You named 'em, they played 'em: the successful request thread

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This is the thread where you name songs that you've requested at various performers' shows that they have immediately played, and probably would not otherwise have played at that gig.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 16 October 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i got isaac guillory to play "with god on our side" at a tiny gig in edinburgh years ago. "i've brought three friends along specially to hear it" did the trick :)

low, king tut's, two or three years ago: i started a call for "the plan" during the fourth (!) encore, which was picked up by about 10 other people. it was the most exquisite version i've heard them play.

those are the only two i can remember, sadly.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 16 October 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Every party i go to where somebody has booked a DJ to play pop and stuff io request Depeche Mode, usually just for the reaction (maybe for the hilarity of Personal Jesus clearing the dance floor).

Friday night i got the best reaction so far.

Me: Do you have any Depeche Mode?
DJ (after giving me the most confused hateful look ever): No
Me: Oh, ok.

I walk away and see him shake his head and then put Nickelback on.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Saturday, 16 October 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Grifters "Maps of the Sun"

― A Million Talking Hot Dogs (AaronHz), Saturday, 16 October 2004 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

In my case, the exact opposite happened. I kept yelling "I'm in Trouble" at the Replacements until Bob finally stepped to my side of the stage and bellowed: "Not as much trouble as you're *gonna* be in, fucker!"

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 16 October 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

how could personal jesus be a dancefloor clearer??

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 16 October 2004 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I was early for a De La Soul show and I asked Maseo to have the boys do "Oodles of O's" and they fucking opened with it.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Sunday, 17 October 2004 03:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Thats not even remotely surprising, Rollie. They play it at every show cause it's the only thing theyve had close to a hit in like 10 years.

― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 17 October 2004 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I've seen them three times and they only did it that time.

"Oodles of O's" was on a 1991 album. So 10 years? Also, "Oooh" was a pretty big hit (closest they had to "Me, Myself and I" level) and that was 2000. I just didn't expect them to do much from my favorite De La album.

And who cares about hits? Their new album has Soundscanned like 3000 copies or something, but it has some good songs.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Sunday, 17 October 2004 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Jonathan Richman at the Renfrew Ferry in Glasgow about 14 years ago. Someone shouted "It's St Patricks Day" (which it was). He immediately launched into "Rockin' Rollin' Leprachaun"

― everything, Sunday, 17 October 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

francis mcdonald played "serious drugs" after my drunken bleated request.. nice fellow..

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Sunday, 17 October 2004 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I asked Godspeed! You Black Emperor to play an excruciatingly long and boring set, and that's exactly what they did.

― cdwill, Monday, 18 October 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I got a traditional manouche band to play "Sweet Georgia Brown" in a restaurant once. They were thrilled to get the request and it showed. The chef even started clapping along from behind the little window where he put the food out for the waiters.

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Monday, 18 October 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

In 93 I once asked Juliana Hatfield to play "Nirvana", which she did. I could hear people's confused whispers as to why I was asking for Nirvana songs.

― Shooz (shooz), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Midway through what would later prove to be their FIRST drunken encore at Bogarts a few years back, Ween quite happily it seemed fulfilled my request for "Molly". They were already tore up drunk at this point. They went on to play like 50 more minutes of nothing but audience requests.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't normally yell requests but i saw portastatic about 6 months ago, and he was in the 2nd slot of 3, but when he finished he unplugged his guitar and sampler but the crowd wasn't gonna let him leave so he kinda looked around shamefully and looked at the sound guy who gave him a thumbs up so he plugged back in and you could tell that he was kinda thinking "hmm, what should i do now?" so i yelled out "baby" (caetano veloso cover he recorded about 5 years ago) and to my surprise he launched straight into it in perfect (well, to my ears) portuguese. i was impressed!

his wife and his baby were walking around the club earlier so it was a nice touch.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Matthew Perpetua told me the other day that he wrote out his fantasy setlist for a New Pornographers (?) show, and then placed the setlist on the stage before the band went on. Apparently, they looked at it, said "yeah we could do that" and played the whole thing!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The power is going to his head!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

A couple of times, I've shouted out requests that the band then played, but I think they were going to play it anyway. (Most recently: Azita's "Better End in Time." She said she only had one more left, so I shouted that one, and she said, "Well, of course, that's the last song, cuz I had better end in time.")

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

(Ah, Jay you beat me to it!)

Last summer, I wrote the entire setlist for a New Pornographers show.

Just to kill time, I wrote out the setlist that I would play if I were them on the train ride down, and later on, my friend convinced me to put it onstage before they came out. (We were drunk at the time.) Carl Newman thought it was funny and decided to play it. It was a pretty kickass show. My set was shorter than what they usually play, so they ended up doing three sets of encores.

I just want back into my archives, here's the setlist -

The New Pornographers, July 12 2003, Bowery Ballroom, New York City:

The New Face Of Zero And One
Miss Teen Wordpower
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
The Electric Version
From Blown Speakers
Chump Change
All For Swinging You Around
The End Of Medicine
July Jones
Mass Romantic
Jackie
The Laws Have Changed
It's Only Divine Right
Letter From An Occupant

encore 1: The Fake Headlines / To Wild Homes / The Body Says No
encore 2: Testament To Youth In Verse / Mystery Hours / Action
encore 3: When I Was A Baby / Centre For Holy Wars

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a pretty long set, regardless.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I would love for someone else to do that to either the New Pornographers or another band just to see what happens. I think that the key to requests is to be realistic - you don't ask for anything you know they can't or won't play. There was nothing in that NP set that was different from they'd normally do, just the running order. I think it came out realy well - the pacing was good, and it ended on three consecutive showstoppers, which was really fucking fun.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

At a Sebadoh show circa "Harmacy," the crowd was full of people shouting requests for classic trax (one girl, with a strong regional accent, kept bellowing "SCAHS FAH EYYYYES!" after every song). So I yelled, in parody, "Puffin' on a Pot Pipe!" - the band laughed, and Bob Fay stepped forward and played a few bars of that tune on his bass.

Then Lou Barlow lectured the crowd for "making us feel inferior."

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Fay played drums, usually.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, but Jake was on drums and Fay on bass for whatever number they were about to play.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Monday, 18 October 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

ah, weird. cool, nevermind.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The only other song I would've asked for is "Ballad of a Comeback Kid", or do they usually not play that?

X-post: yeah stence, Sebadoh would switch instruments quite a bit.

― A Million Talking Hot Dogs (AaronHz), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I know they used to (WTF?!? sheesh), altho they didn't do it as much on the later tours.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The thing is, I'm not a big fan of "Comeback Kid," and was kinda happy that they didn't play it that night. From what I understand, they played it pretty frequently on that tour.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, so.

― A Million Talking Hot Dogs (AaronHz), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I was at a great Dirty Three show in Detroit four years ago where they were taking requests. A girl I knew shouted out a track from Ocean Songs. Warren said he wasn't sure they remembered that one and asked her if she could sing a bit of it. She said no but she could play it on violin. So he invited her on stage and gave her his violin, and the band said they would see if they could keep up. It only lasted a couple minutes before nobody could remember what came next, but seriously, it was one of the most awesome things I've seen at a show. By the end, she was crying, and he hugged her before she walked off-stage.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha that's like the secret fantasy of any musician who's ever learned another band's song. Me at 14: "Maybe Kurt Cobain will break his hand and they'll ask if anyone in the audience knows how to play Smells Like Teen Spirit and THEY'LL PICK ME!"

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 18 October 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

At the last of 4 Cure shows in London in 92 I was very close to the stage on the left side. After the main set, I yelled at Porl Thompson the guitarist to please play "The Drowning Man". When they came back for the encore Robert took the mike and said: "This is an old one we haven't played in a long time". To my amazement the unmistakable drum pattern of one of my favorite songs started resonating in the arena. I couldn't believe it!
What's even more amazing is that I got to thank Porl for that great moment when I met the whole band after the show.

― Seb (Seb), Monday, 18 October 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

That New Pornographers story is amazing. I love these anecdotes, although generally I get irritated when people are screaming out songs they want to hear and the band is clearly not into it.

― Taxi Dancing in the Soft Prison (Ben Boyer), Monday, 18 October 2004 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I know! At last year's Chameleons' show in Montréal there was a drunk guy who screamed "DON'T FALL!!! DON'T FUCKING FALL!!!" through the entire thing. It was so irritating and embarassing I wanted to go punch him. By the time they got to the encore and played the damn song he was so drunk that he couldn't even enjoy it... Idiot!

― Seb (Seb), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Melody Fleck (the bassist from Mira, who I had been corresponding with for a while at that time) asked me before one of their gigs if I wanted to hear a particular song of theirs performed the first time I went to see them in concert, and I suggested "Dry" and they played it and dedicated to me. It was very sweet of them, and that wasn't the only gift the band bestowed upon me that night either!

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.