Faith No More - ChCh - Feb 16th 2010 ...

[NZRS-Dave]

... I'm not a huge Faith No More fan. I like Epic, Ashes to Ashes, Easy and my deadset favourite song of all is From Outta Nowhere.

Guess which song they didn't play?

I can't f'n believe it. If I had paid for tickets for the show, I would have been f'n screaming bloody murder that they didn't play it. I was reasonably sure that they would simply because I saw a concert they had online last year and it was the 5th song. I think it was the same lineup, so why wouldn't they?

I don't know any of the band members names, except for Mike Bordin as he was playing drums (and he played with Ozzy).

I thought the singer looked a bit like Freddie Mercury actually, more than once. He was pretty good as a front man and seemed to get most of the tunes down okay, but there were some shockers where I thought he had pushed his voice too hard and he had to croak a line out. He had a vocal effects unit on a stand that he played with as well as having the traditional staple of rock vocals - the loudhailer. But to be fair, I couldn't really tell any difference between the loudhailer and his usual mic most of the time.

The guitarist was good ... got most of the solos down pat and seemed to have the right tone for the songs. There were a couple of notes in the solos for Epic and Easy, that I thoguht were odd.

The bass player was likewise solid. Think a short James Hetfield with short hair. He kept walking around in circles which was cool.

The keyboard player was the other person who spoke quite a bit on the mic and he was good, although some of his sounds were odd. The keyboard part at the end of Epic didn't quite sound right. I think he was using the sounds off a Mac and then playing them on his M-Audio controller keyboard (Prokeys 88 I think).

So that leaves Mike Bordin - solid as ever and he seemed to be having a good time. He seemed to be drinking a lot of water and it was fun watching him getting water from his tech and then throwing it down his hair when he got a break. No solos or outstanding drum breaks even though he's totally capable of it.

All in all, the night was ruined becuase they didn't play my favourite song. And then KFC was shut on the way home

Oh, the opening band were The Eagles of Death Metal - and to me ... all the songs sounded the same and I was waiting for them to get off. They seemed to be having a good time and the people seemed to know a few of their songs, but me ... meh ... I wanted them to go after the third song. Which sounded like the first two.

-EDITED to name one of the songs correctly

[badmotor]

Lots of people in NZ do know alot about FNM dude, so kinda odd to read a "review" of someone who obviously doesn't. Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

Oh, and KFC rots your brain and innards just so you know. Looking forward to the Auckland show.

[rocklander]

Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

shihad didn't play home again at the rock legal tender gig in the tron... yes, I still haven't forgiven them

[slash-ed]

Lots of people in NZ do know alot about FNM dude, so kinda odd to read a "review" of someone who obviously doesn't. Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

What's wrong with posting a review if you're not a huge uber fanboy of the band? Not playing his favourite song aside the rest of the review seems to read much like... a review...

[jeremyb]

Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

shihad didn't play home again at the rock legal tender gig in the tron... yes, I still haven't forgiven them

Woah, I'd give Jon the bash for that!

[badmotor]

Lots of people in NZ do know alot about FNM dude, so kinda odd to read a "review" of someone who obviously doesn't. Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

What's wrong with posting a review if you're not a huge uber fanboy of the band? Not playing his favourite song aside the rest of the review seems to read much like... a review...

Nothing wrong. Just odd as i said - granted I do like my reviewers to have a bit more insight into the history of the bands etc. If I sounded touchy - I forget NZG is not NZM or Stuff or the Herald. Read too many 'uninformed' reviews lately.

More importantly - anyone else go?

[Basket Case]

Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

shihad didn't play home again at the rock legal tender gig in the tron... yes, I still haven't forgiven them

They probably wanted their audience awake

[badmotor]

Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

shihad didn't play home again at the rock legal tender gig in the tron... yes, I still haven't forgiven them

They probably wanted their audience awake

Good time to grab a beer/take a slash.

[rocklander]

Upset because they didn't play your favourite song?

shihad didn't play home again at the rock legal tender gig in the tron... yes, I still haven't forgiven them

They probably wanted their audience awake

[Hot_Grits]

Dave's review is as credible as any individual opinion out there, though it's fair to say it's coming from a different place to that of a fanboy. We'd surely get a different level of detail if it was Nightwish or Celine. Or a Scarf reunion.

But I've always found it weird when gigging musicians pull the 'they didn't play my favorite song' whine. Surely anyone who plays out knows that songs get cycled through a set to keep them fresh and keep the players sane and interested. I have more respect for a band that will play a wide range of material at the expense of the occasional big hit number as it caters to the really involved fans.

I saw Bowie at the caketin and of the almost 30 songs he played I'd say he played maybe 15 enormous hits. The rest were new tunes, album tracks off older records and a couple of well chosen covers. I walked away from the gig thinking to myself that he could have ditched those non-hits and replaced each one with a genuine mega-hit, and I was glad he didn't do that, as it made for a much more interesting gig for me. Granted there were definitely members of the audience who got annoyed when made to wait one or two songs between singalong moments, but I was chuffed.

[NZRS-Dave]

BM - you dissing a brother a cos he daint ged to hur his fave toon?

Fair enough point ... but it did kinda ruin the show for me. And Shihad not playing Home Again? I woulda punched Jon in the face myself. If you're sick of playing the song ... I don't care. I paid money to see you play the songs I know and the token other songs to fill up the set - and I would expect to hear your major hits.

Now in the case of David Bowie, I can imagine that that would be a tall order, and people are going to leave dissappointed whichever way you pick them.

But Shihad? 3/4 albums worth to choose from?

Every week I played in a covers band we did 'Boys Light Up', 'April Sun' and 'Smoke On The Water' - I didn't mind playing them because I got off on the crowd's reaction to them. They were old tired songs but we had to play them 'for the people' - and sometimes they would be at the expense of newer stuff that I prefered to play (like 'Home Again' actually)

But yeah, I think I covered the fact that I wasn't fanboy in the first line and that I was no reviewer of any great merit

[badmotor]

BM - you dissing a brother a cos he daint ged to hur his fave toon?

I guess that is the covers band dude approach "play your hit songs ya barstard!" - I think it is healthy for the artists when they are a little selfish sometimes. Which is pretty much what HG said before. I'm a parrot.

[twistedthoughts]

I guess that is the covers band dude approach "play your hit songs ya barstard!" - I think it is healthy for the artists when they are a little selfish sometimes. Which is pretty much what HG said before. I'm a parrot.

I normally agree with this, but for FNM I don't think it applies.

They haven't recorded any new material. They regrouped so they could tour the world playing the old hits from 15+ years ago and make a bunch of money. To me, if they're not offering anything new, that means these concerts should be live "Greatest Hits" with the odd obscure song thrown in for good measure.

[rocklander]

BM - you dissing a brother a cos he daint ged to hur his fave toon?

I guess that is the covers band dude approach "play your hit songs ya barstard!" - I think it is healthy for the artists when they are a little selfish sometimes. Which is pretty much what HG said before. I'm a parrot.

in fairness though, neither the covers band nor the originals would be playing gigs if there weren't punters there.. and punters have expectations.. I mean if I want to choose to play stuff that the punter doesn't want to hear over stuff they do, I could also choose to do that where the punters aren't.. like at home... surely everybody would be happy then?

[Hot_Grits]

BM - you dissing a brother a cos he daint ged to hur his fave toon?

I guess that is the covers band dude approach "play your hit songs ya barstard!" - I think it is healthy for the artists when they are a little selfish sometimes. Which is pretty much what HG said before. I'm a parrot.

Yeah I don't mind a bit of selfishness in an artist whose work I largely like.

Top40 audiences and originals band audiences are different animals. In my experience, the top40 audience is almost entirely comprised of people wanting to hear specific works, with very little room for interpretation or variation. For a successful original artist that draws a decent crowd, there will be people there with that mindset for sure, and the larger the crowd the more there are of them. But there will always be a chunk of people there who are more flexible about what they want from the event.