Why three band members are better than four or more
It’s been more than two years since I’ve seen a live band perform, the last being a piano-rock trio named Keane. Before that, it was 2-3 years since seeing a live concert as this thing called life, family, and work slowly takes over.
Tonight I’m going to seeing another trio named Muse with some friends. While I enjoy groups of all sizes (I’m an equal-opportunity fanman), I’ve always liked three-man rock bands for the following reasons:
- The business man in me likes splitting profits (if any) between three persons better than four or more. I played in a trio pop-punk band named Formaldehyde in high school, and I can tell you from experience that the earnings were way better and the sound just as big.
- Getting three people on the same musical page is a lot easier than four or more. Anyone who’s rehearsed with a live band easily understands the difficulty in trying to get everyone to respectively play their parts at the right moment. Original music is even worse. My early trio was much easier to practice in than when playing with individuals of four or more.
- Splitting freebies among three is much better than four or more.
Two man acts like Air and Daft Punk really have it made…
From memory, here are’s an incomplete list of other rock performances I’ve had the pleasure, or displeasure of seeing: Stone Temple Pilots (first concert), Beastie Boys, U2, Keane, Coldplay, 311, Korn, Orbital, The Prodigy, The Roots, Crystal Method, Lagwagon, Goldfinger, NoFX, Sneaker Pimps, Smashing Pumpkins, Unwritten Law, Chemical Brothers, Bad Religion, Ben Folds Five, Ziggy Marley, Cake, The Cure, Greenday, ZoSo (the best Zepplin cover band ever!), The Presidents of the United States of America, Radiohead, and Soundgarden.
Copyright © 2005-2009 Blake Snow. Some rights reserved. Site description:
September 13th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Yikes! I thought I had seen a lot of bands. You’ve been to some cool shows.
Let’s see.
James Brown (yes, that James Brown) U2, Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz, Blues Traveler, Evan Dando, The Fray, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Rage Against the Machine, Bush, No Doubt, Jimmy Eat World, No Motiv, Gin Blossoms, The Refreshments, Meese, Face to Face, The Pharcyde, Third Eye Blind, Reel Big Fish, Goo Goo Dolls, 7 Mary Three, Better than Ezra, Rusted Root, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 1964 (great Beatles Cover), and lots of others if you count small-time shows.
My Favorites:
Lenny Kravitz, Ben Harper and Better than Ezra.
Biggest Disappointments:
Weezer. They canceled their show at a small club when I was 17. I still have the ticket that was never used.
Ben Folds: I wasn’t old enough to get into the Zephyr Club in SLC when he came to town.
Shows I want to see:
Toad the Wet Sprocket (no longer together).
Led Zeppelin (um . . .)
Still wanna see Weezer play that old Blue album stuff.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:17 am
I’m in a two-man band and have never been happier. We have played with front-people before and had a lot of fun, but the two of us sync up really well and can read each other on the fly when jamming.
Also, it’s very easy to schedule practices.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Russ, I’ve seen Weezer twice: the Blue album tour was awesome, their green album tour was the pits.
David, we should jam sometime. :)
September 14th, 2007 at 12:56 am
STP was my first concert ever, too! Tulare County Fair circa 1992ish, just as their first album dropped. Had to bring my dad with me so that he’d let me go. Fortunately, the old man had a little rock left in him and it was a good time.
From a business perspective, your case for the three-bees is solid. But from a musical perspective, it’s hard to think of a three-man group that really rocked. Most of the 3-man groups that I can think of had/have a singer/lead guitar guy who was a good-but-not-great guitar player who really got into the lyrics and player solos that were pretty canned.
Four-man groups have a huge advantage in that they have either a front man to provide rhythm guitar for a fuller sound or two guys — a guitar lead and a vocalists — solely focused on their niches.
Of course their are exceptions to this rule, but I’ve got to give the edge to the 4-man band.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Jeff I will have to disagree with your statement that it is hard to think of a 3-piece band that “rocked.” Here is an incomplete list of rocking 3 man bands in no particular order:
Muse
Rush
Chevelle
Primus
Beastie Boys
Nirvana
Jimi Hendrix Experience
A Perfect Circle
Silverchair
ect.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Totally agree with the list — hence the “there are exceptions to this rule” part of my post — with the exception of
Beastie Boys — Four-man gig. Why you gotta disrespect Mixmaster Mike and DJ Hurricane like that? “We’re just 3 MCs and one DJ, and we be getting down with no delay …” You’re better than that, Tim. :)
A Perfect Circle — Good band with a couple of good songs, but I don’t know if they ever crossed over into greatness.
Silverchair — Any band that evolves to this http://youtube.com/watch?v=79DrGah0GuY
loses all privileges, regardless of how hard they rocked back in the day. I had to watch the video twice to believe it.
The rest of your list is absolutely bona fide, but the list of four (or more)-man bands bands is just way too strong: Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, Black Crows, Soundgarden, Metallica, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Collective Soul (that was for you, Trent) and Black Sabbath are the first ones that come to mind.
I’m going to do a little more research on this 3vs4 thing. Good post, Blake!
September 14th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I just like good music. If it takes 1, 3, or 50 people to make it happen, I don’t really care. Just give me the good tunes.
With that said here is my list of bands that I have seen:
Incubus
Rage Against the Machine
Type O Negative
Pearl Jam
Counting Crows (worst show ever)
Primus
Maroon 5
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Powerman 5000
Kid Rock (not too proud about this one. Second worst show ever)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Collective Soul
And last, but not least The Swing (Shout out to Blake and Tim)
Plus some more that I can’t remember right now.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
@ Tim
I’ve seen Counting Crows as well. I liked the show. I think the venue has a lot to do with it because I saw the Fray at the McKay Events Center, and it was very, very disappointing. I think I’ve actually seen Powerman 5000 before too. It’s easy to forget.
Nevertheless, you have quite the array of shows you’ve been to with Toad and Type O on the same list.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:46 am
@ Russ
I have to agree with you that the venue has a lot to do with it. The McKay center sucks and that happens to be where I saw Counting Crows.
Speaking of venues, if you ever get a chance to see someone play at the Depot in SLC make sure to go. That place is amazing.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
@ Jeff
You instantly had my respect when you mentioned Pearl Jam first on your list of 4 man bands that rock.
To the Beastie Boy nation I retract my classification of them as a 3 man band. To quote the great Michael Scott, “I knew that was wrong the moment it left my mouth (fingers).”
Also since everyone else is doing it I figure I might as well put down my list of concerts.
Pearl Jam
Muse
Incubus
Rage Against the Machine
311
Beastie Boys
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Primus
Powerman 5000
Maroon 5
Live
Veruca Salt
U2
Collective Soul
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Queensryche
Type O Negative (Rob Morris from BYU was there)
Carlos Santana
BTO
Bonham
Spin Doctors
Counting Crows
Deftones
Neil Young
Korn
Papa Roach
Tool
Weezer
Tori Amos
I’m sure there are more, plus a myriad of local bands. Hey what can I say, I love me some live music.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
How come no one mentioned Blink 182