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Cover acts - whats in demand?

#21
MNAirHead said:
Thanks for the reply - this is no the prevailing trend for corporate, social and public events

Looking to discuss cash cows
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Corporate, social, and public events have all but gone away with the economic crash.
We used to get $2500 for a three hour gig back in the dot.com party days and had so many bookings we actually turned them down. Now we are lucky to get $1000 and they happen like maybe once a month.
 
#23
I suspect the real answer to "what's in demand" is "DJs".

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, as I do know people who gig 6 days a week, and wedding bands who have most in-season weekends booked for 2012 already, but I also know that a DJ with practically no experience and no equipment of his own can easily get work that pays better than similar-sized venues pay bands.
 
#26
SteveHeissner said:
AfroCubanFunMa hit the nail on the head. I bet he plays out quite a bit.
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The GB band I just signed on with is only one year old and already has over 30 bookings next year.. Yeah, I think they know what sells.. Full disclosure... My original band was averaging over 100 shows a year for the last 6 years playing none of the above.. Well maybe one Gaga tune, re-harmed as a merengue.. as a lark..:o
 
#27
D Bopp said:
I don't know why, but people request the song Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show every week.
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We just added that one to our show a few weeks ago. Good god what a boring song. But after having people ask us for it at every gig all summer... on the list it went. When it gets too much for us to take though we merge from that into "You Shook Me All Night Long" (with the same bluegrass two-beat) and then it's kind of fun.

Otherwise... our playlist is

- about 70% "new country" (Jason Aldean, Paisley, Keith Urban, Zac Brown, Jarred Nieman, Jake Owen, Sugarland plus our BL's originals)

- A few country classics (Folsom Prison Blues, Louisiana Saturday Night, Friends in Low Places, Baton Rouge, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Chattahoochie, Dust on the Bottle, Fishin in the Dark)

- Some 80s standards (Love Shack, Billie Jean, Hands to Yourself, Hurts So Good, Don't Stop Believin)

- A couple of uber-oldies (My Girl, Sherrie Baby, All Shook Up)

- A smattering of new pop (Lady GaGa, Enrique Iglesias, Pink, Black Eyed Peas, Jason Mraz)

- A couple of beat-to-death hair band tunes (Sweet Child O'Mine, Every Rose Has its Thorn)

- A reggae version of Brown Eyed Girl

And that's the bulk of it. A truly odd blend but it has gone over very well and we've kept very busy. Also, we never use a setlist. The BL calls every show on the fly and he's really good at reading the room so that helps us, I think.
 
#28
We are a bar band. Our audience tends to be 30+ at the places we play, and today's top 40 stuff is not really what gets them going. We pretty much play rock and roll from the 60s to today but dabble in other genre's when the audience dictates. Some of our best tunes for getting them out on the dance floor include:

Watcha Want - Beastie Boys
What I Got - Sublime
Humpty Dance - Digital Underground
Bust a Move - Young MC
Ride wit Me - Nelly
Cold Beverage - G-Love

Our drummer sings every one of these, so many times our singer/rhythm guitar player hits the dance floor with the ladies and tries to get them stirred up and we will play a little hip hop mini set as a three piece.
 
#29
I didn't realize "Wagon Wheel" was so popular. Our band plays it, too.

I think what's in demand depends a lot on where you're playing. In our band, everyone but me is from a small town south of where I live. We're mainly playing around the area of that town, so we play southern rock and country, which is what people tend to like around there. So far, we've only played a couple of charity events and a private party, but the party got us booked at the VFW for New Year's Eve. One of the guitarists and I want to work on a different style of music in the future, but right now we're playing what's popular with the locals.
 
#30
Naturekev said:
I didn't realize "Wagon Wheel" was so popular. Our band plays it, too.

I think what's in demand depends a lot on where you're playing. In our band, everyone but me is from a small town south of where I live. We're mainly playing around the area of that town, so we play southern rock and country, which is what people tend to like around there. So far, we've only played a couple of charity events and a private party, but the party got us booked at the VFW for New Year's Eve. One of the guitarists and I want to work on a different style of music in the future, but right now we're playing what's popular with the locals.
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I had never heard the song before I started playing in this band. I guess it was a popular fraternity song, and that's where a lot of these people probably used to hear it. I play in Buckhead. If you are from Atlanta, you know what kind of people congregate there.
 
#31
pklima said:
......but I also know that a DJ with practically no experience and no equipment of his own can easily get work that pays better than similar-sized venues pay bands.
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Thinking of doing this as my "2nd band" on weekends we aren't booked. I also know a guy with no experience and not-good gear who gets decent $$$ per night with $100/hour for any overtime(party goes longer, patrons are wasted, wallets come open).

Back on topic.
We're in Houston mainly and do everything from Elvis to modern(esp. if we have a sit-in female vocalist who can sing). Demand? Dance stuff works for the shows we do.
 
#32
Jarrett said:
In my area, country is an auto gig. Slick, corporate, party/dance bands always have a gig as well. Schtick or tribute bands seem to get paid. Classic rock bands can pick up the table scraps if they hustle.
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I would say the same for our market here. It seems to be a common formula these days. The high dollar party gigs get off on 50's and 60's acts who entertain as well as play dance tunes and that's where the good money is. $2000 and up per night isn't out of the question.
 
#33
I'll tell you what you would have to pay me a ton of money to play that nu-country crap that's hot today...nasty stuff it is. Old school country? I'll hang on the R/5ths and walks all night with a smile......real country.
 
#34
bassbully said:
I'll tell you what you would have to pay me a ton of money to play that nu-country crap that's hot today...nasty stuff it is. Old school country? I'll hang on the R/5ths and walks all night with a smile......real country.
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Funny thing is, there are people getting paid a ton of money to play new country... Most new country is a blend of rock, pop, and old country. There is a lot of root/5th walking stuff in the new country too. I was a rocker for a very long before I got into country so I like the blend. It pays to be versatile these days...Literally...

I don't quite get the rub that a lot of people have against new country. Rock is practically dead nowadays. It doesn't sell as much as it used to, hence the overlap. Plus music is always changing. One either changes with the times, makes it their own, and adapts or gets left by the wayside while others make music.
 
#35
Of course there are a lot of people getting paid well for it - musicians hate it, and it's always a good idea to play stuff musicians hate.

I personally like a lot of modern country, both Nashville and Texas.
 
#38
Heh, that wagon wheel tune is like puppies or something, I don't get it either but it just goes over so good.

Hair band tunes are doing well.
Motown, Tina Turner doing motown, Tina Turner..

That Francis in the Machine number that was a cover of the much better original by the band I forgot, might have been Massive Attack, anyway..."You got the Love", so easy, so boring, so popular I don't care. We do it with a very electro dance tune beat with a djembe and acoustic guitar, no matter, it gets them going.
 
#40
bassbully said:
I'll tell you what you would have to pay me a ton of money to play that nu-country crap that's hot today...nasty stuff it is.
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Interesting. I never found amazing musicianship (Paisley, Urban), good songwriting and excellent production (with the bass high in the mix) to be "nasty" but to each his own I guess. I don't choose to listen to a steady diet of new country and I will admit some of it is painfully derivative and formulaic, but compared to a lot of the music out there these days I don't find it half bad. And as far as the cover band scene, it is definitely a genre that's paying the bills around these parts these days.
 

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