Add new material 5 hours before load-in?

[Evets1987]

I’d probably go for it and play the songs. That’s just me. I’ll never forget one of my first house gigs the band leader calling out songs on stage I never learned. He gave us the key before at least. It went fine 99% of the time.

 

[40Hz]

All it takes is a drummer who thinks it's in 4/4!

Bingo! Full points.

That was indeed what their problem was. Although the band was actually trying to do it in 6/8.

“Close …so very close” as my SO Alexis is wont to say in situations such as those.

 

[40Hz]

It's in alternating 4/4, 3/4

That’s one way to think of it. But it’s actually in 7/4, which has a different feel from an alternating 3/4-4/4.

Alternating 3/4 and 4/4 slices the time into one measure of 3 equal parts represented by the quarter note, followed by one measure of 4 equal parts represented by the same quarter note. That’s different than 7/4 where each beat in the measure gets an even seventh part of the measure.

It’s a subtle thing. But it’s necessary in order to get the phrasing correct for Solsbury Hill.

 

[BrotherMister]

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been on stage and someone’s started a song I didn’t even know existed. I’ve also had to listen to a song a few minutes before the set started to learn it.

My advice? Get to work on those ears!

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I love my band. Our singer is a very cool and talented guy. But sometimes I just gotta LOL.

He sends a text to us about 30 minutes ago that he has "2 or 3" country fans coming tonight so we should play 2 songs that I've honestly never heard before.

Learning songs on the fly (literally onstage) is a skill unto itself. Been doing it for years and it's something you can get good at. As long as it's not like Yes, Rush or King Crimson, it's totally doable.

 

[btmpancake]

Again...Just turn your volume output knobs to zero and act like you're killing it. For a couple of songs- you can fake it but you must give him a piece of our minds that it's not cool.

 

[mwbassace]

So what country songs are being requested....

Cause "Body Like a Back Road" & "Life is a Highway" ain't country!

 

[Bass Viking]

I have a hunch that many of the people who drop songs on you unexpectedly would balk at being asked to do the same.

 

[Bass Viking]

structurally the LF tune wasn't all that complicated, but there were enough nuances in there that I just didn't want any part of it as a last minute addition at what was basically 5 hours before lift off.

I don’t know which song it is but in general Little Feat ain’t exactly low hanging fruit!

 

[Bass Viking]

I once heard a band train wreck on Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill. Which is just one chord for about 95% of it. Something like that takes a certain gift to accomplish.

Bad example, there are plenty of ways to screw that one up. How about getting the chords wrong in Tennessee Whisky? Now that takes real skill!

 

[Baloo Pasquariello]

That’s one way to think of it. But it’s actually in 7/4, which has a different feel from an alternating 3/4-4/4.

Alternating 3/4 and 4/4 slices the time into one measure of 3 equal parts represented by the quarter note, followed by one measure of 4 equal parts represented by the same quarter note. That’s different than 7/4 where each beat in the measure gets an even seventh part of the measure.

It’s a subtle thing. But it’s necessary in order to get the phrasing correct for Solsbury Hill.

I was simply kidding.

 

[40Hz]

Bad example, there are plenty of ways to screw that one up. How about getting the chords wrong in Tennessee Whisky? Now that takes real skill!

They purported to be a progrock band. Which means you get zero excuses or forgiveness when you screw up AFAIC.

And in all seriousness, despite it being much maligned and joked about, hardly any band out there can play Mustang Sally correctly despite being so above it all. If done right ‘ol Sally is a whole ‘nother song. Pretty cool one too.

Any song deserves some respect. Because everything is easy…to play badly.

 

[Plectrum72]

Far too many in this thread focused on whether or not the OP should be capable of doing a couple songs he's never heard with little notice. Not enough focused on the inconsiderate behavior of the singer.

 

[Ric5]

(2891) The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time - YouTube

 

[74hc]

With the repetitiveness nature of our worship songs, it's mostly easy to add a song an hour out with a chord chart. Somebody on the Internet once described our OCP book of songs as "happy, clappy crap".

 

[friskinator]

The singer in my trio used to do this. I’d get a text mid-afternoon on gig day saying he wanted to do X song. I’d always ignore it, and the song would never be mentioned at the gig. I don’t think he learned them either - the idea popped into his ADD brain for that moment, then left.

 

[Bass Man Dan]

Again...Just turn your volume output knobs to zero and act like you're killing it. For a couple of songs- you can fake it but you must give him a piece of our minds that it's not cool.

I would never have thought of this, but this is a great idea.

 

[1958Bassman]

I love my band. Our singer is a very cool and talented guy. But sometimes I just gotta LOL.

He sends a text to us about 30 minutes ago that he has "2 or 3" country fans coming tonight so we should play 2 songs that I've honestly never heard before.

I would have said something like "Can't this wait until just before we go on?" or "Try leaning something new that requires moving parts of your body and finding the right notes, not just making noises into a mic".

They're HIS friends- why do the rest of you need to make them happy? Aside from letting them think that you're part of 'HIS' band.

Remind him of the Charley Watts/Mick Jagger incident where Charley heard about Mick referring to Watts as 'his drummer'.

 

[basslayer]

I don't believe in adding material after the second to last rehearsal.

 

[Bass Viking]

Any song deserves some respect. Because everything is easy…to play badly.

True enough. If someone says something is easy there’s always the possibility they’re doing it wrong.