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Your strangest crowd pleasers

troyofyort

troyofyort

Oct 7, 2014
53
66
33
College Station, TX
#1
What are some cover songs yall play that crowds seem to love even though it really shouldn't? I know Rush is popular among musicians but our spirit of radio and red barchetta covers slay average crowds. It even won us first place in a battle of bands based on crowd response even though the crowd was just other bands friends and family members. Another weird one was people really enjoying Iron Maiden at my hs talent show.
 
#2
It REALLY depends on the crowd. A crowd composed of musicians and their friends is going to react very differently from a crowd of bar goers trying to pick up chicks and the chicks they are trying to pick up. There are drinking crowds and there are dancing crowds and there are listening crowds. It's all a matter of knowing the crowd.
 
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#3
The 8-12 minute version of Voodoo Child (slight return) usually brings down the house. No one dances; a few guys might stand in front of Arthur in amazement, and women swoon and carry on over him playing with his teeth. It is one of the few songs that we play pretty much EVERY show, and has never failed us.

The other ridiculously long song that always works is Free Bird, of course.

Kicked in the Teeth by AC/DC gets them all worked up, and I would think most people wouldn't know that one.
 
#7
Bassist4Eris said:
We're not a cover band, so we can get away with some pretty non-commercial covers. King Crimson's "Red" goes over way better than I ever expected.
Click to expand...

I'm always amazed by 21st Century Schizoid Man and its peculiar ability to get people to start headbanging/dancing randomly.

On the other hand, yeah, it depends on the crowd. In some of the weirder locales I've played at, people really seemed to like Radiohead's "Myxomatosis" more than I ever did.
 
#8
Back when I was in a country band, we did a song by the Randy Rogers Band called "Blow Up Plastic Girl", and yes, the song is about exactly that. I'm pretty sure this is never, ever played on the radio, but even so, half the bar knew the words and sang along! Great response, it's always gratifying to connect with your audience. :)
 
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#9
You Can Leave Your Hat On was a big hit when the cover band did it. Just about anything our singer did when she went off the rails was a big hit with the other band. The new band with no name and no singer will have something, but I don't know what. It's rockabilly, so I'm kinda hoping something like Johnny's Got a Boom Boom will go over well. If it doesn't, my ego will be crushed.
 
#13
Another guy in an originals act, we've done a few covers over the years, we play punk, but we've done covers of Merle Haggard (Mama Tried) and David Allan Coe (Suicide) that have gone over really well. Eddie Cochran's Something Else usually goes over well too, but I've about had my fill explaining to kids that it's not a Sid Vicious cover...
 
#15
Not in a cover band either , but some tunes that we have played that gets our kind of fans moving....
-Reelin' in the Years
-Take me to the River
-Chameleon (w/ lyrics our singer came up with)
-Thriller

Note: sorry, definitely missed the "strangest" part of the OP
 
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