Members FitchFY Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Originally Posted by Blackbird 13 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. So very true! It's just like calling attention to a mistake. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Originally Posted by FitchFY So very true! It's just like calling attention to a mistake. Cheers! I do it all the time. There is nothing funnier than a well placed Oops! But I get it- its different for different people. I would have no problem stopping a tune if I believed it shouldn't be played though. (Again I'm not judging- I just wanted to make that clear) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Originally Posted by Potts I do it all the time. There is nothing funnier than a well placed Oops! But I get it- its different for different people. I would have no problem stopping a tune if I believed it shouldn't be played though. (Again I'm not judging- I just wanted to make that clear) There's probably something to be said for the TYPE of performance that allows you to stop, too, right? As a solo acoustic performer, I'd think your gigs are more intimate and allow for a more "personal" touch in your show. For a 4-5 piece band with people dancing to suddenly stop a tune, I'd think it's more of a momentum trainwreck than an honest pause and a "you know, this may be a bad idea" thing.So yeah, totally understanding your position - I just think it's neat how different bands, shows, vibes, venues, etc influence these kinds of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Originally Posted by FitchFY There's probably something to be said for the TYPE of performance that allows you to stop, too, right? As a solo acoustic performer, I'd think your gigs are more intimate and allow for a more "personal" touch in your show. For a 4-5 piece band with people dancing to suddenly stop a tune, I'd think it's more of a momentum trainwreck than an honest pause and a "you know, this may be a bad idea" thing.So yeah, totally understanding your position - I just think it's neat how different bands, shows, vibes, venues, etc influence these kinds of things. Agreed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Iamthesky Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 I was at a small local show last night, and this band of kids played all originals except for that one song: Pumped Up Kicks. What encouragement the small crowd had for the band vanished with that song. It was like someone flipped the applause switch off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 I'll be honest - when this song hit big time a year ago last summer, I found it so disturbing that I refused to play it as a DJ until I found a remix so severe that it essentially stripped it of it's meaning. And I play tracks so laden with "F" bombs that they would sink a battleship. I felt the same this past summer about the top 10 hit "No Lie". I don't know what it is about summer songs anymore. They used to be about sun and vacations. Now they're about killing people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 As a cover band keyboard player who doesn't sing a whole heap - I can say that in all honesty, I pay very little attention to the meaning of ANY of the lyrics in any of the tunes on our playlist. I wouldn't have thought twice about putting "Pumped Up Kicks" on the setlist last Friday - and would have probably offended our crowd as well. The only thing that saved us from duplicating the OP's faux paux was the fact that our home built "megaphone" effect box was on the fritz so we skipped over the tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 I have just been told (rumored) radio stations have pulled Kesha's Die Young... even though lyrically song has nothing to do with school shootings. yeah yeah I know its a Kesha song and it "should" be pulled just cuz... Plus she looks like she smells like shrimp and dirty diapers but that's not the point.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nijyo Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Originally Posted by GtrGeorge! Please understand how I look at it.... if it puts a really nasty negative feel out there..why play it..ever? What a boring world it would be if people only played upbeat songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted December 19, 2012 Members Share Posted December 19, 2012 Slip up: I KJ'd a birthday party and behold found a crowd of many kids that wanted to sing. Yay. So I get all 50 of them lil buggers in control and then I get a request for black eyed peas tune. Not really knowing the song personally I put it in cause this 7 year old girl wanted to sing it, ok call her up que it up....What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk? I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunkWTH no sooner than I was asking her if her parents knew she listened to this music the mom shot up behind the DJ desk, "you should know better!"...."but ma'am she requested it? I do apologize!" sorry lil girl if you were in school right now I'd have to send you to the principals office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mockchoi Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 There's a thing that people do that I really don't understand. Not saying it's wrong or anything, just that I don't share it; and that's that any mention of a thing...they take as an endorsement of the thing, or a glorification of the thing. They're usually they same people that don't appreciate satire or allegory. I kinda like that song. I don't love it, but I kinda like it. And that's because it makes me feel something. I think that song is supposed to kind of...make you feel bad. I almost think it's 100% appropriate to have played it after this horrible thing has happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by mockchoi I almost think it's 100% appropriate to have played it after this horrible thing has happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SLScott86 Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by GtrGeorge! ...and btw what ever happened to that band "Foster the People"? (karma suggested...) -GtrGeorge of Holiday Road If bad karma is having to settle for two Grammy nominations instead of wins, and a #8 album instead of a #1, then I can't wait to see what all our good karma gets us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members testuser Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by 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. I was just asking my band mates today, "For what type of gig is the song 'Cocaine' appropriate?" Maybe it could be your one slow song in a biker bar with chicken wire in front of the stage, but that's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members testuser Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by Thy God If you change your setlist, the terrorists win. It's not that the terrorists win. Rather, it is that the event wakes us from our stupor and we wonder why we ever liked the song. It is one of the ways we mature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members testuser Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by SpaceNorman As a cover band keyboard player who doesn't sing a whole heap - I can say that in all honesty, I pay very little attention to the meaning of ANY of the lyrics in any of the tunes on our playlist. I wouldn't have thought twice about putting "Pumped Up Kicks" on the setlist last Friday - and would have probably offended our crowd as well. The only thing that saved us from duplicating the OP's faux paux was the fact that our home built "megaphone" effect box was on the fritz so we skipped over the tune. I confess to not paying much attention to lyrics until about 15 years ago. It's why I won't touch AC/DC and refuse to sing songs like Tush but love to sing Sharp Dressed Man.Interestingly, it made me a huge fan of the type of music I used to hate: Country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbviper4 Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by testuser I was just asking my band mates today, "For what type of gig is the song 'Cocaine' appropriate?" Maybe it could be your one slow song in a biker bar with chicken wire in front of the stage, but that's about it. It closed my Senior Prom in 1984. True story, bros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 here's a question for ya'll... how many people in your crowd do you think actually listen to lyrics, pay attention to the lyrics or know the meaning to most of the songs you play? I love songs with deep lyrics and neat-o wordplay in songs but I do know people (musicians included) that barely pay attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Originally Posted by jeff42 here's a question for ya'll... how many people in your crowd do you think actually listen to lyrics, pay attention to the lyrics or know the meaning to most of the songs you play? I love songs with deep lyrics and neat-o wordplay in songs but I do know people (musicians included) that barely pay attention. Women do, men much less so, and musicians hardly at all. I know many musicians (including myself sometimes) who will memorize songs line for line, and still not have a clue as to what they are singing about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 Really? How can a singer not know WTF they are singing about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted December 20, 2012 Members Share Posted December 20, 2012 A signer that never looked up the lyrics, went from memory or transposed the lyrics by ear. When I was high school a buddy and mine transposed stairway to heaven lyrics in late 80's, thought we were right, years later saw on the internet way off and not even close @ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GtrGeorge! Posted December 21, 2012 Members Share Posted December 21, 2012 One can get lost in all this... to me, the whole thing is simple....do you really want to promote_________? Its you're call. And ememeber you get what you call out to. GtrGeorge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigboy78 Posted December 21, 2012 Members Share Posted December 21, 2012 Originally Posted by mockchoi And that's because it makes me feel something. I think that song is supposed to kind of...make you feel bad. I almost think it's 100% appropriate to have played it after this horrible thing has happened. I always thought the song was like a fake smile. It sounds like a happy song, but it is really a bit of a dirge. Its a thinking song with a dance beat. So yeah play it. Everyone sitting in a bar enjoying themselves can take 5 minutes to think unhappy thoughts. Not playing the song doesn't mean bad stuff didn't happen. I always got the vibe that the song was about exactly that, bad stuff happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted December 21, 2012 Members Share Posted December 21, 2012 Originally Posted by mrcpro Women do, men much less so, and musicians hardly at all. I know many musicians (including myself sometimes) who will memorize songs line for line, and still not have a clue as to what they are singing about. Hahaha - this is AWESOME and was my immediate same reaction to the question from Jeff. Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pickinatit Posted December 21, 2012 Members Share Posted December 21, 2012 Originally Posted by mockchoi There's a thing that people do that I really don't understand. Not saying it's wrong or anything, just that I don't share it; and that's that any mention of a thing...they take as an endorsement of the thing, or a glorification of the thing. They're usually they same people that don't appreciate satire or allegory.I kinda like that song. I don't love it, but I kinda like it. And that's because it makes me feel something. I think that song is supposed to kind of...make you feel bad. I almost think it's 100% appropriate to have played it after this horrible thing has happened. Why would you want to make a happy, dancing crowd feel bad? I don't disagree that if the venue/situation was one where reflection and introspection...that sort of thing was the goal...then yeah, now would be a very appropriate time to play that song but your avg. Friday/Saturday night dancing, partying crowd probably prefers to forget about what happened for an evening until they get home and turn the news back on. Just my $ .02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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