Stan Ridgway does this. Last time I saw him, he told the story of how he went to some hipster joint in NYC called Mexican Radio. He introduced himself as Stan Ridgway and got the blank stare. "You know, the guy who wrote 'that song'". He then proceeded to regale us with a zydeco verson of "that song".

Bruce Hornsby tried to pull that "you should care who i am" bullshit once on me too.

Blizzard of '77 is one of my favorite songs from them.

Collective Soul played a free show in Toledo back in '95, and I promised myself (and my friends) I would buy both (at the time) of their records if they didn't play "Shine." I own zero Collective Soul records.

A lot of bands prefer to play their newer stuff because it's a reflection of where they are in the present. Nada Surf is most noted for something they did almost ten years ago. They got signed just by being themselves and writing/performing songs they cared about. Now, they've "grown" and changed while most of their hit-single audience doesn't want them to. That has to be frustrating as fuck. Best analogy I can think of is coming up to a 35-year-old and his wife and reminding him how hot his college girlfriend was.

I always kinda dug the Cheap Trick approach...they generally play "I Want You To Want Me" in the middle-ish of the set. I always took that as them saying "Yeah, we know you wanna hear this...but we're not gonna treat it like it's the only thing we're known for" .

That, and they rock it like there's no tomorrow. Those guys are tremendous live.

That's very very true. But the guitar player doesn't need to throw out 400 picks every show. That's over-rocking.

Nope, that's cool, 'cuz I got me one.

I just can't believe he can get all the notes out AND launch that many picks... it was impressive from a logistics point of view.

They also played the theme to that 70's show when I saw them, which was awesome.

I love it when a band gets up on stage, plays the hit first and then everyone who was just staying to hear that song can either leave or enjoy the rest of the set.

I remember Beck doing that with Loser, and Cracker doing that with Low.

Brilliant.

That IS pretty slick...but I can't imagine going to a show to see 1 song.

speaking of what cool bands do live, i like it when they play requests from the audience. that being said, maybe i'm just not going to right shows, but i hardly ever hear anyone shouting out a request for the hit single. it may be the only song title they know, and maybe the only one they really want to hear, but i've never heard a request for the hit single? why not?

bort

np: left of the dial: dispatches from the 80s underground disc 2

On the R.E.M. Tourfilm video, they begin the concert with a series of greetings and instructions for the audience projected over the stage--things like "Hello (insert your city here)!"

One series of captions:

Please do not choose the quietest moment...

of the quietest song...

to yell out "Radio Free Europe!"...

as Mike Mills hates that.

at the ARIAs (the aussie 'grammies'), even Jet *snigger* sarcastically commented, "We're playing 'Are you Gonna Be My girl' because we hardly ever play it and we love playing it again and again...."

but they still played it. Toilet break.

i've heard screams for the single a few times, but i think the reason you rarely hear it is because people assume it'll be played anyway. when i saw broken social scene, emily haines joined them on-stage halfway through the set and someone yelled out "anthems!" one of the guitar players said, "duh, of course, we're gonna play it. what do you think she's here for?" i thought they were trash that night, but that was pretty funny.