Kiss’s Paul Stanley says bands should play hits “the way it became famous” and not ‘minimise’ fans: “The idea of going on stage with a sold-out audience and showing disrespect by fulfilling some need in me is unimaginable”
For every musician who can’t wait to dust off a forgotten deep cut, there’s a fan who just wants to hear the song that changed their life.
Paul Stanley has little patience for bands who grow tired of their most famous songs, arguing that live shows should prioritise audience expectations over an artist’s desire to reinvent familiar material.
In a new interview with Vulture, the Kiss frontman dismisses the idea that playing a band’s biggest hits should ever feel like a burden.
Asked to name a song his guitar has a “love-hate relationship” with, Stanley replies: “This may sound corny, but I’ve never, ever found playing any of those songs a chore. They made me what I am and I love them all dearly.”
READ MORE: Answered: Even More Technical Guitar Questions You Were Too Afraid To Ask
Stanley’s latest comments feed into a long-running debate over what fans should expect from live shows. While some artists use concerts as an opportunity to reinvent older material or spotlight deep cuts, others argue audiences are primarily there to hear the songs that defined a band’s career.
For Stanley, moving too far from those original versions risks undermining the experience.
“When I would go see a band and they were bored and would rearrange a heavy rock song and do it as a reggae tune, I was terribly disappointed and felt minimised,” he says. “I paid to hear the song that I loved, the way I loved it.”
He adds that personal boredom should never take precedence over the expectations of a paying audience, particularly when it comes to the songs that built an artist’s career.
“The idea of going up on stage with a sold-out audience and showing disrespect by fulfilling some need in me, or boredom, is unimaginable,” Stanley says. “Play it the way people know it, the way it became famous, and show the respect you had for it when you wrote it.”
“You’re only deviating because you’re bored and that’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. The worst I can say is if you win the lottery, you shouldn’t complain about taxes.”
That said, not everyone agrees with the sentiment. Metallica frontman James Hetfield has previously spoke about the importance of “challenging” fans with deeper cuts from the band’s catalogue, while Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows has argued that leaning too heavily on hits can leave artists feeling creatively stagnant.
“There’s bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden that continually play new stuff and reinvent themselves,” Shadows said. “And it pisses people off, but it allows them to be interested in what they’re doing.”
By contrast, Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx has voiced support for hit-heavy setlists as a way of meeting audience expectations. Speaking to Utah’s 103.5 The Arrow, he explained that audiences generally want to hear the songs they already know.
“I hate it when a band goes out and doesn’t play their hits,” Sixx said. “I just remember [David] Bowie doing that, and I was like, ‘He’s one of my favourite artists. I don’t want to go hear a bunch of C and D tracks off of records that I love. I want to hear songs like Rebel Rebel.”
The post Kiss’s Paul Stanley says bands should play hits “the way it became famous” and not ‘minimise’ fans: “The idea of going on stage with a sold-out audience and showing disrespect by fulfilling some need in me is unimaginable” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
