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Worst Dad Band song

#41
foolforthecity said:
View attachment 2967380
But yeah, some new material would be nice! I'm about to choke on Born To Be Wild
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I was going to say anything by Tom Petty or Fleetwood Mac but, I will lend this long list to the next poster.

With that being said, the problem is that cover bands have become such a cliche meat market. Show up to a gig, plug in, and keep buzzed or saturated patrons in their seat to tolerate your music. That not to say that some people won't enjoy the music but, there is a huge difference between people wanting to hear more and loving the band vs. a mild applause in a hurry to get to the next song.

There is a huge library of great songs and bands. It boggles my mind to get out there and play something that the band a night or two nights ago just covered. Being in my 30's, I want to go back to the a energy filled time of music that gets people moving. It's hard to keep pace with a band that wants to play Kasey Kasem's top 40 hits of the past 4 decades. You zone out, passion comes and goes, and sometimes your development takes a nose dive.

@Paulabass is correct that a large majority of today's players want to play it safe in the mundane monotony of Dad band songs. The excitement and enlightenment comes from trying something new and pushing the envelope. Your audience takes notice and joins the ride with you. It's hard to nurture future musicians with overplayed bar rock. If you want new people to support the culture, you have to be willing to take some risk and stay ahead of the curve.
 
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#43
charlie monroe said:
American Pie.

That song literally *never* ends...
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I loved "American Pie" when I first heard the song but after 3 minutes of it started getting bored.
Second time I ever heard the song, I disliked it, Oh No! not again
Third time I ever heard the song, I immediately switched stations
Fourth time I ever heard the song I hated it with a passion and that was 47 years ago.
Who ever wrote the phrase, "There is a hell on earth" must have wrote it after hearing this song
 
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#48
download.jpeg
 
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#49
Raw N Low said:
I was going to say anything by Tom Petty or Fleetwood Mac but, I will lend this long list to the next poster.

With that being said, the problem is that cover bands have become such a cliche meat market. Show up to a gig, plug in, and keep buzzed or saturated patrons in their seat to tolerate your music. That not to say that some people won't enjoy the music but, there is a huge difference between people wanting to hear more and loving the band vs. a mild applause in a hurry to get to the next song.

There is a huge library of great songs and bands. It boggles my mind to get out there and play something that the band a night or two nights ago just covered. Being in my 30's, I want to go back to the a energy filled time of music that gets people moving. It's hard to keep pace with a band that wants to play Kasey Kasem's top 40 hits of the past 4 decades. You zone out, passion comes and goes, and sometimes your development takes a nose dive.

@Paulabass is correct that a large majority of today's players want to play it safe in the mundane monotony of Dad band songs. The excitement and enlightenment comes from trying something new and pushing the envelope. Your audience takes notice and joins the ride with you. It's hard to nurture future musicians with overplayed bar rock. If you want new people to support the culture, you have to be willing to take some risk and stay ahead of the curve.
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This is all so true!

But I'll be darned if we're not throwing down some cool Tommy Castro groove when someone in the audience yells out for Mustang Sally... makes me want to wretch, but what we as musicians also need to remember (and what I've reluctantly come to accept to some degree) is the non-musician bar scene audience often want to hear (and are quite happy with) simplistic tunes they can relate and jiggle to. People that frequent jazz clubs, for example, are looking for new/cool/sophisticated stuff "for the head" whereas many bar hopper patrons often have other things in mind.

I'm not saying this is an excuse for playing the worn-out drivel, but hey I'm the same guy that will periodically play a song a half-step off throughout just to see if the minions catch it. They often don't.

So the audience and venue does indeed factor into the genre and quality of music delivered by the band. Of course our playing experiences differ locally, regionally, and nationally as well, so there's a bit of varying mileage but in my area this is what I deal with.
 
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#51
Paulabass said: ↑
Take over played classic rock, and water down the groove, remove the dynamics, and play like you're reading.

^^This^^

Yeah, a lot of the stuff is overplayed, but the real problem is how it's played. My band doesn't play Mustang at every gig, but we play it a lot, as part of a medley with War's Low Rider. It always goes over, because we have fun with it. Nothing fancy, we'll slip into the old Buddy Miles clunker "Them Changes" for 8 bars during a guitar solo, or some licks from Sly. Like a lot of stuff we do, this started out as a spontaneous thing, and then became part of the show. Even the really stale stuff can come back to life if you decide to have fun with it instead of treating it like a chore. You gotta go at it with the right 'tude, yeah?

And, you know, we dress nice, we move when we play, we make lots of eye contact with each other and the crowd. It ain't exactly rocket science.

Just to demonstrate--a quick video from a gig a couple years back. I don't know what you'd call it, but I'd say this crowd is having a pretty good time:

 
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#54
Bunk McNulty said:
Paulabass said: ↑
Take over played classic rock, and water down the groove, remove the dynamics, and play like you're reading.

^^This^^

Yeah, a lot of the stuff is overplayed, but the real problem is how it's played. My band doesn't play Mustang at every gig, but we play it a lot, as part of a medley with War's Low Rider. It always goes over, because we have fun with it. Nothing fancy, we'll slip into the old Buddy Miles clunker "Them Changes" for 8 bars during a guitar solo, or some licks from Sly. Like a lot of stuff we do, this started out as a spontaneous thing, and then became part of the show. Even the really stale stuff can come back to life if you decide to have fun with it instead of treating it like a chore. You gotta go at it with the right 'tude, yeah?

And, you know, we dress nice, we move when we play, we make lots of eye contact with each other and the crowd. It ain't exactly rocket science.
Click to expand...
Truth.
 
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#55
These are not bad songs, I'm just tired of them.
Breakdown - Tom Petty (at least it's short)
Saturday in the Park - Chicago (currently fighting to keep this out of our regular set list. We learned it for a community event called...Saturday in the Park)
Drive - Incubus (just drones)
Crocodile Rock - Elton John (too campy)
Baba O'Reilly - The Who (great song, but not for a bunch of 45 year olds)
Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row (fun anthem, but again, not for 45 year olds)
 

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