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@MCChris's ruminations on covering "That Smell," got me thinking...

I absolutely will not cover anything from Journey or "Mustang Sally."  I've done the latter a few times, and every time it was as a fill in for another band where it got audibled into the setlist as the set was going. I love Wilson Pickett, but I just can't bring myself to play that.  Maybe if I was playing with someone that could sing like Wilson Pickett and a shithot horn line, I might. And one of my earliest childhood memories is sitting at the YMCA during summer camp and hearing "Separate Ways" on some kids boombox.  Even three-year-old me thought it was terrible.  Not judging anyone for liking Journey, but I really have never enjoyed that band and scratch my head at the love they get from the sorority crowd here. 

What other deal breakers you got?

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While I don’t get any enjoyment from playing songs like Mustang Sally or Hang On Sloopy, our audience freakin loves them. I’m there to entertain and to provide the sound track to a fun night out so I can’t have a deal breaker in that regard.  You won’t catch me playing those, or any Skynrd, Michael Jackson, or many other songs on my own time though. 

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I tried out for this band a few years ago which "needed another guitar player," as my coworker put it.
I took this to mean that they needed an additional guitar player. As it turned out, their one guitar player had quit, and if I checked out, it would just be me.
A bit more responsibility - band-wise - than I had signed up for.

That wasn't the deal-breaker for me and why I ultimately declined to play with those guys, though.
That was "Jersey Girl" by Springsteen.

I'm not playing that shit.

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Although I played these in my college-era band and made a shit-ton of money covering such schlock, my list now includes: "Brown Eyed Girl", "Wonderful Tonight", "Cocaine", "Can't You See". There are a few more along these lines, but since they induce vomiting, I'll refrain from naming them. 

Never had a problem with Journey, but only ever played "Feeling That Way/Anytime" and "Lights". If you actually try to cover any of their stuff, you'll find that the instrumentation and vocal harmonies are a bitch to replicate. 

Currently, I'm working on a brace of tunes I never thought I'd play in a cover band, but which I find fun to play and I know will elicit a raucous cheer from the audience: "Good Ol' Boys" by Waylon, followed by "Act Naturally" (hybrid of the Beatles and Buck Owens).  By doing these, if we get requests for country, we'll have these bona fide country tunes ready to go. If someone in the crowd then asks for Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, or such shite, I can respond, "You mean you really like countrified Nickelback?"

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6 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

For me it has been playing any cover tunes for past two decades. 

There are plenty of people out there to do that with, I do not need to dedicate my time to that pursuit, I have over 100 original songs I'd rather be enjoying. 

Some young people never get why they are not making it big, and the reason is that they choose to play nothing but covers. 

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If you're in a cover band and you have deal breakers, you're either in the wrong cover band or your band is playing the wrong venues. If your audience is partiers, deal breakers shouldn't include "Don't Stop Believin'," "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline." If you're playing biker bars, deal breakers shouldn't include "Born to Be Wild." If you're in a U2 tribute band, deal breakers shouldn't include anything by U2.

And if you're in a band that plays whatever the band members want to play with zero regard for the audience, you don't really need deal breakers because you won't be getting any gigs beyond the first one.

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30 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Some young people never get why they are not making it big, and the reason is that they choose to play nothing but covers. 

Every band I was ever in before my current one, of 24 years, wanted to do originals and mix in covers, which meant it always turned into a cover band within two months.   Which is when I quit. 

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32 minutes ago, MCChris said:

If your audience is partiers, deal breakers shouldn't include "Don't Stop Believin'," "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline." If you're playing biker bars, deal breakers shouldn't include "Born to Be Wild." If you're in a U2 tribute band, deal breakers shouldn't include anything by U2.

Generally, I agree with this sentiment. So, while "deal breaker" might be too strong a term, it's certainly reasonable to consider other songs in the same genres. You know, songs that band members either enjoy/tolerate and that the audience loves.

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4 hours ago, MCChris said:

If you're in a cover band and you have deal breakers, you're either in the wrong cover band or your band is playing the wrong venues. If your audience is partiers, deal breakers shouldn't include "Don't Stop Believin'," "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline." If you're playing biker bars, deal breakers shouldn't include "Born to Be Wild." If you're in a U2 tribute band, deal breakers shouldn't include anything by U2.

And if you're in a band that plays whatever the band members want to play with zero regard for the audience, you don't really need deal breakers because you won't be getting any gigs beyond the first one.

I've honestly never had the problem.  Most bands around here play exactly the same 30 or so songs, so landing some honey pot gigs whilst not playing any Journey isn't all that hard. There are plenty of other songs that no one around here plays that people dig as well that I also have fun playing.  But I also live somewhere that still has decent paying gigs for rock bands and where college students will still go out and see live music within some relatively narrow parameters.  

And I've played a lot of music I don't like happily - I'm not in love with Little Big Town or Rascal Flats - so the OP is not exactly based solely on liking a song away from a band.  I will play music that I don't personally enjoy.  I'd say 95% of songs, pretty much anything done by good musicians or songwriters, I can find something that makes playing them fun even if I would probably never listen to them.  

I'll add that I don't think regarding my audience, for the context in which my band usually plays, necessarily means spoon feeding them only what they think they want to hear.  My job is to entertain them, get them out of their seat, and keep them in the bar drinking.  Granted, by midnight, slogging through even the most mediocre rendition of "Don't Stop Believin''" is a really easy way to entertain the shit out of most crowds.  For me it is taking a dare - I'm not going to play one or two songs I know you love hearing live, and my band is STILL going to be more fun than anything you've seen lately.  If we can't do that, then I'm in the wrong band. 

 

4 hours ago, Studio Custom said:

Every band I was ever in before my current one, of 24 years, wanted to do originals and mix in covers, which meant it always turned into a cover band within two months.   Which is when I quit. 

Luckily, I've never had that problem either, at least so far.  The first two bands I was in, which took up about 13 years all told, went from probably 75/25 covers to originals to 90/10 originals to covers as we wrote more.  We'll see about this one. 

 

5 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Some young people never get why they are not making it big, and the reason is that they choose to play nothing but covers. 

I think that was true 20 years ago, though it was always a pick your poison kinda thing. It was always easier to make steady money playing covers, but the ceiling was so much higher for doing originals.  Now there is nowhere big to make it anyway.  I think playing covers is the least thing young bands have to worry about. There's no money left in intellectual property, particularly for rock bands, and there is really no market it for among the under 30 crowd beyond a niche.  You're never going to have that one radio hit that makes you enough mailbox money to get you off the road someday.  That's actually a serious bummer, and I feel bad for a lot of songwriters who had middling radio hits that were providing them with $70 or $80 thousand a year that they retired on who have watched that disappear.  But that under 30 thing is the killer. 

For example, Greta Van Fleet is doing about as well as I think a new rock band can do at the moment I think, and not only do I never hear anyone talk about them, I'm willing to bet most people under 25 still have no idea who they are.  Almost all the buzz about them is from people around this age on the forum.  Go check out their comment section on any YouTube video - it's mostly older dudes talking about "bringing back the rock" or "reminding of XYZ back in the day."   "I showed my Dad these guys because he's a really big Zeppelin fan, and he loves them."  

Oof.  

Now the music guy in me loves that they are getting any traction at all, but the marketing research guy in me knows that 40+ is really not the demo you want with what is supposed to be a hot shit, young rock band.  In fact, having a venue full of middle aged men is kind of a nightmare if you're trying to be relevant, and I say that as an overweight, diabetic, middle-aged man, haha. And I do hope that they, or a band like them, ignites a new wave of high school kids starting bands.  But at the moment, I think that is unlikely. 

You can't make it big unless college and high school kids are interested in your genre.  Right now, they are all into trap, mumble rap, and Soundcloud mix tapes, yet rock has not been dethroned long enough for their lack of interest to be due to simply not knowing what it is.  

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There is a limit to tolerance.  That is when a song or attitude becomes a deal breaker. 

For me, band practice has always been fun.  We played songs which was always enough to make me happy.  Getting in front of an audience takes it up a step, and that has been fun, too.  Going through the work of hauling gear and setting it up ought to be done for fun because the money for doing so is rarely very good.  That is where the "deal breaker" makes a difference.  Why put up with it when there is no need to do it? 

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For me how often you play the songs comes into play. I am fine with the occasional Mustang Sally but wouldn't want it to be something we played at every gig.

Same goes for country music. I really don't like listening to any of it (except for the occasional Brad Paisley tune - which I consider more of a guitar song than a country song) but I can still have fun playing it.

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WAY back when, the inevitable request for "Play some country!" launched us into "Long Tall Texan", usually with some improvised and off color lyrics. "Next, we are going to do
Apache."

MUCH later on, did similar impolite things with "Mustang Sally'.

I reckon LTT was about as much a tribute to C&W as Peter Paul and Mary's, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" was to Rock. Obviously their tastes were a bit higher minded.

 

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I was in an excellent originals band in high school (late '70s) that had a killer songwriter/keyboard player who thought it would be a good idea to stay trendy and play disco.

I noped right the f*** out of there.

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My last band’s drummer was also a sound guy at a local venue.  He knew every cliched tune and vetoed those that were overplayed.  We were mostly in agreement as a group.  We played good recognizable covers - just not the same ones ever other band would play.  The crowds liked it and the bartenders LOVED us.   Anyone who works in these venues must get sick of the typical setlists.

In the event we had to do a tired old song,  we put a different spin on it.  Weezer does Seger.   Van Halen does Van Morrison.   You get the idea. 

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28 minutes ago, Thundernotes said:

We played good recognizable covers - just not the same ones ever other band would play.  The crowds liked it and the bartenders LOVED us.   Anyone who works in these venues must get sick of the typical setlists.

In the event we had to do a tired old song,  we put a different spin on it.  Weezer does Seger.   Van Halen does Van Morrison.   You get the idea. 

^^^This^^^

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56 minutes ago, Thundernotes said:

In the event we had to do a tired old song,  we put a different spin on it.  Weezer does Seger.   Van Halen does Van Morrison.   You get the idea. 

That kind of stuff can be fun, especially if you really buy in and try to do the crap out of it.  We have a hornline, and the trombone player likes to rap.  I think we're going to play some old Ice Cube and some other 90s hip hop because we can do the samples as a live band. 

I've mentioned before that covers lists are so homogenized here between bands that I noticed one night walking to my car that two bands on the square were playing "Use Me' in two different venues at the same time. 

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4 hours ago, MCChris said:

And if you're in a band that plays whatever the band members want to play with zero regard for the audience, you don't really need deal breakers because you won't be getting any gigs beyond the first one.

Somebody has to write the stuff others cover. We've all heard stories of The Police playing for 6 people. I saw REM for free, and played a gig with the early version of the Crowes for about 50 people. In the long run, I don't think wither band would have been better off doing a set of party covers.

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4 hours ago, MCChris said:

If you're in a cover band and you have deal breakers, you're either in the wrong cover band or your band is playing the wrong venues. If your audience is partiers, deal breakers shouldn't include "Don't Stop Believin'," "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline." If you're playing biker bars, deal breakers shouldn't include "Born to Be Wild." If you're in a U2 tribute band, deal breakers shouldn't include anything by U2.

And if you're in a band that plays whatever the band members want to play with zero regard for the audience, you don't really need deal breakers because you won't be getting any gigs beyond the first one.

Nailed it! Our band is at that point now. We found a niche with the audience that comes to see us, we get to play songs that nobody else does and are fun to play. NOW we have tension, because of direction. FACE/PALM 

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2 minutes ago, polara said:

Somebody has to write the stuff others cover. We've all heard stories of The Police playing for 6 people. I saw REM for free, and played a gig with the early version of the Crowes for about 50 people. In the long run, I don't think wither band would have been better off doing a set of party covers.

I was speaking strictly about cover bands. Of course original bands should play what moves them. Ideally, audiences agree.

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7 minutes ago, polara said:

Somebody has to write the stuff others cover. We've all heard stories of The Police playing for 6 people. I saw REM for free, and played a gig with the early version of the Crowes for about 50 people. In the long run, I don't think wither band would have been better off doing a set of party covers.

I get what Chris is saying, but at the end of the day, it is about entertaining an audience with a couple of exceptions like wedding gigs (which I never do).   If you have to play staples to do that, then fine, but I don't believe that you do. 

*I should say all the staples.  I think there is plenty of stuff out there that people dig that a band can get into as well and afford to miss a couple of things that are just played to death.  Obviously, if you're playing covers, playing only obscure B-sides that no one knows is pretty stupid. 

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I've never gone to hear cover bands or been in one.I've heard them of course, if I'm in a bar or some corporate event, but never particularly WANTED to hear one. 

I guess if I were in a cover band, I'd be in agreement: play what the audience is wanting to hear, 'cos you're hired for that. I can't imagine much would  be "off the table" , unless it was just outside the range of the players. Like if your singer is a soprano, don't doo too many Barry White songs. If you're all middle-aged white guys don't try the Kanye covers. Don't ask me to shred. Etc. 

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5 hours ago, MCChris said:

If you're in a cover band and you have deal breakers, you're either in the wrong cover band or your band is playing the wrong venues. If your audience is partiers, deal breakers shouldn't include "Don't Stop Believin'," "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline." If you're playing biker bars, deal breakers shouldn't include "Born to Be Wild." If you're in a U2 tribute band, deal breakers shouldn't include anything by U2.

And if you're in a band that plays whatever the band members want to play with zero regard for the audience, you don't really need deal breakers because you won't be getting any gigs beyond the first one.

Absolutely true. I'm in a band like that now, just to keep my chops up.

I like to entertain people.

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