Gwen Stefani Says She'll Have to Relearn Old No Doubt Songs for Coachella

[hewontgo]

Gwen Stefani Says She'll Have to Relearn Old No Doubt Songs for Coachella: “I Don’t Remember Them" https://t.co/L0AMytPq3V
- The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 15, 2024
The  group is set to reunite in April at the music festival, their first time performing together in nearly a decade

Comments

[peachypearl]

I never got into No Doubt but generally speaking I am always amazed by bands who have like 10+ albums remembering everything. What if you play guitar AND sing???? Music and words?????

I mean I know bands practice consistently and especially before going on tour they'll practice whatever deep cuts they want to insert but STILL if I was performing I would just blank out in the middle of the song and start laughing (Or crying who knows I'm full of surprises)

[nyse]

The midsize to big acts who can tour arenas and stadiums for sure use teleprompters. Beyoncé had it for RWT and John Mayer has been using once since at least 2007 but even with the extra help, I think it’d still be easy to space out for just a second and lose your place in a song regardless of how much it’s ingrained in your muscle memory!

[peachypearl]

Yes and the use of a teleprompter is also a skill! Because if you just spend the whole show looking at that thing it's not a very engaging experience for the crowd lmao. You really have to glance at it a bit when you might get lost but by that point it would be too far for me :')

[sjazzmreow]

I was thinking about this recently. Then I thought, what about the songs they don't play live? Are there all these songs that get written and recorded and then just... never played again?

[blazingeternity]

Yes, exactly. I'm coming from rock/metal here, but the songs that are not (intended to be) played live, are literally never played again after the recording. I know some bands who do album anniversary shows where they play the full album from start to finish, and the struggle is real as some songs have never been played as a band at all, and they individually can't remember how & what they played in the studio. Or there have been line-up changes and no one knows how the ex-guitarist got this-and-that sound. Then, just like fans playing cover versions, they have to sit down with their records, meticulously listen & analyse it & try to figure out how to play it. It's kinda cute x'D The vocalists have it the easiest tbh

[peachypearl]

Yes I also spend a lot of time in the metal genre and a lot of bands just have certain songs that you simply can't play live! Especially if they have some occasional 15 minute or longer epic songs. They either don't want to do it, can't do it or it would be too dull to sit through due to loss of energy lmao :')

I saw Metallica last year and they did occasionally fumble stuff when playing deeper cuts, it does make a show more interesting though.

[blazingeternity]

Aww yes, that makes me like you even more! :'D

I only dabble in Prog occasionally, but especially in that genre some songs are - as you implied - very long and might also require additional musicians. But I agree that slightly different live versions make things much more interesting! If it's gonna sound exactly like on the record I'm less inclined to leave the house lol

It's an interesting thought, though, how music, which as a medium originally only served the purpose of being performed live, has at least in some cases turned into something that isn't or cannot be performed live.

[peachypearl]

I also don't spend a lot of time in prog, at least not prog metal! Most of the time I stay in my little thrash metal/black metal bubble but at least for black metal I'm usually standing at those concerts going well if they make a mistake I won't notice because I can't understand anything anyway :') I do really like 70s British prog rock though, it's very charming but also LONG songs.

And as for the shifting of the medium, it is true! I was thinking about this recently in regards to The Dreaming by Kate Bush. With all the effects, layered backing vocals and biblical amounts of special instruments used it would have been almost impossible to truly play live.

I would have loved to see it (Even though I was not born when it was released lol) but I do think it's interesting that in a way artistic limitations are very much removed when you don't need to worry about being able to replicate something live! You could do pretty much anything.

[blazingeternity]

Oho! My last concert was a local thrash metal event, and I'm going to a black metal gig tomorrow xD I'd say my 'home' is somewhere between goth rock and black metal, but through work and friends I'm knee-deep in the death metal scene & honestly like anything that's melodic and executed well. (Going on a tangent here, but I'm currently trying to hire one of my fave indie artists to create the artwork for a BM band I'm working with & I'm so excited as it would mean a lot to me to have the cover made by a female artist in this male dominated genre!!)

The 70s Prog is a little too advanced for me :3 but I did see Steve Hackett & Band (with special guest Nad Sylvan) and had a good time! I hope to catch The Pineapple Thief on their upcoming tour; a more modern & mainstream twist on British Prog - not sure if that's something you'd like, but they're an amazing live band and really sweet guys.
And oh yes, totally agree that not being limited by physical & logistical things opens new worlds to artistic creativity! Although, to be fair, some

[peachypearl]

That's very nice! I've been slacking a bit on the gigs recently, the last gigs were The Damned, New Model Army and The Chats. All very good! And I have the UK Subs coming up. But they're all 'close' to my home. In 2017 I travelled to Berlin to see Miyavi, I can't even imagine where I got that energy from lmao.

I do also think 70s prog is complicated tbh. My mother calls it "Music for clever people" but I mostly find it cute how much nostalgia and humor is in there! I'd love to see Steve Hackett live, I think it would be real nice. I did see Peter Gabriel last year, he was STUNNING. He's one of my favorite bald old men. I will definitely check out The Pineapple Thief because I am always on the lookout for new stuff to get involved with.

[blazingeternity]

Nice! New Model Army is still on my bucket list. When I was young and full of life v.v I also travelled further for shows (like Miyavi in London ha, but tbf I turned it into a whole city trip), nowadays, I mostly stick to my state. Last year I went to Maastricht for a festival by public transport... the exhaustion was real. Inexplicably, we thought "Sure, let's wake up at 05:30 [because you need to factor in hours of delay with our train system] and see the first band at 12:30". We barely made it to the venue at 15:00. Going again this year & already tired just thinking about the journey :')

Steve Hackett was amazing live! His skill & talent really shone; and he was immersed in his musical zone with the entire audience vibing along! I imagine it to be similar with Peter Gabriel - these people are just so professional and on their own level, even for someone like me who's not too familiar with the music, it's an exceptional experience.

[alwayspolaris]

I love when people yell out their favorite songs at bands and these old musicians just finally have to tell them they don't remember shit. If someone has more than 3 albums they have a setlist and they're probably going to stick with it.

But Nick Cave did actually take requests though and that man has like 20 albums on his own plus like 6 from his other bands, and he was doing old stuff from The Birthday Party, etc. He plays piano and sings for every single one of them. Honestly we were super impressed.

[kittenmittons]

The National has been really fun on their tour over the last year - they play some staples every night, but then switch up a few songs, usually with a deep cut or two thrown in too. I think they mentioned practicing the songs in sound check the day of, but still, lots to remember.

(I was lucky enough to be at the Burnaby show last year where they played a 20 year old song for the first time ever.)

[veal]

As far as singing, all the songs I learned the lyrics of as a teen just come flooding back to me when I hear them, sometimes when I haven’t heard them in 20+ years. I can’t imagine forgetting songs I WROTE and performed hundreds of times in concerts. I can’t speak to remembering how to play something on an instrument.

[tragedyofempty]

They also only ever perform certain songs. So like the one she's talking about has probably not been performed since like '92. So it makes sense she doesn't remember it.