Backstage With the Band

[jeff42]

we have actually talked about doing part of it but then we all collectivley said "meh, let's work on something else instead."

[jimiv]

---

jeff42 wrote:

we have actually talked about doing part of it but then we all collectivley said "meh, let's work on something else instead."

---

Yep, same response with my bands when anyone brought it up from time to time.  So much other stuff out there and so little time to go around working new things in.  If you're a two guitar band though, I bet it would pay off.

[Piano Whore]

My former band closed most shows with FB. Even with only one guitar it KILLED- but that's because they did it justice. I'm reuniting with them this upcoming weekend, hopefully they'll do it because I would like to get it on video.

[nchangin]

It's a fun song on the drumset too a lot double times in the same tempo with a lot of "feel" and emotional playing with use of dynamics, right on. My thought is it was always the guitar player that rejected it or made fun of it, and in my mind I was betting they didn't know it and couldn't even improv it for 7 minutes. It is interesting to hear some positives cause in the drummer's world I always thought the guitar kicked some *bleeep* on that tune. 

[theGman]

It's the Confederate National Anthem, and is often requested here in Va.   It's rarely played around here, and I have only heard one other group ever play it, despite many requests; I know it's cool not to play it (?) but to be honest I really don't know what the problem is with the song. 

We play many Skynyrd songs anyway, so why not play the Anthem?

[Piano Whore]

nchangin, I think the drummer was the key to why I actually enjoyed FB in my last band, for the reasons you mention..also because they kept the structure of the original. The bass player would do that chromatic walk-up at the end, too.

[guido61]

I personally wouldn't enjoy either playing or listening to that song if the guitarist just improvised for several minutes at the end. The structure of the instrumental bit is what makes it "FreeBird" to me.

[3shiftgtr]

"Play Stairway to Freebird ya dumb bastards."

Seriously, if you're gonna do it, do it right. It's a super arranged (as all Skynyrd stuff is) tune, and if you "hack" thru it, you become the joke. It's not a jam song, although it kinda sounds like it. Very little room for improvising.

And if you play it right, you're gonna get a good response if you are in a band that plays at least a little 70's stuff. If you play it right, you'll be surprised at just how powerful a song it really is.

I was in a super popular modern rock cover band in the early 2k's doing Rage, Bizkit, 311, Staind etc. We did a few classic rock tunes and I convinced the guys to do Stairway. We had a huge light show and pyro and the whole bit, and did it at the end of the night or at the end of the 3rd set. And we did it note for note and just NAILED it. And it KILLED every time.

People make fun of those two tunes, but they are ridiculously powerful when done correctly and are virtually irresistible in the right circumstance.

[RoadRanger]

---

3shiftgtr wrote:

"Play Stairway to Freebird ya dumb bastards."

---

Actually I suppose I'm the exception in that if I was stuck on a desert island with only two tunes I wouldn't be unhappy with those two. But I also brought "Call Me Maybe" into one of my groups so my taste is highly suspect  - or maybe I like playing songs that people want to hear .

[Kramerguy]

maybe a little OT, but has anyone ever asked on their website or FB what their fans want to hear, or want the band to learn? I know freebird would be on the list, as a joke or not, but what else I wonder?

I've thought of asking on FB, but I'm literally afraid of what the responses would be, or how serious to take them. Most of the requests we get at gigs would not please the majority of the crowds, but tend to be one-off personal picks by drunken individuals.

[jeff42]

---

Kramerguy wrote:

maybe a little OT, but has anyone ever asked on their website or FB what their fans want to hear, or want the band to learn? I know freebird would be on the list, as a joke or not, but what else I wonder?

I've thought of asking on FB, but I'm literally afraid of what the responses would be, or how serious to take them. Most of the requests we get at gigs would not please the majority of the crowds, but tend to be one-off personal picks by drunken individuals.

---

I have done it a few times and yes the responses are what you would expect. We may have acted on 1 or 2 of them but most of them were silly, or something out of left field like an obscure black metal song and of course freebird... But every so often I do repeat the experiment and ask what do you want to hear?

Maybe ask what genre they want "more" of? IDK

or how about this one... what song should we retire?

[guido61]

---

Kramerguy wrote:

 Most of the requests we get at gigs would not please the majority of the crowds, but tend to be one-off personal picks by drunken individuals.

---

Some people---especially guys, it seems---appear to revel in trying to either appear "cool" to the band by request some rather obscure thing, or want to try and appeal superior by stumping the band.  

Girls, it seems, are more interested in just hearing songs they want to have fun to.   If you're not already doing "Brown Eyed Girl", expect that to be among your top 5 requests from the ladies.  That and "Sweet Home Alabama", of course.

[Kramerguy]

---

guido61 wrote:

---

Kramerguy wrote:

 Most of the requests we get at gigs would not please the majority of the crowds, but tend to be one-off personal picks by drunken individuals.

---

Some people---especially guys, it seems---appear to revel in trying to either appear "cool" to the band by request some rather obscure thing, or want to try and appeal superior by stumping the band.  

Girls, it seems, are more interested in just hearing songs they want to have fun to.   If you're not already doing "Brown Eyed Girl", expect that to be among your top 5 requests from the ladies.  That and "Sweet Home Alabama", of course.

---

You might be shocked to find that we dropped SWA..simply becuase it failed consistently at gigs.

We picked it up because of how well it does for most bands, but that was a critical marker for us that we're just not "most bands".  Same thing happened for a few popular bar songs we tried a while back. 

Only thing we could summarize out of it was that our appeal was just not attuned to that type of music.

[nchangin]

---

guido61 wrote:

---

Kramerguy wrote:

 Most of the requests we get at gigs would not please the majority of the crowds, but tend to be one-off personal picks by drunken individuals.

---

Some people---especially guys, it seems---appear to revel in trying to either appear "cool" to the band by request some rather obscure thing, or want to try and appeal superior by stumping the band.  

Girls, it seems, are more interested in just hearing songs they want to have fun to.   If you're not already doing "Brown Eyed Girl", expect that to be among your top 5 requests from the ladies.  That and "Sweet Home Alabama", of course.

---

100 % agree. Every show I DJ now always the guys that have the obscure "never heard of it" s*it. Then comes the decision to cut it or tell the dude it's not going to fly. I don't quite get the reason as to why, to be superior? I think that also could be synonymous with "different" in their mind. What I hate is after that dude has bugged you for a good 45 minutes you finally give in and play the obscure song and people flock away from the dance floor expeditiously. I always make sure I give them a look like "see told ya it wouldn't fly"

Get a group of girls however, heck if they don't know the title\artist they'll sing it for ya, 9 times out of 10 already know it so que it and run with it. 

[wesg]

Maybe you could start a game on FB -- request a song, and the first request to get a hundred likes in a month, the band will learn.

Add in a veto clause, though, or you might wind up learning tunes like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.