Saw Original Band That Played Snippets Of Covers Between Songs

[ski219]

We played a show with another local original band. They were a 3 piece funk band and were pretty good musicians. What I found weird was that in between songs, in an effort to keep the flow going I guess, they would play little 10-20 second snippets of Stevie Wonder or James Brown tunes amongst others.

 

First time I thought they were going to lay the cover but then they launched into an original. They did this throughout their set. Rather than keep the flow going I found it...I don't know... off putting maybe. I felt like it interrupted the flow. And when they started a particularly good song like "I Wish" I was wishing they would play the cover.

 

Bad idea IMO. Any thoughts?

[Funkwire]

I agree, bad idea. It always kind of irritates me when original bands play covers. If you can't come up with 45 minutes/1 hour of your own music, then you shouldn't be playing in front of an audience. IMO. Playing little snippets makes it even weirder.

[Austincowbell]

sounds like that guys who quotes some movies and you think he's funny until he's been doing it for an hour and you want to punch him in the face.

[New Trail]

 

We played a show with another local original band. They were a 3 piece funk band and were pretty good musicians. What I found weird was that in between songs, in an effort to keep the flow going I guess, they would play little 10-20 second snippets of Stevie Wonder or James Brown tunes amongst others. First time I thought they were going to lay the cover but then they launched into an original. They did this throughout their set. Rather than keep the flow going I found it...I don't know... off putting maybe. I felt like it interrupted the flow. And when they started a particularly good song like "I Wish" I was wishing they would play the cover. Bad idea IMO. Any thoughts?

 

 

I agree, bad idea! I don't understand the reasoning behind this. If they can start a new song that quickly (the snippet) why not just go ahead with the next original? Also, playing snippets of songs might piss off the customers in the sense that the band is implying "yes, we can play these covers but we WON'T." Kinda like a band that gets a request that the band doesn't know but one guy in the band knows part of it and starts playing it, just enough to piss the customer off, and the rest of the band off as well, like "well, THEY don't know it, but 'I' do".

[rog951]

A possible thought process behind doing this would be that the snippets of cover tunes would placate the audience by giving them a touch of stuff they're familiar with, to hopefully keep them interested while they "suffer through" the originals. Not sure if it'd work though. How did the rest of the crowd react?

[ski219]

Not sure about crowd reaction. The snipptes went by pretty quick. It was a small venue but was full and they had a lot of friends there. No room to dance... more of a listening room kind of place. It's called The Acoustic Cafe though they have plenty of electric acts.

[MartinC]

I used to have a guy working for me and almost everything he would say, he would say it with a quote from Scarface.

 

Me: Hey, hand me the mallet

Him(in Al Pacino's Scarface accent): Are you giving me orders?

Me: Damm right I'm giving you orders.

 

It was pretty funny.

 

 

sounds like that guys who quotes some movies and you think he's funny until he's been doing it for an hour and you want to punch him in the face.

 

[Nijyo]

 

A possible thought process behind doing this would be that the snippets of cover tunes would placate the audience by giving them a touch of stuff they're familiar with, to hopefully keep them interested while they "suffer through" the originals. Not sure if it'd work though. How did the rest of the crowd react?

 

 

This is the real question. Basing "is it a good idea or not" on the opinions of musicians here or in the crowd is sure to result in a greatly skewed-from-reality conclusion.

 

My bet is that the crowd variably liked it through to didn't really care.

[Austincowbell]

I think the largest issue at hand is this:

The thing the audience will remember about his band is that they played snippets as opposed to the band's original songs. In an original band your goal is to brand your songs so people buy your cd and tell their friends. By playing snippets they are actually taking the focus off of their own music and it's completely counter-productive.

[Nijyo]

I think the largest issue at hand is this: The thing the audience will remember about his band is that they played snippets as opposed to the band's original songs. In an original band your goal is to brand your songs so people buy your cd and tell their friends. By playing snippets they are actually taking the focus off of their own music and it's completely counter-productive.

 

As opposed to the common situation whereby the audience probably won't remember the original band at all after that night

 

Anything you can do to stick in the head of the audience seems to be fair game from my POV.

[samson3382]

 

I agree, bad idea. It always kind of irritates me when original bands play covers. If you can't come up with 45 minutes/1 hour of your own music, then you shouldn't be playing in front of an audience. IMO. Playing little snippets makes it even weirder.

 

 

The snippest are a horrible idea. I would think that would definitely piss people off.

Though I personally dont see a problem with throwing in covers, in certain situations.

I play/sing/songwrite in a primarily original band. We have about an hours worth of original stuff, (album almost done) an hour or so of covers, and then another half hour or so of stuff we can do with guest musicians. It broadens our horizons and opens up opportunities for more/better paying gigs. We can book 9-1 gigs and hire another band or musician for 100$ for a set, or if we throw in an acoustic set, pull it off ourselves. Plus, if mixed in the set strategically a few covers (if appropriate) can keep people interested, eventually people will be singing along with your originals, sometimes without even realizing it.

[TIMKEYS]

They would have been better off just doing one cover all the way through. We have done a single cover at a festival where the rest of the set was all original stuff. It wasnt done for lack of original material. We just did it. It was like an hour and 15 min festival slot.

[BATCAT]

I find it kind of weird, too. Better to just do one whole cover really well.

[ski219]

I actually asked them about it and the reply was that it is part of their show and part of what they want the audience to experience. I think that the artist they covered snippets of are their influences.

 

As far as their originals I have to say that , like a lot of bands, one song sounded pretty much like another. So at least the snippets let you know that one song was over and another about to begin.

 

As far as original bands doing covers, and I'm sure we've had more than enough threads on this in the past, my feeling is 1 or 2 reworked into the band's own style is fine. I used to play in an original band that gradually became a cover band with a bunch of originals. This worked for making money in the short term (meaning decent paying gigs) but we lost our drive as an original band and became more focused on adding covers than writing , arranging and recording new material.

 

My feeling is that you need to write and arrange many, many more songs than you record and if you have 1 hour of songs, well that's a start. My current band has 2 sets worth of material and we are working hard to add more so that we can lose the weaker stuff. Of course every one of our songs is a precious jewel... or else a turd that we polished to a fine shine...

[Austincowbell]

As opposed to the common situation whereby the audience probably won't remember the original band at all after that night Anything you can do to stick in the head of the audience seems to be fair game from my POV.

That's kind of dumb logic... I mean, if I whipped out my phallus and pissed on the frit row they would remember that even better.

[Nijyo]

 

That's kind of dumb logic... I mean, if I whipped out my phallus and pissed on the frit row they would remember that even better.

 

 

This was pretty much the model used successfully by a whole lot of rock groups in the 70s and 80s, remember? Maybe not pissing on the front row (but, well, I don't doubt it happened in some punk venue somewhere), but "doing outrageous, non-music related things in order to be remembered amongst a large crowd of similar musicians."

[Austincowbell]

 

This was pretty much the model used successfully by a whole lot of rock groups in the 70s and 80s, remember? Maybe not pissing on the front row (but, well, I don't doubt it happened in some punk venue somewhere), but "doing outrageous, non-music related things in order to be remembered amongst a large crowd of similar musicians."

 

 

because in those days, we carried an onion on our belt..

 

I fully believe in putting on a great live show but having people remembering everything you did between songs and conditioning their minds to ignore your music is a great way to build up an audience that will plateau and eventually fall way when your trick isn't cool anymore.

[kmart]

 

because in those days, we carried an onion on our belt...

 

 

...as was the fashion.

[Vito Corleone]

I think it's like anything else---done well, and I don't see any reason why the idea COULDN'T work. But pretty clearly it was poorly executed in this case, otherwise the OP would be instead posting about how cool of an idea it was.

[troyguitar]

I've seen bands that will throw in a little bit of a cover in the middle of one of their songs - only like 1-4 measures - and I've always been a fan of that. In my band last year, for example, we played the first 4 measures of Holy Diver in the solo section of one of our songs after Dio died. We're planning to do something similar with Heaven and Hell somewhere in the newest song I'm writing if/when we ever play live again.

[JailTime]

 

This was pretty much the model used successfully by a whole lot of rock groups in the 70s and 80s, remember? Maybe not pissing on the front row (but, well, I don't doubt it happened in some punk venue somewhere), but "doing outrageous, non-music related things in order to be remembered amongst a large crowd of similar musicians."

 

 

I dunno - a lot has changed since then - specifically the audience. People who are going to see original music these days are fewer by far, but they are typically more passionate (or they are your friends) about music than your average cover band listener. So simply doing something to be remembered isn't going to work as well because music is way over-saturated and the world understands the 'poser' phenomenon. I think you have to know the audience that enjoys whatever type of originals you're doing. Great songs and great playing have always been the most memorable parts of the originals bands I like and try to be.

[TIMKEYS]

typically bands that i hear that have the best original music tend to be bands that do regular gigs and do their own stuff right along with their covers. Their original stuff can hold its own with a cover set, so they dont want to limit themselves to the typical original shows and formats.

[New Trail]

 

typically bands that i hear that have the best original music tend to be bands that do regular gigs and do their own stuff right along with their covers. Their original stuff can hold its own with a cover set, so they dont want to limit themselves to the typical original shows and formats.

 

 

Yeah, that's what we do (above post) exactly!

[TIMKEYS]

 

And it depends on the kind of band as well. The blues band I play with does a lot of originals mixed in with all kinds of other covers, blues, rock, R&B, soul, even some country. The originals are blues so it all kinda works for the kind of people who like that stuff. We wouldn't go over very well at all in an originals only punk bar. Yeah, that's what we do (above post) exactly!

 

 

 

Its the most logical way to approach original songs..... treat them like any other song and just play them along with the rest.

[troyguitar]

 

Its the most logical way to approach original songs..... treat them like any other song and just play them along with the rest.

 

 

Unless you play in a genre outside of those played by cover bands, i.e. prog, any form of metal, etc...