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ZZTop "playing" live to bass tracks !?!

#90
I was the clam-meister Friday night. Couldn't play a mistake-free song to save my life! Even the one I wrote, I clammed it up! I was stinkin' up the joint like rancid clam gumbo!

Could've used a prerecorded backing track or two!

I did better Saturday night. Maybe just a fried clam entree...
 
#97
It wouldn't surprise me if they were all playing live over recorded tracks that also included their parts. Thanks to all the wigglin' chicks and Madonna, every show now has to be a huge production otherwise they won't sell tickets.

There are exceptions (home grown boy Bruce comes to mind) but many use "tricks" live. Depending on the songs, the Police in the 1980s had the bass tech play on several songs that Sting played the Zeta stand-up bass over. The Rolling Stones actually use a second drummer for Charley Watts. If you watch the live shows you can see them usually hidden somewhere behind the stage or near a big obstacle. My all-time bass god Brian Wilson plays bass on a few songs when he tours, however the bass line is also usually played by the keyboard guys left hand so even if Brian misses no one knows.

Shame. It used to be you went to see a band live to see them play. And you used to get totally different versions live. Now all you get is what is on the recorded version.

Unless of course, you come hear me. I'm live, clammy and don't care...
 
#98
TRichardsbass said:
It wouldn't surprise me if they were all playing live over recorded tracks that also included their parts. Thanks to all the wigglin' chicks and Madonna, every show now has to be a huge production otherwise they won't sell tickets.

There are exceptions (home grown boy Bruce comes to mind) but many use "tricks" live. Depending on the songs, the Police in the 1980s had the bass tech play on several songs that Sting played the Zeta stand-up bass over. The Rolling Stones actually use a second drummer for Charley Watts. If you watch the live shows you can see them usually hidden somewhere behind the stage or near a big obstacle. My all-time bass god Brian Wilson plays bass on a few songs when he tours, however the bass line is also usually played by the keyboard guys.
Shame. It used to be you went to see a band live to see them play. And you used to get totally different versions live. Now all you get is what is on the recorded version.

Unless of course, you come hear me. I'm live, clammy and don't care...
Click to expand...

It's sad but true. Everyone's aging. The Moody Blues have had a supplemental drummer for a while. Old Graham is getting up there.....they're still a great band...

 
#99
Why cheating?

The whole song is not really filled with secrets...even I can play it totally drunk at 3 am and Dusty seems in shape and it's supposed to be earlier.

As it was said on the first page of this conspirancy-thread...Dusty plays high gain and I can not hear any attack while the right hand is off.
 
#100
Another point I don't think has been brought up is that often they film the same band, wearing the same clothes (or not), doing the same set, playing the same guitars (or not) over several shows and then put shots from all the shows over whatever night's track you are hearing.

This causes a lot of sinc problems as you might be seeing the player in the shot for that part of the song from night 1 while actually hearing the recording from night 2.

Van Halen's "Right Here, Right Now" DVD is a great example of this as there are numorous times what their playing is not sincing up exactly with what they visually just played.
What really gives it away is Sammy, unlike the rest of the band, wore different clothes each night so his outfit is changing from camera angle to camera angle during the same song.
 

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