demensia said:
Fact is, I believe the coach is right. Drunk people want to slobber some words to hotel california... and other songs they know.. I don't take his advice, I don't play the covers, and I don't connect with the bar gig audience...
The gigs pay, some well, some poorly. I try to think of it as a paid rehersal, sometimes I leave in higher sprits than others, but certainly not satisfied.
I play covers, but I chose obscure covers.. the ones that nobody knows. My entire set is pretty depressing as well.. I don't generally play anything uplifting.
What are some of the songs that you guys play that the drunk bar audience dig?
Bars definately are'nt the place to be playing obscure covers or depressing music in general, as much as people like us may like that type of stuff.
Try to put yourself in the average bar hoppers shoes. They go out to a bar to loosen up and have fun. Familiar songs tend to make most people comfortable and the majority of bar goers want to hear something fun and upbeat.
As far as what songs you should play, that involves smoozing with the crowd and experimenting. You have to try to keep your finger on the pulse of the room. Some nights, all upbeat rockin songs might work. Other nights you'll get the dreaded blank stare. In general, I'd say that playing mostly upbeat songs in a bar crowd is the way to go. You should have a range of stuff to play though. You have to have a handful of slow songs to mix in there some where and some dance tunes are always good too. In a typical night (four hour gig), we will play upbeat rockers for the first set, some upbeat dance tunes for the second set, a mix of slower dance songs and ballad stuff for the thrird, and close with some mild rockin stuff for the fourth. Also, people love it when you're able to play requests. You have to make sure the requests are going with the general mood of the crowd though.
The guys that I play in a cover band with try to get me to play stuff that I don't like some times, which is mainstream radio stuff. I generally listen to alot of indie rock, folk rock, and alt country stuff. The guys in my band have never heard of most of the stuff I listen to. The truth is though, most of that stuff does'nt go over real well in a typical bar. Now I hear the guys throwing up terms like "nickelback" or "poison" quite a bit and I usually respond with a loud, abnoxious puking sound and plenty o' eye rolls. We have some common ground though and that would be classic rock. It goes over well at every bar that we've played at. We compromise within by playing classic rock and that way, no one is playing anything that they absolutely don't like.
We generally play the hooks of songs pretty close to the originals and improvise the looser parts. If a guitar solo or rythm riff has a certain phrase that really pushes the song, then I'll be sure and play that phrase. It's expected and the crowd responds to it. On the other hand, if I'm feelin' froggy one night, I'll improvise like mad and hope for the best. Some times it works equally well. The important thing is to have intros, changes, and endings down tight. Our crowds seem to respond accordingly to tight or sloppy playing.
The best advice I can give you is to make the crowd feel connected with the band. Get them involved with the music in any way you can by playing appropriate material for the mood, taking requests, and talking to the crowd. Our rythm guitarist does an hourly "attitude check" over the mic to get everyones blood flowing a bit. I thought it was corny at first but it seems to work pretty well.
Playing in a cover band is'nt exactly my ideal playing situation but I'm learning alot from it, i'm making some extra money, i get free beer, and i have my pick of drunk chicks (kidding).......well some times it's fun.