2/4/2009 6:15:13 AM
Do You Like it When an "Original" Band Plays Cover Songs Live at a Club?

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2/4/2009 6:15:13 AM

Do You Like it When an "Original" Band Plays Cover Songs Live at a Club?
When you go to see a live "original" music band at a club, are you disappointed when they don't do at least one cover song!

I personally don't like it when an original band wastes time playing covers. To me it's just because they don't have enough material to play a full set (which is normally only 30 to 45 minutes)!

If you do like to hear cover songs by these types of bands, do you like obscure cover songs or well know covers?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this topic!

-ts

2/4/2009 8:17:09 AM ---- Updated 2/4/2009 8:19:50 AM

A great song by a great band is always a great thing.

(See Def Leppard - YEAH! on AllMusic for more on this topic.)

2/4/2009 8:41:36 AM

Thanks for your perspectives on this guys!

I guess the thing that bugs me the most about hearing bands do covers during a really short club set is that for the most part, their versions of the original song(s) are usually either poorly rehearsed or they just don't make the song their own and play an inferior version of the original just to fill the set time! At least that's my experience from seeing and playing with lots of local bands!

However, I agree, if a band can pull it off like the Dead always did and like the Who did with "Summertime Blues" it's great, but when a local band tries it and doesn't put the effort or creativity into it and is just using the song as a time filler, I find it to be just plain old annoying!

-ts

2/4/2009 8:51:13 AM

I agree with that too.
But then, if that's the case, the band probably wasn't such a great band to start with. No?

2/4/2009 9:10:40 AM

Actually the band is very good when they play their original material!

It's just that their choice of cover songs pretty much blows and they're only playing them to fill up their set, because they don't have quite enough original material yet!

I think bands should really put more time and thought into selecting cover songs to play and work on making them their own and perform them in their own style as if they actually wrote it! Again, like the Who did with "Summertime Blues".

-ts

2/4/2009 9:19:44 AM

Yeah, they TOTALLY made it their own!

2/4/2009 9:25:57 AM

Wow, great question...

We personally have a bunch of both originals and covers to pull from. And really depends on the event more than anything else. I agree, for an opening set that's limited to 30 minutes, or a showcase set where you open for a national act, would definitely be ALL original... a 45-minute set, might include 1 cover, a 60-minute set, 2 covers... an all night gig, where you're filling 3 sets of music, several more covers get thrown into the mix.

We are an original band, but we also love to cover some of the delectable music out in this world... but we like to do it right, we definitely aim for more obscure songs, but more than anything... tasty (our perspective of tasty, of course). Its true, that more times than not, you get hack jobs on covers. For us, we study anything we're goin for. It will always have our sound connected, but if there's a guitar solo, anything that stands out that the song is known for... we're gonna study it and aim to nail it.

When we do cover, it ranges from traditional steel guitar instrumentals to Zappa, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Hank WIlliams, Jimi Hendrix, Gillian Welch, Pink Floyd, Stanley Brothers, Ryan Adams, Warren Zevon, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Daniel Lanois, Ray Lamontagne, Peter Gabriel, Gram Parsons, Brother Oswald, George Gershwin, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, The Bottle Rockets, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, and mmmmore. Our thing is we like to surprise... our motto is "Original, Traditional and Unconditional Music for the Soul".

Two other thoughts... Covers were once somebody's original... so hopefully listeners will stretch their ears to hear new songs in that light. But for an audience that may have never heard your music, even if its fantastic songwriting and performance... a well-played cover can be a very comforting friend... and you pull that off, you hook em. They listen more openly to what you have to say.

Finally, the things that flat out pisses me off to no end... is when someone changes the melody (I don't mean a slight embellishment here and there, but flat out changes the melody)... why cover it if you don't recognize it?

my opinion.

Great topic.

2/4/2009 9:46:37 AM

Excellent perspective you've provided on this topic!

Especially your thoughts regarding how a "well-played" cover can be a very comforting friend and your views on how your band usually guages how many covers to play (if any) based on the set length.

You made a lot of GREAT points!

Thanks,

-ts

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