# Im on ur stage, fuckin' with ur songs... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-03-23 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/03/im-on-ur-stage-fuckin-with-ur-songs/ I was just merrily uploading old video clips of SMG live shows to YouTube, and this particular one got me thinking. If you're not familiar with the catalog of Sister Machine Gun (and frankly, for the most part, I wouldn't expect you to be) this particular song, written in 1989, was fairly bog-standard "industrial" dance/rock for its time. Since I've had to play it what seems like 165,000 times live (in actuality probably only 1500 or so; we didn't do it on every tour because it is too hard on my throat) I have a tendency to change it up a bit. In the above iteration, we eschewed the nu-beat (in the A Split Second sense of the term) origins in favor of a Chicago wrawk kind of sound, pretty much indicative of that entire show and the surrounding tour. I personally don't really have any problems doing that sort of thing, as unlike some artists, I can get bored fairly easy playing my own music. That's not really what this post is about, though. At the end of the first verse, when the chorus is right about to kick, the band has to stop to wait for a measure for me to sing the intro to the chorus. For some hare-brained reason, I just didn't. Obviously, as you can plainly see in the video, the audience, the light guy, and the soundman were all expecting it. To the band's extreme merit, they were quite used to my ways and waited until I _actually_ sang it rather than going with the general flow, and for that I give them great credit, since we didn't plan to do anything like this. In any case, to the actual point of this post: how much do you feel you should be allowed to fuck with your own released music on stage? As much as the audience will put up with? Or should you hew close to the origins in general. I suppose it depends on whether you have a resilient (read: long-established) audience, and whether you have resilient music in the first place. Obviously, you know my feelings on the matter: as long as the song is recognizable as such, everything else is fair game. ## Comments (10) **djgroovy** (2008-03-23): Video no longer available? **shamann** (2008-03-23): I'm of the mind that as long as the band puts on a good show, they could even go all Eric Clapton Boss Nova Karaoke on their back catalogue. Aesthetically, I'd prefer they wouldn't do that, as I'm sure the Ghosts of Layla Past have something harsh and deserving planned for him in the afterlife, but as long as it's a good show. But then, I imagine many musicians are of the same opinion, so it would be interesting to know what non-musician fans think of the matter. Yeah, video didn't work for me either. **Chris Randall** (2008-03-23): Weird. It shows in my account, and I can watch it fine on my Mac, but not in YouTube proper. Well, no matter. You certainly get the idea without seeing it and I'm sure it will appear eventually. EDIT: It should be working now, as is obvious, I suppose. -CR **darklordjames** (2008-03-23): "so it would be interesting to know what non-musician fans think of the matter." Here's a non-musician fan! :) I don't care how the song is performed, just as long as it is somewhat recognizable and the band is having fun with it. At a show, if there is some part that I can say "I know this" and sing along to, I'm happy. **chaircrusher** (2008-03-23): Not that it probably matters to anyone outside of Iowa City -- and to precious few people here -- my favorite live show these days is my friend Ed Gray. He is a great songwriter, in the alt-folk tradition. His album last year "The Late Gray Ed Great" is in my biased opinon a nearly perfect CD, recorded in Omaha with some of the Saddle Creek all stars. He's a modern Stephen Foster, and I don't say that lightly. But his live sets are either the most brilliant sort of risky performance, or complete self-sabotage for the audience who listen to his CDs. He'll play 30 second version of 4 minute songs, he'll go off on a ten minute feedback rage -- with an classical acoustic-electric no less. In between, he delivers never-the-same-river-twice version of his songs. I bring my Zoom H4 to all his shows because you never know what he'll do. You can -- if you care -- check one of his mostly coherent shows here: http://www.cornwarning.com/Picador03102007/EdGray-Picador-March-10-2007.mp3 Which is a long way round to saying that the rule is that you need to do what makes you happy as a performer. I wouldn't think the average industrial music audience wants to hear live what they can hear for themselves at home, they're there for the whole-body experience, and would give you a pretty wide latitude. I should mention that Ed is working for a janitorial service, which is the price he is paying for not being a careerist self-promoter. So that's a whole different realm from Sister Machine Gun who were medium big, back in the day. **emeb** (2008-03-23): Another comment from the non-musician peanut gallery: Some of the most memorable/enjoyable concerts for me have been when the unexpected happens. A different perspective on a familiar tune really adds some dimensionality. Of course I also like it when things go wrong on stage. It may be stressful to the performers, but when they can roll with it, and jam through the bad cables & blown amps that makes for a unique act that is just for the audience at hand. **jmelnyk** (2008-03-23): i think it depends on the band's sound, mainly. if its a pop band, in general you want to be able to sing along to the songs you know. they can take liberties some places, but not everywhere. ballads should prolly be left alone. i mean, it would suck to see bon jovi jam for ten minutes during the middle of "bed of roses" for chrissake. if its an instrumental band, then i think their fan base is used to just listening. and if they came out to listen, giving them something unique to listen to at that moment is usually a good thing. maybe not redo everything, but here and there prolly won't hurt. obviously, there's a huge spectrum in between those two in which things may or may not work. i'm just trying to say that it depends on the band, their audience and their sound. fwiw, i love seeing four tet huddle behind a couple laptops, clicking away. boring to watch, but he mangles his songs into new creations every night. quite exciting. **angstrom** (2008-03-23): on the flip side ... I always think it's sad when you go to a gig and a particular song stands out as really interesting and powerful, so you but the album and the recorded version is an underwhelming anemic version of the one you heard. Of course the track was probably recorded only a few weeks after writing it, it hadn't developed much. But after a year of touring the damn thing the band know it inside out. Consequently everything that was sub-par has been jetisoned and a the sterile recording manages to evolve into something good. **MidiMonk** (2008-03-23): If you wrote the song and have to perform it on ad nauseam ala a tour then unless your Brittany Spears(just for sake of a pop artist vs someone who is an artist) then do what feels right on the stage at that moment.If it bombs you learn a lesson, if the song reaches a new level for audience reaction it will be worth it.I personally get really bored at a show if every song sounds exactly like the cd, the "hits" may need to stay same for the audiences sake. A musicians POV FWIW. I still enjoy "Sins of the Flesh" even now it sounds great. **inteliko** (2008-03-23): Old Anthrax pissed me off with the Joey fucked up thing. Yours wasnt bad though, it was quick.