How Many Songs Does your Cover Band Know?

chris said:
They aren’t my shows. They come to the restaurant or hotel and I happen to be there. I think realizing this makes the gig much easier in many aspects. It’s more about being re-hired, supplying the venue with what they want, rather than producing a “rocking” show and impressing people with amazing vocals or show stopping moments.

For my current gigs, all they want is constant music from me, very little down time between songs, and a consistent sound, nothing too quiet or loud to distract them from eating. I do play with dynamics but nothing too jarring.
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Fair enough.

Personally though, I don’t want those kind of gigs anymore. I would rather be the background music and focus on quality of the sound, rather than be a high energy attraction to make people dance. Just my preference.
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Sadder words have never been spoken. :( Other then maybe "I'm a bedroom player."
 
Muad'zin said:
Sadder words have never been spoken. :( Other then maybe "I'm a bedroom player."
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not every performance is a "rock show." do you really want to be eating dinner at a nice restaurant and have some guy yelling and dancing around?

last i checked, music is primarily audio, and i focus on the quality of that for my gigs.
 
chris said:
not every performance is a "rock show." do you really want to be eating dinner at a nice restaurant and have some guy yelling and dancing around?

last i checked, music is primarily audio, and i focus on the quality of that for my gigs.
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This.

I don't buy the "If it ain't got that flash, it ain't music" philosophy. High-energy rock shows are great, but they're only one corner of the vast expanse that is music.

As far as "bedroom players" go, most of the best players spend most of their time playing at home, even if they gig regularly.
 
Given the low cost of recording tech these days, there’s no excuse for not having all of your bands songs and arrangements recorded and available for each members to rehearse to. The guys I play with collectively know hundreds of songs.

If we introduce a song to the band, we rehearse it, record it,critique it and, if we like it, put it in the rotation. We try to get set lists out well before the gig. If someone needs to woodshed a song, they know to go to Dropbox and get the recording - key, tempo, arrangement are all there. It works like a charm.
 
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AndyOrr said:
Given the low cost of recording tech these days, there’s no excuse for not having all of your bands songs and arrangements recorded and available for each members to rehearse to. The guys I play with collectively know hundreds of songs.

If we introduce a song to the band, we rehearse it, record it,critique it and, if we like it, put it in the rotation. We try to get set lists out well before the gig. If someone needs to woodshed a song, they know to go to Dropbox and get the recording - key, tempo, arrangement are all there. It works like a charm.
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Thing is though, it may be cheaper to record things, that doesn't mean everybody knows how to do it. In my experience most musicians still don't know how to do it.
 
my advice would be not to try and keep adding new songs if the ones you have aren't yet tight and second nature. gig those and get them sounding great and then add 5 more. bed those in and when you're happy, add another 5. maybe it will take 10 gigs to do it. it doesn't matter. there's no point adding new tunes for the sake of it.
 
About 60. We try to tailor the list to the gig. more country, more rock, etc. Lately, we're trying to learn 1-2 new songs a month. But there's a difference between learning a song, and really grooving a song. So if we cant do a song "justice" we move on. I think the one thing my band does well, is that we play within our abilities. There are plenty of songs we want to do, we just cant do them to our satisfaction. Plus our wives are BRUTALLY honest! LOL!
 
This. I've been in many bands where we keep trying to play something that just doesn't suit us - whether it's the vocals, the instrumentation, whatever. Now my approach is to give it a few tries to give us the chance to own it, see if it can be rearranged to cover for what we lack, and if not, you gotta be honest and let it go.
 
Had to count today for a drummer-wanted post response: 80. That's 40 more than I thought we knew.
 
I don't know in other languages, but here, in Spain, when going to a gig, nobody says "I'm going to hear (band's name here)". Everybody says "I'm going to see... ".

Well, maybe blind people say "hear".

That shows the importance of the visual thing in a concert (or a movie or any kind of show).

In the cover band where I play we have like... 80 songs.

BTW. Tell me something, please:

Is it a "cover" when you try to play the song like the original?

In case yes, what's the name when you change the song and take it to another style (that's what we do)?

I don't know the Spanish name for that, either. They are always named "version(e)s". That name is closer to what we do with songs, but no way to know if the band you are about to see is going to play like the real thing or their own version until you hear them.

We say Tribute band when... Well, I think it means the same everywhere.

Any light on this will be appreciated.

Thank you.
 
My band is a ‘cover’ band. Some songs we do very close to original but others we do very different from the original. So we use the same term in Canada.
 
In my world, cover band means you play other peoples songs. There's nothing implied as to it being exactly or not even close to the original version. Tho' most folks I know expect to hear something fairly close to the original.

A tribute band covers the band being tributed.. often down to the hair, clothes, guitars and other stage gear and equipment used.
 
Since I rebooted the band we have around 45 songs. I try not to pick songs that other local bands are doing. There are a couple songs that you might hear others bands playing but our song list for the most part sets us apart. We go from classic rock to modern rock to country.
 
Rayos said:
I don't know in other languages, but here, in Spain, when going to a gig, nobody says "I'm going to hear (band's name here)". Everybody says "I'm going to see... "
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In Dutch we also say the same thing.

Well, maybe blind people say "hear".

That shows the importance of the visual thing in a concert (or a movie or any kind of show).

In the cover band where I play we have like... 80 songs.

BTW. Tell me something, please:

Is it a "cover" when you try to play the song like the original?

In case yes, what's the name when you change the song and take it to another style (that's what we do)?

I don't know the Spanish name for that, either. They are always named "version(e)s". That name is closer to what we do with songs, but no way to know if the band you are about to see is going to play like the real thing or their own version until you hear them.

We say Tribute band when... Well, I think it means the same everywhere.

Any light on this will be appreciated.

Thank you.[/QUOTE]

Covers can mean anything, from a faithful reproduction to a complete reinterpretation that's almost irrecognizable. I don't think English, or Dutch for that matter, use the word version. But basically a cover song involves playing a song that is not your own.

ChristThePhone said:
Afaik a tribute band covers songs from one band only. That's why it's called tribute.
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Tribute bands do more then just play songs from one band, the idea is to become that band, give the audience the full experience, similar to the live shows of the original bands. Although there is a difference between incidental tribute, band X gives a one time, or limited tour performance of band Y, usually a tribute to their favorite band, and thus the origin of the word, vs. band X becoming like band Y, like s0c9 said, down to the hair, clothes, guitars, stage props and performance.
 
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