Long story short, my SO is putting together a year-end dance performance for her local studio. Since we’ve gotten together, we have been introducing each other to new music, and I’ve inputted a few songs into the show that she will be choreographing dances to.
I’m stuck though, in ideas for one sequence. She’s looking for a heavier rock song, along the lines of Metallica (nothing with profanity mind you) with a beat that youngsters can pick out easily enough to perform their moves to.
This is pretty much the best think-tank that I know of, so I’d love to hear some opinions.
If it helps, the overarching ‘theme’ for the performance is ‘Toybox’, i.e. dolls coming to life, etc etc. Fire away!
Alice Cooper’s “Wind-Up Toy” sounds like it fits the theme.
The thread right beneath this one reminds me of Judas Priest’s ‘Rocka Rolla’, which has nothing to do with toys, but it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw these two threads next to each other.
Burn by Throwdown is a great, high energy song with a very distinct beat. The lyrics contain no profanity, and the overall message of the song is stand fast and believe in yourself despite naysayers.
I could recommend metal tunes all day, but this one is simple, has a great riff, great message and won’t startle kids or parents lyrically.
Fits the theme, sure, but after 8 minutes of that level of intensity… well, it better be the last number, because I think everyone would be too exhuasted to continue!
“Stockholm Syndrome” by Muse, live at the '04 Big Day Out Festival in Australia.
Relevance to your “toys” theme: moderate. “SS” is about the sick psychodynamic between kidnappers/terrorists/rapist-captors, etc. and their victims, whom they objectify and treat like instruments or playthings (and to be discarded when it’s convenient to do so).
Fun factor: extremely high! Rapid-fire, crunchy riff; soaring, melodic falsettos; and Matt shows you his linear shuffle dance in this particular performance. Other live versions are more stacked with outro solos in various combinations (often running to nine minutes), but this one is relatively stripped down.
Just in case anyone is interested, I’ll be playing all of these for the Lady Director herself, and I’ll write her comments about each song here. I’m rather curious myself about what would make a good metal song danceable to, in terms of ballet, jazz, etc.
Quickly edited to say that she’s quite impressed by the level of thought and clarity the SDMB produces. Natch.
Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. The kiddies could dress as miniature Vikings…or for some pseudo-web-viral goodness, they could dress as kittens
(I assume the Viking Kittens animation is still available on the web somewhere).
Enter Sandman from Mettallica could work, if she doesn’t mind going a little scary…
And, of course, the immortal Free Bird is perfect for any occassion…
I think Cum On Feel The Noize by Quiet Riot would be ideal because it has high energy and the lyrics are good for the way kids would interpret them although you may want to correct the spelling of the song name.
