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What's with the Nickelback requests?

#61
I dont play in cover bands but do DJ at clubs and deal and deal with the fair amount of requests to whatever equivalent of Nickleback there is in dance music... I simply say NO. I don't take requests and that's totally fine. Yeah, some people might get pissed but they either stay and deal with it or they were gonna leave anyways. I even asked a drunken bar owner once to let me DJ and ensure he made money that night. I don't think it is out of the question for a cover band to take the same approach.

And yeah, I can't care less for NB, don't know anybody who likes them personally (except for my old boss who road a Yamaha, wore Harley leather jackets, got a dragon tattoo after his divorce and called himself a "biker") yet they are huge and you can't deny their popularity. Then again... Hitler was highly popular too.
 
#63
theinfamous said:
I've played quite a few live shows in my region over the past few years, in a variety of different styles, and there's always some entitled douche canoe who decides it is "all requests hour" and won't stop hounding the band. If they walk up to me, I'll usually just turn around and pretend I'm messing with my amp or something. My standard response to requests is "we don't do that one."

Just recently, there has been an increasing trend where some absolutely hammered, clinging to youth 45 year old woman will stumble up to the band and demand we play Nickelback. It is a different woman EVERY SHOW, but with the same basic description. You know the type- Looks like she's the lady Rip VanWinkle of the late 80s. She fell asleep in '89 and woke up on a random Friday in 2014 and decided to get hammered without changing clothes or combing her hair. I leave the situation wondering "are these the types of people that like Nickelback?"

So why is it now that I'm noticing this? Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...

Im guessing the ladies think your band is capable of doing Nickleback covers well. Something you are doing is making drunk 45 year old women (If I wasn't married I'd ask you for their numbers!) associate Nickleback and your band...
 
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#64
It has always been so

Even when people really went out for live music - long time before all the other diversions existed - you need to pull an audience in if you want them to give your creative stuff a chance

I couldn't handle a 'classic rock' situation at all and haven't in decades

But if you are a bit more unusual in your style & choice of covers you can keep both the band & the crowd happy

Easiest way is to find fun covers that make folks move and then intersperse more musically interesting things

If I were starting a working band right now I'd cover stuff like Bruno Mars
 
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#65
davy4575 said:
Im still trying to figure out why people play in cover bands. I dont know man....seems like a soul killer to me. Id rather be a slave in heaven than a star in hell. I do consider Nickleback to be housewife-rock. but its brilliant marketing. they got a few songs that are catchy and that are easy to like.
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I play in both an original and cover band. I love writing and performing originals, but I don't have a problem playing covers. In fact, my cover band finances my original band (my cover band gets between $800 - $1,200 per gig for a five piece while my four piece cover band generally gets $200 and a couple of pitchers). IMHO, being in a band like Nickelhack would be soul crushing. BTW, love the housewife-rock reference!
 
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#66
I'm not a fan of Nickelback, but I have something to thank them for. Five ago, I joined a band that played several of their songs, along with a handful of other modern rock songs that used lower tunings. I quickly discovered that most of them would be easier to play on a 5-string, so I forced myself to learn after one failed attempt 3 years before that point. These days I seldom touch my 4-strings.

Bar crowds in my neck of the woods don't often request Nickelback (they want to hear Skynyrd). However, they've always been happy to hear my bands play Animals, Something In Your Mouth, Never Again, This Afternoon, and Figured You Out.

Thanks, Nickelback!
 
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#68
I too like to hate on Nickelback, but hey, nothing wrong with throwing the crowd a bone. I was in a band that covered "How You Remind Me". I could play it while sleeping and it always got a good response. And yeah, most of their songs all sound the same. AC/DC has the same problem.
 
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#70
lfmn16 said:
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. I don't listen to them but to dismiss a band that has sold over 50 million CDs is really just silly. It doesn't mean they are good, but you can't argue with CD sales for measuring popularity.
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Really I could not tell you one person out of all the people I know who listens or owns any Nickleback. If your playing Nickleback in bars one things for sure, you'll probably be in those same bars years from now playing Nickleback or equivalents.
 
#71
Man I'm out of the loop. I haven't listened to them and don't hate them. Money talks though. Played a gig and one drunk paid us $50 to play "friends in low places" 4 flippin times ($50 each time). The bar finally kicked him out or we would have done that all night. I bought a new bass after that new years gig.
 
#74
BazzTard said:
because after 20 years of playing originals, some people decide they'd like to play in front of PEOPLE, dancing people even. Instead of just friends and family and barstaff.

I'm one of them.
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to each their own. Ive had good experiences playing originals with a few obscure covers. Idk, maybe its selfish, but I create music for the pleasure of creating with other like minded people. I dont much care at all how its received or if its liked or not by the listeners to it. Music for musics sake.
 
#75
davy4575 said:
Im still trying to figure out why people play in cover bands.
Click to expand...
Because playing good songs to people who like them and dances to them is a lot of fun? Can't see what's so hard to figure out about that. ;)

To each their own indeed. To me the real soul killer would be writing your own material and having close to no one listen to it, something I think many originals bands experience.
 
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#76
davy4575 said:
to each their own. Ive had good experiences playing originals with a few obscure covers. Idk, maybe its selfish, but I create music for the pleasure of creating with other like minded people. I dont much care at all how its received or if its liked or not by the listeners to it. Music for musics sake.
Click to expand...
so you DO play covers ! A coverband just plays only covers.

I agree with you that writing and playing your own songs is infinitely more enjoyable than playing covers, but in the end,the lack of venues / promotors / fans gets to you. Maybe you're still young and haven't been beaten down , yet. Cover songs only hold an interest to me until I learn them, then I can't stand them usually. Rush songs notwithstanding lol
 
#77
davy4575 said:
to each their own. Ive had good experiences playing originals with a few obscure covers. Idk, maybe its selfish, but I create music for the pleasure of creating with other like minded people. I dont much care at all how its received or if its liked or not by the listeners to it. Music for musics sake.
Click to expand...

This is rich - music for musics sake - hehe - I'm guessing 19 or 20, eh?

If you play your originals in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, did you really write something?

Music is a form of communications, an emotional language - a two way deal

I enjoy and aspire to play some of the most demanding & innovative music of the 20th century - much of which was considered garbage initially. But thank god the styles had some popularity - otherwise I wouldn't even know about or hear them or have the charts.

Every serious musician has had to hone their craft playing other people's music. That's how you learn what's good, what works, etc, etc.
 
#79
LoL. Try again fellas, Im 44. I learned to read and write by playing other pieces yes, on a piano. True. I also hated it. I hated the confining box I was put in, compared to the joy of sitting down to a piano and simply playing the music I could hear in my head. Yes, Im grateful for learning how to more effectively get out what I could hear by using theory. there is a very substantial gap between learning chords, scales, sheet music, etc and playing in a cover band. Im not knocking it, For me personally its a soul killer. I dont mind doing an occasional cover to pay homage to an influence but thats about it. Hell, work can be a soul killer too. I enjoy what I do, I build based on creativity and skill. I own my business so that Im not trampled by society for that reason. A man controls his own destiny or he dies inside a little bit at a time. Where I view it as opportunity, others view it as too risky and inconsistent, they want the security of a regular check. I understand, Its just not for me. There is a vast difference between writing music and playing music. I have no interesting a steady check from life. Id rather risk starving and be happy creating.
 
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#80
theinfamous said:
I've played quite a few live shows in my region over the past few years, in a variety of different styles, and there's always some entitled douche canoe who decides it is "all requests hour" and won't stop hounding the band. If they walk up to me, I'll usually just turn around and pretend I'm messing with my amp or something. My standard response to requests is "we don't do that one."

Just recently, there has been an increasing trend where some absolutely hammered, clinging to youth 45 year old woman will stumble up to the band and demand we play Nickelback. It is a different woman EVERY SHOW, but with the same basic description. You know the type- Looks like she's the lady Rip VanWinkle of the late 80s. She fell asleep in '89 and woke up on a random Friday in 2014 and decided to get hammered without changing clothes or combing her hair. I leave the situation wondering "are these the types of people that like Nickelback?"

So why is it now that I'm noticing this? Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...
Here's the thing about Nickelback. They write bar songs that go over VERY well, if your band can play them. And they're pretty good at it.
 
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