Self Indulgent Moments

[Dave D]

Does your band include certain songs on the set list that they like to play, but not that really popular or well know by the audience?

I find that the guitarists are the main culprits. They learn a new fancy riff, which is, to be honest, very impressive and then insist on including it in the set list.

I admit that some numbers are just good fun to play, if you're a musician, but dull as dishwater if you're in the audience listening to it. And it works the other way round as well. I've played songs before where i've virtually nodded off while playing, but the crowd would scream for more.

Now as the sensible musicians, that we bass players are, i'm sure that we wouldn't allow these self indulgent moments to shape our set lists...........or would we?

Do you have any songs that you perform 'just for you'?

[bigthumb]

No, thankfully! Our two guitarist are great guys with practically no ego, they just do what needs to be done and do it well. The bassist on the other hand is a right prick!

[BottomE]

Nice question. I think the answer is yes. Don't tell anyone though. Its a song called "The Rent" by a lady called Gwen Guthrie. The bass part was originally done on a synth but sounds great on a "proper" bass in a live band situation played dirty. The band give it a lot of dynamics. Its one of those great tunes to play that gelled almost straight away at rehearsal. It goes down pretty well most of the time but its not always appropriate which doesnt stop us playing it.

[Lozz196]

I know what you mean about the dull songs to play, but the crowd love them. I really hated playing Born to be Wild in an old heavy rock band I was in, yet the crowd loved it. Luckily, my current covers band don`t have self-indulgent moments - well we do, but they`re the crowd-pleasers anyway

Edited November 9, 2011 by Lozz196

[icastle]

Not any more

When I joined my band there were a sh*tload of self indulgant tracks, but I soon managed to knock the ego's out of 'em

[Oopsdabassist]

Drummer asked us the other day if we could do a Trapeze song....'You are the Music, we're just the band'.....erm never heard of it..ok Its Glenn Hughes old band, but the song??? When I finally managed to get a copy of it...a bit to funky for this ole blues rock combo methinks.

[Twigman]

[quote name='Dave D' timestamp='1320871948' post='1432682']
Does your band include certain songs on the set list that they like to play, but not that really popular or well know by the audience?


[/quote]

I'll wager you don't know any of the songs in our set.
Our audience probably know a few but our records are quite rare and not many have all of them.

[Fitz666]

[list]
[*]Almost the opposite, we have dropped cover songs whihc we know our audience like but they are just dismally boring to play. Whiskey in Jar is one of them.
[/list]

[Gust0o]

We do a cover of the Black Spiders - Stay Down.

Very straightforward, fast rock song. Totally self-indulgent!

[bassace]

Yes, an interesting question. My 'first call' band is a seven-piece dixie Chicago jazz band. We play all the usual standards, Royal Garden Blues, Dippermouth Blues etc. But we also have a tasty rhythm section, particularly our piano player. He, along with each of the front line guys, gets a feature during the course of the evening. So, just to wind the leader up, we often slot in Killer Joe which has a very nice bass riff. We have also done Waltz for Debby. Surprisingly the audiences love it.

[tonyf]

Bloody loads of them.

In one of my bands, we do "Long Train Running". Never works live, complete indifference from the audience.

"Hard to Handle" too. Works great if you're the Black Crowes. Not so well if you're us. Especially if the guitar player insists on playing it wrong.

I could go on....



T

[steve-bbb]

we recently did a little gig at local pub and just for a change we threw in a bossa version of teenage kicks

went straight over everyones head - like we became the invisible band for 3 minutes - it amused us though

[SteveK]

Self indulgent? You guys talk as if it's a bad thing. We're musicians - we're allowed to be self indulgent.
Some great music results from self indulgence.
IMV we could all do with a bit more self indulgence.

What you're really discussing is popular versus unpopular favourites.

[Dropzone]

We do Last Serenade by Killswitch Engage and Davidian by Machine Head as little treats to ourselves.

We used to do Cars by Fear Factory to keep the singer happy but the guitarist and I used to give each other "the look". You know what I mean"

[pietruszka]

In a band that was put together for the parents of 3 of the band members, we did Hit Me. I thoroughly enjoyed playing that one, the band loved to drive the groove, the sax player would just blow and squeak the solo brilliantly well, and my Dad loved to hear it. He played trombone in the band and was happy to sit that one out just to listen to it. It really was just for us that track, it split the audience in half to, those my parents age who remember it and those too young to have heard of it.


Dan

[crez5150]

The whole set for me is self indulgent!

[essexbasscat]

Bloody Sultans of Swing !

[TheRev]

Loads.... We were once described as 'that band that play obscure pop songs'

'Lilac Wine' (Nina Simone/Jeff Buckley) is the singists' indulgence, 'Shipbuilding' (Robert Wyatt/Elvis Costello) is mine, both can vbe very hit and miss with the audience.

Last night we were working on a jazzed up, D'nB influenced version of Leonard Cohens' 'First we take Manhattan' The original could be described as 'menacing', our version sounded downright disturbing. I can see our usual punters cowering in fear if we trot this one out live.

[flyfisher]

We've tried this a few times but it slowed things down a bit too much.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9-BCix4io[/media]

[Delberthot]

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1320944043' post='1433577']
Yes, an interesting question. My 'first call' band is a seven-piece dixie Chicago jazz band. We play all the usual standards, Royal Garden Blues, Dippermouth Blues etc. But we also have a tasty rhythm section, particularly our piano player. He, along with each of the front line guys, gets a feature during the course of the evening. So, just to wind the leader up, we often slot in Killer Joe which has a very nice bass riff. We have also done Waltz for Debby. Surprisingly the audiences love it.
[/quote]

I played in a Dixie band years ago and we used to do Sweet Home Chicago for our own pleasure.


Actually the entire gig for me is a self indulgent 'what can I play here' fest. I'm always thinking about new ways to play stuff. Doesn't have to be a million miles an hour, just something a bit different. As long as it fits then I'll try it.

[xgsjx]

I think we have a few original songs that are self indulgent for at least one of the band members (me included).
The covers we do on the other hand are not. Things like "Sunshine of you love", "Take me to the river" & "Crazy" are all hardly technical or show offish, but they're good for getting people up.

Thanks to 51m0n, I might open the set with the start of Bach's Cello suite 1 as it's in the same key as the song we're opening with.
Now that is just for self indulgence!