Getting tired of the cover band scene...

Nunogilberto

I've been in a few different bands over the past few years - a couple of originals bands and a couple of covers bands, one of which I've always been in/still play in.  We're not out every week due to varying work commitments etc, but we probably gig once every month to 6 weeks.

Have to say though - I'm getting quite weary of the cover band scene lately.

It's down to a few things; an urge to want to do original stuff again, slight boredom of the songs, a local scene saturated with cover bands and about 15 venues to play in, plus a couple of recent gigs that haven't been all that enjoyable (idiot punters, sparse attendances etc).

In my head, I'm moving towards wanting to go back to doing more original stuff with maybe a small number of select covers that are more songs I like, rather than what the average punter likes to hear. Of course it goes without saying that the gigs would be fewer, not generally paid and probably even more sparsely attended - but I've always found doing your own stuff much more rewarding even if you're just playing to 4 people and the bar staff.

This is just venting to be fair - I'm not looking for help or anything, I just wondered if anybody else feels/has felt the same about playing covers.

fastonebaz

I only play covers I like. Peru much a golden rule for me. 

Strictly no indie, no grunge,  no punk.

I quite enjoy playing covers.

p90fool

I won't play songs I hate, like Mr Brightside, Sex on Fire, all that crap. 

I too have been getting bored with playing covers and have been recording original artists, I've joined an originals band and am putting an acoustic trio together. 

Having said that, I did a local gig with my usual covers band on Saturday and it was mental, like a good New Year's Eve gig, really enjoyable. 

In fact almost all our gigs are really well received these days, I just want to do fewer of them.  

TheBigDipper

It's never been a second (or primary) income for me. I stopped doing "standard" covers in 2009. I then spent three years doing '70s classic prog covers. The rest of the band insisted on doing them like the records and that finally did my head in.

Since then, I've been doing originals - my own or collaborating with others.  It's hard to get people to play with.  I live in the Bournemouth conurbation area - covers band after covers band playing the same setlists of hits or dull blues songs. Recruiting other people is not easy. Many players were never in originals bands as kids, so they genuinely don't understand how to go about it or how to find personal success/satisfaction in what they do. They find it a lot easier to get into a covers band and start playing in pubs. Then they seem to measure success by having a happy audience, getting booked a lot and being paid. All of which is fine for them, but not for me.  

I'm still doing a few covers with my neighbour. We play for fun (and go to Open Mics) - picking material we like and rearranging  it to suit two acoustic guitars and one voice. I'm just about to restart another (!) recruitment campaign for people to work with on original music - mine, theirs, ours - it doesn't actually matter to me as long as we're all enjoying the process. 

Musicwolf

If you’re not doing this for the money, and probably the majority of us aren’t (we’d do better financially spending our time stacking shelves), then you’ve got to be getting something from it.  That may be the thrill of performing, it might be about playing music that you like, it could just be the social aspect of being in a band.  Whatever it is you need to go in the direction that gives you most reward, however, don’t be unrealistic in your expectations.

Not all gigs are going to be great.  A lot of it is in your hands, you are the performer after all, but if a gig is poorly attended because it hasn’t been promoted or there’s a terrible atmosphere because they’ve just announced that they’re closing the major employer in the town then you have to just get through those.  If the bad gigs are the rule rather than the exception – well, you need to look inwards.

If you’re doing original material then I think that you already know what to expect.  It’s tough but the ones that make it have kept at it and adversity has made them stronger.  Unfortunately there are also some original acts out there that are just downright shit but keep going thinking that one day they’ll get there.  Self-belief vs not knowing when to quit?  You’ll only know for sure at the end of the road.

When it comes to song selection (covers) you’ve got all the songs in the world to choose from.  You don’t have to stick to the ‘classics’ but make sure that you pick the alternatives with the audience in mind.  Just because you like to play something it doesn’t automatically follow that the audience wants to hear it.  It should always be – this is a great song that audiences love, and it’s got a nice guitar solo.  Not, I love the guitar solo in this one so it should go down well.

slacker

There was an indie band who played covers under another name to play the bills. 

You could do that or play less gigs with a more alternative set.

Or you could adjust your set to suit the audience. A mate of mine did weddings years ago and had a contemporary set. He noticed only the older ones were dancing so changed the set to 60s classics. Have a parallel set ready.

GrahamG

Nunogilberto said:

I've been in a few different bands over the past few years - a couple of originals bands and a couple of covers bands, one of which I've always been in/still play in.  We're not out every week due to varying work commitments etc, but we probably gig once every month to 6 weeks.

If you only play once a month or so I wouldn't over think it ,just play what you want

Jalapeno

fastonebaz said:

I only play covers I like.

This, or you'll go nuts.

ICBM

It really baffles and frustrates me that so many people think there are only two choices - originals, or the "performing jukebox cover band set".

I play in a covers band - but we do not play the "cover band songs" and we never will. We play great songs that the punters all know, from a fairly narrow range of genres - punk, garage and grunge mostly - and we play them in our own style as if we were an originals band. We have a lot of fun, so do the punters, and we usually get paid enough to cover the band's expenses for a couple of weeks. It's a hobby, and we take it seriously while not taking it too seriously...

I've said this before I know, but I honestly think both musicians' and the punters' opinions of "cover bands" would be much higher if most did this and refused to play the usual crap.

Of course it's different if you're in a professional function band and earning a decent amount of money from it, but how many of us actually do that?

Danny1969

My favorite local band is a band who put their own spin of the songs, sometimes morphing them into something else entirely. With a lot of bands I'm involved with though the songs are played "as the record" because you often need a dep and the dep can just step right in with no rehearsals if the songs are played straight. 

ESBlonde

Nunogilberto said:

It's down to a few things; an urge to want to do original stuff again, slight boredom of the songs, a local scene saturated with cover bands and about 15 venues to play in, plus a couple of recent gigs that haven't been all that enjoyable (idiot punters, sparse attendances etc).

I can't help thinking that originals material may leave you with a smaller list of suitable local venues, very sparse attendances and a smattering of airholes. But the satisfaction of doing your own thing provides some compensation.

In the end you must follow your heart, just don't chop off your head in the meantime. ;-)

digitalscream

ICBM said:

I've said this before I know, but I honestly think both musicians' and the punters' opinions of "cover bands" would be much higher if most made even a token effort towards competence.

Fixed that for you

Then again, the same could very much be said for original bands.

The number of bands I want to actually watch round here can be counted on the fingers of one hand and still leave enough to hold a pick.

That said...the problem with cover bands, at least round here, is that they get popular because of the songs they play rather than how well they play them or the show they put on; the ones who do the best are minimally-able at best, but they make loud, vaguely-recognisable noise for people to jump around to while getting progressively more drunk. That seems to have become a self-sustaining circle whereby everybody in a given genre plays exactly the same songs in order to get gigs, so all cover gigs in the area are pretty much just a choice of punk/rock/blues and once you know that, you could write the set list yourself.

With original bands, the problem is that most seem to lean on the "We wrote it ourselves" schtick to excuse the fact that they can't play particularly well and sound fucking awful. At that point, audiences simply don't show up because they know that there's a 90% chance of all the bands on the bill being unlistenable.

Not really a great choice to have.

Again, I stress...I'm talking about the area about 30 miles around Peterborough. One of my bands is trying to organise a gig with quality bands on, and we could only find three...one of whom cancelled on us, and we had to go as far as Nottingham to find another.

p90fool

ICBM said:

It really baffles and frustrates me that so many people think there are only two choices - originals, or the "performing jukebox cover band set".

I play in a covers band - but we do not play the "cover band songs" and we never will. We play great songs that the punters all know, from a fairly narrow range of genres - punk, garage and grunge mostly - and we play them in our own style as if we were an originals band. We have a lot of fun, so do the punters, and we usually get paid enough to cover the band's expenses for a couple of weeks. It's a hobby, and we take it seriously while not taking it too seriously...

I've said this before I know, but I honestly think both musicians' and the punters' opinions of "cover bands" would be much higher if most did this and refused to play the usual crap.

Of course it's different if you're in a professional function band and earning a decent amount of money from it, but how many of us actually do that?

Exactly this. Almost all the covers bands local to me play the standard guitar band set, with varying levels of competence. 

My band is a bunch of family and friends with varying levels of experience, but we play mostly non-guitar based pop music from the last 15 years or so, which goes down a storm. The pub gig we did the night before last was crazy, almost like a NYE gig. 

The only other covers band which breaks the mold around here is a three piece comprising nylon strung electro acoustic, bass and drums, they can play absolutely anything and all three are great singers.  

Grunfeld

I play weekly, playing songs I can't stand.

But, I like the band cos we take it seriously and we're nice and tight, and I enjoy the gigs.

Also, people enjoy those songs and that's what I enjoy.

Last time I was in a band playing songs I liked no one wanted to hear them.

I hadn't written those songs either.

And the last time I was in a band playing songs I'd helped write no one showed up to our (few) gigs.

So on balance, I'd rather play songs I can't stand but put on a show, have fun with my band mates, and earn a few quid for watching girls dance around while I make a load of noise with a guitar and a big amp.

Which is basically why I picked up guitar in the first place.

PolarityMan

I'm kind of wondering about doing something other than live performances entirely. I do enjoy them but they are sparsely attended especially for a metal originals act and I feel like it might be better trying to do some kind of streaming thing. 

hotpickups

I felt this and started my own band because of it. Albeit we still play covers but not the same covers every band seems to want to churn out. Hundreds of equally great songs to cover out there without it having to monotonous

Danny1969

I like the songs I play in covers bands, there's simply too many good songs out there you can do to not choose songs you like but I do get fed up with repetition. In my main band we have about 140 songs we can assemble the setlist from but after 10 years you soon get fed up with the same 140 songs ... even when another 7 or so have been added every year and some have been retired. So we came up with an idea the end of January, pick 10 songs,  decide on keys and  chuck the songs in a Whatsapp group so we all listen to the same versions and just play em the next gig with no rehearsals, So that's what we did, a few Sam Fender songs, couple of Smiths, bit of Madness and Style Council and some Killers and Snow Patrol . 

Most of it went fine, a couple of wobbles due to no rehearsed endings but nothing the audience would notice. It meant actually having to think about the songs as you're playing them rather than relying on auto pilot ... to the point I only had a few pints before we went on as I needed to concentrate . Was so much more enjoyable than the normal material to play

So all in all a success although I think 3 new unrehearsed songs per gig every gig would be a  better idea than sticking 10 in one go. 

p90fool

@Danny1969 we do that too, but never more than a couple of songs! In fact we barely rehearse at all these as gigging keeps us way too busy, so we also just share ideas around on WhatsApp, and let the singer tell what key to do it in. 

Rehearsals are for originals bands IMO, it's a waste of a valuable evening if you're playing covers. 

monquixote

My experience of playing in cover bands around Suffolk (which is not a great scene TBH) is that there are two kinds of venues.

Decent venues where as long as you play stuff people know they enjoy it even if you change the keys and arrangements quite a bit.

Shitty pubs full of old bar flies who spend a chunk of the evening sitting outside and smoking. if you play one of a list of about 20 songs (Sex on Fire, Mustang Sally) they all run in and jump about going completely mental and if not they go outside and start smoking again.

I've played the same venue with a shitty band with a crap PA, who don't rehearse and read the songs straight out of books, but play only those 20 songs and another band who contained various pro and semi pro musicians, were drilled to perfection and had a great lead singer and the former went down ten times better.

Eventually many of the first type of venue shut down, or turned into restaurants leaving mostly the second and at that point I got bored of playing pubs any more.

Creed_Clicks

Played for years, and originally was playing music I liked, but still safe enough in terms of setlist, eventually ended up playing sh*t for punters as they kept asking for them. Jacked it in. Was always doing it just for the money. Played original on and off and liked it. Different beast altogether though.
I'd like to get back into covers, but as a bass player. I played bass for a while in a trad band and enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind doing a heavy metal covers band, or alt / SY type stuff, or as a previous poster mentioned, putting your own spin on things.
e.g. a cover band with upright bass, small kit etc.

CeeJay

monquixote said:

My experience of playing in cover bands around Suffolk (which is not a great scene TBH) is that there are two kinds of venues.

Decent venues where as long as you play stuff people know they enjoy it even if you change the keys and arrangements quite a bit.

Shitty pubs full of old bar flies who spend a chunk of the evening sitting outside and smoking. if you play one of a list of about 20 songs (Sex on Fire, Mustang Sally) they all run in and jump about going completely mental and if not they go outside and start smoking again.

I've played the same venue with a shitty band with a crap PA, who don't rehearse and read the songs straight out of books, but play only those 20 songs and another band who contained various pro and semi pro musicians, were drilled to perfection and had a great lead singer and the former went down ten times better.

Eventually many of the first type of venue shut down, or turned into restaurants leaving mostly the second and at that point I got bored of playing pubs any more.

Are you still giggling around Suffolk? Will come and give you a look see if you are.