If You're NOT A Cover Band, What (if any) Covers Do You Play Live?

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Robertt8

Robertt8

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We're kind of a chill sort of acoustic beachy (I guess you'd call it) band, that gets comparisons to Jack Johnson and Sublime, we've currently got 3 covers in the works for live shows...

1. Ween - Bananas and Blow
2. Jimmy Buffet - Coconut Telegraph
3. Bob Schnieder - Big Blue Sea

We wanted to do some covers that no one really knew. Maybe there's like one guy drinking in the corner that goes "HEY!" That's...." Not that we planned to take credit for any of the tunes, they just go well with our type of music. We also might slide in "Detachable Penis" by King Missile as a joke song that one of our friends might sing from time to time.

(our site for any reference... http://www.roberttait.com/ )

What do you guys have and why?
 
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A friend of mine around here (Denver) plays a one man acoustic show that's brilliant. He plays originals but throws in about 4 covers to keep the attention of people who don't care for music thy aren't familliar with.

He plays a bad ass Brittany Speers' Hit Me Baby One More Time cover and about halfway through it goes into One by U2 seemlessly and the crowd LOVES it every time.

My point is try doing something unexpected. People expect to hear certain things when they see an acoustic guitar. Give em something else. Like...I don't know Iron Maiden. Ya know what I mean?

Personally, for an upbeat acoustic cover that you could put your stamp on I would recommend something like Suspicoius Minds by Elvis. That would compliment your style well I think.

Of course I could just be talkin' out my ass.
 
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interesting...yeah, I hear a bunch of bands tend to do some NSYC song or Vanila Ice, or Whitney Huston...just to be funny. Always entertaining...

I wasn't looking for tunes for our band to play, I was just wondering what others were doing out there. There's usually some interesting stories as to why they're doing certain songs.
 
Doombot said:
He plays a bad ass Brittany Speers' Hit Me Baby One More Time cover and about halfway through it goes into One by U2 seemlessly and the crowd LOVES it every time.
QUOTE]

Hey! I play Hit Me Baby One More Time at my acoustic gigs too! Never thought of segueing into One tho - brilliant.

yeah something unpredictable is good. If you got a confident vocalist I say use the guitar as a percussive instrument by muting the strings, and go accapella on a Robert Johnson song, or something by Crazy Penis.

I agree with the 'bot, go the unpredictable :D
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We like covering Jimmy Eat World.

Praise Chorus
The Middle
Get It Faster
Bleed American


...basically their most boring popular songs, but people dig them.
 
Hmmm, I'm not sure about the approach of using obscure covers?

IMHO the point of throwing in a few covers is either to show how you can interpret someone else's song in a new different way, or to give the audience a little break from your unknown material by throwing in a song they recognise ,as a kind of sweetner? or both.

In either case it's better if most of the audience know the original song to start with and can then appreciate the work/changes you've done in reintepreting it, or enjoy your straight version of the song they know well?

By choosing 'obscure' songs to cover you don't gain on either level, or am I missing something here? Surely if hardly anyone in the audience knows the cover then you may as well play another one of your own songs?

But if you enjoy it, what the heck, it's all fun.
 
funny you mentioned this thread, I have an act called, Pensive Songwriter Sings One Hit Wonders where I sing all kinds of stuff from "Pop Musik," "Whip It," "To Be With You" to "99 Luftballoons" and "Rock Me Amadeus" (I like singing in German. :))

In the past, I've done THe Mollusk and Spinal Meningitis. Ween always demands attention.

As far as the debate about providing the unexpected for attention, if you're playing solo acoustic, you just have to sing loudly and clearly and people will listen.
 
glynb said:
Hmmm, I'm not sure about the approach of using obscure covers?
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Yeah, there's no strategy here. Hell, I don't even want to do covers, but for one, we're still light on tunes to play live, and for another they're songs we like, and do em differently enough anyway that it's more of a nod of respect to the original writers...whether they (or anyone else) knows it or not. It's all good with me, as long as it sounds good.
:D
 
glynb said:
By choosing 'obscure' songs to cover you don't gain on either level, or am I missing something here? Surely if hardly anyone in the audience knows the cover then you may as well play another one of your own songs?
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I think the original poster sorta explained it. If you play a sorta obscure cover, there will be a few that know it, and think "wow, how totally sweet, I've never hear that song live before. Heck I haven't heard it years!" My band played a few covers - one somewhat obscure one was Citidel by the stones. sure we coulda played satisfaction or something, but everyone's heard that a million times. I, for one, would rather see an original band play a more original cover, if you'll pardon the oxymoron.

The other reason is there are lots of cool obscure covers that totally rock, and if someone doesn't recognize thenm, and thinks they are your own, then they might just think you rock that much more. A little deceptive, maybe, but it works.
 
Covers, yecch!!! If I had my choice I'd never play another one...but...for some unknown reason people like to sing along, I'll never figure out why but they do. If you have to do covers keep that idea in mind. Try to find a couple of tunes which have been recorded by mutiple artists, that way you have more liberty in your arrangement of the song and will most likely appeal to a broader group of people. One more thing, do covers that you like and can have fun with and dont worry too much if your arrangement dosent sound exactly like the original, play it your way and impress someone with that creative twist that only you can add.
 
I'm not currently playing live, but there are a few "covers" I do, which I've always wanted to include in a set. These are all songs that for whatever reason shaped me as a musician in some way, so in return I like to shape them right back. They really don't sound like the originals, but more like they'd sound if I had written them. I wish I had.

1. "Sullivan" Caroline's Spine
2. "The KKK Took My Baby Away" The Ramones
3. "Esteem" 8stops7
4. "Curtis Lowe" Lynyrd Skynyrd
 
we cover "fat bottom girls" and we used to do a medley consisting of "nothing else matters" with "scism" lyrics then the double bass drum bit from "the one" then "zombie" by the crnaberries but with the lyrics to "enter sandman" (i think the singer pinched the idea from mike patton) and with the zombie chords continung we'd throw in R. Kelly "ignition" and that Justin Timbrelake song, and that "you can do it put ass into it" then a couple of guitar solos and we'd finish on the "zombie" lyrics but the singer didn't know the words so it went something like

"your momma take takes her clothes of and dances on the table
your father blah blah blah ....."

oh yeah we were asked to play at the local skate park so we learned "sk8er boi" by Avril

we rehearsed "betterman" by robbie williams and "you say it best" by ronan keating, but thankfully we've never played them live....

played national anthem by radiohead too at our first gig because we were short on songs....

by the way we're whats generally refered to as a stoner rock band
 
i love sublime:)

in my previous band we did a cover of angels by robbie williams. that cleared the place out. in my current band, the first song we played at our first gig was the y.m.c.a. we've never been able to shake that image.

by far the greatest cover ive seen live was by a local band called hip hop who played the a-team theme going into the ghostbusters theme. amazing.
 
We play
Hysteria-Muse
Tourettes-Nirvana
The march of the Empire-Star wars
 
play whatever you want. if you guys get your rocks off playin it. bands like the dead and nofx half thier tunes are covers. enjoy! :eek:
 
Train Kept A Rollin, Com'n Everybody, and some various Zeppelin Covers, Dazed and Confused(with the bow), Bring It On Home, Whole Lotta Love, and ocaisonally The Rover. WE played com'n everybody at a punk show and they loved it... It's a 50's song too. Oh and also the Mario Underworld Theme...lol :D
 
stonepiano said:
As far as the debate about providing the unexpected for attention, if you're playing solo acoustic, you just have to sing loudly and clearly and people will listen.
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Seeing someone solo sing loudly and clearly is unexpected, that's for sure. :)
 
We have a handful of covers that we jam on and drop into the set occasionally depending on the venue,
Buzzcocks: Ever fallen in love
The Adverts : Gary Gilmores Eyes
New Rose: The Damned
A nice little bunch of Punk songs that always get people listening and we also do
Come up and see me make me sile: Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel.
Pretty much guarenteed to get the deadest of audiences interested (even if only briefly)
 
got a show tonight.

We're coverin' Sasquatch by Tenacious D and Space Station Disaster by Manplanet.
 
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