The most hammered into the ground covers from the last 20 years on your live circuit...

CaseOfAce

Where i am it seems that there's a steady rotation of the same 30 songs that EVERY single covers band do in pubs and clubs.

However keeping it to records released in the last 20 years (so no Sweet home summer believer stuck in a crazy little twist fully deserving of their own thread) these are 2 I'd be happy to never play or hear in my lifetime again. If you don't already do these (which I find hard to believe) and your lady singer suggests doing either run for the door.

Valerie - and not the Zutons but THAT Amy version everyone goes after .. a 5 chord wonder that rapidly wears out its "hey I get to play major / minor 7ths for a change buzz for the axe weilder in question". At this point it's not so much overplayed, rather the soundtrack every time someone buys a pint of lager at the bar with a bag of salt and vinegar.

Who Knew - Pink. Rapidly becoming the new Valerie. Why? The 2 note / diads thing is Grade 2 guitar followed by a 4 chord chorus / repeat as your female vocalist rapidly discovers a combination of power and range ain't given out freely by the gods.

Any I've missed?

(And before anyone suggests Brightside that's 2004).

lustycourtier

Ive just had to google the pink song. Never heard that in a pub or been asked for it. Valerie is a great tune, and a joy to play (either version). Sex on Fire is up there, and again, a great song when played right. 

Snags

We have an official band policy of not including songs that everyone else does. There are a few "common" songs in the set list, but by and large we manage to keep it reasonably different to the 'standards'. Not that hard, given that there are a huge range of good songs to choose from, that people like to hear once they remember they exist.

Dakota just about squeaks into your last 20 years criteria, that has to be up there as a "standard".

17 Going Under, or A N Other Sam Fender tends to be quite popular.

Just seen a new covers band incorporating Wet Dream (Wet Leg) into their set; dunno how common that is though.

EricTheWeary

I’m struggling to remember the last time I saw a covers band but I don’t know that Pink song either. Valerie was certainly already beaten to death a few years ago. 

I remember years ago rehearsing in a big rehearsal studio in Birmingham and popping to the toilet, walking along the corridor there must have been six versions of Sex on Fire coming out of the other rooms. Prior to that it was the Lenny Kravitz one, Are You Gonna Go My Way( that right?). 

I’ve said before that musicians in bands tend to be more interested in music, tend to know more stuff than the average punter. In a sense it’s a reason for tribute acts, you can play music you love to people who love that music (or have heard at least one song by the original artist). 

Revolutions

20 years discounts Mr Brightside. That’s scary.

hollywoodrox

ItCaseOfAce said:

Where i am it seems that there's a steady rotation of the same 30 songs that EVERY single covers band do in pubs and clubs.

However keeping it to records released in the last 20 years (so no Sweet home summer believer stuck in a crazy little twist fully deserving of their own thread) these are 2 I'd be happy to never play or hear in my lifetime again. If you don't already do these (which I find hard to believe) and your lady singer suggests doing either run for the door.

Valerie - and not the Zutons but THAT Amy version everyone goes after .. a 5 chord wonder that rapidly wears out its "hey I get to play major / minor 7ths for a change buzz for the axe weilder in question". At this point it's not so much overplayed, rather the soundtrack every time someone buys a pint of lager at the bar with a bag of salt and vinegar.

Who Knew - Pink. Rapidly becoming the new Valerie. Why? The 2 note / diads thing is Grade 2 guitar followed by a 4 chord chorus / repeat as your female vocalist rapidly discovers a combination of power and range ain't given out freely by the gods.

Any I've missed?

(And before anyone suggests Brightside that's 2004).

 would be better if they played Steve Winwoods Valerie instead of Winehouses 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Not sure if it's still as popular on the standard pop covers circuit as I don't play in that sort of band anymore, but a few years ago the biggest guaranteed floor filler was Bruno Mars Uptown Funk. 

I was playing bass in a band at the time and it was great - absolute piece of piss to play but the audience would be going nuts over the bassline and think I was some kind of hero! 

jeztone2

Your Sex Is On Fire by that band. 

ICBM

Snags said:

We have an official band policy of not including songs that everyone else does. There are a few "common" songs in the set list, but by and large we manage to keep it reasonably different to the 'standards'. Not that hard, given that there are a huge range of good songs to choose from, that people like to hear once they remember they exist.

I had wondered whether I was entirely alone on this... thankfully not. There are not enough wisdoms for this post.

Snags

Yeah, I don't entirely get why everyone bashes out the same stuff. I mean, we're not doing (much) that's obscure: the bands are Jam, Stereophonics, Cult, Black Keys, Dylan, Beatles, Stones etc. but we choose songs that not many other bands seem to play. 

Danny1969

We can do the stuff that's been ragged to death and often do. As it happens though even after all these years I still think Sex on fire is an amazing song and Brightside ... that's WHY people want to hear them. But we got a lot of other stuff that's less well know that we can do as well. For KOL we have The Bucket, Reverly, Mollys, Use Somebody ... for Killers we have Smile like you mean it, Jenny was a friend of mine, All these things, When you were young 

I see gigs like a football match and the setlist is your squad. You pick the setlist  / team from a huge  squad, then you can change it up when you need to. I've played with bands who could literally laminate their setlist, it's the same one every time and that would bore me rigid. 

Plus a lot of the time the gigs are to people who don't normally go to gigs in venues or pubs. It's an award show or a corporate pissup and the people at these events often have no clue what a cliched covers band setlist is .. we might be the first one they have seen for 10 years. 
The majority of people don't get out watching bands and I think as muso's we forget that. 

vasselmeyer

I have to say we're guilty of this, but @Danny1969 is right that most people at our pub gigs rarely see a live band. My current band uses the strapline "Party Band" and that's what we go for. We throw "Tainted Love" right next to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" next to Kellie-Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love" and finish off with "Livin' on a Prayer", "Kids in America" and "Dakota" with "Highway to Hell" as an encore. They're all massively cliched, but if you get a rebooking from the landlord, get tagged on audience Facebook posts and have a bunch of pissed up people singing back at you, then it's hard to be snobby that "we should have played that obscure Police b-side".

Last gig I could hear the audience singing "Woah..we're halfway there!" over the top of my in ears and they were having a bloody good time and getting the drinks in, which is what the landlord really wants to see.

DefaultM

We play one particular pub twice a year, always do the same core songs but mix some others in.
Last year we got asked to headline a 1 day festival they were putting on. Never done that before, it's usually only us.
We tried to organise it so there were no duplicate songs, but they all just played them anyway and once it was our time to play I'd estimate that 75% of our set had already been played by the other bands. Some songs had been played by every single band on the lineup. 
The audience didn't seem to lose any enthusiasm throughout but I felt dodgy about it.

RocknRollDave

This again?
Let’s have another Bonamassa thread, and what do we all think of Rob Chapman…?

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

This again?
Let’s have another Bonamassa thread, and what do we all think of Rob Chapman…?

One of the contestants on Only Connect is the spitting image of Rob Chapman. That's new information that I'm keen to share. 

CaseOfAce

Snags said:

Yeah, I don't entirely get why everyone bashes out the same stuff. I mean, we're not doing (much) that's obscure: the bands are Jam, Stereophonics, Cult, Black Keys, Dylan, Beatles, Stones etc. but we choose songs that not many other bands seem to play. 

Sometimes it's because bandmates are clueless when it comes to song selection and like the comfort blanket of the same tired old numbers literally every band on the circuit does.

I once suggested doing Poison's Nothing But a Good Time at a rehearsal and was met with blank faces. They'd never even heard of it.
This is not exactly a deep cut 80s glam rock b-side.
Lord knows what they'd think if I ventured doing Jimmy Jimmy or My Perfect Cousin instead of Teenage Kicks.

RocknRollDave

CaseOfAce said:

Snags said:

Yeah, I don't entirely get why everyone bashes out the same stuff. I mean, we're not doing (much) that's obscure: the bands are Jam, Stereophonics, Cult, Black Keys, Dylan, Beatles, Stones etc. but we choose songs that not many other bands seem to play. 

Sometimes it's because bandmates are clueless when it comes to song selection and like the comfort blanket of the same tired old numbers literally every band on the circuit does.

I once suggested doing Poison's Nothing But a Good Time at a rehearsal and was met with blank faces. They'd never even heard of it.
This is not exactly a deep cut 80s glam rock b-side.
Lord knows what they'd think if I ventured doing Jimmy Jimmy or My Perfect Cousin instead of Teenage Kicks.

Which is exactly why every band plays the same songs!

flying_pie

CaseOfAce said:

Snags said:

Yeah, I don't entirely get why everyone bashes out the same stuff. I mean, we're not doing (much) that's obscure: the bands are Jam, Stereophonics, Cult, Black Keys, Dylan, Beatles, Stones etc. but we choose songs that not many other bands seem to play. 

Sometimes it's because bandmates are clueless when it comes to song selection and like the comfort blanket of the same tired old numbers literally every band on the circuit does.

I once suggested doing Poison's Nothing But a Good Time at a rehearsal and was met with blank faces. They'd never even heard of it.
This is not exactly a deep cut 80s glam rock b-side.
Lord knows what they'd think if I ventured doing Jimmy Jimmy or My Perfect Cousin instead of Teenage Kicks.

At our last rehearsal I asked my bandmates if they thought this song would fit beside Just by Radiohead, which we already cover. I started playing Hate To Say I Told You So by The Hives to a sea of bewildered faces. I even explained the song to make sure it wasn't down to the way I played it (it wasn't) and none of them had heard of it. I am still in disbelief that a bunch of 45-50 year olds in a rock band hadn't heard of it. 

RocknRollDave

I love the song Who Knew, but the only person I have ever heard play it is Pink. No way I would attempt it myself - it’s a superb vocal, way beyond my ability (well, dur) - but a decent female vocalist could do a passable cover.

Open_G

I wonder if some of the reasons we end up with the same old songs is that they are common ground among the majority of band members, particularly when setting up. 

I could get together with a group and roll out reasonable parts for songs like crazy little thing called love, ziggy stardust, teenage kicks, born to be wild etc etc without any rehearsal. It gets you going as a band and saves learning parts that may come to nothing if the band doesn’t gel. I wonder whether the building a set list can end up based on “what we all know.”

it will evolve over time of course but why drop Mustang Sally when you get the punters up dancing, singing along and having a great time. 

CarpeDiem

I have found that a lot of people know songs that they grew up listening to, but haven’t listened to much more since. I intentionally try to put more recent or challenging songs in the mix to keep it more interesting. (I’ve also played Who Knew and Hate To Say I Told You So in different bands, both of which were suggested by the singers.)