Should musicians play their biggest hits?
Went to a concert by The Cure recently. It was bloody awesome, they played my favorite songs - Pictures of you, In between days, Just like heaven, Boys don't cry and Disintegration.
They played for 3 hours and Robert Smith's voice was terrific, as was the crowd.
But the proverbial fly in the ointment, the caterpillar in the salad as they say, was the fact that they did not play their biggest hit - 'Friday I'm in Love', which upset many a fan, obviously. While I love the song as much as anyone else, my reaction is - who cares? they played great songs anyway. Besides its a good opportunity to showcase all the other lesser known gems they have.
Someone I'm close to says - no way. This is a way of displaying the general pretentiousness and assholery, by deliberately not playing their biggest hit, when they know most of the audience paid good money to listen to that one song. Its even more inexcusable if the band played for over 3 hours.
I know Radiohead has a bad rep for this, for deliberately avoiding playing 'creep'. Even Nirvana apparently did not play "smells like.." all that often.
I guess it all boils down to the following - should one consider musicians as entertainers , in which case they should cater to their audience, or should one accord special status to them like one would to artists, and give them license to do whatever.
They played for 3 hours and Robert Smith's voice was terrific, as was the crowd.
But the proverbial fly in the ointment, the caterpillar in the salad as they say, was the fact that they did not play their biggest hit - 'Friday I'm in Love', which upset many a fan, obviously. While I love the song as much as anyone else, my reaction is - who cares? they played great songs anyway. Besides its a good opportunity to showcase all the other lesser known gems they have.
Someone I'm close to says - no way. This is a way of displaying the general pretentiousness and assholery, by deliberately not playing their biggest hit, when they know most of the audience paid good money to listen to that one song. Its even more inexcusable if the band played for over 3 hours.
I know Radiohead has a bad rep for this, for deliberately avoiding playing 'creep'. Even Nirvana apparently did not play "smells like.." all that often.
I guess it all boils down to the following - should one consider musicians as entertainers , in which case they should cater to their audience, or should one accord special status to them like one would to artists, and give them license to do whatever.
