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Requests.

J

Jeb

Jul 22, 2001
1,052
365
#1
If you can do it, do you do it right away? If you can't do it, do something else by the same artist that you can do?

Sometimes you just can't do it, like in a country venue and someone requests "Pantera," I've honestly no clue as to any of their songs, I just know it doesn't fit the venue.

The thing that makes me cringe is when someone makes a request for a song that we may have already played and then we do it again. Is that acceptable?
 
#2
As a rule, we don't usually take requests for cover tunes. Our set lists are about 70 percent originals and our goal is to make it 100 percent. It's a decision that has been made by every member of the band, past and present. BUT, every so often, someone will request a tune that make us look at each other and say " What the heck, why not? ". Sometimes it turns out to be something that none of us has ever played before. Those are usually moments to remember!
 
#4
We tell the crowd just send up request on the back of a $20 bill and we will move them to the top of the list, we get 1 out of a hundred everynow and then, when it comes to begging for money on stage, WERE MUSICAL PROSTITUTES. we have been togather for 23 years with the same members and have well over 1000 songs
 
#6
Folmeister said:
In my cover bands, if it is requested and we know it, we do it right away. We are there for the patrons' entertainment.
Click to expand...

Same here. Often it's all the stuff we grew up listening to that inspired us to become musicians, right? Lyrics...well if someone knows them or can get us through 2 verses, good enough. If it makes them happy and they could see you tried hard to please them, it goes a long way.
 
#8
With the cover band, if it's early on in the night and we know the tune, we'll do it right away or close to.

If it's towards the end of the night even if we don't know it we'll usually take a stab at it because whoever requested it was probably horribly drunk and won't know the difference.

With the original band, we usually don't take requests, but have played a request cover tune occasionally at the end of a set if we have time left.
 
#9
In the jazz group, if it's in our book, we'll play it right way, possibly even if we haven't all learned it yet. depends on how tough the chart is. We wouldn't play it twice in a night, unless the crowd's turned over substantially.

In my duo, a request would by default mean one of my originals. I'll do it again, but in some completely different style, typically. Last week I was playing a one-off dinner blues gig with someone, and got a request for my one and only hair metal song. I did a jazz version, worked fine. :cool:

When I was in cover bands, we'd try to fit requests into the flow of the set, but get it done reasonably quickly.
 
#12
In my current cover band we are rarely able to do requests. The guitarist and keyboardist are both anal and it's very hard to get them to do a song in front of people unless they absolutely know it. We had someone request "Knockin on Heaven's Door" the other day and they wouldn't do it.

But my personal opinion is to try the request if at least one member of the band (not counting the drummer) knows it . I think people will respect you more. However, if the song is something complex like Bohemian Rhapsody, then don't even try it.

At one gig several years ago, we finished our 4 sets and were breaking down. The really drunk guy walked up to the stage and the follow conversation ensued:

Drunk: "do you do any Jimmy Buffet?"
Drummer: "yeah, we do all his songs".
Drunk: "All right man! Can you play margaritaville?"
Drummer: "We're taking a break right now. But, we'll play that one and a whole bunch more in about 30 minutes. "
Drunk: "All right man!"

The drunk sat down in chair in front of the stage and waited. We packed our gear and left, he was still sitting there waiting.
 
#15
"Sometimes you just can't do it, like in a country venue and someone requests "Pantera," I've honestly no clue as to any of their songs, I just know it doesn't fit the venue."

Sure it does, Just play "Cowboys from Hell" and bust into "walk" for a double shot. Couldn't you just imagine the look on those country yokels faces when you hit that openeing riff from "Cowboys", LOL ! Hope they've got chicken wire. :smug:
 
#16
I play in a cover band.

If someone requests a tune that we know at least reasonably well, we'll usually play it within the next 5 or 6 songs.

I don't think it's critical to play it immediately - just fairly soon.

One word of caution. Please read on!

I have played in a band for the past 8 years with some great people - but as musicians they have somewhat limited ability (but they're steadily improving!). By comparison, I'm certainly no Jaco or Elvis, but I've learned, in detail, the bass lines and lead vocals to numerous popular songs.

Sometimes when we get a request I'll get excited and immediately take off playing and singing. Realizing that the other members have no clue what to play or how to fake it(they're usually simply staring at me), I'll often quit after about 30 seconds.

It has already happened that I/we have inadvertently ticked off patrons because of this. They ask us, "Why did you quit playing the song we requested? You knew it so why did you quit?"

Explaining doesn't always help.

So be wary about this.
 
#19
CJK84 said:
I play in a cover band.

If someone requests a tune that we know at least reasonably well, we'll usually play it within the next 5 or 6 songs.

I don't think it's critical to play it immediately - just fairly soon.

One word of caution. Please read on!

I have played in a band for the past 8 years with some great people - but as musicians they have somewhat limited ability (but they're steadily improving!). By comparison, I'm certainly no Jaco or Elvis, but I've learned, in detail, the bass lines and lead vocals to numerous popular songs.

Sometimes when we get a request I'll get excited and immediately take off playing and singing. Realizing that the other members have no clue what to play or how to fake it(they're usually simply staring at me), I'll often quit after about 30 seconds.

It has already happened that I/we have inadvertently ticked off patrons because of this. They ask us, "Why did you quit playing the song we requested? You knew it so why did you quit?"

Explaining doesn't always help.

So be wary about this.
Click to expand...
I think it also helps to be able to tell whether the request is serious, facetious, or just some ******* heckling you. Most of the time, anyone yelling "Freebird" or "Play some Skynyrd" has to be joking.

One night when I was deejaying several years ago some yahoo's sent up a written request for an Elvis Presley song. I couldn't fulfull that request, so a note gets sent back up to me accusing me of being a communist. (What?) That pissed me off a little, so I took my pen and drew a swastika across it and sent the note back. The note was returned with a request to "see me outside after the show". I responded back with "I already have a date." That shut him up.
 
#20
Folmeister said:
In my cover bands, if it is requested and we know it, we do it right away. We are there for the patrons' entertainment.
Click to expand...
Agreed. And if we don't know it, but think we may be able to have a decent guess at it, we will. The crowd often appreciates the effort and will overlook the looseness if it's percieved you're being good guys and trying to please.

However, we draw the live with "agressive requesters". If you're not polite about it, you don't get your song played. End of story. If you insist on making a request mid song while I'm busy trying to remember bass lines, chord changes, arrangements and harmony lines all at once, you can also forget it. Oh and if we don't know it, requesting the song with ever increasing volume isn't going to magically make the lyrics appear in the singers mouth, or make the notes magically appear at our fingertips.... and you will be told so. As a general rule we "match" their rudeness level when putting rude people in their place. Always remember, you have a mic, they don't ;)
 

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