High video.

we're not nsync here, we don't use headsets for microphones.

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One of the reasons I quit playing bass to become a frontman is because I found it hard to work the crowd. That and it's difficult for me to "sing" and play bass at the same time.

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Morbid Angel and Uli Jon Roth both used the classic "fan blowing long hair back" maneuver last time I saw them. Considering they're too fucking busy playing like maniacs and singing at the same time I really don't expect or want them to do any gay headbanging or whatever.

Random direct eye contact. Crazy smiles. Occasional looks of total ecstasy. Random unintelligible motivational screaming into the microphone. Getting down on one knee and grinning straight into the faces of the front row and then spitting on them as appropriate. All classics...