Does miming happen in metal?

r3nu4l

Well pop stars regularly mime on stage after the punters have paid a fortune to see them perform 'live' and it got me wondering today...have any metal bands ever been caught out miming.

I'm not talking Top of the Pops or the Late Late but at a gig. Anyone know? Does it happen?

Karl Hungus

r3nu4l wrote:

Well pop stars regularly mime on stage after the punters have paid a fortune to see them perform 'live' and it got me wondering today...have any metal bands ever been caught out miming.

I'm not talking Top of the Pops or the Late Late but at a gig. Anyone know? Does it happen?

Apart from Top of the Pops (And how many metal bands play on there anyway?) I don't think so.

Sometimes you might get a live DVD where it's been overdubbed in the studio to correct a mistake or the like, but I find even then most Metal bands will leave any mistakes in. Off the top of my head, I've seen mistakes in the Death and Opeth DVDs, aswell as in Metallica's section of Monsters of Rock (Although I'd imagine these days Metallica would probably try to cover the mistakes in studio).

Metal is very much a genre where things are much more authentic. I've heard plenty of praises for the fact that the mistakes were left in on Death's Live in LA DVD. I like the honesty of it.

Although supposedly for Dream Theater's Score DVD, there was a section where someone yanked out John Petrucci's guitar lead during a solo, and he kept on playing as to "Mime" the rest of the solo, then overdubbed it in the studio. Still, that's a pretty big **** up, so they can definetly be forgiven for that bit of mine.

It wasn't me!

I think there's a lot more pride in metal to be a musician, and it may not turn out perfectly every single time, but I think the average metal band would rather screw up while playing themselves than mime to a perfect recording. Still, in the Dream Theater DVD Karl mentioned, I think Petrucci did absolutely the right thing in how he handled that situation.

mike65

I forget the band, but there was a story about some rock guitarist faking it on stage while a tech/roadie played the notes behind the stage!

Mike.

r3nu4l

Yep, replies are pretty similar to what I thought they would be. I couldn't imagine a metal band doing this to be honest, I've heard some bands play pretty crap at gigs but I'd rather that than to think they were miming.

I just wondered if anyone knew of anyone ever being caught out on stage. I think the crowd would probably go beserk if that happened

brianthebard

mike65 wrote:

I forget the band, but there was a story about some rock guitarist faking it on stage while a tech/roadie played the notes behind the stage!

Mike.

That was journey wasn't it? Happened during the summer. I imagine that there isn't much scope for metal bands to mime, not in small venues anyways.

MagnumForce

Whitesnake mimed their MTV Music Awards appearance in 1987, im sure they would have prefered not to though.

Crucifix

Karl Hungus wrote:

(Although I'd imagine these days Metallica would probably try to cover the mistakes in studio).

I dunno, they left the mistakes in on St Anger...:D

DSB

Static X bassist Tony Campos at Korn

Karl Hungus

MagnumForce wrote:

Whitesnake mimed their MTV Music Awards appearance in 1987, im sure they would have prefered not to though.

Yeah, for things like that though they require you to mine, so it's pretty much mine or **** off.

mike65

TV does'nt like live peformance as its a lot of extra work, after all the gear has to be plugged in! When Iron Maiden played Running Free on TOTP it was the first true live slot on that show since 1973 (the Who).

Mike.

senordingdong

Crucifix wrote:

I dunno, they left the mistakes in on St Anger...:D

I'd say they're as genuine as the next band in that area.

Sofaspud

Crucifix wrote:

I dunno, they left the mistakes in on St Anger...:D

I think they're called "songs", though.

SirLemonhead

Karl Hungus wrote:

Yeah, for things like that though they require you to mine, so it's pretty much mine or **** off.

Did they send Whitesnake down to dig for coal?

GhostInTheRuins

MasterOfSolos wrote:

Did they send Whitesnake down to dig for coal?

lol. Brilliant

mp3guy

Karl Hungus wrote:

Although supposedly for Dream Theater's Score DVD, there was a section where someone yanked out John Petrucci's guitar lead during a solo, and he kept on playing as to "Mime" the rest of the solo, then overdubbed it in the studio. Still, that's a pretty big **** up, so they can definetly be forgiven for that bit of mine.

Afaik he didn't mime, theres a part of that song where he's off camera for a while, then back with a different guitar.

r3nu4l

Yeah as Mike and Karl said TV is different, if a band wants the airtime sometimes they gotta bend over and take it...like it or not :eek:

I just remember the gf going to see a certain female pop star and coming home only to tell me that after paying €60 for the ticket, the 'artist' mimed every song :eek:

I told her that a metal band would never get away with it Imagine a metal band getting caught miming and then saying...

'Oh but we just had to get all our choreography and costume changes right and to do that while playing instruments and singing would just be so difficult' :rolleyes:

How many more albums would they sell after that?

John

r3nu4l wrote:

I told her that a metal band would never get away with it Imagine a metal band getting caught miming and then saying...

'Oh but we just had to get all our choreography and costume changes right and to do that while playing instruments and singing would just be so difficult' :rolleyes:

How many more albums would they sell after that?

Well if it was someone like Cradle of Filth I'd think they'd sell the same. Although having seen them live, they don't mime. But if any metal band looked like they would mime, it's them.

Rustar

Slay those who would delve into such evil.

I just remember back to a time when we opened for a good band with actual talent and stuff, and their lead guitarist told me, "If there weren't mistakes it wouldn't be rock'n'roll!"

Patricide

Didnt Marc rizzo leave ill nino cause they mimed?

cournioni

r3nu4l wrote:

I just wondered if anyone knew of anyone ever being caught out on stage. I think the crowd would probably go beserk if that happened

Haha... The rioting starts, the band throw their instruments onto the ground and run off stage with the music still playing!

Motley Crue

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Haha... The rioting starts, the band throw their instruments onto the ground and run off stage with the music still playing!

Pretty much, although I believe Metallica appeared on Top of the Pops a few years ago, and mimed 'Frantic' but not 'St Anger'. Frantic was edited down to 4mins anyway and sounded horrible. Strypher, Def Leppard, Nirvana, Twisted Sister and Therapy have all appeared on TOTP so maybe one of those bands did. I know Kurt defo did cause he had a cold and complained about it afterwards.

r3nu4l

Motley Crue wrote:

Pretty much, although I believe Metallica appeared on Top of the Pops a few years ago, and mimed 'Frantic' but not 'St Anger'. Frantic was edited down to 4mins anyway and sounded horrible. Strypher, Def Leppard, Nirvana, Twisted Sister and Therapy have all appeared on TOTP so maybe one of those bands did. I know Kurt defo did cause he had a cold and complained about it afterwards.

Yeah, TOTP and TV shows will always have a certain amount of miming simply because of the amount of time it takes to sound check everything and it's easier to control the band during recording. I can't remember who the band were on the Late Late show years ago but the singer knocked over the drum kit about 3/4 way through the song and as if by magic the drums kept beating

My main point was miming at gigs as with certain pop princesses! I've always loved metal and never really heard of anyone miming at a gig so I thought I'd throw it out to you guys and see if anyone knew of it happening anywhere

Den_M

Ok they're not metal, but didn't Richey mime guitar live with the Manic Street Preachers? I dunno if his parts were on tape or if James Dean Bradfield played the lot. I heard that once while playing some festival the tech turned Richey up to the normal level in the mix and he was really embarassed as everyone could hear the mess he was playing. It was live on channel 4 or something.

peter1892

On their '12 Wasted Years' video, there's footgae of Iron Maiden on a German 'Top of the pops' type show, playing/miming to 'Wasted Years' where they all swap instruments & taking the p!ss completely as it was the 25th take or something. Except Adrian Smith, who was taking it all very seriously.

At one point Nicko is on 'vocals' with Steve & Bruce messing on the drums!

Here is it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81NGwXodo4

didn't Richey mime guitar live with the Manic Street Preachers

Possibly, it always seemed as if he wasn't even plugged into the amps.

I can't remember who the band were on the Late Late show years ago but the singer knocked over the drum kit about 3/4 way through the song and as if by magic the drums kept beating

Pop Will Eat Itself? They were drunk, the two frontmen wrapped their heads in sellotape & threatened the audience. Uncle Gay almost - almost - lost his cool with them. Found it too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qL99XhSDKI

r3nu4l

peter1892 wrote:

Pop Will Eat Itself? They were drunk, the two frontmen wrapped their heads in sellotape & threatened the audience. Uncle Gay almost - almost - lost his cool with them. Found it too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qL99XhSDKI

That's not the band I was thinking of but that's funny Not sure who they were, it was funny to watch and I remember Gay throwing his hands in the air and saying 'That's live TV folks'. The drummer looked mightily unimpressed with the singer, like there was gonna be some asswhoopin' later

Black NG-60-90

Den_M wrote:

Ok they're not metal, but didn't Richey mime guitar live with the Manic Street Preachers? I dunno if his parts were on tape or if James Dean Bradfield played the lot. I heard that once while playing some festival the tech turned Richey up to the normal level in the mix and he was really embarassed as everyone could hear the mess he was playing. It was live on channel 4 or something.

He didn't mime but i heard that he played with his guitar volume down so low that the sound guy asked him if his guitar was turned on and Richey replied "Just a little bit".

Nehpets

Not metal but here's Muse miming at CD:UK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17KMNnXGd_c
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGunl2EVxik

Suppose this happens when they're let play live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKHEhPyyAlo

Pet

I've seen videos of Placebo miming. Again, not metal, but it happens.

e.doobie

yea im a big fan of placebo but apparently they'v done it a few times..not once did it ever go unnoticed.
or did it?

brianthebard

Pet wrote:

I've seen videos of Placebo miming. Again, not metal, but it happens.

Videos of live gigs or promotion vids? as already mentioned if its a music video its guaranteed to be mimed, I don't think many people get to play their videos, the sound quality just wouldn't be up to scratch.