Serious (cover) Band issues...

Ok guys, here is the deal with my band, and I wanted to know what you thought. My main band that I am in right now plays covers. Mostly classic rock. (95%). We are having some disagreements over song selection. Whenever I am out listening to other bands, I see how the crowd reacts to certain songs. If it's a postivie response, I suggest adding it to our repertoire. The problem there is that some band members may not like this tune. And that's okay. I sometimes don't, either. I guess my question is : "What percentage of your setlist is based on what you and your band members like vs. what you think the crowd wants to hear?"

Re: Serious (cover)Band issues...

Question would be what is the purpose of your cover band ? Is it to get gigs?
If so, the 1st step is to know your audience and what they want.

Re: Serious (cover)Band issues...

I have faced, and actually left a band over the same issue.

Here is my $.02

As a band you have to have a musical direction. If your repertoire is classic rock songs, then that is what you should play. They should be songs that are (were) popular and that people will dance (and more importantly drink) to. In a perfect world they would be songs you like to play, but really who wants to play Mustang Sally 100 times a year? The most important part is the crowds willingness to stay in that bar and buy alcohol. I am a self-proclaimed metal head, yet my last cover band played 70's funk. Not my cup of tea, but we played to full clubs every night. You should have a good group of core songs and add new ones in to see how the crowd reacts. I am of the opinion you should never play the same setlist in the same club twice.
If you guys are good, the crowds will find you. If you are really good you will keep any crowd, anywhere, entertained.

Good point, opentune. My goal is to get steay gigs. Maybe I need to make sure we're all setting the same goals as it doesn't appear that way. That's my first goal, second is to have the crowd into what we're playing. Nothing worse than nailing a song perfectly and looking up to see people talking to each other and basically ignoring us.

Eclipse, so true. And it's funny you mentioned Mustang Sally. What's the deal with that song? My lead guitarist, who is the main person I am struggling with, refuses to play that song. Why?

By the way, this whole thing came to a head when I wanted to add " Sweet caroline" by Neil Diamond after seeing the unbelievable crowd interaction.

Maybe I'm in the wrong band.....

I think you could play Sweet Caroline at a Megadeath show and the crowd would still go wild and sing along. That's one I don't get ... when or why the resurgence took place .....

Our band plays covers 70% and some originals 30%.

I struggle with this issue all the time. Our two 6-string guitar players are the 'leaders" so to speak of the band. They are constantly reorganizing our set lists for the songs that they like to play. The biggest problem is that they want to do all these particular songs in one set and the tempos are all too similar.

The girls want to dance and the mid-tempo stuff just doesn't work back-to-back.

You have to have a talk with your band mates. If you don't play what the audience wants, you'll end up having that talk with the club owner where he won't have you back if you don't fix your set list.

Also, it's not just about rocking out. People don't want to dance to AC/DC Have a Drink on Me as much as we like to play it..

.. but they do love Dave Mason' Feelin' Alright (and we're sick of playing it)

Good luck

That Dave Mason song sounds pretty good. maybe I'll try to add. I'm sure I'll get the old " no way" nonsense. Our lead guitarist acts as a leader, but I can handle him. And, it's just like your band, the 2 guitarists are the ones with the issues. I just have a hard time adding tunes. I'm all for classic rock, but I want to the crowd to enjoy it. I need that feedback from the crowd so I can justify us even being there......

MisterZero said:

Eclipse, so true. And it's funny you mentioned Mustang Sally. What's the deal with that song? My lead guitarist, who is the main person I am struggling with, refuses to play that song. Why?

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Because that song is almost literally beating a dead horse.

I also refuse to play that song, nor will I play "freebird". I'm game for almost anything else, regardless how cheesy.

MisterZero said:

Eclipse, so true. And it's funny you mentioned Mustang Sally. What's the deal with that song? My lead guitarist, who is the main person I am struggling with, refuses to play that song. Why?..

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Because it's extremely cliche. Every bar band seems to play it. It has been covered by a very long list of artists.

Overall, it comes off as a song more popular among bands that play it than ever was with the public.

Or put a twist on a DMC saying "more bands play Mustang Sally then there are people who want to hear it".

I was never really familiar with the song before I turned 21, and by 25 I had already played that song enough times to last me a life time.

I never noticed. I know about freebird being overplayed. Although, it's funny. A bit of an oxymoron, no bands play " freebird" because it's overplayed....well, if no bands play it, how can it be overplayed?.

The one song I hear bar bands do a lot, at least in Buffalo, is temptation Eyes, by the Grass Roots. Good tune, but played by all the local bands here....Dr. and Drum eat Drum, are there more cliche type tunes to avoid?

There are two goals here. 1 is to enjoy what you are playing and 2 is to entertain your audience. The trick is to combine these and make everyone happy.

As you mentioned, you all need to get on the page or at least in the same chapter.

Personally, I would give anyone the right to veto any song. It seems like there are enough "popular" songs to cover that it would be easy enough to put together enough sets to satisfy everyone.

There are songs I would not play unless it was a steady, well paying gig and all I had to do was show up. Neil Diamond would be on that list. It's simply a matter of personal taste. It seems like drummers and bass players would dig Mustang Sally though. It's a solid song.

My short no play list would include Neil Diamond, Freebird and Wipeout but, if someone wants to sing a song, I will generally agree to play my part.

Being a drummer, I would be happy as hell playing 100% dance music. I like rhythm based music that grooves. We do play songs that aren't dance material but we wouldn't play them in a dance environment. Sometimes you have people that want to listen and bang their heads instead of dancing.

If I want to push a song into the rotation, I do as much prep work as I can like getting the lyrics and arrangement in order and having the song queued up. Sometimes I will even figure out the bass line to save him the effort. If I'm going to sing it, I obviously will learn the words.

Ya, there are plenty of good songs out there. Our biggest problem is that our singer, who is great, is very low voiced, and not geared towards hard rock. He' more Billy Joel-ish. So that limits what we can play.

I was in one of the most popular cover bands in my area for years so I know what's involved. Want gigs? Hold your nose and play what works. We often played songs that some of us didn't care for but we did it anyway 'cause that's what worked and got us good paying gigs. But we also played stuff we liked as well. I honestly can't give you a % 'cause it probably varied over the years.

I also learned a lot from playing songs from bands I wasn't familiar with. And bands I thought I hated I learned to like and respect by playing their material.

I've run into this issue many times over the years, if this is a band that wants to gig steady and be payed you have to run it like a business. In my area there are ton's of classic rock bands all playing basically the same set lists to varying degrees of quality and presentation so you have a 100 bands all chasing the same gigs with really not enough to go around. The bands that do the corporate and casino gigs are well polished, have big set lists, and play a variety of styles all geared to keeping folks on the dance floor. They can read a room and adjust to the tastes of the people at their event so they can work at more places because they are willing to do this.

I've found if you have a band leader or another member pushing hard to play material that just doesn't work in a club you're better off either getting rid of them or keeping your eyes open for another band, you are just not going to convince these guys, if they have a few years in cover bands and still stick to this model then they just don't get it.

I run into so many musicians that want to play in cover bands and make money but absolutely refuse to play Country, Disco or Dance songs. I've worked with guys that will purposly butcher songs they don't like in order to try and get it out of the set list, it just leaves you shaking your head.

Maybe I'm lucky,I like enough styles of music this isn't a problem for me, most of the material I play I don't listen to when I'm at home, most of the cds in my car are jazz, latin and fusion music.

All I can say is if you hate certain styles of music and songs to the point you would rather have a root canal than play them is "maybe a working cover band is just not for you".

This is a really interesting thread.

I have played in cover bands all of my playing life(30+ years). I refuse to play nothing! Let me caviat that by saying that my musical taste in terms of what I will play is a million miles away from what I listen to. We play what the crowd wants, if we can. Our function, as we are being paid by the venue is to keep people there and keep them drinking, which I'm happy to say we are able to do consistently.

We went through the "Mustang Sally" dilemma a couple of years back. The problem is that the folks listening to us wanted to hear it and we were sick of playing it (in a previous band we were told in one venue that "if you don't play Mustang Sally, you won't be back"- we didn't, we weren't - although it was a rough as a badgers dangly bits and consequently no big loss!). The end result was that we changed it up- we now play it in a kind of funk extremis, rather than as it was written. The result is that we can still play it, and not hate ourselves in the morning.

We play in 4 venues regularly and have played in all of them for a number of years now. We get repeat bookings by doing what is required in each. We have a rural bar where we always do our first set as an accoustic set to soften the crowd up for the rockier onslaught later. We play in a city centre bar where the crowd want cheese and lots of it, with rockier stuff again in the second half. We play a pub attached to a backpackers hostel on a Scottish island where anything goes, and generally the rockier the better and another suburban bar where we change the set as we go depending on the reaction.

Now, none of the setlists are set in stone. We have a master set list that has about 120 tunes in that we mix and match from and we are always looking to add more to keep things fresh for us, not the crowd. That way we can semi retire tunes until we want or need to play them again.

I did think things were getting a bit samey for a while, but I do other things musically including some originals work and deping for a mate who plays in a soul band that primarily plays weddings (they sould be called soul destroying- their set is that boring- but the money is very, very good!).

The bottom line is that if you want covers gigs you need to play what the crowd wants and to an extent, that means playing what you can live with and some that you find grindingly difficult. We have a veto system where if any one of us really cant stomach playing a particular song for whatever reason, then we have the right to say no. Some of the most popular songs that we play were an immediate reaction of "I don't think so" when first suggested, yet they are crowd pleasers and if you take the view that entertaining and not personal musical gratification is your primary goal, then even "Blanket on the Ground" is possible (at a push it must be said).

Song lists... I never went into a gigging band expecting to play songs I liked. It wouldn't make much difference anyway. After playing a song I liked a few dozen times it gets old anyway.

I always felt (for most singers) the vocalist had to want to do a song for it to work at all.

Mustang Sally- There's a particular dance (skate?) that folks like that song for.

Cover band I was last in said 'we play what we want to play', and it was really good, for a while; GnR album tracks, Velvet revolver etc but the work slowly dried up. We got some great compliments from people who were into music but regularly finished the night playing to less than 5 people.
Is this as simple as money vs Art? Maybe, maybe not, as many have already said; the bands that work most/earn most money are the ones who 'compromise' and give the unwashed hordes what they want to dance drunkenly to.
Does being a musician then become just a 'job'?
Because we enjoy playing and performing does that make it any less arduous than being at the office/factory/shop etc to earn a crust?
I consider myself very fortunate to earn a living from my day job, my music is a labour of love with no financial reward, it just feeds my soul. At 50 I don't think I want to sit at the back of a band and play for others needs...I get asked if I'm 'available' at jam nights and usually find that, after a brief conversation, I am not interested in the 'project', usually down to their set list.
I am gonna be a lonely old solo drummer....
Live jukebox anyone?

I haven't read all responses (not at home and reading long responses is hard on a phone).

Fact is that there are TONS of songs that get audiences going so I see no reason why players should have to play songs that bug them when better compromises can be made.

I'll correct that ... *mostly*. Due to varying tastes there might be the occasional dog song, but if we play music because we love it, ideally we should enjoy what we play.

If you can muster a Bermuda mindset, ie. you don't much mind what you play because you just like playing drums, all the better. But not everyone can get into that ... which is fine too. Viva la difference

Anon La Ply said:

If you can muster a Bermuda mindset, ie. you don't much mind what you play because you just like playing drums, all the better. But not everyone can get into that ... which is fine too. Viva la difference

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You just summed up what I was trying to say in my entire post in one line there. I'm happy to play anything as long as I'm playing and as I don't do solo practice really, that's where I'm at!

chipotle said:

I always felt (for most singers) the vocalist had to want to do a song for it to work at all.

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I agree 100% with this. In the one cover band I was in the singer always had the final yes or no on any song. Luckily he was pretty open minded and could sing anything.