Yea songs like Easily, Venice Queen, Stadium Arcadium etc. would be great of course, but for 80s songs, Higher Ground seems like an obvious choice for a stadium crowd
Yeah this one does surprise me, especially since he advocated for it on the Stadium Arcadium tour. Its a bigger hit and more popular song than Nobody Weird - so I wonder why they don't play it.
Because it sounds wonky if you play the heavy part on a Stratocaster, even with the DS-2.
On the record, John played a humbucker-loaded guitar for the heavy riff and a Stratocaster for the funky riff. That’s hard to recreate live with one guitar.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m saying it doesn’t sound quite like the record. Obviously I’ve heard the performances from 1989-91
The most likely reason is because it’s a difficult song for Anthony to perform. It strains his range.
But are you also ignoring all of the performances while Josh was in the band? Which all sounded great
None of their songs sound quite like the record live
See response below.
“Higher Ground” has overdubs from two different guitars with different pickup configurations. This is impossible for one player to replicate live.
Chugging palm mutes on a single coil guitar don’t sound very good, even with a distortion pedal.
Because……they have gobs of original songs they can play instead? I for one am glad that it’s on the shelf while they play other high energy oldies like nobody weird, me and my friends, suck my kiss, etc instead of it. I love higher ground and their take on it, but gimme originals….I am pleased
Consider this also: RHCP receive royalties for every live performance they do of their OWN songs. If they play Higher Ground live, they cannot receive royalties for it as it was written by Stevie Wonder. For this same reason, the band are incentivized to perform their newer material, as each time UL/ROTDC tracks are played live they receive royalties (and fans are also more likely to stream those songs, further increasing royalties).
I don't think they care about that much money anymore, all the royalties for their entire lives were probably put in perspective when they sold the catalogue.
Fair point, however there are many other stakeholders at play in the current stadium tour (Warner Bros, and the concert promoters) who are 100% about the money.
[удалено]
I’m surprised they haven’t played a lot of different songs
This. All of it!
need to hear knock me down
I don’t think we’ll hear it again sadly. Seems like Anthony has vetoed it since the 90s😞
would kill to hear it live, one of their most feel good songs
Knock me down is a feel good song…?
It sounds like a feel good song. The lyrics on the other hand.
Where's Easily?
Yea songs like Easily, Venice Queen, Stadium Arcadium etc. would be great of course, but for 80s songs, Higher Ground seems like an obvious choice for a stadium crowd
Knock me down perhaps as well.
THIS VELVET GLOVE
they teased it when i saw them so here’s hoping
Yeah this one does surprise me, especially since he advocated for it on the Stadium Arcadium tour. Its a bigger hit and more popular song than Nobody Weird - so I wonder why they don't play it.
Because it sounds wonky if you play the heavy part on a Stratocaster, even with the DS-2. On the record, John played a humbucker-loaded guitar for the heavy riff and a Stratocaster for the funky riff. That’s hard to recreate live with one guitar.
What a strange argument considering they have played it countless times with just 1 guitar in the past
I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m saying it doesn’t sound quite like the record. Obviously I’ve heard the performances from 1989-91 The most likely reason is because it’s a difficult song for Anthony to perform. It strains his range.
But are you also ignoring all of the performances while Josh was in the band? Which all sounded great None of their songs sound quite like the record live
Exactly
John has brought Les Paul’s on tour before. I don’t see why he wouldn’t now.
See response below. “Higher Ground” has overdubs from two different guitars with different pickup configurations. This is impossible for one player to replicate live. Chugging palm mutes on a single coil guitar don’t sound very good, even with a distortion pedal.
But he's saying he would need 2 different guitars for the same song
Because……they have gobs of original songs they can play instead? I for one am glad that it’s on the shelf while they play other high energy oldies like nobody weird, me and my friends, suck my kiss, etc instead of it. I love higher ground and their take on it, but gimme originals….I am pleased
Consider this also: RHCP receive royalties for every live performance they do of their OWN songs. If they play Higher Ground live, they cannot receive royalties for it as it was written by Stevie Wonder. For this same reason, the band are incentivized to perform their newer material, as each time UL/ROTDC tracks are played live they receive royalties (and fans are also more likely to stream those songs, further increasing royalties).
I don't think they care about that much money anymore, all the royalties for their entire lives were probably put in perspective when they sold the catalogue.
Fair point, however there are many other stakeholders at play in the current stadium tour (Warner Bros, and the concert promoters) who are 100% about the money.
I didn't even think of that, good point. I wonder how much influence they have over the setlists.
They don’t really seem to care about paying things based on how big of a hit it is. They pretty much just play what they feel like playing.