I have a problem with cover/tribute bands.

[NickyBass]

.......

You're arguing from your personal expierience---which I guess is the most relevant place to draw arguements.

However---and I'm not talking about you personally---but, when I did the original scene there were alot of bands writing pedestrian music with trite lyrics and acting like rock stars.

Honestly, I can see how someone in a cover band can find that obnoxious and want to strike a blow against those guys.

Then there were people making genuinly good original music with big dreams. These guys usually had to wade through crap that was laid down by the pretentious wannabe rockers who came before them.

The bottom line is there are good musicians and bad musicians. There are good people and bad people. The bad always ruin it for the good. It will continue that way regardless of how much sense we make.

 

[Relic]

Thanks Cherie. Yep, the guy was a prize douchebag. I'm incredibly laid back and almost never lose my temper, but I wanted to deck this guy by the end of the night. I guess that's Jersey for you.

Stop making me think about moving to Austin, it's already crossed my mind more than once!

hey now, all of Jersey isn't like that! There are still some great places for originals bands where they treat you well. Some in Jersey, some right over the bridge in PA.

 

[txbasschik]

It depends on the place I guess... I've had experiences remarkably similar to Rusty's.. I'm wondering if we may have played the same place at one time or another.

At any rate, we used to actually host an open mic night place at a local place for about a year. It was a completely cool and fun experience and we definitely had the "unicorn" thing going. All were welcome, covers, originals, comedy..it was awesome. At the same time it was brutal too - Tuesday nights from 10 to closing...made for painful Wednesday mornings..

Yeah, that is the one drawback to welcoming everyone (we invite comics to get up and make us laugh, too)...it is a brutally late night! LOL! But I don't mind.

We have a Mexican guy who drives 80 miles to come to this jam...his playing is like if Carlos Santana and Hendrix had a love child, and it plays like that. LOL! We have a redneck comic. We have a country pedal steel player that *rips up* the rock tunes...He did a steel part one night on Rush's "Fly By Night" that clean blew my mind. We have a flautist who comes in and plays jazz and blues and rock just as well as Ian Anderson ever thought of playing. We have a garage cowpunk band whose biggest local hit is "Dead Hookers Don't Lie" (hilarious tune, I promise). We had a bunch of Cajun hurricane refugees come in one night and rock us in English and French. Just...beautiful!

I'll happily stay 'til closing, just to hear so many different people play so many different things. People tell us its the most exciting and interesting jam in our area...our local little-bitty old-school Texas beer joint! We'da never thunk it when we started it out.

Cherie

 

[Mr-Wunderful]

I've always played in original bands because I enjoy the whole creative process thing. I also enjoy the challenge of building an audience for material I have helped create. That being said, some of the best players I've seen have been in cover bands. Some of the best crowds have been at shows featuring cover bands. At the moment I'm fortunate to live in an area with a large creative music scene and people who support it but if I were to relocate I would have no problem playing in a cover band as long as I enjoyed playing with the other folks involved.

 

[txbasschik]

Thanks Cherie. Yep, the guy was a prize douchebag. I'm incredibly laid back and almost never lose my temper, but I wanted to deck this guy by the end of the night. I guess that's Jersey for you.

Stop making me think about moving to Austin, it's already crossed my mind more than once!

Nah...I've met too many truly cool people from Jersey. It was that guy...he was a douchebag in a toolbox!

Austin...aw well, we've got our Catch-22...You can play your originals to a passionate crowd, or you can play your covers in a crowded bar, but you won't make a living at any of it unless you do corporate gigs or hit the road.

Which is why we do so much of both down here...we have to if we wanna eat! LOL!

I declare, I want to go visit up there. Yeah, NYC, but Jersey, too. I've just met so many Jersey folk that I genuinely like, I need to go visit and see where y'all are from!

Cherie

 

[Jared Lash]

oh god why do I keep reading through this thread?? I really must be some sort of masochist or something.. It's pretty infuriating and stupid as heck.

Ha ha, you is dumb. Wait, I've read this whole thread too. Oh noes, I R dumb too. I don't know about you Relic, but I've read through it because I'm a monkey, pure and simple. But I still can't tell if my participation has been any more productive than my normal daily routine of eating bananas and throwing feces.

Last note - I'm putting together a tribute band as I type this.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of tribute band are you putting together? As for your other points, yes there's no doubt that having people dig songs YOU wrote is a very different feeling than them loving your rendition of a cover song.

Slight digression - I watched a clip of the Fab Faux last night. Those guys are amazing. Sure, they're a Beatles tribute act, but the fact that they can do full and complete renditions of songs that the Beatles never played live is really cool.

Wahhh, wahhh, wahhh.

Sorry. Your post rubs me the wrong way.

You know, most of us in cover bands also bring in originals to our sets. We play covers to get the people in the bar and to get paid. We play the originals to see if the people like them, and if they do, we keep them in the set. Lots of people do two separate bands...a cover band for money, and an original band for love. Many of them have the exact same players in them.

You have a very narrow and naive idea of what cover bands are and do. And how do you know that someone in a cover band can't play your originals, or doesn't want to?

If you are this close-minded, it is no wonder you are having a hard time finding someone to work with you.

Cherie

Wow, Cherie, tell us how you really feel. I don't think I've seen a post that annoyed from you since you were talking about your old band with the husband and wife team. I bolded what I did because up until recently my cover/tribute act did originals on the side and had a few gigs where we played a short set of our own stuff as our own "opening act". My highlight of the night really - but that has fallen by the wayside for a number of reasons and I'm searching out another original project.

 

[Beyer160]

I'm not surprised that people that have little or not success in music - make little or no money, play in front of few people -- put down those that have had success and recognition. There is always comfort in pretending that what you can't have isn't worth having!

You mean like the satisfaction of seeing people sing along with a song your band wrote, instead of one somebody else wrote? No matter how many people you play for, how much cash you make or free beer you drink, no cover band can ever have that.

But if that doesn't matter to you it's not a problem, is it?

 

[aborgman]

You can't express yourself in someone elses song.....only agree with how THEY express themself.

Complete horse-puckey.

 

[Beyer160]

I wasn't being derogatory with the comment you responded to.

There may indeed be some sort of tension between idealism and realism in practice, but they both make the world go round and anybody who possesses either one exclusively and not the other is missing part of the picture, imo.

Ah, I misunderstood- my apologies. I completely agree that no matter what path you take in life, a healthy dose of idealism and realism are required.

 

[txbasschik]

Wow, Cherie, tell us how you really feel. I don't think I've seen a post that annoyed from you since you were talking about your old band with the husband and wife team. I bolded what I did because up until recently my cover/tribute act did originals on the side and had a few gigs where we played a short set of our own stuff as our own "opening act". My highlight of the night really - but that has fallen by the wayside for a number of reasons and I'm searching out another original project.

Aw well, hon, you know I can pretty much be counted upon to do just that. LOL! I just get real aggravated at the whole "originals are best"/"covers are best" argument. Its *all* good and worthwhile. People who want to choose sides just...ooooohhhh, I get so annoyed with 'em, I could break out in a rash!

I'm sorry your original set has fallen away. You know, my guitarist always wants to put the originals in a lump, but I'm not certain that's the best way. In my experience, when you do covers and originals in the same show, it often works well to pair the original with a cover tune that will compliment it. You can still say, "Here's another original tune!", but the people will be, like, high from the cover, and be more receptive to this new song that goes so well with that cover they love. We did this in my old, all-chick band, and it worked like a charm! Within three gigs, we had people singing along to the original, just like they did with the cover.

Try it! It couldn't hurt! I wish my guitarist would listen to me and just try that, too. I really think it would be better.

Cherie

 

[BassyBill]

Wow, this is hotting up again! Please don't make this personal guys, I'm enjoying the discussion and would hate to have to ask one of my colleagues to close it, really. Thanks.

For those who play their own original stuff, I thought you might be interested to read about my friend and bandmate Tom, who adopted his own creative approach to some of the things that can frustrate us. Just food for thought...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=519221

 

[BassyBill]

Ah, I misunderstood- my apologies. I completely agree that no matter what path you take in life, a healthy dose of idealism and realism are required.

That's all cool.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of tribute band are you putting together?

Only one I'd really want to .

www.rednotchilipeppers.com ...officially 1 day old. This post here is actually the very first light of day it's seeing.

Took me over 2 years to get the right line up of people - so yeah, I know about the work involved. First gigs will be in late June, early July.

I take back the "only one" above. I'd jump into a Zeppelin tribute if given the opportunity.

 

[Jared Lash]

Always love your posts Cherie, probably because you and I seem to think along the same lines a lot of times.

I've played in a number of bands, and at this point my only criteria are (1) Are we gigging (and hopefully making some money)? (2) Do I have fun playing the music? and (3) Do I get along with the other musicians? That's are what matter to me and I can get that from covers, originals or ideally a combination of both.

Anyway, as far as our original project, we put this band together to do a Red Hot Chili Pepper tribute band, so slipping in originals doesn't really work in that context. Since John Frusciante generally does a solo song or two my guitarist and I will slip in some Wilco, Beatles, White Stripes etc when he and I step forward to do a guitar/vocals song or two, but otherwise it's all RHCP stuff.

But again, that's my gigging, paid band and we do really well from that standpoint and have some pretty high profile/lucrative gigs lined up from now until September.

But I'm also trying to find another creative outlet and have a jam/audition with a guitarist and drummer that do dub/punk/ambient stuff. Seems really interesting.

And that's what it's all about - doing something you love and enjoying it. In the past I've been in a punk/ska band, an indie/funk/soul band, a couple hard rock bands, sang for an old school R&B band with a full horn section, been in jam bands, blues bands, a couple different cover bands. I still get together with a singer/songwriter/pianist to do her songs as a trio and every once and a while I still drive to Oakland to play hip-hop with a loose collection of turntablists and MCs.

It's nice to make money and I hope every project I'm involved in at least makes enough to cover my expenses, but really there's just nothing I love more in life than playing music in all its forms.

 

[Darkstrike]

I like to play bass, a lot, love it even.....

Don't matter much if I wrote the songs or not.......

 

[Jared Lash]

Only one I'd really want to .

www.rednotchilipeppers.com ...officially 1 day old. This post here is actually the very first light of day it's seeing.

Took me over 2 years to get the right line up of people - so yeah, I know about the work involved. First gigs will be in late June, early July.

I take back the "only one" above. I'd jump into a Zeppelin tribute if given the opportunity.

Nice. When my old cover/originals band fell apart we decided a tribute band would be the easiest way to salvage things. So we all thought about what band would be best for us to do.

We actually thought about doing a Zep tribute but figured there were a number of them already, including one near our area. My guitarist and I pushed for Radiohead, but it would have been too tough, as would the DMB band my drummer wanted. RHCP just seemed perfect for us.

Here's our setlist from last weekend:

Set 1
Tell Me Baby
Blackeyed Blond
Bicycle Song
Funky Monks
Funky Crime
My Friends
Otherside
Readymade
Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Set 2
Higher Ground
Hump de Bump
Aeroplane
Behind the Sun
Californication
Soul To Squeeze
Taste The Pain
Snow (Hey Oh)

Set 3
Can't Stop
Power of Equality
Dani California
Scar Tissue
Desecration Smile
Fight Like a Brave
Walkabout
Sir Psycho Sexy

Set 4
Around the World
Love Rollercoaster
Give It Away
Charlie
The Brothers Cup
Fortune Faded
By The Way
Under The Bridge
Wet Sand

 

[Michael Case]

I have a problem with cover/tribute bands.

I am in a new band who needs a guitarist to complete the line up and I feel as though we've exhausted every way to look for one. I go through online ads looking for a guitarist and for every 5 or so ads for a cover/tribute band there might be one actual musician/writer looking for a band.

This is me venting. Cover bands are worthless. Write your own music.

Have you considered putting your own ad out there? It's a revolutionary concept I know, but you're original enough to do it.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Nice.

HA!!! I hadn't a clue. I like strange coincidences. I may hit you up now for thoughts, experience, whatever... iffin ya don't mind of course. I'd be happy to share whatever I could once we're up and running.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

Post your own ad looking for a guitarist. Make them come to you.

 

[JKT]

You can't express yourself in someone elses song.....only agree with how THEY express themself.

Totally disagree with this statement.

Just for one small example, you need to go find a TV performance of Judy Garland singing Harold Arlens Over the Rainbow somewhere around 1963. She was near the end of her rope and her life. She had sung that song dozens of times.

But at that moment, his song- totally HER expression of what SHE was feeling.

If your statement were true we have just devalued all music.
Any really good song or piece of music exists to be played by whoever can interpret it in a way that can touch someone.

And that is yet another reason that makes this thread kinda dumb...