Covers you are doing that get the best reaction

[riffdaddy]

Savage Jack, I don't think it's your goal, but you're coming off as more than a little brash. Quite a few cover bands have at least two or three guys who are using the band as financial support for their original projects (this is my situation), so the generalization that cover band guys aren't creative musicians is really actually quite offensive.

 

Furthermore, my experience has been that most of the guys around here who refuse to play covers couldn't if they wanted to. Most lack the talent or the ambition to actually learn how to play a song correctly. I'm not saying by any means that this is the case with you, but it's something I've noticed.

 

To respond to the question posed, our biggest draw is "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" by The Gap Band. Nobody remembers this tune, but it's a real buttshaker. We're a funk band, but we rock it out (pick scrapes, harmonics, offbeat breaks in the middle of the verse, bass run through noisy-ass synth pedal, etc.).

[CAC]

I'm in a band that's unabashedly covers only right now. This is the first band I've been in as a guitar player and we're a bunch of thirty to fiftty somethings with families looking to have a good time once or twice a month playing the music we like. So at 35 with two kids, a mortgage, a wife, and a dog I'm way over the hill to become a rock star and I'm not about to go out on the road and leave my job and family. I've got no time to write the next Dark Side of the Moon. Here are some the tunes that get 'em going for us. We try to play only songs that are danceable, and sometimes that means Mustang Sally or Brown Eyen Girl (Shudder) but we do every song our own way so it is like a new version anyways:

 

Any Stones tunes: Brown Sugar and Bitch come to mind

Are You Gonna Be My Girl? We do an extended version with the opening bass line that gets the crowd really groovin'.

Walkin' the Dog - Sort of a hybrid of the Stones and Aerosmith version with the intro of Sweet Leaf by Sabbath thrown in.

Leavin' Trunk by TaJ Mahal

Jailbreak by AC/DC

Highway to Hell

Them Changes

Rock This Town

Gimme Three Steps

Tightrope

Runaround by Blues Traveler

[Savage Jack]

riffdaddy

 

brash? well... perhaps... but i never said that cover band musicians had no creativity or talent... dont put words in my mouth (or in my posts) i never said or even insinuated. in fact i know tons of extremely talented musicians who are playing in cover bands, ...many of which can totally smoke me on the guitar. offensive? well... i mean to be provocative and make people think.

 

as for your comment of believing that most guys who play originals because they cant learn to play covers correctly i've found that to be the opposite.... it takes a keen knowledge of structure, timing, song construction, transitioning et al and ad nauseum to write original music... how does one learn this? well...unless you're classically trained, which i'm not, you learn it by dissecting other people's music, studying it carefully, listen to their interviews, their musical philosophies -- and learning from it.

[Inearthed]

One band I played in was all originals because one of the other members was just too lazy to learn any covers. Lame eh?

 

Another band I play in (metal band) does mostly originals except we throw in a cover of Slayer's Criminally Insane which always gets the people going. We do it right in the middle of our set and usually the crowd reaction to every song after that is really positive. It is different in metal because people are really picky and then they hear something they remember from first getting into metal and it opens them up.

 

 

Originally posted by riffdaddy Quite a few cover bands have at least two or three guys who are using the band as financial support for their original projects (this is my situation), so the generalization that cover band guys aren't creative musicians is really actually quite offensive.

 

 

I actually knew a bunch of guys that were in a black metal band that had a top 40's band made up of all of the same members. They just dressed up nice and played the covers, made a bunch of money, and then used that money towards recording their CD / duplicating it, flyering etc. The whole concept though just made me laugh.

 

I know of a few people locally that are in very lucrative cover bands and use the performances to basically build their stage experience and get a lot better at their instruments. Then they take that experience (and the money they make) and apply it to their own bands.

[worthyjoe]

 

Originally posted by Savage Jack riffdaddy brash? well... perhaps... but i never said that cover band musicians had no creativity or talent... dont put words in my mouth (or in my posts) i never said or even insinuated. in fact i know tons of extremely talented musicians who are playing in cover bands, ...many of which can totally smoke me on the guitar. offensive? well... i mean to be provocative and make people think. as for your comment of believing that most guys who play originals because they cant learn to play covers correctly i've found that to be the opposite.... it takes a keen knowledge of structure, timing, song construction, transitioning et al and ad nauseum to write original music... how does one learn this? well...unless you're classically trained, which i'm not, you learn it by dissecting other people's music, studying it carefully, listen to their interviews, their musical philosophies -- and learning from it.

 

 

get out of my thread!!!!!!!

 

Seriously. Start a thread on this topic. This was intended for people to post cover songs their COVER BAND has had luck with. You have successfully ruined the this thread.

 

This is not the thread to argue cover vs. original. Please. Stop talking.

[fastplant]

Originally posted by worthyjoe get out of my thread!!!!!!! Seriously. Start a thread on this topic. This was intended for people to post cover songs their COVER BAND has had luck with. You have successfully ruined the this thread. This is not the thread to argue cover vs. original. Please. Stop talking.

 

Cover bands are stupid

[worthyjoe]

Originally posted by fastplant Cover bands are stupid

 

It's true.

[Terry Allan Hall]

Originally posted by Micky Z If you're in a band that actually has a slide guitarist, is it a requirement to play "Freebird" at every gig? How many times a night?

 

We do "Freebird" a bit differently...the fret-less bass covers the slide guitar part, and my phase-shifted 12-string covers the organ fills and a lead in the middle...the big "build up" at the end, we trade "leads". We've ALWAYS gotten an enthusiastic reaction to our arrangement.

 

Playing covers doesn't mean you have to regurgitate 'em out just like the originals...we never have and we gig a lot!

 

Back to the original question...

 

Songs that consistently have been successful for us:

 

Wonderful Tonight (Clapton)

Red House (Hendrix)

Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon & Garfunkle)

Freebird, Call Me The Breeze and Give Me Three Steps (Skynnyrd)

Day Tripper and Just 17 (Beatles)

T for Texas (Jimmy Rogers)

Traveling After Dark (Mountain)

Ripple and Freind Of The Devil (Grateful Dead)

El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Swing '42 and Nuages (Django Reinhardt)

 

Now, keep in mind that we just about never play bars, as we make much better $$$ in restaurants, festivals, coffeehouses and private affairs...

[JBJ]

back to the original question.

 

to be honest the idea of cover bands doing rage and {censored} kinda dumbfounds me. all the covers bands here tend to do roughly the same stuff which alot of people here have labelled worn out but at the end of the day. I work a bar most weekends and there's a reason all the bands we have through and the dj's we have are playing summer of 69, brown eyed, girl, honky tonk woman etc... week in week out.

 

because they're great pieces of songmanship and everyone loves them.

 

anyways apart from those tunes stuff we get a good reaction with.

 

I fought the law: the clash

 

500 miles - the proclaimers. being in scotland and a ginger haired twin, whos other half happens to drum for us, kinda sells this one on its own )

 

why does it always rain on me - travis

 

suspicious minds - elvis (this is my karaoke standard and I can do a semi decent elvis impersonation so people love that when i do it for the 1st verse and get all the moves going)

 

I'm a believer - the monkeys. its amazing how you can rock this one just moving up the tempo a bit and sticking on some dirt

 

don't look back in anger - oasis (love them or hate them there isnt many covers you can play and not sing to because the crowd singing along is loud enough to be heard over the band )

 

 

 

we're still young and it's me my bro and a long time mate who have been playign together since we were 13 so we literallty feed off of each other and still do our original stuff when it suits us but this is just fun and a great way to make some more beer money playing tunes we like and people like to hear.

[LPCustomLive]

We played Master of Puppets followed by RATM's 'killing in the name of' at the end of a show once and all the drunk kids practically tore the place apart. We're not allowed to play there anymore.

 

True success!

[Savage Jack]

 

Originally posted by worthyjoe get out of my thread!!!!!!! Seriously. Start a thread on this topic. This was intended for people to post cover songs their COVER BAND has had luck with. You have successfully ruined the this thread. This is not the thread to argue cover vs. original. Please. Stop talking.

 

 

sorry, i'm an asshole, put a sign on my head lol!

 

ok.... you want the truth? *said like jack nicholson* can you handle the truth? answer me the following questions and i'll give you killer suggestions as to what your band needs to play, all i see you've been getting is what other bands do, but they dont know what your band is capable of--only you do, and i can only imagine you reading all these other posts shaking your head saying to yourself... well, i know my bassist wont do that, my lead player wont do that, that one is out of my singer's range and so on...

 

 

 

1. what do you bill yourselves as? ie: hard rock, classic rock, metal (what type of), alt (what type of) you get the picture

 

2. level of musicianship in your band?...use the weakest member of the band for this, NOT the strongest or the average... ie: beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert, insane

 

3. what is the vocal range of your frontman and name 4 known singers he or she sounds, or can sound, most like?

 

4. what is it your band wishes to accomplish with the music you play? is it to play background music? to capture an audience's attention and hold them in the palm of your hand all night? make chicks dance and get their panties wet? crush skulls? shatter internal organs? or somewhere in between?

 

5. who is your audience? their age bracket? ie: bikers or suits?

 

6. what venues are you playing?

 

feel free to add any information you feel is relevant as well!!

 

if you answer those questions honestly, sincerely and completely i will put together a one hour (plus or minus) set list for you that will absolutely serve your band well and help put you on the map.

 

then, if you'd like we can get into other aspects... light show, posturing & moves, dress, expression, showmanship, props, packaging, promotion and so on

 

 

as an aside: my band did fairly recently discuss doing covers, we took all the above questions into the discussion and determined that IF we did covers we'd do the entire Lateralus CD as our first set, the second set would be all Filter tunes, the third set would consist of various ozzy, cold, black lable society, godsmack, audioslave (first cd NOT 2nd!!), soundgarden, stp, pearl jam songs and we'd hold on to stinkfist and sober if encores were needed... the level of musicianship in my band is at the top is our drummer, who is almost at the insane level and i'm at the bottom somewhere between intermediate and expert, our bassist is almost expert and our frontman is expert on vocals and intermediate on rhythm. we bill ourselves at a heavy progressive metal band with classic metal, rock and fusion undertones, our vocalist is baritone and sounds like maynard, cornell, lane staney and ozzy, we set out to crush skulls and shatter internal organs with our music, our audience is in the 20's-30's bracket and is working class for the most part, the venues we play are catering to the audience we've targeted. be careful with venues, you choose them, not the other way around... or your {censored}ed (remember the scene from the blues brothers when they walked into bob's country bunker? ...been there - done that - and had the beer bottles thrown at us! lol! ..and it was my fault too, as i booked the gig hehe!)

[machinegun78_2]

Originally posted by Electric_Porpoise We played Master of Puppets followed by RATM's 'killing in the name of' at the end of a show once and all the drunk kids practically tore the place apart. We're not allowed to play there anymore. True success!

 

 

I forgot about RATM.....when we do Bulls On Parade, people BREAK {censored}.

 

 

it's cool.

 

[cherri]

We get a good response to Superstition, too. And pretty mcuh anything by Susan Tedeschi or Derek Trucks.

[Badside]

 

Originally posted by Savage Jack as an aside: my band did fairly recently discuss doing covers, we took all the above questions into the discussion and determined that IF we did covers we'd do the entire Lateralus CD as our first set, the second set would be all Filter tunes, the third set would consist of various ozzy, cold, black lable society, godsmack, audioslave (first cd NOT 2nd!!), soundgarden, stp, pearl jam songs and we'd hold on to stinkfist and sober if encores were needed...

 

 

Honestly, I (and most people I know) would leave right in the middle of the first set... It might be fun to do has a band, but if you want to be a Tool tribute band, market yourself has such and stick to it. This is cool music to play has a musician, but people hanging in bars couldn't care less about Tool, they might sit through the single, but that's pretty much it.

 

This goes back to the "If you're a cover band, you're there to please people" theory.

 

One thing though about covers, if you play stuff they like and have fun doing so, they'll let you play stuff YOU like as long as it's a smaller part of the gig and that you have fun playing it.

[riffdaddy]

 

Originally posted by Savage Jack sorry, i'm an asshole, put a sign on my head lol! ok.... you want the truth? *said like jack nicholson* can you handle the truth? answer me the following questions and i'll give you killer suggestions as to what your band needs to play, all i see you've been getting is what other bands do, but they dont know what your band is capable of--only you do, and i can only imagine you reading all these other posts shaking your head saying to yourself... well, i know my bassist wont do that, my lead player wont do that, that one is out of my singer's range and so on...

 

 

1. If you elect to quote Jack Nicholson, at least quote it correctly.

2. Come back when you learn to write a sentence.

3. An entire set of Filter tunes? Yeah, go ahead and criticize the rest of us for doing Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

4. Bring your head on over here. Your sign awaits.

[Savage Jack]

roflmao!! did i fail to mention we do originals, not covers? and after the band's discussion as to where covers would go to, that's why we're not doing covers... we realized all by ourselves that a set of tool wouldn't go over well, a set of filter would do a little better but not much... the third set would kick ass though

 

 

oh, too late for the sign, i had it tatoo'd on /grin

[Badside]

Savage Jack: it does suck though that we are not "allowed" to do such things. We all, as musicians, have certains songs that we would kill to play live, but we happen to be the only ones caring about...

 

I remember when I was like 16, I was listening to this local metal band called Obliveon and I was picturing myself in my head, on a stage banging my head while playing these songs. I would've paid to play them. But no musicians I know would've been interested in learning them, and I doubt an Obliveon tribute band would've attracted much audience. That's why I started programming my own backing tracks at home so I could jam by myself... but self satisfaction has its limits

 

Anyway, just a ()

[Savage Jack]

 

Originally posted by Hardtailed Savage Jack: it does suck though that we are not "allowed" to do such things. We all, as musicians, have certains songs that we would kill to play live, but we happen to be the only ones caring about... I remember when I was like 16, I was listening to this local metal band called Obliveon and I was picturing myself in my head, on a stage banging my head while playing these songs. I would've paid to play them. But no musicians I know would've been interested in learning them, and I doubt an Obliveon tribute band would've attracted much audience. That's why I started programming my own backing tracks at home so I could jam by myself... but self satisfaction has its limits Anyway, just a ()

 

 

there's no law on the books i know of that says we cant, is there? we are limited only by ourselves, our imaginations and our perceptions bro. we are musicians... no one tells us what to do! if you believe you can pull it off, you'll be real happy when you do for you only have to try it and you'll do it... and you'd be extremely suprised with what you can get away with on a stage --very suprised in fact!... i used feel like my originals like you feel about playing obliveon... i'd kill to do it but didn't think it was possible, then i had my eyes opened for me. i found out first hand that as long as you totally kick ass, and take no prisoners and deliver the goods -- what you're playing is secondary.

[Mr. Botch]

Our crowd favorites:

"Fat-Bottomed Girls" (complete with 4-part harmony)

"Hellagood" (yeah, with a guy singing it )

"Orange Blossom Special" (I play a wireless fiddle and run thru the bar, great fun)

"Pour Some Sugar on Me"

"Enter Sandman"

"She F&%^$ Hates Me" (our closer)

"Never Been any Reason"

"Comfortably Numb"

 

We also do a Prince medley that has, uh, very mixed reactions. Usually it packs the floor but one night a huge biker way in the back of the bar yelled "F&$^% YOU!" (we could hear him over our in-ear monitors), he flipped us off, and stormed out of the bar!

[Badside]

 

Originally posted by Savage Jack there's no law on the books i know of that says we cant, is there? we are limited only by ourselves, our imaginations and our perceptions bro. we are musicians... no one tells us what to do! if you believe you can pull it off, you'll be real happy when you do for you only have to try it and you'll do it...

 

 

True, in our basement we can do whatever we want.

 

For the record, I gig almost every weekend, fun to play and paying gigs. I do know what I can and can't get away with (like when we end up playing a venue with people in thier 40s-50s, we please them with classic rock in the first set, and then blast them off with modern stuff once they're drunk. But you have to make choices sometimes. There's no way we could continue gigging on the same level if we decided to only play things that please us. We WILL throw originals in the mix, but the intention is really to make that a side project but use our notoriety to promote it.

[riffdaddy]

Explain to me how I'm putting words in your mouth:

 

 

Originally posted by Savage Jack 1.covers? bah! ptuiiii! *spits* 2.covers are so overrated 3.we do all originals, never ever played any covers, have no problem getting gigs 4. plus there's something that every working musician needs to cultivate... it's called integrity to one's self

 

 

Justify to me exactly how this isn't meant to be derogatory towards musicians in cover bands.

[FlyingKeys]

Hmm...

 

Captain Jack, New York State of Mind, and Piano Man stole the show.

 

Honorable mention:

 

Mary Jane's Last Dance

Crazy (Seal)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love - I hate it when everybody says "what was that song... Elvis?"

Long Train Running

Listen to the Music

[riffdaddy]

Originally posted by MattFacingSouth I hate it when everybody says "what was that song... Elvis?"

 

[Cortfan]

"Play that funky music" usually gets almost everyone that will dance on the floor. Since we only have 1 guitar, its a little hard to play "Freebird". We do the rest of the cover band /bar band stuff to death. AC/DC and Aerosmith seem pretty popular in these parts.

[Savage Jack]

 

Originally posted by riffdaddy Explain to me how I'm putting words in your mouth: Justify to me exactly how this isn't meant to be derogatory towards musicians in cover bands.

 

 

 

opps!... looks like i made someone mad, well... i suppose we all have to be good at something eh? roflmao!