Playing songs right before a 'tribute' band

[fraublugher]

A juke-box , a sony walkman and an mp3 player walk into a bar.....

[Massimo636]

I don't see why the tribute band automatically has the upper hand here. Neither of your bands wrote the song and both of you want to play it so I wouldn't think any band has any more right than the other to it. If they get mad about it that's pretty pathetic in my opinion.

[MarkMgibson]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

Pull the songs. Professional courtesy. If that leaves you a few songs short, learn a few new ones.

Yes, it's a matter of courtesy more than anything.

[Raymeous]

Gut reaction is to remove it from your set list.

It's kinda like if you were opening for (insert big time headliner) you wouldn't play one of their songs in your set would you? If all else fails contact the Band B and talk to them about it.



You don't want your awesomely amazing band to upstage them too much do you?
It would make them

[Richland123]

Yes, remove it. My band opens for some national acts as well as top oldies bands and I make sure that we don't play songs that they do during a show. It is professional courtesy. Also, that way, the audience does not hear the same song twice.

When in doubt, take it out.

[Muttleybass]

I wouldn't play it out of courtesy. If they're a tribute, then they would be expected to play it. You would not be.

[Gearhead17]

Cover bands opening for cover bands - it's best to talk to the band in person at some point. We recently did a show and we gladly took certain songs out and asked them to take some of their songs out. It worked nicely and nobody was angry at all. Of course, we had plenty of material.

We have done several shows with a heavily-focused 80's band; we quickly took out our 80's tunes and played more 90's and modern stuff. Why? So each band stands out to the crowd, bands are happy and the audience gets a ton of variety.

[Einherjar]

Originally Posted by Bert Slide

Not without asking is the courteous thing to do and I wouldn't ask unless I knew them. They may want you to play it to jack up the crowd if it doesn't conflict with their set selections as stated.

To turn it around, we followed an Ozzy Osborne tribute at a benefit last Spring. Dude's been doing it 20+ years and kills. Looks and sounds dead on Ozzy with a super tight backup band. Great! We have to follow Ozzy! We do play some Sabbath but decided it was best to avoid it. The crowd at the event was mostly his fans and we opened with an Operation Ivy tune to a half full room of very puzzled looking Ozzy fanatics with big hair and leather costumes. Priceless!

That is ****ing awesome. Which Op. Ivy song?

[Downlowd]

Originally Posted by Downunderwonder

So cool and so un-cool.

Agreed.

[Lunchbox4u_6]

Remove the tune, that's what I've always done.

[Bert Slide]

Originally Posted by Einherjar

That is ****ing awesome. Which Op. Ivy song?

Knowledge. Here's the vid from that show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Qmf2y1Zt0

[deepBassie]

Originally Posted by BigJohnAZ

Communication is the key and no one was put in a bad situation.

^Yep.

Otherwise, leave out songs from the band that the tribute band is covering. My cover band has about 100 songs that we can pull off on any given night. This gives us flexibility to adjust to the preferences of the crowd and to drop songs off the setlist that may conflict with other bands. No need to double up on songs when there are so many great cover tunes out there.

[plankspanker13]

Pulling the songs is probably the wisest move, BUT...

Let's just see how many people are there to see whom. Suppose Band A has a large following, and the peeps are there, in force, and one of the songs in question is a known favorite of theirs. Now, what's the call?

[mellowinman]

If I had heard the tribute band before, and the song was one of our signature songs, and I knew we could totally blow them away on it, and I didn't care about working again, I would totally do it.

Like, totally.

But otherwise?

No.

[baba]

We opened for a regional Doors tribute band once and played the first 20 seconds or so of LA Woman as a joke. They thought it was funny and admitted that they went from panic to anger pretty fast before we stopped and laughed.

Pull the song...unless you tease it in the name of priming the audience for the upcoming band.

[ajpaul59]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's just that most tributes are very good and it (potentially) makes your band look very bad in comparison. In most cases, I'd say pull it just to avoid embarrassment...

[TRichardsbass]

Opposite experience here. Opened for Dick Dale. Made sure to stay away from anything he plays or would play. Even checked with him to make sure. We closed with " Pipeline." In between sets Dick told us we killed it. During his last encore he says, "those guys really rocked this, here's mine."

Dick Dale just, well, there are no words. One of the best versions I ever heard live, ever. Pretty sure everyone forgot us...

[gene beauchamp]

I was headlining a really big show and one of the opening bands played one of our Journey songs and we didnt care because we do it pretty well. But then people stated saying we shouldnt have played it because they did. We were the headliner. I said neither of us wrote it anyway.

[Tituscrow]

Howzabout inviting their singer onstage to sing during your version? Make like its one big, happy open musical community...because we all know that there is no competitiveness or backstage ego's, even at a tribute/cover gig

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by Bert Slide

Knowledge. Here's the vid from that show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Qmf2y1Zt0

Great song, better then anything Ozzy did
You did a good job with it too.