Covers bands - what's the appeal?

[lojo]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988273' date='Oct 14 2010, 06:45 PM']Yes, it does [/quote]

Your not the guy who finds himself at a function where there is a band, who sits in the corner and refuses to enjoy it for what it is ? (usually cheese)

Mate I wish I had your talent and knowledge of music (what I assume you have by what you do), but i cant help feeling that with it, you lose something also

No offense meant and I could be and most likely am very wrong

Edited October 14, 2010 by lojo

[Bilbo]

You are wrong, but not for the reasons you think. When I gig with a function band and play something that involves straight root note quavers and its locked in, I get a little buzz, the same as everyone else. But I have been doing this for 30+ years and that little buzz is not enough and hasn't been for a long, long time. Its better than nothing but its like watching the same movie 1,000 times. Even if you like the story, knowing the outcome limits the pleasure gleaned. Its like those old records that you used to love. You still love them but familiarity breeds its own ambivalence and you like to listen to them less and less frequently. I find most covers, particularly the usual crowd pleasers, are in that area; uninspiring through overuse.

When you find yourself doing something fresh, inventive, provocative and intense, the buzz is that much greater.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Any live band that enjoys playing covers has got to a million times better than the rubbish I had to endure last Saturday at Chessington World of Adventures at a Nintendo event.

A blummin'g great tent with a few thousand punters, Massive video screens on each side of the stage, lightshow, lasers, smoke & pyrotechnics. On come a pair of 19 year-old twins with comedy hair, one of whom can do cartwheels, somersaults & the splits. They 'do' a set consisting of Rock DJ, Ice Ice Baby, Jump Around, All the Small Things, Ghostbusters, Teenage Kicks etc. The songs were all delivered karaoke style with no live musicians no spontaneity and no feel or groove. However it wasn't even proper karaoke - I don't think they were actually singing anything - it looked & sounded like they were miming badly to an autotuned studio track.

[lojo]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988329' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:26 PM']You are wrong, but not for the reasons you think. When I gig with a function band and play something that involves straight root note quavers and its locked in, I get a little buzz, the same as everyone else. But I have been doing this for 30+ years and that little buzz is not enough and hasn't been for a long, long time. Its better than nothing but its like watching the same movie 1,000 times. Even if you like the story, knowing the outcome limits the pleasure gleaned. Its like those old records that you used to love. You still love them but familiarity breeds its own ambivalence and you like to listen to them less and less frequently. I find most covers, particularly the usual crowd pleasers, are in that area; uninspiring through overuse.

When you find yourself doing something fresh, inventive, provocative and intense, the buzz is that much greater.[/quote]

Sorry, think I get you now

I really do hope you find some joy in something that comes your way soon

It seems your working and not playing with music, I sometimes naively assume that semi pros and pros always do both, but I guess thats not always the case

I guess its like me not wanting to play mustang sally, but amplified greatly in your case to cover alot more music

[Pete Academy]

Not sure if I already said this previously, as this thread is so long, but I play covers at gigs. But when I play for my own practise and enjoment, I play my own riffs.

Apart from 'Good Times', which I love.

[Russ]

I personally have no interest in playing in a cover band, but I guess it depends why you want to play music in the first place. Do you do it because you love performing, love your instrument or want to play cool songs and pull birds, or do you do it because you love the creative process?

For me, it's definitely the latter. A cover band just wouldn't be satisfying on the level I need it to be for it to hold my interest.

I've always been very involved in the songwriting with every original band I've been a part of - not just the basslines, but the chord progressions, vocal melodies and lyrics too. I wouldn't want to play music if this part of the equation wasn't there, and I'm with Bilbo on the point that I'd rather leave this world knowing I'd helped create something new than just got very good at performing someone else's creation.

I see it as art vs. craft. You can be a great craftsman without being a great artist, and vice versa. I want to be both, just being one isn't enough. But that's by me, for me - as they say on the internet, YMMV.

My 2p's worth.

[Bilbo]

[quote name='lojo' post='988335' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:33 PM']I guess its like me not wanting to play mustang sally, but amplified greatly in your case to cover alot more music[/quote]

Exactly.

[Doctor J]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='988364' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:58 PM']Not sure if I already said this previously, as this thread is so long, but I play covers at gigs. But when I play for my own practise and enjoment, I play my own riffs.[/quote]
I'm the other way around, I usually play along to other band's tunes to keep my chops up when fluting around at home, but for gigs I've always played originals. I just love the creative effort, the buzz of living or dying by the power of the music you create from nothing.

I did sub in a mate's blues band for what turned out to be a few years, but I hadn't actually heard most of the songs before I started gigging with them, it really was a last minute thing and got thrown into the deep end. It was ok, but when it was time to refresh the set a little, they always looked at someone else's tunes rather than writing their own, which was at odds with my instincts.

Even with my current band (where I'm playing g****r, sadly) the lads have mentioned prospective covers "to help win the crowd over" and my reaction is if we need to drop one of our own songs for someone else's then we need to write better songs. We did record a Celtic Frost cover a few years ago for a compilation album but we've never played it since.

I think originals involves more thankless graft and substantially less pay, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[tauzero]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='988145' date='Oct 14 2010, 03:48 PM']Like I said several (hundred) pages back - if you're a bassist in an originals band, nine times out of ten you'll be playing music that someone else has written anyway.[/quote]
Which would you find more frustrating - playing in a covers band, or playing in an originals band that played original music written by another member of the band but not original music (of at least as high a standard) written by you?

[Telebass]

Be grateful for any opportunity you get. Covers, originals - it's simply irrelevant. Just play!

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Telebass' post='990910' date='Oct 17 2010, 10:17 AM']Be grateful for any opportunity you get. Covers, originals - it's simply irrelevant. Just play![/quote]
+1 - and, whoever wrote them, play good songs.

[Cat Burrito]

[quote name='Telebass' post='990910' date='Oct 17 2010, 10:17 AM']Be grateful for any opportunity you get. Covers, originals - it's simply irrelevant. Just play![/quote]
Well said that man! I went out last night to see my guitarist play with his covers band. All serious players. It is what it is. They filled the pub, people liked them & they could all play. I think generally I prefer originals bands but at least they are out there doing it.

[markstuk]

+1
[quote name='EssentialTension' post='990915' date='Oct 17 2010, 10:19 AM']+1 - and, whoever wrote them, play good songs.[/quote]

[Bassassin]

[quote name='tauzero' post='990821' date='Oct 17 2010, 01:42 AM']Which would you find more frustrating - playing in a covers band, or playing in an originals band that played original music written by another member of the band but not original music (of at least as high a standard) written by you?[/quote]
It's a very subjective question and I can really only speculate - I haven't been in an originals band where I wasn't involved in composition since I was 19!

Anyway it would depend on the songs. I can think of one band that I know which I'd happily play with - the 2 co-writers have a unique style which I absolutely love, & I feel my own writing would be incompatible and would compromise what they do, so I doubt I'd want to contribute. I'm sure there are others too, but on the other hand there are plenty of bands whose material doesn't inspire me, & that would bore me rigid.

Obviously I'm only talking about originals bands on a similar level to mine, where money doesn't enter into it & the music is its own reward - realistically I'd have to love the music or I might as well play covers & be paid. A paying gig with an originals band would probably be another matter altogether. I've never been in that position so I can't say whether I'd feel any additional personal kudos or sense of self-worth/importance, or if I'd find particular value in the idea that the audience had made the effort to be there specifically to see "my" band, irrespective of whether I'd participated in the creation of the music. But I somehow doubt it.

J.

[JTUK]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988329' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:26 PM']You are wrong, but not for the reasons you think. When I gig with a function band and play something that involves straight root note quavers and its locked in, I get a little buzz, the same as everyone else. But I have been doing this for 30+ years and that little buzz is not enough and hasn't been for a long, long time. Its better than nothing but its like watching the same movie 1,000 times. Even if you like the story, knowing the outcome limits the pleasure gleaned. Its like those old records that you used to love. You still love them but familiarity breeds its own ambivalence and you like to listen to them less and less frequently. I find most covers, particularly the usual crowd pleasers, are in that area; uninspiring through overuse.

When you find yourself doing something fresh, inventive, provocative and intense, the buzz is that much greater.[/quote]


I can relate to this. After a while it can be same old, same old and it can eat away at you.

This forced me to take a break as that was an option I had, and I was able to, although this was by no means certain it was going to work out like that, come back refreshed after about 2 years of total disinterest and I didn't even touch a bass..and stopped listening to music, etc etc ..
I am very mindful not to go get sucked down that path again where I become so jaded to the point of not wanting to do it anymore, so now I pick and choose and do things more on my terms. I have to and need to reinvent a few things to keep me interested but am lucky that I can have this attitude and license.

At least if I see a tired old cliqued covers band, I can walk out...so I certainly don't want to get stuck with playing in one.
Meat and poison here of course..!!