What is a band or artist that you enjoy listening to but hate playing?

I once joined a cover band whose repertoire at the time was dominated with tunes by The Doors, including some of those so-called "deep cuts" which are generally a big no-no if there's an actual audience involved. The band had a keyboard player who was very talented, but nowhere near as talented as Ray Manzarek was. So, that put me into a role that I soon began to despise. I didn't mind playing tunes that had been recorded with folks like Larry Knechtel, Doug Lubahn and Jerry Scheff, but being forced to replicate some of the highly-repetitive Rhodes Piano Bass parts on other tunes really began to grate on my nerves.

I've been in lots of other cover bands over the years, and noticed a noticed a similar trend. I, too, would get strange looks when I voiced concern about setlists being dominated by any one particular artist/band, even ones that I like. "Do we absolutely have to play six Grateful Dead songs? We're not a Dead tribute band." "It seems like every third song we do is a Beatles number. We're not a Beatles tribute band." It only affirmed my hypothesis that most bands really aren't true democracies.

These days, I'm a hired gun, so I'll play whatever I'm paid to play, and simply grin and bear it.

 

Honestly, anything metal (Static X, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Slayer, etc).

Use to go to a ton of metal shows and I enjoy listening to the music but don't like playing it. I think it more stems from the fact that I can't play nearly as fast and with precision like the metal guys do and I have a hard time hearing the bass in the mix.

 

For me, these are all the bass lines that 'serve the song', as we shyly say. I love to listen to the songs in question and I admire the bassists who play on these songs, but it's very difficult for me to maintain my interest long enough without ending up bored to death when I play them.

 

To be honest I find just as often the opposite can be true. There are quite a few songs by artists I love which are not my favourite of their songs to listen to but have a pleasing flow to the chords which make them enjoyable to play. Mr Tambourine Man wouldn’t get in my top 40 Dylan songs to hear but the sequence is very nice to bang out on a guitar. The same is true for George Harrison’s I’d Have You Any Time, the Band’s Stage Fright, plenty of others.

I get the OP’s point though, if I never play Hey Joe again I’ll be a happy bassist!

 

There's nothing that I really *hate* playing. Some genres are beyond my skillset (jazz, some metal, classical, bluegrass), some genres just don't interest me (folk/singer/songwriter). I have pretty broad listening and playing tastes. Actually, my listening preferences and playing preferences overlap nicely, skillset notwithstanding.

I used to be one of those Disco Sucks guys in the '80s and vehemently disliked anything that was synth-oriented. But that's all stuff I can listen to and enjoy and jam on from time to time these days.

 

Can’t seem to edit my post but I meant It Makes No Difference, not Stage Fright. D’oh!