Popular bands that are rarely covered

stickyfiddle

Re With or Without You @Danny1969 's version is about as good as any I've heard from a covers band. As noted, Edge is super precise and most guitarists just can't get close. The same is true of Adam & Larry - your rhythm section nails it which is always half the fight with anything so famous. Especially where the drums are finicky like on WOWY, Streets or Pride. 

Original was the "Infinite Guitar" which was essentially a prototype for a sustainer pickup like the Fernandes one. That was a nightmare on tour so toward the end of ZooTV he used an eBow with a Les Paul (also added a brilliant solo that I'm sad he never does anymore) Since POP it's been Fernandes guitars with sustainer pickups, until he got a custom Edge/EOB Strat a couple of years ago which is basically an Edge Fender sig with the gubbins from the EOB in it. 

Great early-Zoo performance with the infinite and lovely solo bit. 

CaseOfAce

Most over done covers by bands in the States include Gimme 3 Steps and Brick House by Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Commodores.

In the UK you'd get a lot of blank faces if you played either of those.

hollywoodrox

Dominic said:

^ I couldn't go for that !

Excellent 

Im a bit “out of touch” with  this newer stuff 

tweedphan

Our band covers Rubber Bullets by 10CC. Goes down well with the old folk. Like me. 

p90fool

ICBM said:

p90fool said:

I don't think people avoid U2 covers because they're difficult to play, but because they're mostly production rather than song based. That's not a criticism by the way, it's no less valid or skilful. 

You can't just strip it back to basics and still have a recognisable chord structure, which is probably why they've never been John Lewised with an acoustic guitar and a soppy girly voice. 

For a guitar band, covering most U2 songs is like covering Kraftwerk - not impossible but rarely worth the technological challenges. 

I can’t possibly disagree more! They’re *entirely* song-based and very easy to strip down to the basic chords. Playing them so they sound like the originals is the hard bit…

… so don’t. Although most cover bands seem to regard it as the benchmark to reproduce the original arrangement, which is the main reason I don’t like traditional cover bands.

I stand corrected, I guess I've never really bothered to listen properly because I've hated them since 1982...

On the latter point, we're a guitar/bass/drums band and the only reason I can stand playing covers at all is because I enjoy the challenge of arranging Lady Gaga, Meghan Trainor and Jason Mraz songs for our set, so I'm not interested in playing anything much like the record either and try to avoid anything with a lineup similar to ours.  

RocknRollDave

stickyfiddle said:

Re With or Without You @Danny1969 's version is about as good as any I've heard from a covers band. As noted, Edge is super precise and most guitarists just can't get close. The same is true of Adam & Larry - your rhythm section nails it which is always half the fight with anything so famous. Especially where the drums are finicky like on WOWY, Streets or Pride. 

Original was the "Infinite Guitar" which was essentially a prototype for a sustainer pickup like the Fernandes one. That was a nightmare on tour so toward the end of ZooTV he used an eBow with a Les Paul (also added a brilliant solo that I'm sad he never does anymore) Since POP it's been Fernandes guitars with sustainer pickups, until he got a custom Edge/EOB Strat a couple of years ago which is basically an Edge Fender sig with the gubbins from the EOB in it. 

Great early-Zoo performance with the infinite and lovely solo bit. 

Yeah I like that with the solo, not seen that before. I know he goes for an almost anti-solo on the record (and earlier on in the live version) but nice to see the song burst out into the melidic solo it’s crying out for.

ICBM

CaseOfAce said:

Regarding U2 songs...

"As we were leaving stage, I said [to Bob Dylan], 'Those songs are gonna last forever, Bob.' And he said, 'Your songs are gonna last forever, too - the only thing is, no one's gonna be able to play them.' They're hard to figure out, you know?" - Bono

I has to be said that Bob isn't exactly known for always playing his own songs the same way they were written, so that may just mean he has difficulty learning songs, rather than that U2 songs are hard to figure out .

(I'm a big fan of both by the way, that's not a put-down .)

stickyfiddle

RocknRollDave said:

stickyfiddle said:

Great early-Zoo performance with the infinite and lovely solo bit. 

Yeah I like that with the solo, not seen that before. I know he goes for an almost anti-solo on the record (and earlier on in the live version) but nice to see the song burst out into the melidic solo it’s crying out for.

Yeah, it’s fab isn’t it? He was already not doing it by the Zooropa leg of the same tour so obviously happy keeping it simple with some intensity, particularly sitting next to Love is Blindness at the end of the set. But that early ZooTV Edge is my favourite Edge. 

His lines in Ultraviolet back then were incredible too. I’m sad they didn’t bring those back in when they’ve played it in recent years (it was actually one of my least favourite parts of the JT Mumbai show despite being one of my favourite songs). 

This one is FIRE 

https://youtu.be/uhrn5zKeHWE

Dominic

hollywoodrox said:

Dominic said:

^ I couldn't go for that !

Excellent 

Im a bit “out of touch” with  this newer stuff 

and " out of time  " by the look of it

Dominic

^ wow  ,I'm on fire today !

CE1

Nirvana, Pearl Jam, smashing pumpkins, Husker Du, to name a few. We do some but can’t remember any local pub bands doing any. 

boogieman

Dominic said:

As a genre very few bands cover soul /disco type things ........perhaps because they don't have the quality of vocalist and the set-up for backing singers etc outside of really top rate Function bands.
I've never heard any Luther Vandross ,Alex O'Neil , Odyssey ,Whitney , Colonel Abraham , Roy Ayres Earth,Wind and Fire.
The closest I've heard had been 'play that funky music '
We did Boney M RA RA Rasputin and people love it 
Very few people do any Abba either for that matter

There’s a band called City Funk Orchestra that my wife and I have seen several times that do a lot of classic funk stuff and they do it REALLY well. They’re not exactly the average pub band, though they do play pubs if you get my drift. They have a core of regular musicians but swap the vocalists around, there’s one singer called Imaani who’s absolutely phenomenal. 

https://youtu.be/KM7ZX1_Z4mw

 

RocknRollDave

stickyfiddle said:

RocknRollDave said:

stickyfiddle said:

Great early-Zoo performance with the infinite and lovely solo bit. 

Yeah I like that with the solo, not seen that before. I know he goes for an almost anti-solo on the record (and earlier on in the live version) but nice to see the song burst out into the melidic solo it’s crying out for.

Yeah, it’s fab isn’t it? He was already not doing it by the Zooropa leg of the same tour so obviously happy keeping it simple with some intensity, particularly sitting next to Love is Blindness at the end of the set. But that early ZooTV Edge is my favourite Edge. 

His lines in Ultraviolet back then were incredible too. I’m sad they didn’t bring those back in when they’ve played it in recent years (it was actually one of my least favourite parts of the JT Mumbai show despite being one of my favourite songs). 

This one is FIRE 

https://youtu.be/uhrn5zKeHWE

I think this calls for a separate U2 thread…

Dominic

boogieman said:

Dominic said:

As a genre very few bands cover soul /disco type things ........perhaps because they don't have the quality of vocalist and the set-up for backing singers etc outside of really top rate Function bands.
I've never heard any Luther Vandross ,Alex O'Neil , Odyssey ,Whitney , Colonel Abraham , Roy Ayres Earth,Wind and Fire.
The closest I've heard had been 'play that funky music '
We did Boney M RA RA Rasputin and people love it 
Very few people do any Abba either for that matter

There’s a band called City Funk Orchestra that my wife and I have seen several times that do a lot of classic funk stuff and they do it REALLY well. They’re not exactly the average pub band, though they do play pubs if you get my drift. They have a core of regular musicians but swap the vocalists around, there’s one singer called Imaani who’s absolutely phenomenal. 

https://youtu.be/KM7ZX1_Z4mw

 

Probably do functions/parties primarily........I like to see these kind of bands in small venues . So hard to get the sound anything like the records without a full complement of horns and backing singers etc so it's very interesting to see how they cope with 5 or 6 players ........Keyboard player tends to be a very busy man.

Reverend

aside form a sabbath tribute set i saw at new year i can't remember the last time i saw a cover band.

boogieman

Dominic said:

boogieman said:

Dominic said:

As a genre very few bands cover soul /disco type things ........perhaps because they don't have the quality of vocalist and the set-up for backing singers etc outside of really top rate Function bands.
I've never heard any Luther Vandross ,Alex O'Neil , Odyssey ,Whitney , Colonel Abraham , Roy Ayres Earth,Wind and Fire.
The closest I've heard had been 'play that funky music '
We did Boney M RA RA Rasputin and people love it 
Very few people do any Abba either for that matter

There’s a band called City Funk Orchestra that my wife and I have seen several times that do a lot of classic funk stuff and they do it REALLY well. They’re not exactly the average pub band, though they do play pubs if you get my drift. They have a core of regular musicians but swap the vocalists around, there’s one singer called Imaani who’s absolutely phenomenal. 

https://youtu.be/KM7ZX1_Z4mw

 

Probably do functions/parties primarily........I like to see these kind of bands in small venues . So hard to get the sound anything like the records without a full complement of horns and backing singers etc so it's very interesting to see how they cope with 5 or 6 players ........Keyboard player tends to be a very busy man.

They do the odd function but I’ve mainly seen them at Pete Feenstra venues, like The Half Moon at Putney and the Boom Boom (Sutton Utd football ground). They do the Pizza in the Park sometimes too. This is a just a little side project for most of them, the backing band are mostly in bigger  projects like Incognito, Seal, Sister Sledge etc. Imaani does lots of backing stuff for people like Chaka Khan. I think they do CFO just for shits and giggles.  

Reverend

Pete Feenstra??? There's a blast from the past

CHRISB50

The Manic Street Preachers don't really seem to get covered much, but have been going for years, and had plenty of big songs.

boogieman

Reverend said:

Pete Feenstra??? There's a blast from the past

He’s still promoting gigs, but he’s changed some of the venues he uses.