Covers Bands Set-Lists And Genres

Mark#1

Hi,

I don't know if I'm posting this in the right forum - mods feel free to move if necessary.

I play bass in a rock covers pub band.

We currently play mostly radio-rock. Below is the set-list from our last gig on March 16th.

SAN DIEGO SONG - The Coronas
ALWAYS ON THE RUN - Lenny Kravitz
BEFORE I FALL TO PIECES - Razorlight
BOHEMIAN LIKE YOU - Dandy Warhols
CHELSEA DAGGER - The Fratellis
WHO'S GOT A MATCH - Biffy Clyro
DANNI CALIFORNIA - Red Hot Chili Peppers
DRAMA QUEEN - Switches
DAKOTA - Syereophonics
YOU ARE ALL THAT I HAVE - Snow Patrol
BASKET CASE - Green Day
FANTASY - The Blizzards
HOLIDAY - Green Day
BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS - Green Day
HUSH - Kula Shaker/Deep Purple
IN THE SHADOWS - The Rasmus
MINORITY - Green Day
RUBY - Kaiser Chiefs
SAVE TONIGHT - Eagle Eye Cherry
SOMEBODY TOLD ME - The Killers
SONG 2 - Blur
SUBURBAN KNIGHTS - Hard Fi
THE SAINTS ARE COMING - Green Day/U2
VERTIGO - U2
DEARG DOOM - Horslips
WHISKY IN THE JAR - Thin Lizzy
DIRTY OLD TOWN - Trad
THE IRISH ROVER - Trad
WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG - The Killers
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG - AC/DC
SWEET CHILD O MINE - Guns 'n' Roses
SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT - Nirvana
ENTER SANDMAN - Metallica
ALIVE - Pearl Jam
KILLING IN THE NAME - Rage Against The Machine

All four of us would have personal preferences for listening to mostly heavier rock than Killers & U2, etc, but we all realise that you gotta play what the punters want, and by no means do we hate playing this set.

But I'm wondering if there's a circuit of pubs or venues whose punters would prefer more heavy rock or not-necessarily-on-the-radio-every-day rock?

Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, RATM, AC/DC, Band Of Horses, Blind Melon, Jane's Addiction, Kings Of Leon, Led Zep, Ocean Colour Scene, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, The Who...

The are all some of the bands that we'd personally love to hear a live band play, but does the average pub-going punter?

I'm not asking for a critique of our tastes in music, rather what you or folk you know would like to hear.

And I'd like to know if there are venues where covers bands play this kind of stuff.

We're in north county Dublin.

Thanks for any replies,

Mark

NoQuarter

i would love to hear your set list you dont play but i know the majority of my mates would prefer the first one unfortunatly!

henessjon

yeah its the current problem aint it, only wedding bands are gonna make money these days...


i was talking to a drummner doing originals and it actually costs money to do a gig...

In that case you play what you want that means anything.


If you want a guaranteed audience and make money join the wedding band.

By the way i believe a pub/venue should pay depending what crowd is in attendance minimum €100 rising depends on the smile managers face lol of the head count. yes its impossible situation but soon the day is coming real live music will DIE

and DISCO WILL BE KING

who wants that

rant over

Baggio

its a good thread for sure,,I think!...if I'm wrong apologies to the mods etc:)

I'm thinking these days most cover bands could almost do with a dual setlist approach, 1 perhaps for an overall audience and 1 for perhaps a more rocker venue type place,.,.,,it seems to make sense...there's a lot of work involved,.,,but if ya don't wanna work at something you love doing then go collect stamps etc .....

So I'd say yur setlist is a good spread of stuff for sure..lots of variety, a heavier alternative set could be an idea too...my second band have that way of thinking, we're hoping to develo[p a second set to run along side our classic rock type set,,,,and pick and mix as nessesary. an Idea?

My 1 st band Never Say Die (plug plug) are more or less all classic rock,,with a slight dip here and there into diferent stuff and the odd crowd pleaser, we're getting 2 new members up to speed,,,first gig we'll have approx 24/25 songs and bulid it back to 30+ as it used to be, setlist basically consists of:

Waiting For An Alibi - Thin Lizzy
Rock and Roll - Led Zep
Burn - Deep Purple
Welcome to the Jungle - GNR
Lick It Up - Kiss
Gime Me All Yur Luvin - ZZTop
Eat The Rich - Aerosmith
Comunication Breakdown - Led Zep
Highway To Hell - ACDC
Shook Me All Night Long - ACDC
Passage To Bangkok - Rush
More Than A Feeling - Boston
Don't Believe A Word - Thin Lizzy
Dedication - thin Lizzy
Toys And Flavours - Hellacopters
Living After Midnight - Judas Priest
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Streets Have No Name - U2
Sweet Home Alabama (yeah i know haha)
Sails Of Charion - Scorpions
Highway Star - Deep Purple
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Paranoid - Black Sabbath

plus a few others cant remember off the top of my old head haha, thats the stuff we do and its done full on, no wimpy half hearted efforts....next gig when new members up to speed is end of april,...looking forward to it

beast of luck with it mark1 ...Baggio...

Mark#1

I'm not so sure live music is dying, but I suppose there are pubs/venues or even areas where there might be a swing toward DJ stuff and nightclubs.

But in my observation, I don't remember a time where there were so many kids (young and old) playing in a band with their mates or even just playing guitar at home alone - playing live instruments is still very much alive as I observe it.

Regarding originals bands - I apreciate that it's hard to get exposure, but for them, gigging at a loss is just how it is in the short-mid term, IMO.

Presumably they want to make it and "when" they do, they won't care a rat's shoe about the paltry losses they made starting out.

If a proprietor offered our band €100 (€25 per man :eek:) to entertain a pub of punters (whether it's 10 or 400 punters) with 20-30 suitable songs performed with skill and professionalism, through our own PA that we paid almost €10k for, having sat at home learning the songs after a day's work (instead of watching Desperate Housekeeping with the wife), then rehearsing them all a couple of times a week (and missing LOST), arriving at the venue early enough to have the gear set up before the punters start arriving, then waiting for the punters to bale out before we can take our gear down and get home to bed at 3am, by which time it's too late to even get a bag of chips anywhere.

€25? Kiss my ....

FWIW, our most regular venue pays us €650 a gig. We've never been paid less than €400. We all agreed at the start that any gig would have to pay a minimum of €100 a man.

For the last gig we did we asked for €5 per punter at the door rather than the venue paying us, and even though we stopped taking money after half-way through the set, we banked €1350.

We're far from the best covers band out there, but we play well and we care that our sound is good and we try to make sure that our song choice is not the standard "I learned these 20 years ago and the punters still love them, so we'll just churn them out for a few bob" stuff. We always play well over 30 songs (set-list usually 34-ish, then usually one or two unscheduled requests).

We make little mistakes and sometimes the set just doesn't work, but we're just everyday Joes having a bit of fun in a band (though we strive to do it to a standard that we can stand proud of), and making a bit of pocket money as a bonus.

I think if punters have a good time and the band plays pretty much what they want to hear, then €5 isn't a lot to ask for.

We've probably got at least 80+ songs, maybe over 100, that we've learned since we started, but we couldn't necessarily pull any one them out of the bag if a couple of folk asked for them - Foo Fighters' Times Like These springs to mind. Unless we'd rehearsed that in the last few weeks, there'd be a chance of something going awry in one of the 7/8 sections.

In conversations, we've all more or less agreed that the popular radio-rock set should be the core set, but that pretty much any one of the songs we've learned over time should be do-able on request, and that a bit of homework before a gig will reveal that maybe for that venue it's more appropriate to play a heavier/lighter/more indie/more mainstream set.

The key to that will have to be very well organised rehearsals - nail the newest songs first, then the ones from current set that need attention (problems evident in the last gig, for example), then some sort of rota of every song you've learned that could come up again.

Almost takes the fun out of it, eh? :rolleyes:

Mark

Savman

€100 for a whole band? ROFL!

Mark#1 wrote:

If a proprietor offered our band €100 (€25 per man ) to entertain a pub of punters (whether it's 10 or 400 punters) with 20-30 suitable songs performed with skill and professionalism, through our own PA that we paid almost €10k for, having sat at home learning the songs after a day's work (instead of watching Desperate Housekeeping with the wife), then rehearsing them all a couple of times a week (and missing LOST), arriving at the venue early enough to have the gear set up before the punters start arriving, then waiting for the punters to bale out before we can take our gear down and get home to bed at 3am, by which time it's too late to even get a bag of chips anywhere.

€25? Kiss my ....

All true...