pub rock - left field songs that work!

frictionfraction

Been playing in pubs doing the rock thing for a lot of years now. I love it and would pretty much would turn up to play at the opening of an envelope if someone asked me... However we struggle with the perennial problem how do you keep the set list fresh whilst ensuring you meet the landlords requirements that you attract and keep punters to the venue to spend their hard earned.. Sex on fire, sweet child o mine, Dakota, rhcps, foos, killers, ACDC, muse, sandman! Bon Jovi, Coldplay, cult etc.. we can churn out all of them and they work.. We try and mix it up with some new stuff but I'd say we run at about a 30% success rate of new tunes that last more than a handful of gigs before we ditch them. Anyone got any left field suggestions that might be worth a go?

smigeon

"Valerie" goes down a treat and is fun and is very simple to do

RocknRollDave

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

frictionfraction

RocknRollDave said:

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

Super cheesey - love it

John_P

One of my bands tries to fit in some variations on the classic pubs tunes -

Meatloaf - took the words right out of my mouth,   simple enough and goes down well. 

Walk this way - I haven't heard many people do it and works well

You got the love - really rocked up is good

We also do a lot of mashing songs together - with a verse of one into a chorus of another and back again and that can make old favourites a bit more interesting 

eg

Walk this way / Hard to handle

Living on a prayer / Don't stop believing

You got the love / let me entertain you

All summer long / sweet home alabama

Highway to hell / Shook me all night long /Rosie 

etc etc 

EricTheWeary

Well we don't do rock covers but have played the odd gig where a more general covers band might have gone down better. However,our only sure fire cover to any audience is Lip Up Fatty. I don't like it much as a song and you'd have to cover the trumpet but in some way ( keys in our case) but it's the only sure fire thing we do. And, kinda left field for a rock covers band. Oh, it has the oddest guitar intro too. B-) My mate's band did do rock covers, things like Ocean Colour Scene and Free. They used to do Andy William's Music to Watch Girls By in the middle of the set.

bigjon

Did a 10-song set as part of a multi-band evening 2 weeks ago, included the following left-field selections and they all went down a storm :-)

- A medley of the themes from Grange Hill and Rainbow
- No Air by Jordin Sparks (we usually do Halo by Beyonce as an 80s rock ballad but we'd done that last year at the same event)
- Baker Street with the sax melody played on guitar
- Donald Where's Your Troosers by Andy Williams; second-to-last song of the night and the dancefloor went crazy.

octatonic

Gay Bar by Electric Six.

Everything else by Electric Six as well.

monquixote

My old rock band used to face a similar dilemma so we started doing rock covers of girl pop. 

Full on rock covers of Just Dance by Lady Gaga and Firework by Katy Perry both went down extremely well. 

We also used to do a cover of Are Friends Electric? which used to go down a storm bizarrely. 

frictionfraction

octatonic;1058095" said:

Gay Bar by Electric Six.Everything else by Electric Six as well.

Do gay bar but have not looked at anything else

octatonic

frictionfraction said:

octatonic;1058095" said:

Gay Bar by Electric Six.Everything else by Electric Six as well.

Do gay bar but have not looked at anything else

"Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)" and "Improper Dancing" are awesome.

They have something like 10 albums though so there is a lot of great tunes.

lustycourtier

RocknRollDave said:

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

RocknRollDave said:

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

Maybe because artic monkeys version was more well known than the girls aloud version?

Danny1969

This is how we do it by Montell Jordon sounds great with guitars, as does No Diggity by Blackstreet  & express Yourself by Labrinth. 

Gassage

Rawhide.

(in A. Hit it.)

John_P

Gassage;1058708" said:

Rawhide.



(in A. Hit it.)

And that works for both types of music ;-)

Gassage

...well I sure would appreciate that....

EricTheWeary

Gassage said:

Rawhide.

(in A. Hit it.)

 
\m/ \m/ \m/

RocknRollDave

Turning Japanese

thecolourbox

How about rocking up Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down? Bit slow and not so dancey but it's a cool song that people know. I whack the solo and one verse from the Doors Riders on the Storm in the middle of it when I do it

Are Friends Electric also goes well as Monq has said.

A chap from work is in a band and they do an uptempo reggae/ska type cover of Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl

RocknRollDave

Someone (Gun?) did a rocked up version of Prince's Let's Go Crazy many moons ago - let's face it, it's a Rock song anyway. Could be a topical choice, too.

RocknRollDave

lustycourtier said:

RocknRollDave said:

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

RocknRollDave said:

Love Machine - Girls Aloud. Rocks up nicely too. Honest!

Maybe because artic monkeys version was more well known than the girls aloud version?

It wasn't, though! Maybe in your head it was!