Advice needed for song choices please

[Cygnus x-1]

I am getting together with 3 members of my very first band to do 3 surprise gigs (private parties) as a sort of support act for the main band. We haven’t played together for many, many years and two of the new members (rhythm guitar and drums) of this venture, although competent musicians, are young guys who haven’t gigged before.

So my question is this, can you suggest about 12 songs that are fun and easyish to play, usually go down a storm and that most age ranges (16 - 60) will have heard of? We want to play melodic rock, so obviously no death metal but not too poppy (sp?) either. We are just at the talking/jamming stage at the moment, the two young guys are both nervous and excited.

I realize this is a bit of a long winded question but any advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers, Nick.

[leschirons]

[quote name='Cygnus x-1' post='977730' date='Oct 4 2010, 08:55 PM']I am getting together with 3 members of my very first band to do 3 surprise gigs (private parties) as a sort of support act for the main band. We haven’t played together for many, many years and two of the new members (rhythm guitar and drums) of this venture, although competent musicians, are young guys who haven’t gigged before.

So my question is this, can you suggest about 12 songs that are fun and easyish to play, usually go down a storm and that most age ranges (16 - 60) will have heard of? We want to play melodic rock, so obviously no death metal but not too poppy (sp?) either. We are just at the talking/jamming stage at the moment, the two young guys are both nervous and excited.

I realize this is a bit of a long winded question but any advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers, Nick.[/quote]

Assuming you have no keyboards, you could try a few like (as it's all age groups)

Born to be wild
Whiskey in the jar
Another brick in the wall (if you have 2 guitarists)
Message of love
Rock & roll
Breaking the law
Summer of 69

Best of luck

[Hoppo75]

My tuppence as follows;

I fought the law
Sanctuary
Run to you
Everything about you (ugly kid joe)
Since you've been gone
Old time rock and roll
Love hurts (nazereth)
Wishing well
Heard it through the grapevine (fm's cover)

All have served me very well at various functions over the years.

[the_skezz]

Slither - Velvet Revolver (dunno how difficult the guitar solo is, but bass and drums are pretty managable)
Territorial Pissings - Nirvana
Dirty Deeds - AC/DC
Running Free - Iron Maiden
Woman - Wolfmother

Others come to mind, but they walk the tricky line of being popular but also overplayed...doubt the punters would mind though.

And + 1 for Hoppo and leschirons suggestions, some good 'uns there.

[Cygnus x-1]

thanks guys, some good songs there, some i'd forgotten, I thought of ...Man on the silver mountain, Burn & Addicted to love. Any more? didn't want overplayed (all right now, smoke on...., paranoid) stuff, it's too predictable, yeh?

[benh]

Can't Get Enough of Your Love (Bad Company)
Tush (ZZ Top)
Smoking in the Boys Room (Motley Crue)
Dakota (Stereophonics)
Tie Your Mother Down (Queen)

Might be a bit predictable but people seem to like 'em. All suggestions so far have been good I think, could make a giggable set from all these suggestions I'd have thought.

[the_skezz]

Couple more rock-ish ones...

Europe - Rock the Night (think it uses keyboards, but not to the extent that it's unplayable without em)
The Clash - Complete Control (one that a lot of people seem to know a like, but I don't recall ever seeing it covered elsewhere)
Alice Cooper - Elected
Aerosmith - Draw the Line
The Who - I'm Free

Most people I know seem to like these, but I ain't seen any of them covered much/at all.

[KevB]

[quote name='Cygnus x-1' post='979456' date='Oct 6 2010, 03:04 PM']thanks guys, some good songs there, some i'd forgotten, I thought of ...Man on the silver mountain, Burn & Addicted to love. Any more? didn't want overplayed (all right now, smoke on...., paranoid) stuff, it's too predictable, yeh?[/quote]

Burn is a pretty difficult song to nail if you're not 100% sure of your drummer!

[markstuk]

Hard to Handle (Black Crowes version)?

[Balcro]

1. All the Way from Memphis.

2. Sweet Home Alabama. Could be manageable with a 4 piece.

Balcro.

[BassNovice]

My sharona..very easy.

Little green bag..george baker select

mollys chambers KOL

revelry KOL

[BassNovice]

Teenage kicks..undertones

20 century boy..trex

are you gonna be my girl..jet

1979 ..pumpkins

[BassNovice]

Psycho killer

I wanna be adored

that's entertainment!!!

Sorry about the multiple posts...these are songs I done at my 1st gig last week I'm my local..wasn't realy a gig as such just a practice jam but the guys let's us set up in the pub!!

[xgsjx]

An easy one that goes down well is West Nashville Boogie by Steve Earle. Good opener to warm the band up & get past any nerves & the chords are E (for 1 1/2 bars) G, A.
Ice Cream Man by Van Halen is a pretty easy song too (just make guitarist do a solo to his ability tho to save embarrassment).
Take Me To The River by Talking Heads (or Al Green if you prefer).
Break On Through by The Doors.
Shy Boy by Talas, has a nice bass solo for you to learn.
Lean On Me by Bill Withers, just for a singalong & the cool wee bass bit during "Just call on me brother, if you need a hand".