The Only Covers I Want To Play Are....

Erberderber said:
OP here, thanks for the replies. Of course I know that obscure songs aren't going to get a crowd up dancing. It's just that most songs I really care about are very little known. I'd be thrilled just to play them at a jam or rehearsal but can't even do that because none of my bandmates know them or care either!
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I’ve spent and continue to spend endless hours working on songs that I’ll never play with a band .

I think it’s a shame that most people don’t want to hear different songs .
I stopped playing in cover bands about 5/6 years ago , I was tired of drunks expecting us to know every song they wanted to hear ….

But if I’m going to have a cover band I’m going to pick nothing but hits for the set list ….
 
I've been around the block and have seen B-side bandits (obscuresville) from full bands to single acoustic acts. After awhile they just bore me out of my mind. While they think they are being hipsville (or so they think) they are audience killers where the bar is slow at 11:00. I'll never get the were to hip to play radio Shi- cool guys. Next.
 
Bo Eder said:
The Beatles even has to do a few songs that weren’t theirs in their early days.
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Yes - but they did them in a way that presented their sound... their style.

There was a time when that was the primary purpose of doing covers - to use a familiar song as a vehicle to introduce an audience to a band's own style. Something an original has a harder time doing... is it the new song I like? or this band's style and approach?

99.999% of cover bands no longer function in that way at all - there seems to be little if any consideration each band having a style or an approach... the goal seems to be focused on functioning just like a DJ - but with live players, instead of records. With "listen to how well we played that song" being entirely about "listen to how much we sounded just like that record".

IMO what we now call "covers" - The Beatles would've called doing "record copies"- which would have served no purpose for them at all.

Vastly different times....
 
sometimes..
 
ones that people will say: "I can't believe they just did that song" when we do it...and not always from a technical standpoint. We like to bring back "warm fuzzies" as well. If people say "I haven't heard that song forever", that is also a bonus

in my metal band, which is all original, we will throw in one or two covers a gig that are a nod of respect to our influences

we throw in:
Mad Man - DRI
Milk - SOD
Morbid Tales - Celtic Frost
Kindergarten - Faith No More
Kill Ugly Naked - Spirit Caravan
In The Meantime - Helmet
Zero The Hero - Black Sabbath
Cut Rate - Prong
Sleep Is The Enemy - Danko Jones

but yeah....we normally play shows where a set that is majority covers are looked down upon
 
It really does depend on what is the focus of your band. I know DW's memberbase is more focused on "cover band/money beat" style bands, so I definitely see that reflected in a lot of posts here. But if you're playing in an "originals" focused band, why not throw in obscure covers?

The band I've been in for several years just played a house show where we did a cover of Curved Air's "Backstreet Love", on my recommendation, and I'm sure like no one under 50 has ever heard that song, and maybe like dozens of people above 50 have. But I wanted to play it, and my singer loved it when she heard it, so we added it to our setlist. Because why the heck not?
 
I saw a very talented 90s cover band a wile back. They were debuting at one of bigger clubs in the area.

They played deeper cuts and less danceable material.

The dance floor was empty and they haven't been back.
 
OP again. A lot of comments here are talking about playing them in front of an audience at a gig. I know what gets audiences going, that wasn't my point. It was more about the desire to play something you really like in a band and the frustration of not being able to do It.
 
Erberderber said:
OP again. A lot of comments here are talking about playing them in front of an audience at a gig. I know what gets audiences going, that wasn't my point. It was more about the desire to play something you really like in a band and the frustration of not being able to do It.
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I assume a cover band is looking to gig on the semi regular at least so that’s where my advice comes from. I wish I could play all sorts of covers that challenge listeners, too, but unless it’s a mega hit, it only challenges people to leave, and they usually do.
 
I'd love to do a cover of "Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)" by the band James.

It has the most incredible bass line for a pop song and the whole song is superbly crafted.
 
I greatly prefer to play music that I love whether the audience likes it or not, and whether there's an audience or not. That said, I also place great importance on playing music that inspires people to dance.
 
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dcrigger said:
IMO what we now call "covers" - The Beatles would've called doing "record copies"- which would have served no purpose for them at all.

Vastly different times....
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Yes. Also, the covers they played were songs they absolutely loved, things that were hard to hear daily on the radio. It was pioneering times. The Stones were the same. All these young musicians got rare copies of early Rock n Roll and Blues that someone might have bought from an American military base, or brought back from America. McCartney says he first made friends with Lennon because he knew all the words to Midnight Special, while Lennon only knew the chords.
For me, I'm mostly happy to play great songs. Many hit records are great songs.
 
jda said:
Popular bands but their lesser played songs
Can work

So the crowd gets their taste and then says "Oh yea that one"

Kinda like a ninja mind-trick 😁
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Quoted for emphasis!

That's exactly the kind of songs I'm always trying to push in the bands I'm in. ;) Songs that people recognize easily but in all probability haven't heard in a while.
 
I think that if you're playing for yourselves in a rehearsal space then play what makes you feel good. If you're getting paid by any type of venue then you should, IMO, play what will get the punters dancing, drinking and staying in that bar as opposed to going elsewhere. You've crossed a line and become the entertainment, you have a duty to the venue now.
It's not a binary thing, Brown Eyed Girl does not equal rubbish. In a previous band it was a staple of our set, played at a slightly higher tempo with the distortion pedals engaged. Obscure tracks do not equal definitely empty dancefloors either but let's be honest, if it was easy to get this balance right everyone would be doing it. My past is littered with surefire, great dance floor filling songs that didn't land with an audience, and throwaway fillers that ended up staying in the setlist because they hit the spot.

I'm reminded of a gig I did many years ago. Our band's USP was taking pop, country, rock, show tunes etc and Punking or mashing them up, so tunes everyone knew but played in a different way. During the break the gig booker walked up to us (not so much of a walk, more of a squeeze) and said "thank **** for you lads. We had *A Whitesnake Tribute Band* in last night. No ****er knew anything they played, I didn't and I'm a fan. The place cleared by half time and the crowd you've got has saved the weekend "

That band had a massive reputation mainly because the guitarist ran the local music forum so everyone blew smoke up them, they were also on significantly more money than us, the gig booker told us the numbers. We never played for the lower fee we had asked for that night again!!
 
As a wedding band, we played whatever they wanted for their $5000-8000.......sure we can play YMCA 3 times over 3 hours if that is what you want.......Brown Eyed Girl both straight up and reggae style sure we can do that....... Free Bird to end the night for your favorite uncle? Absolutely......

If you are a cover band, you are a cover band.....play songs people know and get off their asses for.......otherwise you risk coming off as a wannabe original band that doesn't have any good originals so you are playing the B and C material from successful artists.....either way no one knows the tunes.......

Just my $0.02 after one sip of coffee......

EDIT: To be fair.....in the list of 300+ songs, there were plenty of deep cuts but we certainly didn't avoid the cliche ones and we couldn't in that line of work
 
I’ve had the inverse experience recently. I’ve been playing in a Brazilian band here in Australia. We’ve done gigs where every song was unknown to me, but the crowd knows every word, sings along.
As the only non-Brazilian I do my best to copy the original parts, but have no connection with the songs at all and I don’t know any Portuguese. But the crowd loves it.
All of which reinforces the point - Give the audience what they want.
 
JimmyM said:
I assume a cover band is looking to gig on the semi regular at least so that’s where my advice comes from. I wish I could play all sorts of covers that challenge listeners, too, but unless it’s a mega hit, it only challenges people to leave, and they usually do.
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I don't want to play lesser known stuff to challenge listeners. I would like to play certain songs I really like because they would simply be extremely enjoyabie for me to play. I admit, it's selfish and I would be doing It just for me. As I said before, even without an audience would be fine. It would be a case of trying to find like-minded people willing to learn them and play them.
 
I guess I always ask myself, "What is the intended relationship between the band and the people within earshot of the band?"

Like, I run a jazz series here-- it's all local musicians but we have a "featured artist" each month and they get to pick whatever songs are close to their heart. It's a listening room-- people aren't eating or drinking or talking. So, in that situation, we can play a set of Charles Mingus compositions and the audience will dig it. But if we take the same jazz band right across the street to the local inn, the relationship is completely different. We are there to enhance the experience of being at the restaurant.

I think it's pretty demented and egotistical to walk into a bar and act like the band's job is to make the audience eat their musical vegetables. No. Your job is to relieve people of their suffering, let them forget their problems for a bit, to bring them some joy and some release. Your job is to connect. And if you don't want to connect with the folks at that bar in the middle of nowhere, don't go and play there.
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
ones that people will say: "I can't believe they just did that song" when we do it...and not always from a technical standpoint. We like to bring back "warm fuzzies" as well. If people say "I haven't heard that song forever", that is also a bonus

in my metal band, which is all original, we will throw in one or two covers a gig that are a nod of respect to our influences

we throw in:
Mad Man - DRI
Milk - SOD
Morbid Tales - Celtic Frost
Kindergarten - Faith No More
Kill Ugly Naked - Spirit Caravan
In The Meantime - Helmet
Zero The Hero - Black Sabbath
Cut Rate - Prong
Sleep Is The Enemy - Danko Jones

but yeah....we normally play shows where a set that is majority covers are looked down upon
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Would love to do a Helmet song.
Killin hurts. It has to be done.....
 
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