Cover band folk, got any Mr Brightside cheats?

tbm

So I've been offered a bit of work with a cover band. I've a ton of tunes to learn, amongst them Mr Brightside. My hands won't do what's required for that main guitar riff. I can get the first 3 positions, the fourth, forget it. Then getting back to position one is s pain in the hoop.

I need a cheat for this bad boy. Anybody got one?

Danny1969

I did a quick video on this a while ago, there's an altative way of playing the monster stretch in the vid

tbm

Good man! Your way gets closer then anything else. I've new found respect for the Killers guitar player. That's s v tricky riff.

thecolourbox

My cheat would be to play "Somebody Told me" or "Smile Life You Mean It" instead, double bonus for me as a I prefer both of those songs to Brightside

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

My cheat would be to play "Somebody Told me" or "Smile Life You Mean It" instead, double bonus for me as a I prefer both of those songs to Brightside

Spot on. Or All The Things That I've Done, or Bling, or Bones, or Human, or A Dustland Fairytale or any of the other great songs the Killers have done (many of which are well enough known too) that aren't Mr. Brightside... which is easily my least favourite Killers song, not least because every covers band on Earth seems to think they have to play it, well or not.

DesVegas

I would tune my guitar slightly differently as could not reach across the two frets your little finger has get to.

Every-one has heard it a million times and no-one can play it well.. like the above has said, choose another Killer record

Jalapeno

Danny1969 said:

I did a quick video on this a while ago, there's an altative way of playing the monster stretch in the vid

Love your Blazer !!!!!!  (If it is a Blazer)

tbm

Not my choice lads. I'm filling in for someone, and its part of their set.

thecolourbox

Jalapeno;949527" said:

Danny1969 said:



I did a quick video on this a while ago, there's an altative way of playing the monster stretch in the vid














Love your Blazer !!!!!!  (If it is a Blazer)

I'd say it was a sweatshirt personally

ICBM

tbm said:

Not my choice lads. I'm filling in for someone, and its part of their set.

I would just play it completely differently then. There's nothing worse than hearing a cover played nearly like the original but not quite well enough.

Strip it down to palm-muted power chords or something like that .

Danny1969

@Jalapeno It's a Roadstar 2 mate from 86 ...... I only own 2 guitars and I would never sell that one. 

I do Smile like You mean it, All these things, Jenny, When we were young as well as Brightside. There are other Killer's songs but if your told to learn that one then you can't play your own version of it you have to play it pretty much like the record. To be honest it's only that G shape that's a stretch and in that video I show an easy way to do that anyway. The main riff is pretty easy as long as your guitars not slung too low,  and vocally it's an easy song to do as well so I can see why it's popular

stratman3142

I'm glad other guitar players have trouble with this one. I was asked to dep in a band I used to play for on New Years Eve and this was in the set. I had to say I'm not going to get this one in time for the gig, and fortunately they were happy to drop it.

I think I could get there eventually but it was killing my fingers. In many ways, the high part was worse than the lower stretches, because I found I had to fret with parts of my finger tips (i.e. the sides) that I don't usually use to get the shapes, which was pretty painful because the hardness hadn't built up.

I've never had to admit defeat before. I had less trouble with the EVH solo to Beat It than this one.

Pete

not_the_dj

thecolourbox said:

My cheat would be to play "Somebody Told me" or "Smile Life You Mean It" instead, double bonus for me as a I prefer both of those songs to Brightside

We do "Somebody Told Me"....but it's often we finish that and people then shout for "Mr Brightside". (

thecolourbox

Danny1969;950080" said:

,  and vocally it's an easy song to do as well

The number of god awful vocal performances of this song would suggest otherwise

Danny1969

thecolourbox said:

Danny1969;950080" said:

,  and vocally it's an easy song to do as well

The number of god awful vocal performances of this song would suggest otherwise

It's very monotone, the verse is almost on one note all the time. It's not high register to sing in  and the fact it's down a semi makes it even easier. What I mean though is compared to a lot of songs folk do in a modern covers band, like Living on a prayer, locked out of Heaven etc it's easy. There will always be some terrible versions of any song though

DesVegas

I would also, when playing it live, drag a chair from off stage and play the verses sitting down, that helped a lot

tbm

DesVegas said:

I would also, when playing it live, drag a chair from off stage and play the verses sitting down, that helped a lot

Good idea. If I use a bar stool I can stand up in a boy band stylee at pre chorus.

Crap, now I need to source a white suit.

Danny1969

You know the actual easiest fool proof way is to record it into your looper, GT10 \ GT100 etc and then just mine the intro, coming in when the whole bands in and it's not a noticeable  

Bod

DesVegas said:

I would also, when playing it live, drag a chair from off stage and play the verses sitting down, that helped a lot

Yep, that's what I do, but I hate it.  It's better than screwing up though

thecolourbox

Danny1969 said:

You know the actual easiest fool proof way is to record it into your looper, GT10 \ GT100 etc and then just mine the intro, coming in when the whole bands in and it's not a noticeable  

Yes! This!!

EricTheWeary

What was that Green Day song with the weird tremolo at the beginning no one could do and then it turned out live Green Day just used a backing track cause they couldn't do it either? Anyway, that's sort of a precedent for the looper idea.