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Great Closing Songs for Cover Bands

Keep that closer or pick a new one?

  • Keep that.

    Votes: 7 12.3%

  • Pick something else. (Please add a suggestion below.)

    Votes: 38 66.7%

  • Just play Carrot Song (see bottom of post.)

    Votes: 12 21.1%
  • Total voters
    57
#63
makaspar said:
Sweet Child of Mine! Get all of the females on stage, blow out the singer's voice, showcase a good guitarist, and close things down big. That being said, we closed with Paradise City last gig, and it killed...
Click to expand...

Sweet Child is catnip! We've closed with it once in a while.
 
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#65
I'm not a country guy but I'm generally in touch with nearly all rock and at least the most popular country tunes, and I don't know this song at all. Close with something everyone knows. I just closed a set with David Bowie's Heroes and that was a good way to end the set. Riffed off of it a little the same way he does in a popular live YouTube video. Got some nice audience engagement as well. Not a really good dancing number tho.

I can't help but think you could find dozens of more popular or memorable tunes to close with than that one. Finding new songs to add to the set is one of the fun aspects of playing music, enjoy!
 
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#66
mikecd1 said:
We've had a lot of fun closing out with Delbert's "Every Time I Roll the Dice" and there's a lot of room for some messin' around in between:thumbsup:
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Jeez, I used to get featured on this one, then it fell off the list. I'm going to write a stern letter to my BL about this!
 
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#69
I ran a county band for a few years around 2000. We often ended dances with the Garth Brooks "The Dance". It gave couples one last chance to hit the dance floor. My piano and guitar player took an extended solo during the outro. We started the solos soft, crescendoed, and then faded away. Plenty of opportunities to say goodnight, and plug your next show.

 
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#75
bmac314 said:
We always close with Linda Ronstandt- "When will I be loved". (We have a female lead singer and we harmonize with her) It's a little cheesy to play, but everyone sings along and it's a hit. Go figure….
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Great tune. We usually do it early, just to, um, establish our vocal bona fides.
 
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#77
two fingers said:
So, we had a rare "rehearsal" last night (which is to say we set up gear, played a few songs, ate some good food, and maybe had a beer....maybe).

We close our shows currently with this.

Brothers Osborne - Shoot Me Straight (In The Studio) - YouTube


It goes over well. It ends big. And there's a breakdown in the middle that allows us to say goodnight and still end big. I think it's fine.

However, my band mates brought up last night that we need another closer. They think not enough people can use this as a sing-along. I'm fine with their reasoning. I'm not emotional about this at all.

We play a wide variety from rock to country (modern, classic, and 90s) to pop to funk to soul, etc. We have a ridiculously good guitar player, good keys, slamming drummer (but with dynamics), and three part harmonies for days (two male and one female singer). So options are wide open.

Suggestions that were floated last night included things like Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi, Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith, and stuff like that.

What say you? What's a great bar band closer?

Carrots Song as promised.
Carrot Song - National Carrot Day Anthem - YouTube
Click to expand...

When I was actually making my entire living doing this we had a break song that was basically a catchy rhythm while hanging on a single chord. We'd talk over that as we were letting people know we were going on a break; how soon we'd be back; and to remember to fill up your glass before the next set starts. At the end of the night we'd pull out some of the corny sayings such as, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here", "the hands of the clock on the wall say it's time to say so-long" etc. The good thing about using a break song is that after they hear it the first time, they know you are going to stop playing every other time they hear it. The bartenders also recognize it and they can get ready for the refill rush.

In one of the groups I play in now we started using "Closing Time" by Semisonic as the last song of the night. Was a good song to end with, but invariably our lead guitarist would succumb to the "just one more" pleas for at least two more songs and since his is the BL, we'd go along with it. Since that song wasn't doing what it was intended for, we just went ahead and rotated it through with some of the other sets and don't really have a ture "closing song". The real trick is, whatever your closing song is, don't play anything after it or it's not really your closing song!
 
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