Getting tired of the cover band scene...

monquixote · March 2020

CeeJay said:

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.

No I jacked it in a couple of years ago.

Might get back to it some day.

jpfamps · March 2020

digitalscream said:

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

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.

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

Many "originals" bands (I employed inverted commas as very few of the "originals" bands I've seen / heard, and I've heard several 100, are doing anything original) seem to think that people only want to here "songs they know" and that's why it's so hard for them.

Actually people want to hear something good, and to be honest most of these bands' songs are simply not very good, and they can't play or sing very well, usually not helped by them holding a position of moral superiority because they "never play other people's song", which if they had, they may have learnt how to play better, or perhaps structure a song correctly.

Just for the record I play in several bands that do a variety of classic songs and "originals".

p90fool · March 2020

Wis'd @jpfamps ;; so many people who write their own material have a weird sense of superiority, when often the only reason they hack out their tedious four chord "originals" is because they're unemployable as regular musicians.

What they seldom realise is that most of us who are competent enough to get paid for playing other people's music also write our own boring drivel, it's just we're skilled enough to have the self-awareness not to inflict it on everyone all the bloody time.

When even our favourite artists write ten filler tracks for every hit I don't know why every chump who can barely sing and play thinks they're doing something which has never been heard before and deserves a massive audience.

TTBZ · March 2020

I go through phases and after years of trying to get the original thing going have recently joined a gigging cover band mainly for the money. I really like having the balance of both and it was actually quite liberating to get over myself and stop acting like my original music was so important that I couldn't possibly be seen playing covers. I'm quite lucky that I found a cover band who don't play the usual "pub standards" but still manage to have a set that keeps people dancing. Also nobody takes it too seriously and nobody thinks they're a rock star.

Covers is instant gratification, no messing about with "ooh what if we try this or that" you either know the song or you don't. I tend to really like originals to start with then it becomes more of a slog when ideas run dry. Find I write better when I'm by myself than when we all sit in a room and try to get something down.

Summer of 69, Sex on Fire and Mr Brightside are still shit though.

mudslide73 · March 2020

p90fool said:

Wis'd @jpfamps ;; so many people who write their own material have a weird sense of superiority, when often the only reason they hack out their tedious four chord "originals" is because they're unemployable as regular musicians.

What they seldom realise is that most of us who are competent enough to get paid for playing other people's music also write our own boring drivel, it's just we're skilled enough to have the self-awareness not to inflict it on everyone all the bloody time.

When even our favourite artists write ten filler tracks for every hit I don't know why every chump who can barely sing and play thinks they're doing something which has never been heard before and deserves a massive audience.

You're right - it takes a spectacular lack of self-awareness to put your work up against the greatest songwriters of all time. I love my stuff but it turns out I'm in the minority.

p90fool · March 2020

No, everyone who writes their own music should be welcomed and encouraged to put it out there, but there's no need to belittle musicians who have skills you don't have while doing it, not least because you will need competent professionals to realise your ambitions if your songs are any good.

I'll be riding out the coming plague by doing full band arrangements in my studio for local singer-songwriters who don't have those facilities or skills, but there will be one or two who will get a firm "no" from me after their constant disparaging remarks about those of us who play other people's songs in order to pay their mortgage.

Mark1960 · March 2020

I play in a covers band and we started only playing the type we liked and wanted, but with limited success. Yes we played them well, but they were not really what most wanted to hear, so we gradually added new songs to the set which were still enjoyable to play, but had a much more wider audience attraction, and guess what, our old songs get a better reception now as well. I guess it's all about balancing what you want to play as a band to what people want to listen to. There's a good compromise to be found somewhere.

EricTheWeary · March 2020

I know we've said this before but there wasn't really a differentiation between covers ( or tributes) and originals from at least The Beatles onwards. When I saw a lot of bands in the late 80s from ska to reggae to rock to folk to jazz to pop there was usually a 'crowd pleaser' thrown into the set. Probably not for that purpose but I remember seeing Robert Plant and he did a Kylie Minogue cover, it's funny, it lifts the mood, probably some relief for those who'd been dragged there not knowing his material. Then when I started playing gigs in the 90s we played random covers mixed with originals. 2x45 minutes of our originals would have been a substandard set so why not throw in The Clash, Dr Feelgood, Nirvana and Mustang Sally.
I have no idea where that band would even gig now as you are judged by your description on social media EightiesTribute ,Original Metal,etc.

PolarityMan · March 2020

p90fool said:

Wis'd @jpfamps ;; so many people who write their own material have a weird sense of superiority, when often the only reason they hack out their tedious four chord "originals" is because they're unemployable as regular musicians.

What they seldom realise is that most of us who are competent enough to get paid for playing other people's music also write our own boring drivel, it's just we're skilled enough to have the self-awareness not to inflict it on everyone all the bloody time.

When even our favourite artists write ten filler tracks for every hit I don't know why every chump who can barely sing and play thinks they're doing something which has never been heard before and deserves a massive audience.

There are a lot of genuinely shit cover bands phoning it in week after week though especially at the pub level. I think a lot of the perception of cover bands comes from these guys.

Even with some of the higher calibre bands I often feel like there isn't that much emotional connection between the musicians and the music. Often it is music performed to a high level with impeccable musicianship but very little personality.

With originals at least you're kinda of emotionally invested by default.

Having said that i really enjoyed the few years my band did where we did split sets of covers and originals...although they were....unconventional...song choices.

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Getting tired of the cover band scene...

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