@the band: favorite songs to play live?

[Hyperplex]

this is just a curiousity question, given that i used to be in a band and had my own favorites:

what are your favorite original songs to play live and why? how about favorite of your own to listen to?

kinda had me thinkin after your setlist on the 11/19, and i was just wondering.

 

[Matt Crooks]

I think you'll get a different answer from each of us, and my answers change over time.

However my current favorites to play live are Remembrance and Paradise Lost. Basically because we didn't play them for years, so they're a little more fresh to me. From Trinity, my favorites to play are NWO, New Horizons, Greed and 11th hour. Of course we don't play NWO or NH anymore...

We don't play any songs that I don't like playing anymore, which a good thing. I like playing everything we're doing, I just have some that I like more.

There are a couple off of the first two CDs that if I never play them again, it's fine with me.

 

[eaeolian]

Yeah, I think we've all got favorites. "Remembrance", "No World Order" and "Greed" hit high on the list for me. Matt's got a point with "Paradise Lost", too - the re-vamped version we're doing now is really cool, and freshens the song without radically changing it.

I also love playing "Embody the Invisible" when we do it, just because having Nick sing it confuses the hell out of people.

There are also some for me that I wouldn't miss if we never played them again. That's part of being a musician, I guess.

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

For playing:
Remembrance

While I try to honor the playing of the previous drummers (i'm number 18), I try to get away with adding my thing to the parts. Some songs, I really don't have to add much - Remembrance is a great example of a song where the original version closely resembles my particular tastes in drumming (I think - it's been a loooong time since I gave the original a spin). Of all the songs, Rememberance takes the least amount of adjusting for me - it just flows!

I love listening to and playing Veiled and Eraser and too.

For Trinity, I really dig listening to Echos, New Horizons, and Sea of Hate - mostly the last half of the CD!!

Great questions!

James

 

[Matt Crooks]

I also forgot to add... once I'm done with an album I rarely go back and listen to it. By the time they are done I've heard the songs so many times that I just don't feel the need to listen to them again. I won't turn it off if someone else is playing it, but I won't put it on myself.

 

[Hyperplex]

im not surprised you all have different answers. im the same way...well i was with my old band.

there were songs that seemed to remain fresh even years later, but others wore themselves thin very quickly. since i wrote the lyrics for all, as well as the music for most, i knew each song inside and out moreso than even my other bandmates (yes, thats freakin sad). after playing them for the millionth time, i kinda stopped wanting to hear them outside of a practice/show situation. the most fun songs to play live were always the high energy tunes and the ones whose lyrics meant the most to me.

what also interesting is, now 2 and a half years after the band ended, to go back and listen to some live recordings and hear just how good (or how bloody awful) some of our ideas and execution really were.

on a small sidenote: you guys have to play embody at a gig i come to.....i *need* to hear how Nick pulls that off

on yet another sidenote: @Matt- you are so far the only band member i have yet to meet face to face, despite seeing you live twice and basically hanging at the merch table on friday. you prolly saw me as i was standing right in front of you during your entire set at jaxx *points at the avatar and hopes youre not epileptic * thats me....so....hi

 

[NickDivision]

he didn't see you if MB was there.

My favorites really jump all over the place. The songs that I've personalized tend to excite me more, so anything off of Trinity makes the list. I have a great time with Rememberance because the entire band enjoys it. Being a long time 'tage fan, I'd say Power is my favorite cover that we do. Hell, I just have too much fun with these guys.