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What's with the Nickelback requests?

My old band did a couple of Nicklehack "songs" when they were popular. They were easy and you only really had to learn one. Count me in as a Nicklehack hater. We used to refer to them as a boy band with guitars. In my opinion, it's a shame that very talented people starve while hacks seem to make it big. I'm an adult, I get it, that's pop music.
 
I never heard anyone hate Nickelback until I came on TB. I still don't understand it other than the herd mentality; monkey see, monkey do. They are no more derivative and generic than lots of other bands who are nowhere near as popular. YMMV.

Never knew anybody really listened to them much less cover their songs until I joined TB.

Understood. Only you know if playing a quick song for the above described 45 yr old drunk lady will help or hurt your overall performance. In a perfect world, you can play exactly what you want to a full room of people who love everything you do.

That's Athens! You can play what you want to rooms full of people who love it all night long. You also don't play covers. Actually cover bands don't hardly ever get gigs here.
 
It's not a different old woman every night, actually, that's the legendary Request Fairy. If you play her request, she endows you with a personality that is kind, just, and immensely well liked and popular. Shame you missed your opportunity. I knew a talented, up and coming guy back in the 60's who refused to play Gloria one night, and she cursed him with an obnoxious and arrogant personality. He's a poor, unloved carrot farmer now.

Tom
 
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What's being 45+ got to do with it? It's the alcohol, not the age, that's the problem. Once had a very drunk 20-something woman ask if my 50-something classic rock cover band did any hip-hop. Trust me, no one that wasn't very drunk would have looked at my band and thought we did that. "Oh yeah, you should see my Kanye impression; I can't sing either." :roflmao:
 
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Their "popularity" is not shrinking.
My youngest daughter(early 20's) had the latest Nickelback CD on her mp3 player(aka phone) when she was here last week on break from college. They're not my favorite BUT some of the 5 string stuff is fun to fool around with AND if it would get a dance floor full of women with "our crowd" we'd do it.
 
This all sounds a lot like how people spoke about the Beatles and The Doors....

If someone comes up to request a song and you know it, you play it. If you don't know it, you learn it for next time.(if that even happens)

And people wonder what happened to live music, and why dj's took over....
I don't know why we need to feel so entitled. Playing live music IS a service industry. (Here I speak of the gigging, cover bands)
 
This all sounds a lot like how people spoke about the Beatles and The Doors....

If someone comes up to request a song and you know it, you play it. If you don't know it, you learn it for next time.(if that even happens)

And people wonder what happened to live music, and why dj's took over....
I've been in bands where they wouldn't play tunes they knew just because they didn't like them - even if they were requested. Sorry, but if you are in a cover band, there is just no excuse for that.
 
Ok, my .02 worth...

What *IF* that old lady was the owner's (the guy who pays your paycheck) wife/GF? What *IF* she complains that you blew her off. It seems to me that you are forgetting who pays you. Hint: it's the Patrons. Regardless of who she may be, she's buying the alcohol. Making the bar money. *IF* she chooses NOT to come back to the bar while your band is playing, the bar will lose that revenue. *IF* the bar loses money, you won't be hired back.

I know it's a lot of *IF'S* but, hey, that's reality. Please the patrons, bar makes money, keep your job. Just MHO.
 

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