the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

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Lawrence
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the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Lawrence »

the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show came to town. Of course I went.

I say of course but we debated first. We both love Bowie...Ive seen him 4 times and Shari only the last time (3 weeks before the heart attack). In the end we decided it would be great to hear the songs live again.

Now I want to say I try to avoid being critical of other performers...its a complex world and we all have different goals, add to which only the people onstage know the truth of a gig. This is a conversation among friends.



The band did not try to recreate the recorded songs - they were definitely interpretations, none the less some things needed to be just so to make then work.

There were multiple arrangement errors...people missing cues , coming in late or early etc. Several grooves completely missed the mark. Add to this the mix was not complementary...the Heavy rock based songs from Ziggy Stardust had very quiet guitars...the horn driven Lazarus had very quiet horns...
I suspect the sound person had never heard the albums...

and that the band seemed very under rehearsed.I have to say I was disappointed. If any of the musos involved are on the forum I apologise.

That said the punters loved it, cried out for more and danced in the aisles...

Maybe I expected too much...or maybe they underestimated how hard it is to play Bowie songs.

Maybe Im wrong.

Did anyone else see the tour?
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by foal30 »

Lawrence wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 6:24 pm the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show came to town. Of course I went.

I say of course but we debated first. We both love Bowie...Ive seen him 4 times and Shari only the last time (3 weeks before the heart attack). In the end we decided it would be great to hear the songs live again.

Now I want to say I try to avoid being critical of other performers...its a complex world and we all have different goals, add to which only the people onstage know the truth of a gig. This is a conversation among friends.



The band did not try to recreate the recorded songs - they were definitely interpretations, none the less some things needed to be just so to make then work.

There were multiple arrangement errors...people missing cues , coming in late or early etc. Several grooves completely missed the mark. Add to this the mix was not complementary...the Heavy rock based songs from Ziggy Stardust had very quiet guitars...the horn driven Lazarus had very quiet horns...
I suspect the sound person had never heard the albums...

and that the band seemed very under rehearsed.I have to say I was disappointed. If any of the musos involved are on the forum I apologise.

That said the punters loved it, cried out for more and danced in the aisles...

Maybe I expected too much...or maybe they underestimated how hard it is to play Bowie songs.

Maybe Im wrong.

Did anyone else see the tour?
Love Bowie’s body of work

But I don’t do tribute bands

I did see the Count Basie Orchestra (disclaimer)
Genuine Old Frontier Gibberish

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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by MikeC »

What a bummer. There are certain elements to every song that must be done to respect the original and do it justice.
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Slowy »

MikeC wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 7:06 pm What a bummer. There are certain elements to every song that must be done to respect the original and do it justice.
This is the essence of covers music, those things that everyone is waiting to hear. You can do anything except miss those bits.
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Delayman »

I think tribute bands should be very close to original. Covers bands I’m ok with them keeping the recognisable elements of a song but being freer to mix it up.

I ended up leaving a tribute band as it close to gigging. One of the reasons was I didn’t think it was going to live up to what a punter expects from a tribute show with a decent cover charge.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Lawrence »

Delayman wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:12 pm I think tribute bands should be very close to original. Covers bands I’m ok with them keeping the recognisable elements of a song but being freer to mix it up.

I ended up leaving a tribute band as it close to gigging. One of the reasons was I didn’t think it was going to live up to what a punter expects from a tribute show with a decent cover charge.
just for clarity.....the tickets were $140 each.
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by robthemac »

Lawrence wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:51 pm
Delayman wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:12 pm I think tribute bands should be very close to original. Covers bands I’m ok with them keeping the recognisable elements of a song but being freer to mix it up.

I ended up leaving a tribute band as it close to gigging. One of the reasons was I didn’t think it was going to live up to what a punter expects from a tribute show with a decent cover charge.
just for clarity.....the tickets were $140 each.
:shock:
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Delayman »

robthemac wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:56 pm
Lawrence wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:51 pm
Delayman wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:12 pm I think tribute bands should be very close to original. Covers bands I’m ok with them keeping the recognisable elements of a song but being freer to mix it up.

I ended up leaving a tribute band as it close to gigging. One of the reasons was I didn’t think it was going to live up to what a punter expects from a tribute show with a decent cover charge.
just for clarity.....the tickets were $140 each.
:shock:
Wow- I can understand why you’d (quite rightly) expect a high standard!
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by vintage52 »

I went to the NZSO once.

Had no reference so assumed they were a great covers band.
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by foal30 »

$140, I’d expect Bowie himself and a lesson with Gail Ann Dorsey.
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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Delayman »

Lawrence wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:51 pm
Delayman wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:12 pm I think tribute bands should be very close to original. Covers bands I’m ok with them keeping the recognisable elements of a song but being freer to mix it up.

I ended up leaving a tribute band as it close to gigging. One of the reasons was I didn’t think it was going to live up to what a punter expects from a tribute show with a decent cover charge.
just for clarity.....the tickets were $140 each.
Funnily enough my signature contains a quote from you that I found funny a few years ago… About covers bands
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by rickenbackerkid »

I'm with Lawrence in that I don't want to critique these guys, and I haven't seen their shows, but when I first saw their tour posters I thought holy shit - how the heck are they going to deliver this?

August they are doing Bowie. October Tom Petty. November The Beatles' White Album.

Even for professional musicians it takes time to chose and rehearse songs, and develop a show complete with lighting and staging, so I was very surprised that they are changing gears so fast, even though the band is chockfull of excellent musicians.

At the end of the day though, musicians are the harshest critics, and if people bought tickets, danced all night and loved it, then the band did their job, every one gets paid, great success. Or at least that's my take as a sort of commercial musician, not an Artisté.

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Re: the Come Together Ziggy Stardust show.

Post by Lawrence »

rickenbackerkid wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:37 am ...

At the end of the day though, musicians are the harshest critics, and if people bought tickets, danced all night and loved it, then the band did their job, every one gets paid, great success. Or at least that's my take as a sort of commercial musician, not an Artisté.
its impossible to argue with this.
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“You might be cool, but you’ll never be playing a white Steinberger through a JC120, wearing a white jumpsuit with white shoes and sporting a mullet cool”.

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