Disco - Live

B-squared

B-squared

Silver Member
I have to share this. I was off on a mini-vacation over the weekend and my wife and I went out on the town to see some live music in the city we were in. We found the local hotspot and the band was playing.......disco. I am talking Donna Summer, Taste of Honey, Boogie Oogie Oogie - the whole nine yards. Old 70's disco. I am 51 and I remember the disco era, but I NEVER saw a band even attempt to do it live. In those days, the disco music was produced in a studio. From there it went to the clubs on vinyl, and it was played on loud sound systems. Disco artists didn't tour that much that I can recall, and when they did, a lot of their music was pre-recorded.. I just don't ever remember disco being played live and all of a sudden, here is a band doing nothing but disco.

I didn't care for disco back when it was popular and I still don't. The music was painful to hear, but I have to admit, they did it well (at least as well as disco can be played). The bass player, the keyboard player, and the drummer made it work behind 3 female singers. The drummer had a vocal mic too, for an additional female singer. The guitar player didn't do much (as they typically don't in disco) except for a few solos with that harsh standard "disco guitar" patch. The drummer had a 4-piece with a piccolo snare cranked way tight for that disco "pop" back beat.

I am sure that other bands have done similar stuff, but if so, I would guess it was years ago. I listen to a lot of live music around my area and I just never hear disco bands. Is this a new trend? Live disco? (I hope not). This one caught me totally off-guard.
 
Yeh, theres a lot of it now, I know most places we used to play dont book any bands playing classic rock anymore, to sell the drinks to guys they a dance floor full of girls and to do that you have to play dance and there is not enough new dance out there that a band can play a full night of it so a lot of bands have being playing a mix of new dance, new rock and old dance and disco. You even have bands out there like "Tragedy" doing full nights of nothing else than rocked up Bee Gees covers and selling out large venues.
 
You're right in your assessment of the bar business, Tard. This was different in that it was ALL disco. I have seen all 80's bands, B-52 cover bands, and even some Michael Jackson cover stuff, but not 100% disco. I guess if Bee Gee's stuff is back, then what I heard would make more sense.
 
I've always thought Disco's gotten a bad rap (not that Rap)...

There are many successful disco cover bands in my area, and they're very good too. But back in the day, the bands weer actually very talented and the songs well written, catchy, and well played. Look no further than Chic's Rogers/Edwards combo with Tony Williams on drums. Slick and talented. Most disco has held up quite well over the years.
 
For me personally, the greatest joy I have as a drummer is seeing people dancing to my playing. That tells me I'm doing my job well. So definately, I get down with playing some disco. However, I also get the ladies shakin' their booties to KISS too so both sides of the coin work. :)
 
Sadly, the bands that are getting most of the work in my area are playing disco. It gets them (the audience) on the dance floor and that's what the bar owners want to see.
The bands that are doing this actually do a good job with it. It just makes it hard on those of us that would like to get out and play original material.
 
being successful in this business with original material is WAY harder then being a cover band. That's why I do the cover band thing for my "bread n butter", and pursue original projects outside of that. You're basically not going to make any money doing original material in the club scene. At least not around here.
 
B-squared said:
II am talking Donna Summer, Taste of Honey, Boogie Oogie Oogie - the whole nine yards. Old 70's disco. I am 51 and I remember the disco era, but I NEVER saw a band even attempt to do it live. In those days, the disco music was produced in a studio.
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Yes, produced in a studio, as virtually all music was. But those artists' hits were all recorded by live musicians*, so it's not surprising that a group of players today (with a little help from a keyboardist) would be playing those songs live as a band.

Bermuda


* well, not most of "I Feel Love" by Summer
 
fixxxer said:
Sadly, the bands that are getting most of the work in my area are playing disco. It gets them (the audience) on the dance floor and that's what the bar owners want to see.
The bands that are doing this actually do a good job with it. It just makes it hard on those of us that would like to get out and play original material.
Click to expand...

Its always been that way around here, covers or tribute bands is what sells at the bars, if your playing original material you basically need an agent that can book you as an opening act for well known bands that play the same style of music to get you noticed by that group of music lovers.
 
The band played well. I was impressed technically, but I never saw the words "live music" and "disco" in the same sentence before.

Sometime in the late 70's or early 80's, there was a segment on TV about how a disco record was made. (I think it was on 60 Minutes). In the segment, there was a producer who definitely looked the part - gold chains, polyester shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest, perm, etc. He was using a volume knob on a drum machine to remove every 4th beat in each measure: BOOM BOOM BOOM.......BOOM BOOM BOOM.....BOOM BOOM BOOM.... That was the drum part. Hey was saying something like: "Yeah man, feel that groove!" Maybe you could call this music if you stuck to the strictest definition, but nobody would EVER accuse this guy of being a musician.

That's why I am so "freaked out" (pun intended) that disco is being played by actual musicians.
 
I think that's cool. Definitely not an easy thing to pull off in a live situation, but I guess enough people know the songs now that it wouldn't be that hard to get it right.

Funny you should say "disco" as I tend to associate that with the four-on-the-floor beat, and not necessarily the music on top of it. Just this past weekend, I found myself playing the basic four-on-the-floor beat under about 80% of the songs we were playing, and the beat works. The dancers love it and it's not so disruptive to the groove, my fills were even simplified too. I was happy to be playing that beat, it was a nice change of pace from the pseudo-progressive stuff we all say we play all the time ;)
 
B-squared;1034157 said:
The drummer had a 4-piece with a piccolo snare cranked way tight for that disco "pop" back beat.
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That doesn't sound right at all. The snare in disco was almost always low-pitched, fat, and dry. He should have been playing a deep maple snare with a wallet on it, and an sm57 loudly thumping it thru the PA. :) Disco can be a lot of fun with good players. The tight snare was more for funk, later funk. Old funk was more sloppy with a deep snare, too.
 
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I think it would be a blast to play some disco....especially if there were live horns and a full compliment of capable musicians. In a packed house...forgettaboutit. Fun! I'd love to throw down on some KC, Bee Gees, Ohio Players....I'll bet I could come up with a 2 hour set of totally fun tunes that would shake butts. FUN!!
I'd go with a big, fat, deep snare drum. And I'd need that Simmons E-drum that goes "PEOOOOH!"....like the one in "FunkyTown" <--- how could you NOT love playing that song?!?!
 
Theres nothing wrong with rocking up the disco tunes either as long as the original hooks are there for the crowd to recognize the song then you should be good to go. Heres a couple examples:

Just Kait's version or "Hot stuff"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1gc93yHwL8

Tragedy's version of "You Should be Dancing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQmE5QJKT0

Ozzzy and Dweezil's version of "Staying Alive".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0GWWuwJOho

And I almost hate to include this one because the singer looks like an 80's wrestler and sounds worse but I will post it just because I think the guitar player rocked it.

Scotch Chocolate's version of "Everyone's a Winner".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PMvbvrb2XY

And hey if Slash can play live disco they why the hell cant the rest of us...lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiS569GJsc4&feature=related


Plus there are a bunch of bands that rocked up 80's dance stuff too like Alien Ant Farm, Manitou and Koritini that all did versions of MJ tunes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KbM7tgvnk4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HHfibzUJ-s
 
...Like a lot of guys who lived through the disco years.....I hated it back then.......fast forward twenty years....I saw KC and the Sunshine band at a fest.....bottom line, they were some of the best musicians I have ever had the priviledge of seeing live......they were having a ball and everyone was spot on.
 
larryz said:
I've always thought Disco's gotten a bad rap (not that Rap)...

There are many successful disco cover bands in my area, and they're very good too. But back in the day, the bands weer actually very talented and the songs well written, catchy, and well played. Look no further than Chic's Rogers/Edwards combo with Tony Williams on drums. Slick and talented. Most disco has held up quite well over the years.
Click to expand...

For the record, Chic's drummer was the late, great Tony THOMPSON, not Tony Williams (definitely no disrespect to Williams, a great in his own right). That trio also recorded Sister Sledge's hits, as well as some by Diana Ross ("I'm Coming Out," "Upside Down," etc.)...

That said, a lot of bands getting the good gigs around here mix disco and current top-40. Personally, I love playing disco & funk (esp. with good horns) and wish I got to do it more often. Playing rock can be fun too, but there's nothing quite like playing music with fun groovy beats, especially when the crowd starts dancing to your beats.
 
I would much rather see a band playing disco live than the modern "DJ" that just plays the BOOM BOOM BOOM track ad nauseum. A couple months ago my wife and I were visiting Atlantic City and the "DJ" played the same track for some 30 minutes in the outdoor club outside of the casino. I felt like my head was dunked in a fish tank and someone was pounding on the outside.

I was always curious what size and type hi-hats make for the best disco playing, considering that genre constantly opened and closed them on each strike.

As much as people ragged on disco in the day, listen to the album version of a song like Disco Inferno and tell me it doesn't take talent to keep the tight and precise beat over 12 minutes.
 
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