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Why do cover band always have the corniest names?

Ahhh, 4D's. :scowl:. I played there a few times when I was with Crush. What a craptastic place THAT is (or was, at least. Haven't been there in 4-5 years).

It's actually a really high-paying room right now for some acts and lots of agency bands are scurrying to get in there. My drummer has a house gig there every Wednesday where he assembles different cats to play.

We haven't played there. We've been doing a steady gig about every six or seven weeks just down the road at Pellegrine's for the past two years. Harry is the epitome of a great club owner. When weren't a huge draw at first, he never once complained or asked us to take less money. Now, we're really seeing great crowds there. Of course, the break up of Til December/Backstreet Law has definitely changed the dynamics in PA.
 
It's actually a really high-paying room right now for some acts and lots of agency bands are scurrying to get in there. My drummer has a house gig there every Wednesday where he assembles different cats to play.

We haven't played there. We've been doing a steady gig about every six or seven weeks just down the road at Pellegrine's for the past two years. Harry is the epitome of a great club owner. When weren't a huge draw at first, he never once complained or asked us to take less money. Now, we're really seeing great crowds there. Of course, the break up of Til December/Backstreet Law has definitely changed the dynamics in PA.
Ahhh, Backstreet Law. Those guys were cool. They never played up my way much, but always dug their shows. Were cool guys too.

I've played Pellegrine's too. Man, in that area, it was 4D's, Pellegrines, Shooters (Johnstown), City Limits (Altoona), The Crowbar (Penn State), Cafe 210 (Penn State), and a few others I don't remember offhand.
 
Ahhh, Backstreet Law. Those guys were cool. They never played up my way much, but always dug their shows. Were cool guys too.

I've played Pellegrine's too. Man, in that area, it was 4D's, Pellegrines, Shooters (Johnstown), City Limits (Altoona), The Crowbar (Penn State), Cafe 210 (Penn State), and a few others I don't remember offhand.

Oh yeah, that circuit's pretty much the same. City Limits has recently changed its name to 30 Something. I haven't been in the place since it's changed, but we have a gig there next month. Shooters is no longer open. Central PA has been vicimitized by the Pennsylvania Liqour Control Board and its officers have let power go to their heads. Every once in a while, they go around citing bars for noise violations. The operational definition of noise is as long as anything audible is outside of the bar. Obviously, any form of live entertainment is going to be able to be heard outside of the club. Johnstown was hit the hardest, and I would say that at least half of its clubs have closed their doors because of the nonsense. Crowbar has become some dance club. Cafe 210 is still open and going strong. We have a really cool low-key club in State College called Bar Bleu. I did some fill-in work with a band there two years ago. It's just a really hip place. You go downstairs to the bar, and there are these cool blue lights. It's like a really cool jazz bar. Ironically, I was filling in with a modern rock/party band. I've caught at lot of jam bands and blues bands there when I'm hanging out in State.

P.s. Checked out your Myspace and saw that you're working on your Master's in therapy. I'm one semester away from getting my BS in psychology from Lock Haven. I'm currently getting my personal statements ready for grad school. I also didn't realize that you played in Simon Sez (well, one of the two Simon Sezs we had around here ;) ). Man, it's cool meeting someone on here who knows about the going ons of music scene in PA.
 
Oh yeah, that circuit's pretty much the same. City Limits has recently changed its name to 30 Something. I haven't been in the place since it's changed, but we have a gig there next month. Shooters is no longer open. Central PA has been vicimitized by the Pennsylvania Liqour Control Board and its officers have let power go to their heads. Every once in a while, they go around citing bars for noise violations. The operational definition of noise is as long as anything audible is outside of the bar. Obviously, any form of live entertainment is going to be able to be heard outside of the club. Johnstown was hit the hardest, and I would say that at least half of its clubs have closed their doors because of the nonsense. Crowbar has become some dance club. Cafe 210 is still open and going strong. We have a really cool low-key club in State College called Bar Bleu. I did some fill-in work with a band there two years ago. It's just a really hip place. You go downstairs to the bar, and there are these cool blue lights. It's like a really cool jazz bar. Ironically, I was filling in with a modern rock/party band. I've caught at lot of jam bands and blues bands there when I'm hanging out in State.

P.s. Checked out your Myspace and saw that you're working on your Master's in therapy. I'm one semester away from getting my BS in psychology from Lock Haven. I'm currently getting my personal statements ready for grad school. I also didn't realize that you played in Simon Sez (well, one of the two Simon Sezs we had around here ;) ). Man, it's cool meeting someone on here who knows about the going ons of music scene in PA.
Hey man... Very cool. Yeah, I was aware of the other Simon Sez, as we got more than our share of hate mail from them re: the name! LOL.

Shooters was a cool place. Very warehouse-ish inside. I only played there a few times, but always had a blast. I freakin' HATED City Limits. Who was the owner? Claudio? He was a douche. Bad!

How do you like Lock Haven? I know they have a great psych department. Where you planning on doing your grad work?
 
THE absolute worst name (and cover band) of all-time has to be 'junkshaker.'

they're awful, it's the prototypical 'what i like about you' band, with the heavy metal moondoggie guitarist still using a BC Rich Warlock from probably 1986.

their bios are the worse, i won't even link them up,
"so and so is a groove MACHINE.." crap like that.

the kicker is, they're really full of themselves... the one dude actually said, "our songlist is huge but it kicks ###!"
sorry, but any songlist with Sweet Home Alabama and Ugly Kid Joe on it is vomit-inducing.
 
Hey man... Very cool. Yeah, I was aware of the other Simon Sez, as we got more than our share of hate mail from them re: the name! LOL.

Shooters was a cool place. Very warehouse-ish inside. I only played there a few times, but always had a blast. I freakin' HATED City Limits. Who was the owner? Claudio? He was a douche. Bad!

How do you like Lock Haven? I know they have a great psych department. Where you planning on doing your grad work?

I'm looking into a couple of schools here in PA. Mainly IUP, St. Francis, and Mount Aloysius. I'm also applying to a couple schools out of state. I'm only applying to one doctoral program. I'm thinking that a Master's is the right step in this juncture of my life.

Yeah, Claudio is definitely a different kind of cat. I didn't know how to take him the first couple of times I met him. He's always taken care of us though. Some people dig him and some hate him.

BTW, did you ever play Castle Pub? It was closed for a while (thanks to the PLCB that I mentioned earlier), but now's it's reopened. We just did a gig there on Saturday, and it was great!
 
I'm looking into a couple of schools here in PA. Mainly IUP, St. Francis, and Mount Aloysius. I'm also applying to a couple schools out of state. I'm only applying to one doctoral program. I'm thinking that a Master's is the right step in this juncture of my life.

Yeah, Claudio is definitely a different kind of cat. I didn't know how to take him the first couple of times I met him. He's always taken care of us though. Some people dig him and some hate him.

BTW, did you ever play Castle Pub? It was closed for a while (thanks to the PLCB that I mentioned earlier), but now's it's reopened. We just did a gig there on Saturday, and it was great!
I've never played the Castle, but UUU did years ago before my time. I think my other old band Crush played it too, back in the day.

There was something about that whole area I never dug. I honestly have NO idea what it is. I think it was the never-ending trip across Rt. 80 that I hated. That is the most depressing strwtch of highway ever. It always put me to sleep driving it, even during the DAY! We play a lot of shore gigs, and (to me) it was always depressing to drive away from the water.

When I was with Simon Sez, Claudio screwed us over royally! Then, when I joined UUU a few years ago, I heard stories of screwings from them as well. So, nope.. I've got nothing good to say about the guy. Many club owners treat us great and pay us even better... So we don't deal with the shady bastiges more than once.

Good luck on grad school bro! I am just finishing my Masters in Scranton, and am most likely moving to NC to complete my licensure requirements. UNC, I hope! :)

And then, If a wave of determination overcomes me, post-grad school. :help:
 
THE absolute worst name (and cover band) of all-time has to be 'junkshaker.'

they're awful, it's the prototypical 'what i like about you' band, with the heavy metal moondoggie guitarist still using a BC Rich Warlock from probably 1986.

their bios are the worse, i won't even link them up,
"so and so is a groove MACHINE.." crap like that.

the kicker is, they're really full of themselves... the one dude actually said, "our songlist is huge but it kicks ###!"
sorry, but any songlist with Sweet Home Alabama and Ugly Kid Joe on it is vomit-inducing.
 
So, It's been a few years but I'll respond. I was voc/guitar/synth in the band. Worst name? It was cheesy, memorable, and if differentiated us from all the othe junkshakers' out there :P .....Awful though? 2007 was close to our changeover. We did do a lot of crusty crap then. And do you seriously think we enjoyed Sweet Home? Uh...no. But we were being paid. So we played it. The next year or so saw us move into mainly dance/pop. We were playing all the decent clubs in the bay area. Where did you see us? We kept the name. It was too cheesy to get rid of. Once we got known with that name, we went with it. The bio's were typical cheese coverband. I'm getting the feeling you never played professionally. Anyways, that was 20 years ago. I'll wait for your reply in 2045.
 
sorry, but any songlist with Sweet Home Alabama and Ugly Kid Joe on it is vomit-inducing.
I certainly would not argue that 19-year old statement! :thumbsup:

Regarding corny band names for cover bands, the cover band I was in back in 1977 was called Joint Cement. We played a bunch of Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, etc. Our audience members (mostly high school kids) thought our name was cool because they assumed it had something to do with the glue on Zig Zag papers. But the joke was on them. One day we were having band rehearsal at the guitarist's house where he lived with his parents. We were rehearsing in his garage. As we were sitting around between songs trying to think of a name for our band, I glanced over and saw a box of joint cement that belonged to the guitarist's dad. It's used when installing drywall. I said "how about Joint Cement?" Everybody in the band liked it because of the word "joint" (whoa duuuuude) and because cement sounds heavy, so that's what we went with! :cool:
 
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Seems like every cover band i've heard of has the corniest name (yes, plenty of you TBer's have really corny cover band names, i've checked your profiles).

there was this one in my area called "the breakfast club". can you get any fricking cheesier?
Could it be because good original band names, whether for cover bands or original bands, are hard to come by? If you have a list of great unused bsnd names please share!