Cover Bands - What Do You Open With?

[troy mcclure]

I start them off light..

3AM matchbox 20
Slide Goo Goo dolls
Lay down sally

I start the other sets much different... habds to yourself is a great opener for the 2nd or 3rd set

 

[ric stave]

"Bohemian Rhapsody"

Just make sure you get in that 5-10 min group vocal warmup before you start....

 

[T. B. Player]

For the Rock gigs" "Dance With Me" by The Wonders (from the movie, "That Thing You Do." - note my avatar), or "Rockin' Me" - Steve Miller Band.

For the Country gigs: Chesney's "Beer in Mexico," or Urban's "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me"

For the Celtic Rock gigs: "Catharsis" by Natalie McMasters, and "Hard to Handle" by The Black Crowes.

Your group only does one style of music and you're a cover band?

Diversify!! (or put everything into gold......)

 

[pedro]

For the Rock gigs" "Dance With Me" by The Wonders (from the movie, "That Thing You Do." - note my avatar), or "Rockin' Me" - Steve Miller Band.

For the Country gigs: Chesney's "Beer in Mexico," or Urban's "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me"

For the Celtic Rock gigs: "Catharsis" by Natalie McMasters, and "Hard to Handle" by The Black Crowes.

Your group only does one style of music and you're a cover band?

Diversify!! (or put everything into gold......)

I love 'That Thing You Do' and wonder (pun intended) how that material goes over? Do most of the audience know it?

 

[LeeP]

Lately we've been opening with,

"We're an American Band".

Fun, easy song to get things going.

A bunch of guys who started playing together when we were14 or 15 have gotten back together for our 30th high school reunion. We're still working stuff up, but we'll probably open with either "We're an American Band" or "The Boys Are Back In Town."

 

[GRISSLEHEAD]

Rockin' at Midnight / The HoneyDrippers
Messin' with the Kid / Blues Bros.
Tell me all the things you do / Fleetwood Mac
Mustang Sally / Wilson Pickett

 

[BassScum]

Used to open up with "Rocky Mountain Way"-J. Walsh . Now "I Need To Know- T. Petty. These songs are good for warm up and for mix adjustments and we don't want to pull out our heavy hitters to early.

 

[Dandy Dan]

First set Blue Skies Set 2, Cheek to Cheek,3rd set Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby.., any longer.,, never more that three sets., Way to old!!!!!!

 

[Lemoore-on]

We used to open with "Welcome to paradise" by Greenday.
Now we open with "Interstate love song" by STP. A great warm up song for me.

 

[tonysbottomend]

just finished my saturday gig...we opened with:
set#1tonight we're gonna rock ya = spinal tap

Set#2 young lust - with an extended slap bass solo.

 

[FallenAbom]

"All She Wrote" - Firehouse

 

[rosstanium]

All cover gigs should start with "The Final Countdown" by Europe.

 

[totallyfrozen]

First song?
Something energetic! You should think of your first song of the night as doing a cannon ball into a swimming pool full of hot chicks...you want to make a huge splash and be the center of attention!

You don't want to start the night as "background noise". People are going to be trying to talk over you all night, you may as well get their attention with a good kick in the stomach first.
Besides, you want to set the tone for the whole thing. Let these people know there's going to be alot of dancing going on and they're going to be doing it!
Dancing = thirst = more drinks sold = bar manager going --> = you get invited back!

We used to play Interstate Love Song too...but NEVER as the first tune. That was a mid set or end of set number for us.

 

[skidrawk]

We opened up with Madonna's "Holiday" tonight since it was bassically our soundcheck. It covers a good spectrum of our instruments so it was a logical choice.

 

[Froaderick]

we normally open with

Only You Know And I Know - Dave Mason
then right into
Any Way You Want It - Journey

 

[pedro]

Only You Know And I Know - Dave Mason

Hmmm I always preferred Dalaney and Bonnie's version but its a cool tune to open with.

 

[rimtism123]

JOURNEY!

 

[Froaderick]

Hmmm I always preferred Dalaney and Bonnie's version but its a cool tune to open with.

Yea thats a good version too! I also dig the Joan Osborne version....very bouncy

 

[mytmous]

Are you gonna go my way - Lenny Kravitz

 

[rootmonster57]

We have only played live a few times, but we have always opened with "Around and Around", a Chuck Berry song, but we TRY to emulate the Rolling Stones cover version, which is on their "Love You Live" CD. It's simple and a straight ahead rocker to get you over the jitters! Hope this helps.