Serious slip up tonight, considering events.

[Blackbird 13]

So our acoustic trio gig tonight was off to a good start. 150 to 200 people in there, Christmas party from a medical school/hospital.

Four songs in, as per the setlist, we played "Pumped Up Kicks", none of us thinking about the lyrics until we'd started the song. The strange part is most of the 21-30 year olds were dancing to it. I knew as soon as we started that we'd screwed up.. but you also can't really stop the song after you get going. I tried to come up with something for alternate lyrics in the chorus... but nothing came to me that would work.

There's no way we'd have ever done that song if we'd remembered the lyrics. The tune generally works well as an opening set song with the acoustic trio... but we are there to try and help people have fun, not to remind them of a horrific act of an evil madman.

No one really seemed offended.. although it sucked the life out of the crowd for two or three songs. A few of our friends looked at us like "really?"... not so much offended as surprised we played it (as we later found out). The general reaction was an unspoken uneasiness. Thankfully.. Brown Eyed Girl and the song after it (which I forget now) brought them back around, and no one said a word about it (aside from the friends that we talked to about it on break). The night was great, the bar sold a lot of alcohol, we made some new fans and friends, and it was the kind of night you want to have in a cover band.

Except for us playing that song. No lasting repercussions.. no fussing out by the bar owner or anything.. but damn man, I just feel like a world class asshole for playing it. I've played a song that was "insensitive" to the event once before ("Push" by matchbox twenty at a benefit for the battered women's shelter like 5 years ago), and I've played many raunchy, and even nasty songs ("My Dick", "{censored} Her Gently"), but this is the first time where I think I personally would have been a little offended if I'd been in the audience.

Anyways.. despite no one seeming all that upset by it... it certainly made me feel like an ass.

Out of curiousity.. if it was you, and you'd already started singing "Robert's got a quick hand..."... what would you have done? Stopped the song? Mumbled the words? Awkward situation for sure.

[Ku'Yleh]

I would go to the lyrics that one of my wife's third grade students sang one day:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
Better run better run, out run my mom
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
better run, better run, faster than my mother

For some reason, that depresses me even more.

[StratGuy22]

Like you said, one of those songs you don't really realize. It's too bad you didn't catch yourself. But now you know to leave it out of the set for awhile.

[guitarguy19]

We don't do that song but it is on our to do list. I thought about that today...should probably wait a minute to do it.

I'm sure nobody thought you guys were trying to be offensive though.

[FitchFY]

I'm glad I read this today - innocent thing on your band's part, but I totally understand feeling bad about it. I just checkout out our set list for tonight, and I think we'll be skipping over ".45" by Shinedown...

[stevmac1]

I just checked out set list too. Looks ok.
Thanks for the heads up.
steve

[roamingbard13]

We played last night too, and we are about 90 miles from Newtown, CT. I am a teacher and I work in a Pre-K through grade 8 school. Very rough day for a lot of reasons.

The drummer and the bass player started the riff based on the set list, and I quickly got them to stop. We played something else instead.

Later, I had some asshole walk up and ask me if we could play that song. I told him "Not appropriate for tonight." He started laughing and said something like "oh right, that little massacre". Luckily, for him and me I guess, my bandmates had started the next song during our conversation and I had other things to do.

[GtrGeorge!]

Please understand how I look at it....
if it puts a really nasty negative feel out there..why play it..ever? Yeah, I mean it. McCartney has been playing for ages and always sells out basically singing about things we relate to, but its not hate filled or morose. I lived thru the 90..morose is EASY. Depression is EASY. Playing music that touches people and makes them happy is a worthwhile thing.
I have made mistakes live...yeah, I have called off songs a few bars in...If it ever happens I make a funny joke about it and carry on...we're real people, we make mistakes but what Ive learned is noone wants to be brought down. Lose the song, then it cant happen again....and btw what ever happened to that band "Foster the People"? (karma suggested...) -GtrGeorge of Holiday Road

[GtrGeorge!]

The guy was laughing and then he said that stupid thing....what a maroon. Alcohol makes people say really stupid things.

[jimiv]

There are so many other songs to play, I honestly don't know why anyone has that song in their setlist. And I felt that way before Newtown. I {censored}ing hate that song actually.

[tim_7string]

I never cared for the lyrics to Pumped Up Kicks and I dislike them even more now. I made a post on my band's blog a while ago after the shooting at the movie theater when the new Batman movie debuted regarding inappropriate songs during disastrous events in the news.

I did play it in September and a couple of times since, but I made a conscious effort NOT to play it this weekend. I had a quick meeting with the boys while we were setting up last night and we agreed not to play it anymore. It's a catchy riff, but the subject matter is just too disturbing for me.

[Potts]

No worries man...it wasn't intentional and Im sure everyone realized that.

I played a benefit for a woman with breast cancer this weekend and I swear every song seemed like it was inappropriate. If felt as if every song was about losing someone or not being with the one you love. Ugh...

[Potts]

I was not familiar with the lyrics of this song. I don't want to make make you feel bad, but there is no doubt in my mind I would have taken charge and stopped the song and simply said, "Sorry...we're going to move on, this song is inappropriate." I seriously don't mean to offend you OP or make you feel badly, but I'm shocked you didn't stop this tune as soon as you realized what you were doing.

"Pumped Up Kicks"

Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth, he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun.
In his dad's closet hidden with a box of fun things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you.

[Chorus: x2]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Daddy works a long day.
He'll be coming home late, he's coming home late.
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger,
I reason with my cigarette,
And say, "Your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah."

[Thy God]

If you change your setlist, the terrorists win.

[Potts]

Originally Posted by Thy God

If you change your setlist, the terrorists win.

lol

[FitchFY]

Originally Posted by Potts

I played a benefit for a woman with breast cancer this weekend and I swear every song seemed like it was inappropriate.

There are nights where when things are prevalent, you feel like each song shouldn't be played.

We gigged Saturday night, and we pulled ".45" by Shinedown from the set list, which was wise.

But we played "Three Little Pigs" by Green Jelly (remember THAT?!?) for a big fan's birthday, complete with the mimed machine gun part in the middle. Never clicked to us until I was mid-drum roll. No one noticed - all laughs at the song.

Heck, I even tore into "Hot for Teacher" and was like ".... wait..."

It's rarely as big of a deal as we feel it, but that we still feel it shows that we're still human.

[Hush]

We played Friday and pulled Psycho Killer from our set.

[AVisme]

The lyrics to "Pumped Up Kicks" are written from the perspective of a troubled and delusional youth with homicidal thoughts. The lines in the chorus warn potential victims to "outrun my gun" and that they "better run, better run, faster than my bullet". Foster said, "I was trying to get inside the head of an isolated, psychotic kid." He wrote the lyrics in order to "bring awareness" to the issue of gun violence amongst youth, which he feels is an epidemic perpetuated by "lack of family, lack of love, and isolation". The song's title refers to shoes that the narrator's peers wear as a status symbol. The issue of youth violence is a matter close to the group. Foster was bullied in high school, while bassist Cubbie Fink has a cousin who survived the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Fink said of his cousin's experience, "She was actually in the library when everything went down, so I actually flew out to be with her the day after it happened and experienced the trauma surrounding it and saw how affected she was by it. She is as close as a sister, so obviously, it affected me deeply. So to be able to have a song to create a platform to talk about this stuff has been good for us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped_...nd_inspiration

[Crustee]

I think anyone who gets offended by a song some cover band is playing should stay the {censored} home.

[Potts]

 

Originally Posted by Crustee

I think anyone who gets offended by a song some cover band is playing should stay the {censored} home.

 

Really? That's a little insensitive. Isn't the goal of music, regardless of what we're playing, to touch people?

[flemtone]

Originally Posted by Blackbird 13

("My Dick", "{censored} Her Gently")

[flemtone]

Originally Posted by Crustee

I think anyone who gets offended by a song some cover band is playing should stay the {censored} home.

No, they should not bother with said band again. That's where shrinking audiences come into play. Offensive band = empty room = no gig. It all works out in the end.

I think any musician that doesn't give a {censored} about his/her audience should stay the {censored} home.

[tim_7string]

 

Originally Posted by flemtone

I think any musician that doesn't give a {censored} about his/her audience should stay the {censored} home.

 

Well said, flemtone.

[Blackbird 13]

Originally Posted by flemtone

The former of those songs we dropped. Rarely did we ever have a room where it would have been appropriate, and the song is very offensive. That said, we did have rooms where we played that song and had entire bars of twenty somethings singing the song with us, word for word. The latter of those songs, the Tenacious D song, is almost a can't miss song for the acoustic shows. We generally do it only later in the evening.. and only if the venue is appropriate for it.

When you start censoring music (and any art form) because it doesn't fit in a neat little box, then you're opening up the floodgates, and I truly believe that.

Case in point.. we were once asked, over and over again, to play a Pennywise song called "{censored} Authority", by a group of college kids at a gig. We knew the song well enough, so third to last song at like 1:15, 1:20 AM... we had 70+ college kids, holding shots in the air, singing along (that means they're buying shots, by the way). One older couple at the bar got offended and left. I'm certainly sorry they felt that way, and I certainly can't stop them from leaving. BUT....

If a person is willing to smile, nod and be happy while the college kids sit through us playing their classic rock song that they didn't care for, but that same person leaves in a huff when we play the song the kids asked us for all night..well, that person is kind of a two-faced asshole, and exactly what's wrong with this country today. We aren't in the shape we're in because people use naughty words. We're in the shape we're in because most people aren't willing to put themselves in anyone else's shoes. /rant

Originally Posted by flemtone

I think any musician that doesn't give a {censored} about his/her audience should stay the {censored} home.

I couldn't agree more with that.

Originally Posted by Potts

I was not familiar with the lyrics of this song. I don't want to make make you feel bad, but there is no doubt in my mind I would have taken charge and stopped the song and simply said, "Sorry...we're going to move on, this song is inappropriate." I seriously don't mean to offend you OP or make you feel badly, but I'm shocked you didn't stop this tune as soon as you realized what you were doing.

You certainly aren't offending me.. everyone handles things differently. I do now, and will probably always ascribe to, the theory that the show goes on, no matter what. You don't stop songs in the middle of them.. you don't walk offstage mid-song/mid-set... these are just universal truths to me.

As it stood, it was an awkward moment.. but I REALLY believe that if we'd just stopped the song and said it was inappropriate and we were moving on... that would have drawn more attention to it than we did by just playing through it, and it would have made for a much more awkward situation.

[Potts]

Originally Posted by Blackbird 13

You certainly aren't offending me.. everyone handles things differently. I do now, and will probably always ascribe to, the theory that the show goes on, no matter what. You don't stop songs in the middle of them.. you don't walk offstage mid-song/mid-set... these are just universal truths to me.

As it stood, it was an awkward moment.. but I REALLY believe that if we'd just stopped the song and said it was inappropriate and we were moving on... that would have drawn more attention to it than we did by just playing through it, and it would have made for a much more awkward situation.

Well said man. I can't argue with that.