Switcheroos on stage

[Blazer]

I guess it comes as no surprise that everybody who plays an instrument in fact plays several, Level42 Bassplayer Mark King is known for his slapping bass style but he's also a killer on drums and no slough on guitar either. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is a mean bassplayer but he's also a clasically trained trumpet player who once was heralded as the next Herb Albert, Ray Charles is a well known keyboardist but he was also a saxophone player.

So with that in mind, some bands like to show off what else they can do by switching roles on stage, I figure it to be fun to show those instances when a switcheroo was performed.

First up, here's Metallica performing Diamond Head's "Am I evil" with leadsinger James Hetfield drumming, Bassplayer Jason Newsted playing lead guitar, guitarist Kirk Hammet playing bass and Drummer Lars Ulrich singing.


And here's Pantera performing Metallica's "Whiplash" with Leadsing Phil Anselmo playing guitar and guitarist Dimebag Darrel singing. Note also that they have Jason Newsted as guest bassplayer here.


Here's Nirvana playing "Seasons in the sun" with leadsinger/guitarist Kurt Cobain playing drums, Drummer Dave Grohl playing bass and Bassplayer Krist Novoselic playing (an out of tune) guitar.

[Pilgrim]

Dick Dale plays a mean Louis Armstrong trumpet in his show, plays the bass with a pair of drumsticks while the bass player fingers the notes, and also plays a duet with the drummer - both of them using a single set of drums simultaneously.

Here's a trumpet clip:



Drum duet, and bass (audio and video dont' sync well...). The bass player is Sam Bolle, who also plays with Agent Orange.  Nice guy, very willing to chat during breaks and after shows.

[chromium]

Every once and a while, you see Kim Gordon on guitar with Sonic Youth, and someone else on bass - in this case I believe it's producer Jim O'Rourke on the Thunderbird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDhydff54O4&feature=related



...and speaking of Thunderbirds... here's a cool clip of Walter Becker playing a 60's reverse Tbird in the early incarnation of Steely Dan - with Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias on guitar duties:

[TBird1958]

Awesome Steely Dan clip!  That's a fave of mine.............Gotta love that 'Bird   

[Freuds_Cat]

+1 on that Mark, great clip. btw, what the hell is that pickup at the neck of Baxters Tele?

[chromium]

btw, what the hell is that pickup at the neck of Baxters Tele?

I'm not sure what that pickup is, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was something he built.  I recall reading that he used to wind his own pickups.

This is the best shot of that tele that I could find.  Looks like a single coil w/blade polepiece (?)




I like that bridge ground      Forget the looks- just make it work!!

[slinkp]

First time I ever saw anybody do the onstage switcheroo (in fact, that's exactly the word they used) was these crazy-ass guys I went to college with, called Soothing Sounds For Baby.
They had an enormous musical impact on me. Don't go insulting my taste, now 

Here's three live vids showing three different lineups from the same trio:

http://www.youtube.com/v/wtZS9RUeNno&hl=en&fs=1

http://www.youtube.com/v/C8jhxpuUuy4&hl=en&fs=1

http://www.youtube.com/v/1NzV9baWgek&hl=en&fs=1

They were pretty damn good for a high-school band back in 87 before I met them:
http://www.youtube.com/v/Z8sM9jrC9VY&hl=en&fs=1

[SKATE RAT]

hey i've done it.but you don't see bands do it alot live.lot of people play multiple instruments on record.i think Stevie Wonder play everything on Innervisions"

[Freuds_Cat]

one of the more "known - here at least" bands I was in did it at a New Years Eve gig in 1982/3

1500 hot and sweaty ppl in the best venue in town, we supported ourselves wearing suits. Then came on about 11pm in our normal band garb and played through to just before midnight when we slipped off stage for the MC to do his bit. After the poppers and mass crowd kissing etc had calmed down we had all changed instruments to play an original song that was in the charts at the time. The guitarist was a short guy who had swapped to my bass (I'm 6'1") I had swapped to his Tele (which felt like it was around my neck) and the other guitarist swapped with the drummer.

About half way through the song there is a complete stop at which point we all ran around the stage swapping back to our original instruments and finished the song.

That particular show is one of my all time favourite memories. NYE here is obviously hot  and the place was steaming. I remember  throwing the contents of a jug of cold water over the crowd down in front and them all loving it just for the respite from the heat even for a second.

[slinkp]

I went looking for footage of Prince on bass and didnt find any, but here's Stevie Wonder on drums...
too bad the audio's out of sync with the video
http://www.youtube.com/v/3KkZjEZbU9w&hl=en&fs=1

[slinkp]

I forgot about this one... U2 back in the day with Adam Clayton on guitar and Edge on bass:
http://www.youtube.com/v/AjtpplE39_g&hl=en&fs=1