What's funny about this is for me is the hash between "Crowd Pleasers" and "songs you hate to play". I'm sure that we've all run into this and as a result I basically created a second group for this very reason. I'll qualify this with neither of these projects are "working" bands, more or less projects with musicians (friends) some in other bands where we can play music we enjoy with the occasional gig. The main project band over the years has become more into playing eclectic music covers by the Neville bros (Yellow Moon, Fly like an Eagle, etc...), Marvin Gaye (ex. What's going on, ...), and New Orleans style music with some rock mixed in. All great music but not exactly beach party tunes, which is an annual gig we've done for years. As a result I grabbed one of our drummers with a couple singers to do the crowd pleasers the other band "hates" to play - Brown eyed girl, Wild night, Margaritaville, Taking care of business... which really goes over great for this gig.
So I guess my question is who are we playing for? Ourselves or the crowd... For myself I'm not playing the same set 3 nights a week, so it's not apples to apples with a working band. Still, I would think there is a happy medium between crowd pleasers and music that the band really likes to play.
