Originally Posted by: maggiorWhen you come down to it, Led Zeppelin was a trio too...instrumentation-wise.

For it to sound good, the bass has to have a good fat sound to fill in the rhythm when the guitar takes a solo. You'll also find that power trio guitar solos incorporate a lot of chordal/rhythmic stuff in it...again, to not leave a gaping whole where the rhythm guitar would be. I've read that Alex Lifeson (Rush's guitarist) will use a lot of double stops and stuff in his solos to fatten his guitar sound...again, so that the sound doesn't go flat when he solos.

Also, when you have Geddy Lee, John Entwhistle, or John Paul Jones as your bass player, there are no holes in the sound :-). For a power trio to work, you need a strong bass player

Well, if we look at it that way, some '80s groups could go too. I know Motley Crue only have two guitars on two or three songs (at least Live. On the records, they typically have 2 to 5 guitar-tracks for more depth), the rest is Mick Mars all the way, and their bass-lines are quite simple too, but Mick's riffs make them sound harder.

What I'm looking for is some simple rocking songs that can be performed well without sounding thinner with a 3-man band. It doesn't really matter if they're by actual Power Trios or not, as long as we'll be able to play them without needing a fourth musician. I can see advantages to both trios and larger bands of 4 or 5 people. Trios will be easier to keep on the same page, at least musically, while larger groups will most likely start arguing over all kinds of things, like "who plays this solo", "where shall we play our first gig" or "which songs should we cover". On the other hand, 4 or 5 man bands give everyone more freedom to move around on-stage (except for the drummer. He's kinda stuck). In a trio, the singer (who also plays an instrument, typically the guitarist) will be forced to stand in one place for most of the time (and let's be honest. Standing in the same spot for hours just isn't as fun as running around like an idiot :) ).

I've checked out the song list, and it has a couple of "simple" songs (songs marked with two guitars) that I'd think could be cool to learn. They're a bit of a mix, so it should be fun to learn them :) Even if the others I'll be jamming with aren't up for them, they could still be fun to learn :)