One hit that loses its wonder

A friend of mine went to see Gary Numan last week, here in Seattle, and told me it was a great show ... save for the moment Gary and his band played "Cars." He said you could feel the energy level in the house just drop.

It's possible, even likely, that Gary himself is sick of "Cars," and that the audience could pick up on his boredom with that hit. We've all seen that before. But my friend assesses it more as the audience being bored with that song. He said that "Down in the Park," "I Die: You Die" and "Are Friends Electric?" -- all of which are just as old as that hit from The Pleasure Principle -- all got big rousing responses.

Has anyone seen this sort of phenomenon -- a touring performer whose biggest hit has overstayed its welcome with the audience? Even if the performer does seem to still enjoy playing it?

"Detatchable Penis"

[www.spin.com]

The Beastie Boys pretty much stopped performing "Fight For Your Right to Party" by the time their 2nd album dropped. No one really missed it.

Well, their sound and aesthetic completely changed. I saw them on the CHECK YOUR HEAD tour, when they spent half the show playing live instruments, and their set list included very few songs from LICENSED TO ILL.

The same was true with the Beasties on the Ill Communication tour. Of course, they'd come up with a lot of strong material since Licensed to Ill.

The last edition of the RS Record Guide puts it very well:

For the past fifteen years, the Beastie Boys have been driven by two objectives: to live up to their second album, and to live down their first. Either of these would have presented a challenge; the fact that they've been able to do both is a testament to the band.

(Not a verbatim quote, since I don't have the book with me, but close enough.)

I saw a live version of Cars on Youtube with Trent R playing a crazy tambourine, it was pretty tight! I think someone on this forum posted the link. However I would never play the original song on purpose as I wore that one out decades ago. One of the aspects of that song that I like is the detachment, almost robotic - possibly he has sang it so many times he has perfected his detachment. Then again he may be flat tired of it.

I don't know how he does a show without playing it though, especially in today's twitter age, word will get out. I can't tell you how often I check Setlist.fm before buying tickets. It is so nice to be able to figure out where a band is coming from on their current tour - career retro, supporting a new release, playing nothing from early albums, combo or the dreaded medleys or gasp.....an artistic re-working of their biggest hit.

When Ryan Adams broke out the absolute worst version of New York at a show I was at I nearly started breaking beer bottles on my head. I love RA and Whiskeytown and had actually got my wife to really like the album Gold so she went with me. She is more of a country music fan so for sure she thought she would hear When the Stars Go Blue which was a bit of a hit for Tim Mcgraw. Also many other fine tunes on that joint, I love it from beginning to end. Same for Heartbreaker and Cold Roses. That night over a decade ago he re-worked Rescue Blues, New York and a couple others. They were awful. The show was great overall though, I would rather just have had those left out and choose something from the B sides or whatever. He has since started throwing his fans a bone by playing those old standards as recorded. Heartbreaker is still my go to late Friday evening, no work the next day drinking companion. My Winding Wheel and Come Pick Me Up are just awesome tunes.

Ah - setlist.fm. I confess I use it as well before deciding on shows but sometimes I feel like it is a curse. Gone are the days of being surprised when something pops up during a show. I know I can solve this by not looking beforehand but I. just. can't. resist.

Speaking of Gary Numan, I saw that Billboard put his latest album on the 'rock/alternative' charts instead of the 'dance/electronic' charts. Apparently, according to Billboard, one has to be more 'dance' than 'electronic' to make that chart.

I saw him on his last swing through here and I remember that I didn't think much of 'Cars' back then either. Possibly because the songs from his latest album at the time (Splinter) sounded so good live or because 'Cars' just doesn't lend itself to the live guitar sound that he employs now. I prefer the sterility of the studio version. I'm going to see him this Saturday and according to setlist.fm (see what I did) he's going to play it, so I'll see if my opinion will change.

Wire seem to hate playing pretty much anything that's not from their current platter but they usually chuck in a couple for the punters. No Map Ref for me but I did get Two People In A Room. But when they played Kidney Bingos I thought they were going to nod off onstage.