It's happening again

[pbradt]

A few of you who get it, know that in bands I do, I try to stay away from the idea that the audience gets to dictate your repertoire.

We have maybe a half-dozen songs that could be defined as "Popular" songs.

All the rest are good songs, but they never broke the top 200.

Yet we go play them, folks like them and we get asked back.

Maybe we're the exception that proves the rule, but I think people who think "we have to be a human jukebox" are lazy and don't want to learn new things.

Playing a lot of Delbert don't hurt but the truth is, not very many people know his material well at all.

[curtisstetka]

People don't know what they like but they like what they know.

I know what you're saying, Pete, and it is frustrating as hell. But, that's just the way most people are. They make the determination that they like a song only after it's been drilled into their head and somebody else tells them that it's good.

People are at ease with the familiar. You play something new and different and they're forced to try to make decisions?!?! No thank you. We came here to drink. Play Zepplin, man! Ugh.

I cannot stand to listen to classic rock formatted radio stations. My car is tuned to this local college station. I have rarely heard the same song twice. One hour it's metal, the next it's polka, followed by blues. I think I'll kill if I hear Freebird again.

[pbradt]

Curtis, I've found if you "seed the clouds" with a few things the audience knows, you can take them where you want them to go. And once you get them there, they usually ask "why don't I ever hear this stuff on the radio/played by others/etc?"

I always answer "well you can come see US play it, what more do you need?"

And they come.

[grito]

Yeah, you have to throw in stuff an audience knows. Most of the stuff we threw in where forgotten favs we learned. People get a sparkle in their eye and groove along. Maybe it's easier being in a dance band, well, formally in a dance band...

[Annie D.]

I introduce all the tunes as Goo-Goo Doll or Nelly Furtado tunes.

They never knew what hit 'em.

[Kap'n]

Yeah, you have to throw in stuff an audience knows.

Yep. We try to play the stuff that folks know but either:

haven't heard it in a while

relatively new, but haven't heard bands cover it.

"haven't heard bands cover it" is easy in my neck of the woods. Avoid Mustang Sally, Heard it in a Love Song, Brown Eyed Girl, and The Joker, and they've never heard it before.

[bonefish]

our old drummer was forever trying to pander to the audience, and our bass player was trying to recently, but i think i've got him talked out of it. sure, people love to hear the same crap over and over, and if it's a fun song i don't mind playing it. but, and i may come off a bit elitist here, i believe a band should play to their streangths, do the best job at what they know, and if the audience gets it, however obscure, then you've done your job. then again, i've always tried to avoid the "bar band" trap. we've always played original tunes, and always add more to the list whenever we write a new one. i figure it this way-there's a hundred better cover bands out there, and twice that many shit hot guitarist, so we have to use every edge we can find to stand out from the crowd, and we are aware enough of our limitations to realize that musical virtuosity will never be our stock in trade. so we make up for it in original tunes, unique arrangements and attitude attitude attitude.

[fezz parka]

I introduce all the tunes as Goo-Goo Doll or Nelly Furtado tunes.

That makes me soooo happy!:yay

I've been doing this for years....:hee

[Annie D.]

Dear Fezz: *smooch*

um, er, Pete: you are soooooo wrong in this approach. The exchange of energy between the players and the audience is where that "high" comes in...maybe not the tunes they request, per se, but similar pulses on similar planes is what it's all about, amigo.

Take "Proud Mary" to new and interesting highs every third set and play the shit outta the place with things you love and make them beg for more.

but whadda aye no? ( oh yeah, I learned a thing or two over the years)

[FenderBoy]

There are a large number of audiences out there that listen to nothing but new and original music or music who's genre they like but who's tunes they're unfamiliar with....and not always from famous performers.

It COMPLETELY depends on how good and entertaining you are and most importantly what audience YOU choose.