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A new wedding band trend?

#41
I find it hard to believe that something like this exists. There's a lot of crazy stuff in the world, but I mean, a wedding band? Like an actual professional wedding band doing this? That would be so weird. I'm not someone who likes confrontation, but I would probably go to them in between songs and would ask them what they're thinking they're doing...
Sounds really weird.
 
#42
Fynn said:
I find it hard to believe that something like this exists. There's a lot of crazy stuff in the world, but I mean, a wedding band? Like an actual professional wedding band doing this? That would be so weird. I'm not someone who likes confrontation, but I would probably go to them in between songs and would ask them what they're thinking they're doing...
Sounds really weird.
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I agree. My guess is that their concept was: "The classics... only better!"
(The actual, full album versions of "September", "I Will Survive", "Respect", etc., with live drums and piano "beefing up" the rhythm sections (hardly necessary), and a young hotshot sax player adding his running, non-stop commentary, often drowning out the original, iconic vocals.)
Horrible. Simply horrible.
 
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#47
dougjwray said:
Recently, I attended a wedding reception where the entertainment was live musicians playing along with tracks. I mean the tracks weren't backing tracks, but original hit versions of classics, and the guys (sax, keyboards, drums) were either doubling their counterparts, or, in the case of the sax player, noodling over the top.
I found it incredibly annoying. I mean, if Aretha is singing "Respect", I REALLY don't want to hear a young hipster scribbling his laidback smooth jazz licks over her.
But, just in general, the whole thing sounded messy.
Is this an unfortunate new trend?
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pfschim said:
OP, I've heard this myself. Its odd and I don't care for it either. I also notice that the hired band will often do almost as much DJ stuff (just spinning songs) vs actually playing live. It's likely that its all about getting the gig and the fact that most people at events/venues (weddings, restaurants, wineries etc.) could hardly care less about how the music is delivered, they just want to dance and have fun while hearing music performed in a familiar way. There is a sax player locally who gigs quite a bit. His thing is to play familiar songs from the past with featured sax parts (think Pink Floyd/Money, Foreigner/Urgent, Billy Joel/Just The Way You Are etc etc) while he plays over them ... or just doubles the sax parts. I call it Saxophone Karaoke. He does know how to play pretty well but I really dislike it, but I've heard non-musicians rave about the guy. 🤷‍♂️

Several of my friends around the country who are still full-timers report that brides are perfectly happy with DJ and Karaoke music.

Players gotta do whats needed to get the gig and get paid I guess.
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Omg. I've not come across this.
Sounds disgusting
 
#49
Our semi-traditional Irish Music band does about 3 weddings a year. We're asked to play the stuff in our set but usually we work out with the wedding party music they want added because it's their wedding day.

No problem. Not an unusual request. Many times they want to hear a certain song at a particular time during the event. Depending upon the song, we've admitted up front that the original being played over PA would probably be the best way to do it. Just as often, if a song is in our wheelhouse, we will cover it for them.

We've not been asked, considered, nor have I seen a band w/a backing cover where anyone added their own parts on top. It's not beyond consideration. If someone's hired to do just that, do the gig and grab that cash. It's entertainment, nothing more and the client deserves a good time.
 
#50
I remember a band doing that in the 80s!
With the proliferation of click tracks, it would be easy to add tracks (strings, horns, stuff the four of you can't cover) to thicken the sound, make it sound more like the record. Although I don't care for it, it can be done well. Of course, it also can be done really badly. Sounds like you heard it done badly.
I've seen Gospel artists do this, because the album or video had 12 musicians and huge production, but it's cost prohibitive to tour that way, and with disciplined artists, it's usually not too bad.
 
#51
Message to Wedding Planners: Don't do this. Save money and just hire a DJ because 99.9% of the people attending will either not care one way or another, or find this live "muscian" noodling lame, or down right offensive.
 

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