Okay. I traditionally perform at the engineering talent show each term, usually with friends, but this time it looks like I have to go solo. It'll just be me and my electric guitar, possibly with a friend backing me up on another acoustic or electric, but maybe not – so assume that it'll just be me.
I'm trying to come up with a three-song set. The problem is that I'm currently in my middle-of-term funk (cf. Lalo's thread), and so the set I feel like playing is:
Shade (Silverchair) Lucky (Radiohead) 1979 (The Smashing Pumpkins)
...obviously, this would pretty much be a nonstarter. Shade is an awesome song, and pretty easy to do (though it stretches my voice a bit), but who has actually heard of it? Only people of my vintage, and of those only the ones who still listen to Frogstomp after all this time. I'd like to do Lucky, especially if I can get backup and thus either play the lead part myself or have someone else do it, but again, it's really mellow. 1979 is the best of the bunch, but also requires different tuning than the first two.
So.
Keep in mind that I won't be backed by a band. My past solo endeavours have included stuff like Under the Bridge and Push (by Moist, not by Matchbox Twenty).
I'm open to suggestions. Stuff from the early-to-mid nineties is especially good.
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
Dude man, I remember talking to you about this before one of the last shows and you told me that you didn't much care what the weenies thought about your performance. There's only a small selection of people that you're *really* performing for and I'm pretty sure that they'll know these songs and react with a positive mellow vibe. There's nothing wrong with being a lower key than some of the other acts, heck, it might even be a good thing. Unless your reasons for doing it have changed?
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Think Nirvana and Alice In Chains... lot's of good acoustic stuff there that sounds great with no backup band...
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
You're right, I know my audience – but I think this is too mellow even for my audience. Also, TalEng often consists largely of guys with acoustic guitars playing sappy ballads or sad bastard songs. I've always tried to differentiate myself from them by, well, using distortion. The problem is that right now I sort of feel like one of them, as dirty as it makes me feel to say it
At the very least, I have to close with something upbeat.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
There isn't enough gravel in my voice for Nirvana, but Alice in Chains might work...
And actually, Shade does feature some distortion.
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
Do you need a bass player?
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
Are you offering? It's the evening of March 11th. Posted by eslaine (Member # 5433) on :
Is this thread the precursor to the "Monsters of Hatrack" thread?
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
If you're looking for something upbeat, try the Ramones. You don't get any upbeater than that.
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
If you were local I would offer. However, I tend to be a bit too jazzy for the style of music you are looking to play.
Posted by T. Analog Kid (Member # 381) on :
hmmm... think you might be able to handle Dave Matthews' "Rhyme and Reason"? great song, not very obscure, rocks pretty good, but most of what makes the thing is acoustic guitar and voice...
or take some early Tori Amos and re-do it for guitar and voice? that could be really cool... hearing a testosterone-laden take on something like "Waitress"
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
Well, there's always the blues. Or "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer..."
Posted by T. Analog Kid (Member # 381) on :
or "Grace" by Jeff Buckley... how's your falsetto?
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I think it's awful, but I've never had it reviewed. Lucky was going to be the acid test Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
Oooooh... what about a rendition of The Tea Party's Psychopomp?
...sure, it starts mellow, and it's not quite the same without the keyboard part, but I bet I could adapt it...
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
Ooooh!
I loves to play some blues.
How is it that the simple 12 bar blues structure is the most enticing musical form ever? You can rock for 17 hours in variations of 12 bar blues and your audience will never get bored.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
The 12- bar blues is a singularity. I think the blues is common across all species in the universe.
Posted by T. Analog Kid (Member # 381) on :
Slash, next time you are here in Dallas, I need to take you to see Jim Suhler play...
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Fell on Black Days by Soundgarden?
I Was Wrong by Social D?
What about a NIN song -- something from Downward Spiral?
And I think that Pennroyal Tea by Nirvana could work -- that particular song doesn't really need the 'gravel' imo.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
Oooo, Fell on Black Days... or even Black Hole Sun...
Posted by jehovoid (Member # 2014) on :
You're supposed to drink the bourbon first.
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
I think the lead guitar part from Fell on Black Days would work better than Black Hole Sun as a solo thing. Or maybe it's just that the soft verses/loud chorus thing sounds more like a a solo-type thing to me than the incessant grating vocals of Black Hole Sun [I like the song -- I'm just thinking about one guy standing up on stage performing it].
But I don't play guitar so I really don't know.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Weezer - Say It Ain't So Joey Ramone - What A Wonderful World Sublime - Santeria or What I Got Alkaline Trio - Radio The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly Alice in Chains - Would, Angry Chair, or Down in a Hole Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World
I second Fell On Black Days by Soundgarden. Man, I love that song.
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
Am I the only one that has hated Nirvana from their inception with a deep and abiding dislike? Am I the only one who thinks Cobain was lucky in his timing, and was not anything resembling a musical genius?
That musical style had been perfected by others, and that whole scene was trembling on the edge of breakthrough, when a bunch of hack journalists tagged Cobain as their poster child. I personally think there were a lot of better bands in the scene that got overlooked in the Nirvana worshipping.
Posted by Sopwith (Member # 4640) on :
It might be a bit back in time for you, but
The Analog Kid
is a great one, and not bad done acoustically.
Posted by Sopwith (Member # 4640) on :
Yep, Slash, and Cobain wasn't even the best in his own band.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
The Colour and the Shape showed that pretty clearly, methinks.
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