Hi all!

In a few days we'll be doing some sort of "unplugged" gig as the Cyco Sanchez Blues Trio, and already I've organized some unplugged gigs for local punk and hardcore bands a few years ago.

Since we're doing it again now, I've been thinking about the concept of "unplugged" recently, with pretty contradictory results. On the one hand, there's the saying of the great John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats: "The whole thing about playing an acoustic guitar is not to unplug; it's to get raw and draw blood." On the other hand, there are loads and loads of stale MTV Unplugged Sessions (except, maybe, for Nirvana, and definitely except for The Cure, which just was fun).

So we decided not to unplug, but to use acoustic guitars, play our songs in different arrangements (poaching through different not-so-cool styles like indie pop, reggae, bluesrock etc.), but still use our overdrives and stuff.

I realized that we couldn't just do an unplugged gig, but that we had give the whole thing an irconic twist (apart from just having fun trying out new styles), which seems kind of strange to me, for I dearly love my acoustic guitar, but calling it "unplugged" seems odd.

So now I was wondering what you all think about this whole "unplugged" thing? Cool? Not cool? Both? Depending on who does it, where and why?

Cheers, Doc Sanchez

Yeah, right, Neil Young was also great. He looked pretty scary, bent over this organ like a wolf.

That's what I always found amusing about "unplugged" gigs: You have to plug in much more stuff than with regular gigs. And I guess that's why I don't see the "unplugged" gigs I played as "unplugged" but rather as trying to be more limited, more stripped, and to rearrange full band songs to something closer to the bone of the song. The more limitations you have, the more you have to be creative to make a song as cool, as hard, as big, as good as in the full electric band version. I guess that's what I like about the idea: Just the song, not the sound. Just the guitar, and no tricks with effects. And that, again, has absolutely nothing to to with that MTV stuff...

It's about the limitation that forces the musician to be more creative with less stuff, to get raw and draw blood, as Darnielle says.

In our case, I guess, it's mostly about the fun fucking with the punkrock audience and making fun of ourselves. I'm definitely looking forward to playing the worst version of "Reggae" or "Bluesrock" ever!

Ain't that the thing about "unplugged" or "acoustic" gigs, they always plug into the PA and have vocal mic's. It's about as unplugged as two dogs fucking. In fact I'd much rather watch that than an acoustic gig any day of the week!

I thought the only one of those MTV unplugged things worth a shit was the Neil Young one and he play a mini pipe organ thing, seriously that thing had to be plugged in.

Excactly. Great movie, great scene. If you take this scene as "plugged" vs. "unplugged", the choice is clear...

Doc Sanchez said:

That's true - I obviously mean those bluesrock bands. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Oh yeah, like Blues Hammer! One of my favorite movie scenes ever:

That's true - I obviously mean those bluesrock bands. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!! Do you know Judge Bone, a finnish blues guy? He made one record with only his guitar (mostly electric) and drums, and this is also "unplugged" in the sense of "stripped of unnecessary shit".

But there's one more unplugged gig on MTV that I like: The first REM Unplugged Session, because their songs were reduced to the core, which i think is a good thing. Bands that write good songs but make too much fuss arranging them, reduced to the heart of their songs, I guess this is the original thought behind "unplugged".

And if you still use distortion to annoy the audience ... HARR HARR HARR!

Disagree on the blues thing. Sure, I like dirty old acoustic blues, but nothing beats shit like Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, Lightnin' Slim, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and, of course, Bo Diddley. Those are my favorite blues rock grandpas. ;) Doc Sanchez said:

That sounds interesting... The Mountain Goats, my favourite singer/songwriter band used to play with just an acoustic guitar and bass, but on their recent tours they use drums, electric guitars and so on, and all the old songs sound much better that way...
I like "unplugged", when the bands are forced to rearrange their music because of the limitations, and I guess it would be the same thing with these acoustic guitarists - rearranging their songs, use their fantasy, look over their horizon... But when I look at blues, the old blues musicians with only their voice and guitar are much better than these blues rock grandpas...

That sounds interesting... The Mountain Goats, my favourite singer/songwriter band used to play with just an acoustic guitar and bass, but on their recent tours they use drums, electric guitars and so on, and all the old songs sound much better that way...

I like "unplugged", when the bands are forced to rearrange their music because of the limitations, and I guess it would be the same thing with these acoustic guitarists - rearranging their songs, use their fantasy, look over their horizon...

But when I look at blues, the old blues musicians with only their voice and guitar are much better than these blues rock grandpas...

I always thought it was boring. If you ask me, instead of bands playing "unplugged," we should make some of these dime-a-dozen singer/songwriter dweebs plug their shit in and make 'em use overdrive pedals and stuff. Now that would be interesting. PLUGGED!