Evolution of a covers band

[northstreet]

I'm very fortunate to have (happily!) been in my covers band, with the same three people. for nigh on 10 years. In a couple of weeks we're playing a small festival that we've played at a few times in the past, and been it's interesting - well, to me at least! - to compare our set lists over the years. Because we only get 45 minutes or so we tend to play our favourite songs, on the basis that if we're having fun, then that gets the audience involved and we all have a good time. And they keep asking us back, so it must be working.

 

Anyway, this is what we played in 2015: 

Black horse and the cherry tree

Monkey man

Don’t stop

Tears dry on their own

Feeling good

Upside down

Love foolosophy

Crash

Maria

Black eyed boy

Need you now

I only want to be with you

Ready to go

My favourite game

 

and this is what we'll be playing this year:

Cum on feel the noize

Are you gonna be my girl

One way or another

Call me

Heatwave

Feeling good

Gimme shelter

Titanium

Bad romance

Whole lotta love

Vertigo

I predict a riot

I bet you look good on the dance floor

Chelsea dagger

Saturday night’s alright for fighting

Tainted love

 

Feeling Good has stayed, but the rest of the set has changed considerably. And that's not because we don't play those other songs any more (we'll be doing most of them at a social club gig, along with a bunch of Abba and Beatles songs, at the end of the month). It's more that our preferred style of song has definitely taken on more of an 'edge'. It's not been a conscious decision, but more of a gradual evolution over the years, and I'm not sure why that is. Anyone else been on a similar journey? 

[megallica]

Your current setlist looks really interesting and it's inspiring that you are playing together after 10 years. 

[northstreet]

11 hours ago, megallica said:

Your current setlist looks really interesting and it's inspiring that you are playing together after 10 years. 

Thanks @megallica not quite sure how we've managed to stay together for so long, but I do feel quite fortunate when I read some of the tales of woe on this forum. I think one thing that has helped is the fact that we have evolved, and we've always trying new songs in different styles, and that keeps it interesting and fresh. 

[snorkie635]

3 minutes ago, northstreet said:

Thanks @megallica not quite sure how we've managed to stay together for so long, but I do feel quite fortunate when I read some of the tales of woe on this forum. I think one thing that has helped is the fact that we have evolved, and we've always trying new songs in different styles, and that keeps it interesting and fresh. 

Unfortunately, our set has stagnated over 31 years as our guitar player only knows about a dozen numbers and they're all in 'E'. 😁 We have over one hundred numbers in the set. What he does for the other 88, God knows.

[TimR]

On 04/05/2023 at 22:36, northstreet said:

Anyone else been on a similar journey? 

 

We have had 3 singers in that time, but the musicians have remained the same. I'm not sure we play any tunes now that we played 10 years ago, but the tunes we play now get a younger audience and I can't remember the last time somebody asked us to play something they know or something they can dance to. Which I never understood, suspect a lot of audiences are musically illiterate to anything pre 1990.

 

 

[northstreet]

On 06/05/2023 at 13:06, TimR said:

...suspect a lot of audiences are musically illiterate to anything pre 1990

We must be playing to different audiences, because one of our challenges is finding current songs that get any sort of response other than indifference! 

[Waddo Soqable]

38 minutes ago, northstreet said:

We must be playing to different audiences, because one of our challenges is finding current songs that get any sort of response other than indifference! 

I was in a band that had a stripper once.... Just a thought 👍

[fleabag]

I bet  you were that stripper  🧦🩲

[Waddo Soqable]

59 minutes ago, fleabag said:

I bet  you were that stripper  🧦🩲

Who dear, me dear, no dear, how very dare you.... 😁

[Nail Soup]

In my experience the evolution went:

a) We won't do the obvious cover songs of our genre (punk/new wave)

b) OK, we'll do Teenage Kicks

c) repeat step b for various punk and new wave classics.

d) similar set to the other cover bands

[stewblack]

I was pondering this in relation to one of my bands. 

It started with high ideals of interesting interpretations of whatever covers we chose. But over the years the inevitable conclusion is that as we play pubs and the odd private party,  our set is evolving into playing what the audiences want to hear.

Which is leading us into becoming very similar to a lot of other bands.

Now I don't mind that at all. My job is to entertain people, I'm the modern day equivalent of the wandering minstrel. I'm not there to pose as an artist, or pretend I don't care if people like us - my job is to give people what they want. I need to get rebooked. 

I spent my youth playing original material to mostly empty bars, and now I get off on giving the maximum number of people the best evening I can.

Luckily we have an extraordinary singer who can and does, sing songs other singers would either butcher or avoid. So the set has some real special moments despite the descent into the somewhat obvious set list.

[tauzero]

I'm trying to edge the band towards doing songs that people will be familiar with but that covers bands don't often do. It's what a previous band did and that was very well received.