Why the same songs, when so many to choose from?

Back to ‘same songs’...

I played part of a winery district festival today - a dozen or so wineries had bands, food and wine, and punters travelled around sampling all three. My cover band had prepared 8 different sets for an 8 hour gig (!)

An old drumming student saw me in the afternoon and said she’d been to three other wineries, and all the other bands were playing the same songs as us. I found this interesting, because by that point we’d played 70 different songs without any repeats, so they couldn’t actually all be the same. Maybe we hear two or three familiar songs and it feels like we’ve heard dozens. Anyway, it got me thinking about this thread..

On an unrelated topic - why does every 20 something girl at a food and wine festival look like a Kardashian clone, with orange fake-tan legs, really high heels and really short skirts? Saw a few hundred of these clones today.

Morrisman said:

On an unrelated topic - why does every 20 something girl at a food and wine festival look like a Kardashian clone, with orange fake-tan legs, really high heels and really short skirts? Saw a few hundred of these clones today.

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Anyone know where I can find the next food and wine festival? 😉

Morrisman said:

On an unrelated topic - why does every 20 something girl at a food and wine festival look like a Kardashian clone, with orange fake-tan legs, really high heels and really short skirts? Saw a few hundred of these clones today.

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As long as some of them are better people that sounds ok.

Morrisman said:

Back to ‘same songs’...

I played part of a winery district festival today - a dozen or so wineries had bands, food and wine, and punters travelled around sampling all three. My cover band had prepared 8 different sets for an 8 hour gig (!)

An old drumming student saw me in the afternoon and said she’d been to three other wineries, and all the other bands were playing the same songs as us. I found this interesting, because by that point we’d played 70 different songs without any repeats, so they couldn’t actually all be the same. Maybe we hear two or three familiar songs and it feels like we’ve heard dozens. Anyway, it got me thinking about this thread..

On an unrelated topic - why does every 20 something girl at a food and wine festival look like a Kardashian clone, with orange fake-tan legs, really high heels and really short skirts? Saw a few hundred of these clones today.

Click to expand...

Maybe this is the truth - we all actually only play THREE songs the same but they are so well known that they are the ones that stick in audiences heads and make them think it's the whole set?

Morrisman - 8, hour long sets...in one day? Wow!!

Our normal night is 2 x 90 mins and people often comment on how long we play for. It seems that (the same) 20 songs is the standard - ten songs per set - I'd have to consider if the gear hump every night was worth it to play just 20 songs in a night!!

Rattlin' Bones said:

I could not do it. Takes a special person to go on tour like that. I don't think people really realize how hard it is.

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Agreed, even a fairly luxurious tour can become exhausting simply because of the logistics of relentless travel. There's also the emotional factor of being away from family and home life. Truly, the playing is the easy part!

I just wrapped a 15-week non-stop tour last night, and it will be good to get home today. I've deliberately not accepted any gigs for the next few weeks. Not because I don't feel like playing, but because it's important to stay home and decompress a bit.

Bermuda

Getting back to the original question, even the bands who recorded the tracks originally will place them in their set as the encore years later. Judas Priest can’t leaves the stage without playing Living After Midnight, For Jethro Tull it’s Aqualung and Locomotive Breath, for AC/DC it’s Whole Lotta Rosie. Furthermore entire set lists are built around artists older repertoire with newer tracks interspersed within the mix, but with the mix being predominantly the older we’ll known stuff. What got me thinking about this was TV adverts. I was once in a band with a bass player who when sing suggestions came up would say “that’s in an advert right now” and it would be the seal of approval to play it because obviously it had that recognition factor. There’s an advert on TV now which uses Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town as it’s music. Lizzy has loads of great songs in the charts so why this one? Because it’s a classic and ingrained in the collective consciousness.

As an aside, our band is shooting a showreel Video next month to use instead of camera phone footage when we’re approaching venues for gigs. We were discussing which songs to include and Highway To Hell came up as one. Perhaps overdone but it always goes down well. I went on YouTube to find showreel examples shot in the same studios and I’m sure you’ll be able to guess what the very first song of the very first showreel was. So we’re not doing that one after all and we’re focussing on the poppier Rock songs we do. And someone somewhere will watch it and think “not those old chestnuts again”

Songs in TV ads or featured in movies do become popular for cover bands because they’ve become well known to a whole new audience. This certainly happened with the Blues Brothers, The Commitments and Pretty Woman back in the 90’s.

Two reasons why people will go see bands usually. To see something new, kick back and relax, or to dance. You may be able to get someone on a dance floor if you just happen to have a catchy original, but rare. Cover tunes generally pay more, because they draw more people in.

The thread has gone somewhat in the direction that all cover tunes, regardless of the number of possibilities are perceived as the same old, same old... this isn’t actually what I’m referring to. As an example, I’d love to get a bunch of guys together and do an Arizona version of Andy’s Fired Up band. I talk to people, they get excited, I give them a list of 300 songs to choose to work on and here’s an example of a set among 20 returned:
Can’t You See
Folsom Prison Blues
Midnight Special
Sweet Home Alabama
Train Train
Taking Care of Business
Jambalaya
Dock of the Bay

...Just shoot me already! None of the songs chosen were among the 300 I’d originally given. Not that we were limited to those, but they should have at least provided a guide as to where I was going with a playlist. There was a thread here about drinking at gigs earlier. With the songs above, would anyone even notice if I had fallen off my drum stool?

Mongrel said:

Call me....just a little...confused?

If you don't like hearing cover band standards don't go to those venues.
If you don't like playing cover band standards quit the band.
If you want to play a broader range of tunes form your own band with like-minded musicians. (With the responses in this thread seems like there are a lot of them out there).
If you want to play originals and lack venues get together with a bunch of other original bands and start renting venues to play at a make your own scene.

But don't blame the people that just want a night out to blow off a weeks worth of stress by getting sweaty to Play that Funky Music and Jump.

Also-what I see around here (NJ 20 min from Philly) locally are established bands that are able to stretch their set lists because they have the respect of the regular crowd. So you get Mustang Sally-BUT you will also get Peg from Steely Dan and other gems thrown in at times. Also, the age of the crowd here average ls around 45-50 so that is one of the main reasons for the choice of material. That demographic has more money to spend than say 20 somethings so it pays to keep them happy if you want steady work.

Bottom line if you don't like the scene-change it!

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Again, we need a like button. I wonder how much serverspace that would have saved, instead of me quoting a whole post to back up a point...


But yes, bands play songs because peoe want to hear them . (So gs must vary town to town, state/state, cuz i have NEVER heard mustang sally/ freebird here in new England. Tho, we dont play biker bars, pig roasts etc..
(Tho, maybe its a metaphor, as theres many songs that all local coverbands do that i am not a fan of.

What i AM a fan of is hot chicks (and exited fans) dancing to a song that my band is playing.. so..yea.

if you want pay, u gotta play what they want.. or just do it at home for fun.

Ymmv

Now to read the rest o the thread, although it sounds a little familiar.

T.