by kevin shephard » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:56 pm
I have been on both sides of the coin (ie playing original material and doing the cover thing), and have loved pretty much every second of both.
I agree. There are definitely right and wrong venues for both, I have found. For someone new (don't quite have a following yet) wanting to play their originals out, it is probably quite difficult to get the reaction you want out of a pub crowd, or probably any crowd for that matter, if you are playing all original music, unless you are playing a venue that embraces that, supports that, and original music is the reason the people came in the first place. If you are playing all originals at a bar, where people are looking to hear some tunes they recognize and have some pops, the majority of them will not appreciate it unfortunately. I found years ago, playing in Gopher Soda, we got a pretty good reaction playing an original or two mixed in with all the tunes people already know. We had people asking, "what was that you played between 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and 'Love Shack'? Playing in NFA, we had a following, we played the new tunes, but people also wanted to hear the tunes they knew! "Play 'Anonymity'!" Look at the big acts that are playing out there....they play tunes everyone knows and throw a new, unfamiliar one in between. They don't play songs nobody knows and leave out the tunes that made them popular in the first place. Sting still plays "Every Breath You Take" and will for the rest of his life I am sure. People, for the majority, want music they know - songs they are familiar with. To make the originals, or new songs, become the ones they want to hear in the future, the ones that will be requested in future gigs, the best way to do that is to mix them with songs they already do, in my humble opinion.
Now, I am in a cover band, without any originals.....I have to say that the thing I enjoy most about it is not the reaction of a crowd (although it is nice and definitely helps with the vibe); it's not the money (Pfft....money?); it's the feeling of playing some good fun tunes (yes I know, someone else's) with friends and smokin' musicians. It's laying down a groove and looking over at Johnny and we are diggin it. It's sounding good....it's feeling good. It's practice. It's fun. That's all. Would I love to be doing originals? Yes. Of course I would, but for the time being, we are just enjoying being loud, playing good music with friends, sharing a beer and conversation in between sets with friends and people who enjoy hearing us play the music they already know and love (and yeah, for sure, Sean, chicks!). And in my experience, more people are actually listening than you think. We're a cover band, and we're fine with that....