Our “what song do you want to hear live?” poll attracted lots of interest and discussion and thanks to everyone who took part. the results were pretty conclusive with Jizzlobber topping the poll, closely followed by Kindergarten, Smaller and Smaller, A Small Victory and Crack Hitler.
Poll Results: What song do you want to hear live?
537 Votes were cast. You can still vote here.
Loading ...What the band say
But we are unlikely to hear any of these choice cuts when Faith No More resume their US tour tonight in Chicago. In a piece of fortuitous timing, the band have been discussing the setlist and some of these songs specifically in that wonderful feature in France’s New Noise magazine.
Here’s what Mike Patton had to say when asked:
Do you not like playing Malpractice, Crack Hitler and Smaller and Smaller?
No, really, I love them but they are difficult to play live. In fact, the ones you mention are really studio creations and that is the case with many songs from Angel Dust; complicated to recreate on stage. Let’s says that we prefer to play our more visceral songs where we can really let go. Playing Malpractice or Smaller and Smaller seems more like a recital. That can be cool but it does not really suit Faith No More.
And here’s Bill Gould:
Are there any old songs that you do not like to play live?
Yes – and that’s shown by the fact that there are some that we never play. Because they are too…boring. Death March from Introduce Yourself for example – I can’t stand it.Smaller and Smaller, Mouth to Mouth, What a Day, Crack Hitler, Malpractice you never play…
Mouth to Mouth because it is a song which is better in the studio than live, Smaller and Smaller because it is one of the boring songs I was thinking of. It is long, slow and if we played it, people would die of boredom and I would risk falling asleep on stage!Personally I wouild prefer Smaller and Smaller to I Started a Joke which you play systematically…
It’s my fault. I am the asshole who does not want to play this song (laughs) We are revising the setlist. Some we are tired of playing – Midlife Crisis, We Care a Lot or Epic and there’ s a big discussion between us at the minute. Are we obliged to play these songs? They are songs tailor-made for the stage and people love to hear them but…We will see once the new songs are integrated into the setlist.
The winning song
The fans of this band do not care if they play Epic ever again. Retire it.
Personally, I still like Midlife and We Care live. Fun crowd songs. Singalongs. And they can do cool stuff with both of them–like the cover breakdowns in Midlife or Rahzel rapping on We Care.
Here’s my top 5 of songs I’d like to see:
Collision
Riccochet
Take This Bottle
She Loves Me Not (instead of Easy)
The Perfect Crime (never gonna happen)
Personally I would not want to see KFAD dropped. It’s awesome live. I could however, happily say goodbye to Easy, ISAJ, Epic. I don’t really care what they are replaced with – even if the band only uses them as “recovery” songs between harder offerings, there is certainly a bevvy of slower tuns to choose from.
I personally adore Epic and Midlife Crisis, think they’re FNM’s best songs. But the New Noise interview makes me think they’re going to start considering really mixing it up.
I loved it when they started with Woodpecker in 2012, holy fuck, that was truly amazing. Furthermore, starting with Zombie Eaters in July at Hyde Park was awesome too. These are songs I’d like to see more in the set.
The thing with King for a day is the ending with all the feedback and messing around which eats about 2/3/4mins. No doubt it’s a popular song among fans, but overall I wouldn’t say it’s important.
Last to Know is great live. Agreed that Easy should be dropped at this point. Would rather hear them do a full version of Glory Box by Portishead or better yet, a totally new cover. A Hall N Oates song would actually be good, based on the sample they gave us recently. Their brief cover of Adje Jano was awesome.
It’s always great when Patton covers a song and does it better than the original, even if he’s just taking the piss out of it.
I guess they feel they have to play their hits to satisfy the casual fans, not those of us who love their whole catalogue. Home Sick Home is probably their only song I don’t like, and they didn’t even write it.
Wat about Easy? It was fun in the ’90s but it would be great if they do another cover and make it their own. Just skip Easy, I’ve heard it to many times. Same with I Started a Joke…ugh.
I voted for Jizzlobber but to be realistic….it will never be as frantic live as in ’92 or ’93. Just watch the Phoenix show in ’93 when they played Jizzlobber. It still gives me goosebumps. Mike Patton was all over the place…incredible how he managed to do that and sing properly during the whole show. Now he doesn’t get all frantic and crazy anymore and that is understandable (he is 47). So my guess is that they can’t play any song they want anymore. The have to keep up for about 90 minutes. Jizzlobber would be pretty exhausting.
I think The Last to Know sounds most like Sol Invictus…so that would be a great tune to integrate into the setlist.
Top notch performance from Roddy here. Anywho…
@Todd – as much as I love Epic and King For a Day, it would be nice to see some variety. Hard for me to believe they have to pander to casual listeners with those songs as I thought FNM was some what underground and would mainly attract fans to their shows. Maybe I’m wrong. And as a fan, it would never occur to me to complain that one of my favorite bands failed to play some of their iconic tunes. If they changed up the set list, I would think it would offer more incentive for fans to see them live multiple times.
They should retire Epic, We Care A Lot, Ashes to Ashes, I Started a Joke. It’s overkill with those songs. I am also tired of King for a Day, the song, live.
1997, I saw them play Mouth to Mouth in Philly and it was great. The crowd was clueless, even though they were smart/boorish enough to boo Limp Bizkit off the stage.
Absolute Zero was amazing when they played it with Trey in South America. They should play I Won’t Forget You.
They need to release Seagull Song. Anything from AD era is gold.
Smaller and Smaller is not boring. It is one of the greatest art-rock-metal work I have ever heared. Vocals are awesome, powerful, the bass line is one of the best on the album (I am still confused how can he be bored of playing this, bass is just amaizing). Drums on this song are EXTRAORDINARY. I mean, that rhythm can never get old or being ”boring”. PLAY THE DAMN SONG more often and get rid of EPIC (now that is one boring track if you ask me, overplayed, fast but yet very long which makes is hard to listen on every set). Also ADD that fucking part to Midlife crisis you always cut from live show (”It’s a miiiiidliiifeeee criiiiiseeeessss….”). It kicks ass, and it’s awesome. Sing ”DOES LIFE SEEM WORTHWHILE TO YOU…” when performing Land of Sunshine instead of fighting every time with that device for frenetic laughing which rarely works and it sounds awful.
SMALLER AND SMALLER ALL THE WAY.
Oh man! Cool…. Thanks Benrun….!! Muchly appreciated. 🙂 \m/
@Richy: The first reunion show (Brixton) is on the Bunglefever FTP server:
ftp://ftp.bunglefever.com/pub/Faith%20No%20More/Audio/Live/20090610%20-%20London%20%5Bspiralcircus.blogspot.com%5D/
Richy, all the setlist sites only have Jizzlobber as being played at Brixton 2009, that was the last time. I have the audio which is only okay but I have to admit that the song sounds pretty cool, better than I remember anyway and it would be cool to hear it again live. The only place I found it online with a quick search was here: http://kickass.to/faith-no-more-live-at-brixton-10-06-2009-t2682194.html
I have also have a bootleg from Manchester 1995 where they played it with Dean…that’s the one where they just skipped the keyboard outro, where they did play it at Brixton. They’re totally raggin’ on Dean during it too just to be assess, it’s pretty funny unless maybe you’re Dean I guess! I had reposted that one on zomb tracker I think years ago but it’s fallen off again from lack of bites and I don’t have the source info or the original uploader info anymore so can’t repost it.
I will never forget when I saw them for the second time in 2009 and MP asked the audience which song we wanted to hear next, “We Care A Lot” or “Ugly In The Morning”. The latter being one of my absolute favorites, I of course tried to be louder than 99% of the audience. But alas, WCAL was played next. He probably did it as a joke to begin with, but the feeling of being soo close…
Anyway, I’m glad to see not everyone in the band hates Smaller and Smaller. It’s another of my faves and a few years ago Bill made it sound like they all hated that song and that being one of the reasons they never played it. As for the tempo, I can sort of understand what he means, but they play so many other mid-tempo songs that I just don’t buy it.
Lastly, I wouldn’t at all mind seeing WCAL and Epic leave the sets for a while. But Midlife Crisis is THE song that made FNM my absolute, all-time favorite band, and it’s one of the very few songs from any artist I just can’t get sick of. It still holds almost all the magic it did when I first heard it about 17 years ago (yeah I was late to the party). If I get to see them again, I would honestly be a bit let down if I didn’t hear it. At the same time, the live version they do now isn’t half as good as it used to be. You can tell they’re getting bored with it. And yes, I realize this is probably how a lot of people feel about WCAL and Epic as well.
Cant recall ever hearing Jizzlobber live since 2.0, and definitely cant find any boots of it on YT from Brixton or any other show since 2.0.. so if in fact it was played, and someone could post it here, would be very grateful. I’ve always loved it. Its really twisted feeling, with a willfully warped sense of melody in the vocal verses anchored by the powerful sounding guitars/bass/drums , the dynamics are effective from the monolithic verses, the angular “Smiles…bruises…” etc parts to gothic diminished feel “cruel words..” part, through to the ascension ending. Feels like a real sonic journey. (As does a lot of FNM stuff, granted) The guitar is also pretty tricky in terms of riffing and arrangement. So it might not just be that Patton finds it hard to sing… Would love to hear the modern take.
First let me state that I have seen them 6 times on this tour….2 times in SF, 3 times in LA and is Santa Ana. They played almost all the songs I wanted to see live…As the Worm Turns and Be Aggressive were unique and special! But I would love to hear them do The World is Yours and The Crab Song….those two would be amazing.
Will check that. It’s not 100% of total votes but not sure what it is 100% of.
Yeah, 100% seems wrong…Jizzlobber looked to be the winner, but I too didn’t vote for it. In fact, if you were allowed a vote against a song, I would have voted against it. It is musically boring compared to other songs, and if you want a heavy song, Cuckoo is way better. Plus, I prefer the heavy songs to also be up tempo (Naked, Got That Feeling, Ugly, What A Day). Jizzlobber is a plodding, snore of a song. Why Do You Bother is a better moody, menacing song too. They tried Jizzlobber at Brixton in 2009 and I don’t think it really got all that good of a reaction. I don’t mind Epic, Midlife, or We Care at a concert experience, I just wish they would sub in She Loves Me Not, RV, or Edge of the World for Easy, I Started A Joke, or This Guys’ In Love With You.
Might part of the reason they skip Jizzlobber be down to the potential strain on Patton’s voice these days? Even by Mike’s standards that song sounds rough on the vocal cords. Not saying he couldn’t do it, of course, but those chorus screeches are pretty extreme and he’s got a whole show to get through.
Well Ben considering Jizzlobber is my favourite tune – and the fact I missed voting it makes all the sense in the world to me it’s #1. I just hope they play it in T.O.
Good insight from Mike and Billy. I’d be sad to see Midlife Crisis go but it’s certainly had a fine run. Hopefully this site is on their radar if they’re actively revising the set, although I’m not sure how Jizzlobber got 100% of the vote as it definitely wasn’t amongst the picks I submitted.