Cover band hell

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vvv
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Cover band hell

Post by vvv » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:17 pm

This is "artist relations", I reckon.

So I was flattered to be asked to join a cover-band after a jam session, and I did. Good muso's, fantastic female vocalist, mostly 70's-90's, CCR to Hole and a newer Eve6 choon plus "House of the Rising Sun".

Material is focused on the excellent (3.5 octave opera-trained) singer, as it should be - whatever she wants, and I'll lick her boots.

They just brought in a second guitarist, nice guy, but the between songs widdle, Nugent and Ozzy and EVH, all at full volume thru a multi-FX pedal and a Line 6 amp. Mind you, he can play that crap very well indeed, but it hurts my 55 y.o. brain and ears.

One (the main) reason I joined is that they indicated they would be open to learning originals, that I could record us doing so, etc. Not true.

We are to play a party on 7-25 but I'm really less and less into this ... :(

Advice?
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Post by kslight » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:32 pm

There's only so much pleasure I personally can gain from playing other people's songs in public, often directly rated to how much cash I'd be making for it, since I wouldn't be getting a lot of fun. I've been asked numerous times as keys and vocals but I decline.

My advice would be if it's neither fun nor lucrative then there are much better ways to waste your time.

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Post by vvv » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:42 pm

Yeah, the new guitarist is personally cool, but I hate his pop-metal style.

And I just really don't like the material, don't like the obsession with playing the songs like the records, don't like the lack of jamming.

I guess I'm thinking about doing the 7-25 party, but it's a month away - I'm pretty not into this, and that gives 'em time, or they can just use this guy ...

Yer telling me what I wanna hear! 8)
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Post by kslight » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:59 pm

I mean it could potentially be fun if I really liked the band mates and loved the songs and got lots of cash and such... But most of the time it's stuff that is way overplayed that I can't stand (like Earth Wind and Fire, Jimmy Buffet..) and for mediocre gigs that magically never budget even Union rates for a band but rake in tons for themselves.
To me I find it much more fun to write and record music, performance for me is all about promotion and or cash. If you're a cover band promotion is less important for the whole philosophy so cash becomes it.

IMHO

My friends band whose record I mastered a couple years back confusingly teeter totters between an album of originals that are not in any focused genre (between like radio rock like Linkin Park to r n b to rap to reggae) and then play a bunch of semi modern covers in a similar vein. And they wanted my advice to "make it big," which I told them if they spent as much time writing and refining their own material as they did learning other people's tunes they would be a lot more interesting. At their album release show they played like 10 originals and 8 covers. They aren't bad players at all and have a good stage presence I just told them they need to figure out who they are before they try to "make it."

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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:19 pm

I have never understood the "play it live like it is on the record" philosophy. Most bands don't even play their own shit note for note.

I once tried out for a cover band doing "funky" stuff. One song was "Cold Sweat" by James Brown. When I got to the audition I told the guy that the only version I could find to practice to was a "live" version. He actually looked a little bit scared and said "That must have been a very fast tempo." I was, like, "yeah, it was." He said "ok, let's try it." So I played with him. In the live version, the drummer doesn't do that little hitchy thing with the second snare hit except in the chorus. He just plays a super straight (but driving as hell) beat for the verses. the guy stops me about 1 minute in and tells me "the whole point of that groove is the delayed snare hit on the back side of the measure." I'm thinking, "the whole point of the groove is James Brown's fucking singing." (The band was gonna be instrumental.) Needless to say, I didn't get the gig.

I would love, love, love to be in a band that played nothing but "versions" of other people's songs. I actually hatched an idea, on the spot, at that audition, to do a cover band that played covers the way the actual band performed them live rather than "like the cd." But the guy wouldn't hear of it. I could go on and on about this.

But yeah, quit that shit.
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Post by vvv » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:56 pm

Yeah, I'm a wantin' to. I just kinda feel a little bit bad for hanging with 'em 3 weeks, but there ya go.

But no $, I don't like the songs, I don't like the way they do the songs, I only like 3 of the 4 players, it's not challenging artistically (only mechanically, and not much of that), and no $ and did I mention no $, and I reckon if the singer is a possibility, I oughta leave her alone until she gets her divorce ... :twisted:
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Post by JWL » Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:23 pm

According to Tommy Tedesco, the four reasons to accept a gig are: for money; for fun; for experience; for connections. Doesn't sound like any of these are being met.

Well, maybe for the connection with the singer. Post divorce. Or hell, give her another reason to get divorced.... :twisted:

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Post by vvv » Sun Jun 21, 2015 6:59 am

:lol:

And even then, I don't like her taste in music ...
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Post by digitaldrummer » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:39 pm

I just a quit a band I was in for a couple years. We all got along great and I wanted to keep doing it but week after week I would come home from the gig frustrated as hell. I'll just say the bass couldn't find the pocket if he was lint... I finally quit. It was difficult to do, but its also kind of a relief now.
Last edited by digitaldrummer on Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ubertar » Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:16 pm

Life is too short to play in a band you don't like.

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Post by Scodiddly » Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:52 pm

Geez, drop that gig already. If you like the vocalist that much, see if she'll join your all-originals band, or at least sing with you on a few demos.

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Post by vvv » Sun Jun 21, 2015 6:35 pm

Yeah, she won't - that would be a, ahem, pie in the sky dream, yeah. :twisted:

I reckon I'll call tomorrow or so; thanx for the support! 8)
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Post by Jarvis » Tue Jun 23, 2015 4:42 pm

ubertar wrote:Life is too short to play in a band you don't like.
Speak it!
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Post by GooberNumber9 » Mon Jun 29, 2015 5:34 am

What's funny to me about those Line 6 amps is that I can't figure out what it is about them that sounds so bad, but they always clearly and immediately sound bad. I'm probably just a subconscious analog snob with confirmation bias.

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Post by vvv » Tue Jun 30, 2015 4:19 am

There's something up around 3K that grates, and the un-natural full-frequency effects are the worst.

I imagine those amps might be tameable if the pre-sets are tweaked, but IME most who play a Line6 and the like in the first place don't understand tone, or even want to.
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