Offstage musicians and singers are performers who play instruments and/or sing backstage, out of sight of the audience, during a live popular music concert at which the main band is visible playing an
At this West Pole Reloaded concert, while the keyboard player and celletto player performed onstage, the musician triggering the electronic instruments was located offstage for the performance.
The cast of the off-Broadway musical Rock of Ages. The singer in the top right of the third (back) row, Tad Wilson, is an offstage singer and understudy ("cover") for one of the onstage singers, in the event of illness.
Stage monitor system
Videos
A stage monitor system is a set of performer-facing loudspeakers called monitor speakers, stage monitors, floor monitors, wedges, or foldbacks on stage during live music performances in which a sound
Offstage musicians and singers in popular music
…as the onstage performers. To help the offstage musicians and singers play and sing in tune and in time, the offstage musicians are provided with monitor speakers which reproduce the onstage playing and singing. As well, for offstage backup singers, they may be provided with a teleprompter video screen, which…
A JBL floor monitor speaker cabinet with a 12" woofer and a "bullet" tweeter. Typically, the speaker would be covered with a metal grille to protect it.
Stage monitors plugged with jack and XLR cables, receiving the sound from the main console. In the 2010s and 2020s, stage monitors are generally powered.
This small venue's stage shows an example of a typical monitor speaker set-up: there are three "wedge" monitors directed towards the area of the stage where singers and instrumentalists will be performing. The drummer has both a subwoofer cabinet (for monitoring the bass drum and the electric bass) and a "wedge"-style cabinet for monitoring vocals and mid- or high-frequency sounds.
A rock band stage clearly shows the stage monitors (Italy, 2013).