Why is it so hard?

[juancaminos]

We played an American Legion gig last night. The place was packed with a huge mix of ages from a 9 year old to an 80 year old and all between. Dinner nights are always crowded.

Requests were Sweet Home Alabama, Mary Jane's Last Dance, Wipe Out, Born to be Wild.

We played Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, The Cars, Tom Petty, Big Head Todd, REM, etc to an empty dance floor.

What filled the large dance floor? Johnny Lang, CCR, Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cream, Allman Bros, Dion, Redbone, Clapton, Neil Young, Eagles, Jay & The Americans and good old Brick House. In fact these songs got us an unprecedented request to play a fifth hour of music. To which we agreed, but our bodies and fingers regretted it later...HA!

Just saying YMMV...

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

I never understood the TalkBass mentality that a cover band should stick to a single genre. Unless it's a tribute act, then yeah.

But surely, even professional bands tend to branch out and play an assortment of styles, within their own sound. Except perhaps AC/DC

Oh for sure - throwing the curveballs in there from other genres/eras is part of the plan.

Two bands I was in years ago, would do that. One was a hyped up rockabilly outfit (but not psychobilly) but we'd do a "Vanilla Ice/Intergalactic" mashup cos our singer was a wannabe Eminem in his youth. It worked, crowds loved it.

Another band was a bluesrock outfit with slight jam tendencies. We'd play James Brown's "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World" or Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" and stretch it anywhere from 4 to 14 minutes. Granted, these fit in better with the overall set list. But people requested these songs every time. Went over great.

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

I tried building a band around a talented but inexperienced singer, with whom I'd played previously. I suggested songs tailored to his desires AND vocal range, and told him I would look for musicians (cos bless him, he would hire anyone if they were nice).

Next thing I know, he asks if a friend of his can play guitar for us. Said friend suggested much heavier (and more obscure) songs. We decided on the voting system. All of my suggestions got one vote - mine. We got together to jam as a three-piece and I realised the guitarist doesn't know the note names on his fret board.

I bailed when I heard that the two of them had gone and played with a drummer who'd just started playing six months prior. "He's very eager to play!". I didn't even mind the inexperience here, but they never even considered asking me along. Gee thanks, guys!

 

[pepj]

We do best when we line up our set with the percieved theme for the gig.
So a friday night bar type gig gets a totally different set to the sunday afternoon session.

Mix and match is a mess because very few callers, ime, can read the room well enough.
Far better to work off a well thought out and paced set of 2x45 with 5 encore type numbers with which to extend the set by 15 mins or so.

You start strong and powerfully and this sets the tone. Evening is growing well enough and then the second set does same with a stronger finish.