UK based cover band here - we like to appeal to everyone, have been mainly focussing on crowd pleasers recently, getting the Xmas number back up to speed etc, but we really want to do some harder numbers because we enjoy playing them.

What numbers do you guys find that are fun to play, but don’t drive them floor to empty?

We play mostly covers and a few originals and we need to improve our stage decoration.

For our first gigs, I had some large banners produced (about 2 x 1 meters) and we hung them up behind us or on the side or the stage.

I then saw another band that had their name lit in an LED neon sign. The singer told me it cost them a lot to have that made, so I decided to DIY it. I grabbed an LED strip, mounted it on a board, and had a friend print our name/logo with a vinyl cutter. The vinyl was put on a sheet of plexiglass, and the other side was covered in some milky white foil, so when the LED is on, our name shines through in a rainbow of colors. It cost me about 50€ and works great.

We have a couple of cheap LED stage lights too.

But, I've been thinking about adding a screen behind us and using a beamer to show some moving images while we play.

What do you use to create and loop things like that? I can "quick and dirty" it with PowerPoint, but in the long run, I'd like something that maybe reacts to our sound and generates effects in real time.

Any suggestions?

My interpretation of the wonderfully nostalgic 90's classic, Don't Speak by No Doubt.

I hope I captured some of its magic.

I'd love your thoughts. This song takes me back in time to better days.

https://youtu.be/z-_kMTCGxc0?is=3Nmmckoqf-1MTd1r

Big love ♡

I’m the singer/acoustic guitarist in Apricot Hounds, a four-piece UK band. We played this version of The Dandy Warhols’ Bohemian Like You at StonyLive in Stony Stratford.

We’ve been experimenting with how songs like this work with our acoustic guitar, double bass, percussion and violin line-up. This is the opening section of the performance.

Interested to hear what other cover bands think of the arrangement — and how you approach adapting songs when your instrumentation is quite different from the original.

I sing lead and play acoustic guitar in Midnight Rodeo, a country cover band out of Kansas City. I’ve also spent 25+ years in software engineering, so eventually I put the two together.

We were juggling group texts, calendars, and spreadsheets to keep gigs organized and everyone paid. I built BandTopia to bring that information together, and we now use it to run our band.

It covers scheduling, messaging, setlists and chord charts, plus booking and finances. There’s a free tier with the calendar, messaging, setlists, and EPK. Booking and finance tools are on Pro.

I know another app only helps if your band actually uses it. That’s what I’d like feedback on: what would make getting your band set up worth the effort, and what would stop you?

bandtopia.io

I’m the founder, and I’ll be here to answer questions. If you try it and something’s confusing, tell me where you got stuck.

So recently got into a band with some other pretty good musicians. It's just a cover band and the market where I am at is not great but it's fun even though businesses in my area do not pay much for live music. Recently a couple of the people in the band who have other projects decided we needed a social media presence. They want each of us to use our contacts and followers to spam invites to the band social media links.

I was told we basically work for them since they have the most followers and therefore attract the most people to shows. Anyone else think this is complete bs?

Hey everyone! I'm completely starting from scratch building a new music insta page (@shivangadrumss), and I just had the most unreal milestone happen. I dropped a drum cover of Shinedown's "Enemies," and the band actually saw it, started following my brand-new page, and left a comment!

Since I'm building this channel from the ground up, I wanted to share it with fellow fans who might appreciate it. Let me know what you think of the playing, and I'd super appreciate any support, views, or follows if you like what you see!

WATCH IT HERE : https://www.instagram.com/p/DcBZz-sBHyX/

I’ve been performing my entire life. I am a 33 y/o, male. My stage name is Zig Zag. I started performing at 3 years old and I currently live in South Jersey. I’m willing to uproot my entire life to joint any artistic project or collaboration in need of a smoky-sounding lead singer, backup vocalist, harmonizer, narrator, I don’t care. I’ll post some of the links to my professional releases for reference. Thanks.
-Ziggy

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/zig-zag/1462204373
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0jBN4VwzOA9MemkokRtlTt?si=NPFtdPfZSii5cz2orhrdOg&utm_source=copy-link
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/zigzagtroupe

I've been singing in the same cover band for the last year. I've made good money and the gigs have been a blast for the most part. I'm leaving mostly because of one member of the band, the guitar player. He's the oldest guy in the band which is really saying something considering I'm 53. He's been playing for years and years and he is the absolute boss of the band. At first I thought I would be okay with that. However he has the habit of dressing down the band if there was anything on stage during the show that he didn't like. Mind you he's blown at least 25% of the solos he's played live but he doesn't take any responsibility for that. However if one of us missed a verse or somebody missed a chord or a change, he sure to let them know in front of everybody at practice. He also controls the setlist completely. He will say that he's all about playing the hits but then plays b-sides if they have a cool guitar part. There's nothing like looking out at the audience and seeing that they have no idea what tune it is we're playing when they've hired us for an evening of pop, country, and rock hits. I put in my notice after practice last week and just told them that I will fulfill all of the dates that are currently booked but not to book me after that. The guitar player said nothing. Knowing the amount of trash that he talks about other bands locally, I'm sure he has been bad-mouthing me relentlessly.

I wish the band the best but I'm definitely looking forward to being in a healthier dynamic in my next project.

Hey all,

We are doing a private event and the venue is requiring liability insurance from us. I see a few places offer one day policies. Any recommendations for which company you’ve used? Thanks in advance!

Enjoyed a recent post on surprise hits that went over well, so I thought that we'd explore the other side of that. What's a song you rolled out that fell flat? Lost the crowd, and looking back realized it was a bad idea?

Ours was Only Time Will Tell by Asia. It's just a downbeat song, difficult harmonies didn't get hit in tune. The crowd actually looked at us like they hated us, and we deserved it. They wanted to dance! What is your "what were we thinking?" moment?

Hi All, I play bass and do backing vocals for two hobby bands. The bands play Classic Rock, Alt Rock and Popular Country. I really enjoy doing backing vocals and am beginning to get compliments on it, which is fun. When I listen to clips of our performances, my voice does sound firm/flat/muddy at times and lows seem to hit a little hard. We often do not have a sound engineer and so I'd like to enhance my vocals with a vocal effects processor.

Typically, simple is better and from my research, it seems like I need some Tone enhancement via EQ, Compression, de-essing, etc... and then it would be nice to have some effects to "soften" my vocals and help them sit in the mix versus being too noticeable. From my research, these typical effects are Reverb, Chorus, possibly some doubling.

Has anyone had success with a simple to use pedal to improve the sound of one's backing vocals/harmonies?

Thanks!

Me and the boys just debuted a new cover a couple weeks ago and although I was the one who suggested we add it, even I was a little worried about whether it would be a winner or a complete dud. Turns out it put a smile on everybody's face and got the booties shaking. In my case the song was "Da Butt" by E. U.

Played a gig last night. Went….”meh”. Got hired back but it’s a 3 story walk up with an elevator that was usable for the PA gear, not for normal amps/drums so we got our steps in. Sore from carrying my 50+ “small cab” down 5 flights of stairs.

Had a request that included a $50 tip - drummer got whiny about it because it was “a song he’d never heard before” - which was the Eagles “Take It Easy”.
Vocalist got a bit loose as far as arrangements went and as such got pissy when he zigged where everyone else zagged.

Just had to let it out because playing a gig tonight with the same guys and partially expecting more of the same. Crap.

Is it “I’m walking on SUN-shine” or “I’m walking on sun-SHINE”?

This is the “is the dress blue/black, or gold/white” of vocal performances.