When you are at a concert, would you rather hear the songs...
 

When you are at a concert, would you rather hear the songs performed just like the record, or would you prefer that the artist change it a little?

So long as still sounds like the song, I am all for it.

As a timely example, this past Saturday Swedish group Loney, Dear played in Cleveland at the Grog Shop. They took the song "The City, The Airport" and, according to them, "Johnny Cash-ed" the song. Essentially, they added a more profound guitar track, with a bit of twang for good measure.

On the whole, it was an amazingly well done song. Almost, if I may be so bold, better than the original.

I just want a good sounding, high energy performance. Doesn't matter whether its spot on to the record, or mixed up a bit.

I don't want it to sound just like the record, I also don't want it to sound like crap.

I'm all for different arrangements as long as they do not drag the song out. I can't stand long song wanking, solos, and that kind of crap.

I absolutely DESPISE when the singer has the crowd sing along, while he smiles and nods his head. I didn't pay to hear the CROWD sing.

I guess it depends. I've seen both ways done really well (& poorly for that matter).

As for the singing along that zombiezilla mentioned I think that too goes both ways. I think during certain parts of songs having the crowd sing goes over really well while others, not so much. That being said if the whole crowd is singing along with the band (see The Arcade Fire) it can be pretty magical.

For the most part I'm with you... but in some cases it is pretty cool. Hearing 30,000 people sing the chorus to Piano Man acapella is truly amazing. So it depends on the song.

as long as the song isn't fucked up, i could care less. they wrote it, they can play it however they want. best example: tv on the radio.

I like the way Dio adds parts to songs, like the added middle sections in "Heaven and Hell," and on the current tour, "Lady Evil," (or was it "Voodoo?"). (Either way the new middle section was really good!)

I want them to sound good. That's really all I care about.

If I want to hear the album, I can stay home and listen to it. When I'm at a live show, i like to see musicians stretch out a bit and have some fun with the material. When I saw Gil Scott-Heron in the late 90's, they turned every song into an extended jam, and the show culminated in the 10+ minute celebration of life that was The Bottle. Lewis Taylor's live renditions of Shame quote Mahavishnu orchestra and Edgar Winter's Frankenstein. As long as the original structure/melody is somewhat adhered to, and it's somewhat recognizable at the beginning and end, I'm happy. If musicians didn't play with the material live, we'd never have the sublime Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Hot 'Lanta or Whipping Post from the Allmans Live at the Fillmore album.

I prefer the songs to be different, but not too different. As long as it sounds good, I don't care too much.

I prefer the artists to not only change things up a little, but also to not play the ultra-popular songs. I like to hear shit I never get to hear live.

I was just thinking I hate when they do that with Piano Man more than any other song. I want to hear Billy sing it!

I don't mind the sing alongs for metal bands. It just sounds cool when they sing along w/Maiden or whoever. It adds a little to feel of it. I also like some of the chorus's the crowds do at Maiden shows along to the instrumental sections of their songs. It sounds very spontaineous (sp?).

I liked when Faith No More used to add samples of other songs to their songs (such as The Right Stuff into We Care A Lot).

The Clash mixed up some of their songs too. There is not nearly enough Clash Live stuff released.

Depends. If it's songs from the 80's or early 90's a good rearrangement does wonders for a song, hell even a song which normally I wouldn't like might benifit from a different arrangement. Madonna and Kylie Minogue are good examples of this.

This is something I got in trouble for with people I know not long ago. We all went to go see The Decemberists and everyone acted like it was such a great show and all but I was overwhelmingly disappointed. It was a bunch of their pirate rock which I don't really care for and it was played so generically. Colin Meloy might as well walked up with a CD player and put an album in. When I go to a show I want to see some excitement and new things done. At the end they livened up a bit but it was too late by then. Anyhow when they did it was some song I didn't really like.

I didn't really care for My Brightest Diamond's album but she opened for Decemberists and actually has stage presence and works the stage and the music has some life to it live which made me want to see her play for longer.

same songs, but more raw and energetic so I can tell that it's live.

If I want the exact same thing as the album, I'll stay home and listen to the album!

Depends on the band. I saw Melt Banana recently, and they played every song exactly as it is on the album. However, that resulted in some of the craziest, tightest and hectic playing I have ever seen on a stage. I wouldn't want to see them to rearrange those songs.

On the other hand, I love the little touches and new arrangements David Bowie does to his songs live. So it all depends on the artist.

The Jack from AC/DC is the worst. "She's got the Jack" with crowd participation for 15 minutes is brutal.

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I generally don't like it either - it comes across as a bit corny, like when the lead singer breaks the audience into different parts to sing a song (oh brother)..

however...

when the crowd breaks into a frenzy and sings the songs without prompt, then the concert becomes a mass communal experience this applies to two great concerts I've been to:

- Stereophonics (Morfa, Wales)

- Manic Street Preachers (V Festival)
"tsunami, tsunami, came washing ooooooooo...ooooooh..ver me"

It depends on the artist. Back when Badly Drawn Boy was at his peak (IMHO) in 2000, I saw him live and he played three versions of the same song ("Fall in a River"): one was the album version, one was acoustic, one was an almost completely instrumental song that was very tense and loud. Three different experiences. All great.

I saw Andrew Bird recently and the songs he played from The Mysterious Production of Eggs sounded a lot fuller and richer: the cello(?) was downright ominous. I wish the album sounded like that now.

On the other hand, Beck developed a new singing style (a bit whiney) since his 1998 album Mutations. Even now when he plays songs pre-dating that change, he uses his new, crappy voice. :down:

I saw Tender Forever on Saturday and it was one of the most manic shows I've seen from an opening act. When I bought the album it just wasn't the same.

my second time seeing him was completely lacklustre (haven't seen him again in concert).

at nearly three hours in length, he came across as pretentious, repetitive(ahem) a tad boring, a bit full of himself. The crowd thought also, after 90min the crowd began leaving in droves... he actually got upset by this and inquired "why all the leaving?", a very audible retort was 'last subway home, dude!'

seeing him in a 50min Festival performance at Reading prior - was great.

I actually knew that coming in. A friend of mine had finals one or two days after and I made her promise we'd stay for the entire set. He did end up playing almost three hours. He did a lot of songs twice, did a lot of storytelling, etc. It would've been nicer to have this at a theatre with seats, but I didn't mind it.

Would I go to a concert of his again? No, probably not. But it was fun when I saw him.

I imagine VH1 tapings of Storytellers probably run a bit longer than the actual airtime. This was BDB's version of that.

That's actually how I imagine Bright Eyes's concerts as well, although I've never been.

Depends on the artist. Some artists are genuine musicians and know how to deliver a great live performance. They should do their thing wherever it takes them. If that means a 20-minute jam version of a 3-minute single, great. Other artists are the product of good production that maximizes their talents. They should just stick to the script. The one thing you don't want to them to do is butcher a good song just to have a "live" version.

das