Can you play some skeenyrd please?

[Blue4RC]

I've recently taken a hiatus from gigging mainly due to a bad case of bar-band-burnout. For the past couple of years I've just been doing pickup gigs for different cover bands and I've come to the conclusion that I did not work my ass off for years to have to play "play that funky music white boy" (insert gimme 3 steps, brick house or any of the million other donetodeath covers).

 

It's got me thinking do we musicians and club owners dumbdown the patrons way to much? Do they really want to hear another band do yet another version of Celebration or Mustang Sally? I know most are usually drunk and don't care if it's a band or jukebox playing, but damn! Most of these bands setlists are almost identical. This just sucks the life right out of it for me.

 

I did do a stint recently with a band that was doing mostly originals + some covers and that was a blast. By far the best musicians I've ever played with and the covers they did do were not the run of the mill selections (If there's a hell below-Mayfield, HYPERBOLICSYLLABICSESQUEDALYMISTIC-Issac Hayes etc..). But we did have issues getting gigs so now the singer is playin disco and the drummer is in a 80's hair band trib .

 

Maybe it's just the city I live in. In my town you play originals and make zip or play KC and the Sunshine Band and have to turn down gigs because you have so many offers. Just curious to what it's like in your town?

[coyote]

Welcome to the world of the 'pro' musician!

 

I played drums on that scene for almost a decade. Between the weddings and the clubs and bars and parties, I got to work with a slew of excellent players. Yet most gigs contain mostly the same stuff, and it gets boring and annoying....

 

I stopped working that scene after awhile, and got into the 'real' work world. If I'm gonna be annoyed, let me be annoyed by something I don't love, you know?

[Blue4RC]

That's exactly where I'm at. I got to the point where I'd rather stay home and play for myself then play shit I can't stand for a bunch of drunks. It's just not very rewarding when some guy walks up to you at the end of the set and says "man, you guys rock" then proceeds to vomit on his shoes!

[tarkus]

I'm with you.

 

I think I've seen it all on the bottom of the barrel tour. Jerry Springer ain't got nothing on some of the gigs I've done!

 

My current band does a lot of Led. The highpoint of my night is Kashmir. They let me have a little room on that. I try to learn the stuff close to the original and then I'll let all hell break loose.

 

Don't taunt the drunks! I've used an x-lock in self-defense before. I've found that the less you pause between songs, the less room you give the dopes to act up. One band I was in would do a solid 90 minute set (minimal pauses) of pretty diverse stuff, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, do-wop, Dylan, Hendrix, Phish, SRV etc. That band was succesful because everytime we were approached by a drunk, we would quickly go into another song and not give the guy a chance to "poop" on us.

 

During breaks, if we were in a hostile bar, we would pretend to work on equipment problems. Surprisingly if a drunk saw you with a 'spaghetti' of wires and a pen-light, they left you alone.

 

Frank Zappa was the master of crowd control. Imagine the lumps he took for his music!

[MurMan]

Originally posted by tarkus:

Frank Zappa was the master of crowd control. Imagine the lumps he took for his music!

Hmmmm .... Could explain the orgin of "Weasels Ripped My Flesh." No offense, Jeff.

[Gruv]

I know that there are a lot of open minded, experimental folks out there that would give new, original material a chance but the sad fact is that most people like what they are familiar with and it is hard to break them out of the mold. They wanna hear the good ol' sing-along songs.

 

I am quite sickened by the requests I get at work (as a DJ). This is why I picked up playing keyboard and started making my own music. You guys in bands have the blessed flexibility of creating your own versions and variations of the same old songs (falsetto, improvised time signatures, different tempo, whatever).

 

I say make the best of it and mock the bastards.

 

V.

[resigned]

Well, despite the number of forward-thinking people here there are a heck of a lot of musos out there that play the SOS (same old sh*t) because that's the only thing they think they can make a living with. It's not that they don't want to play something different - they just want to play it safe.

 

I broke out of the mold some years ago and went to the so-called "smooth jazz" (and don't knock it if you haven't tried it). Some call it dinner music or elevator music or happy-shopper music... I call it liberation. Basically I now play a mix of recognizable pop/jazz instrumental standards using my own contemporary jazz arrangements. I play everything from Elvis to Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael to Sade, Cole Porter to Sting, all with my own sound.

 

This gives me the freedom and creative outlet that originals would give me without cutting off my income. Because my music is different from the guy next door, the requests I get are different too (no requests for Jimmy Buffett!). And with albums like Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook albums in vogue, my music is working with a wide diversity of audiences.

 

I don't play "bars" per se but go for restaurants and upscale parties/weddings/receptions. I gave up singing, not only because I'm a better keyboardist than vocalist but because I wanted to present low-volume, high quality music that the audience could easily talk over. It has worked very well - restaurant owners love it and so do their clients. It's a great alternative to the singing guitarists doing "Brown Eyed Girl" for the millionth time. And as a keyboardist it has also helped my chops tremendously.

 

It helps that I live in an upscale region where there are plenty of places to play... but I also have a lot of competition, and the move to smooth jazz has helped me offer a pleasing alternative to the SOS that often passes for entertainment. It was best summed up one evening by a girl at a table near the stage who waited for a quiet moment to say to me, "you're different...". What better compliment is there in a world of clones?

[Blue4RC]

That's great! You've been able to keep a creative outlet and keep the gigs rolling in...and do it solo.

 

BTW: I'm not knocking anyone who's doing the bar band/covers thing. That would make me the biggest hypocrite here. I've done it for years. Just had enough of it myself. If I had to depend on gigs for my income I'd probably be playing the SOS and be glad I had the gig....but I'd rather hate my 9-5 and still love playing music then hate my job playing music.

[tarkus]

The Pro, not to threadjack, but I remember being at a restaurant outside of Philadelphia - The Adams Mark or The Marker, whatever. On Sunday afternoons they would have a pianist play "lite" music for 'digestive purposes'. Oddly enough, this man's reportoire was entirely composed of Prog (gasp- pass the brunello). On two or more occassions I ate at this place with an old girlfriend and her family. I was the only guy at the table that realized this man was playing King Crimson 'Fracture' of all things on solo-piano. The food was half bad and over-priced, but to hear someone play Trilogy by ELP and Follow it with Guinivere by Wakeman was exceptional. I came to the conclusion that you can get away with pretty much anything as long as it was musical and entertaining, at least in this particular setting.

If anyone knows who this guy was or is, I need him for my wedding.

I'll be hitting the bar-circuit again in the next month on the Jersey shore. It's fun, but I'll be busting my knuckles on some of the roads less travelled - "can you play Skeenard" - yes but you'll have to suffer through Jeff Beck, King Crimson and other rearrangements. Next time you play "Sweet Home" bridge it into Hoedown or Billy the Kid. Your audience will be surprised.

[resigned]

BTW: I don't use it very much because noone asks me for Skynryd anymore (thankfully), but just in case I developed a cool reggae instrumental version of "Freebird" for special occasions. Where the song goes into a fast part towards the end, I gave it a Santana/Latin feel like the latter part of Black Magic Woman. If your gonna do Skynyrd there's no law that says you gotta do it LIKE Skynyrd...

[PianoJazz1951]

...actually, my last band work was with some dudes who played bluegrass for 2-hours at a VFW

in Appalachia, then got out their electric guitars, basses, and drums and brought me (keyboards) in for a few hours of 50's and 60's rock.

The best thing was-we didn't take ourselves seriously. We'd all gone through that-and just wanted to have some fun. We had mininmal equipment, practiced occasionally and got along well. If someone wanted us to play some "Skynrd" or "Creedence", if we could (or wanted to), we would-or we'd just tell them it was "too hard"...