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Cover Band annoyance

#81
20db pad said:
Horn parts, background vocals, strings, lots of stuff. Backing tracks also don't necessarily mean mediocrity, and many arena level live acts use them.
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That's why I shy away from arena/big venue acts. Saw Steely Dan last year--- no tracks, 10p killer band----
saw ZZtop about 10 years ago--- lots of tracks (syths and mechanical sounding percussion---- I used to like that band when they were the little 3 piece band from Texas.
 
#82
i read recently that one of those super-technical young metal bands (Maybe it was Periphery?) have a click track blaring in their in-ears for all their live shows. I personally would hate that, but I guess I could see how it would help when playing that stuff.
 
#83
It depends. I m in a cover band and it s just guitar bass drums and vocals. With some songs it just sounds to thin. Eg Dont Stop Fleetwoood Mac sounds stupid without the piano, Have u ever seen the rain sounds empty without that good old Hammond coming through in the second verse. I d prefer to use backing tracks, just for that stuff. When we play Sultans of Swing, as soon as the lead break comes, it all falls flat so i kick my Boss GEB7 with a bit of boost to the level to fill it up, but it REALLY needs a rythme guitar, but they won't hear of using backing tracks. I d rather listen to a band playing covers as close as possible to the original unless it s a song thats just great to jam along to.... With most music, if u dont have enough musicians then it wont sound the same as the original unless u use tracks. And most cover bands r in it for the money too so theres too many people to get pd - defeats the object.
 
#85
20db pad said:
Very normal these days. In addition to cover bands, one should expect to see it used by Worship bands at churches in major metropolitan areas as well.
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I am in a worship band and we NEVER use backing tracks...we do it all live...wrong notes and all....we only have horns and strings when we have them live....at times i would love a horn or string backing track but that is actually another level of complexity we don't really need.
 
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#86
I guess people do what they have to. I play in a 4 piece worship band, we have a 400+ song book, and add 1 every 2 weeks or so. Our BL has never once said "we can't do that one", though some songs require substantial effort, mostly on vocals, (no female in the band). There is a "must do" attitude, and a "this has to sound really good, and we are going to do it" mindset, led by the BL. I don't think we ever sound just like the original, but, you can instantly tell what song we are doing. There is a feeling of accomplishment that wouldn't be there, if we were playing recordings in order to get it done. it's the best feeling when a regular tells me, "My friend has never been here, and was blown away by the band". I'm not bragging, just saying the sometimes grueling effort has big payoffs for me, and the others.
 
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#87
Well what about those entertainment corporations that have 10 bands under them, have a high turnover rate, and their top party bands have to stay on top of each new top billboard tune every week? It isn't that these musicians can't play or don't play on stage or that they don't do their homework, because they do, but if you're a serious entertainment company that does their own lighting and sound for every gig for every group, is known for and hired for productions, not "gigs", and known for sounding "perfect" then that reputation has to be upheld. One of the companies I'm speaking of has an inhouse study that they pay guys to track parts for shows in because first off, when you get hired for a NYE gig, outdoors, it's 28 degrees outside, no ones instruments will stay in tune and the guitar player is stuck in traffic coming from another gig but you have 1,500 people in the audience and the city is funding the whole thing, what are you going to do? Play out of tune for an hour and a half with no guitar part? Absolutely not! You start the show with the tracks that were recorded for the show by the musicians playing the show. There are too many factors with a high production value party band that works all of the time, in and out of town, to fully rely 100% on the musicians 100% of the time. People get sick, singers overdo their vocals one night and can't sing the next day, etc. On other hand tracks can be a disaster. For example, cruise ship gig, Broadway show tunes, string parts are tracked, the live horn section comes in and they all sound they're 20 cents flat against the tracked string parts but the show must go on and for some reason no one is stopping tracks. Total disaster. There is no substitution for live music, but you also maybe want a substitution to save your ass every once in awhile IF the need arises.
 
#88
20db pad said:
Very normal these days. In addition to cover bands, one should expect to see it used by Worship bands at churches in major metropolitan areas as well.
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I have never seen a cover band use a backing track. But then I don't go to church.
I don't mind cover bands and especially like it when the band takes license to create their own unique arrangement.
What I really hate though are singers who don't get the lyrics right and make up their own.
Does anyone remember Milli Vanilli? They actually won a grammy using backing tracks. That sucks.
 
#89
Remember when President Obama was inaugurated and Yo Yo Ma played? He didn't play. It was so cold that one bow stroke could've have possibly cracked his cello and he prepared for that. What we saw was him performing. What we heard was a recording.
 
#91
eh...meh...I'm neither necessarily impressed nor put-off by backing tracks. Context matters. I'm just happy knowing that if a good paying gig came calling and they were "on the clock", I'd have no problem fitting in and taking their money. Yes. I am a slut. ;-)

Fact is that a lot of very talented and successful musicians I know have to "do what they need to do" (as the saying goes) in order to keep food on the table. It doesn't make them any less the musician that they are, and many musicians are in multiple concurrent projects. Being a full-time musician is a very difficult profession. It helps to keep an open mind sometimes.
 
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#93
IJBurns said:
Well what about those entertainment corporations that have 10 bands under them, have a high turnover rate, and their top party bands have to stay on top of each new top billboard tune every week? It isn't that these musicians can't play or don't play on stage or that they don't do their homework, because they do, but if you're a serious entertainment company that does their own lighting and sound for every gig for every group, is known for and hired for productions, not "gigs", and known for sounding "perfect" then that reputation has to be upheld. One of the companies I'm speaking of has an inhouse study that they pay guys to track parts for shows in because first off, when you get hired for a NYE gig, outdoors, it's 28 degrees outside, no ones instruments will stay in tune and the guitar player is stuck in traffic coming from another gig but you have 1,500 people in the audience and the city is funding the whole thing, what are you going to do? Play out of tune for an hour and a half with no guitar part? Absolutely not! You start the show with the tracks that were recorded for the show by the musicians playing the show. There are too many factors with a high production value party band that works all of the time, in and out of town, to fully rely 100% on the musicians 100% of the time. People get sick, singers overdo their vocals one night and can't sing the next day, etc. On other hand tracks can be a disaster. For example, cruise ship gig, Broadway show tunes, string parts are tracked, the live horn section comes in and they all sound they're 20 cents flat against the tracked string parts but the show must go on and for some reason no one is stopping tracks. Total disaster. There is no substitution for live music, but you also maybe want a substitution to save your ass every once in awhile IF the need arises.
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That sounds too much like work. :)
 
#94
I'm really surprised that this is so shocking to so many people. Today the DJ's who bring their playlist to the club and push a few buttons are the ones getting all of the money. So is it really surprising that some bands use the DJ crutch and play some pre-recorded instruments to flesh out their sound?

It's a performance, and the audience is there to have fun.

For those of you purists that would walk out on such an event, do you do the same thing in other areas of entertainment? Do you avoid movies with CGI?
 
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#95
wintremute said:
I

For those of you purists that would walk out on such an event, do you do the same thing in other areas of entertainment? Do you avoid movies with CGI?
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Not movies, but live plays.

Movies are analogous to recorded music, not live music.

And yeah, at my age, if I'm listening to music outside my home it is either the car radio, muzak, or live.
 
#97
My band uses some loops and backing tracks but only for electronica. It seems to make sense there. It's not so much that we couldn't work up a live version as that it would just sound wrong anyway. I make the loops and tracks myself, and if I do say so they're pretty awesome. (Hmm, maybe there's a career for me making karaoke backing tracks. :) Nah...)

That's just a few songs though. Pretty much everything is *easier* to play live than with canned backing tracks. There are just some things you simply can't do 3-piece, and we just don't do those. So many other songs on the to-do list...

Rocky said:
Cover band = human juke box..
Couldn't pay me enough
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They never do. *sigh*
 
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#99
Not currently using any, but I've been in a few hilarious situations with samplers/sequencers/what-have-you/ that really screwed the pooch.
All you can do is laugh and hit 'reset' and remember to never end a set that way.
Technology can be amazing and tools are tools. If they're a crutch I'm not a big fan. The occasional synth part or bg vocal's no big deal to me.

As others have mentioned, the crowd mostly has no idea or really cares anyway.
 
#100
Tired of the "lack of integrity" moniker placed on cover bands. Mick Jagger has been playing the same songs for over half a century. You think he is worried about originality? You have bands with one original member still playing their "hits". Zep stole from everyone - everybody stole from Chuck Berry.

I've done both for decades - often the better musicians, doing more work, is in doing the covers. I've played in jazz bands - they do "covers" that start with the head and can go anywhere.

Good music is good music. Get off your !@#$~@#-ing high horse.
 
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