Okay, so you have some friends who play instruments…..You have a guitar, you know some Skynard…….why not try and make some money playing shows at the local bar doing covers all night? Why not indeed?… But, just like a lot of bands, there are a couple prerequisites for any viable cover band to adhere to:

1) Talent – This one is obvious to me, but, I have heard some cover bands lately that are pushing this envelope to it’s extreme. Usually talent, when it comes to covers, is about how well you can mimic the songs in which you are trying to play. I was listening to a cover band the other day that tried to open their second set with a cover of “Eruption” by Van Halen and then go into “You Really Got Me” just like on Van Halen I……People!!! If you are trying to play an Edward Van Halen song then at least try to get the song down before committing it to your set list. This advice and this prerequisite do not just adhere to Van Halen type mastery. I heard a band destroy a cover of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song the other night. Really, if you can't play the song or remember the words then don’t play it. Playing a cover gig is like baking. If you take the treaties out of the oven before they are done, the outside and first layer may be nice and crunchy and done but the inside is all a gooped up mess.

2) Sound – Not everyone can afford a $2,000.00 floor system to control guitar and bass sounds to mimic the exact sound of Disturbed’s Stupify sound. But at least try to tweak your amp or foot pedals to get a sound that is a little different than the last song. Once again, I listened to a band the other night that had the same crackly high end guitar tone for a Black Label Society song as they did for Free Bird. Seriously, a good guitar processor doesn’t cost that much and if you are going to play other people’s songs for PAYING customers, then at least try to make them sound as close as possible, that is what the people want.

3) Sex – This one is going to get me in a lot of trouble but…..what doesn’t? If you have a lead singer who is a woman………..Please, please, please, do not try and pull off a song by an overtly male singer such as Non-Point, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Drowning Pool, or…..okay, I am being nice. Just don’t try to make your female singer sing heavily MALE songs. “Bodies” is not a good song for someone who can not pull off the growling (in some cases this goes for male singers too but that is another topic). I hate hearing a chick try to pull of “Bodies” or “Down with the Sickness”. It sounds like the middle of a Lifetime movie when the wife is getting the hell kicked out of her by the drunk husband……just not flattering. Unless your female singer has a set bigger than anyone else in your band, stick to what she can pull off. This goes for Male singers as well.

When I was in a cover band (yes, we were a cover band first) I pulled off Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life”……ONCE!!! That was it. After that one time I realized I should not be singing that high and never attempted it again. If you have the talent to go from Drowning Pool to Judas Priest then you are a damn good singer and I applaud you. If you are trying to go from “Down with the Sickness” to a Shania Twain song….hang it up. But not just stopping there. Men, not all of us have a great growl and yell. You may be able to pull off the highs and lows and have a great range but if you can't pull off the high note on “Run to the Hills” then don’t try it. It will sound worse if you crack then if you just cut it off. Once, on stage in the Old Port Tavern, I couldn’t hit a note to save my life. I just stopped when I got near a note I knew I couldn’t go to. Yeah, it sounded messed up but hey, at least I wasn’t get laughed at.

My biggest pet peeve with many cover bands is that they just don’t put any effort into it. If you are a cover band that is just playing the classics and you have played them 3,000 times over the past ten or twenty years then fine, don’t practice. These kinds of bands can stroll in and play Sweet Home Alabama without thinking about it. Hell, I could walk in and play 30 classic rock songs with a band without practicing if I needed to. But if you are trying to keep the material current then try to at least make an effort to learn the songs before performing them. Yeah, everyone loves Buckcherry’s new single “Crazy Bitch” but there is a difference between trying to play it and playing it.

Granted, most musicians in cover bands are out playing for the fun of it or just to make some extra money but you are being paid to entertain. I have seen some cover bands and actually asked the club owner why they didn’t just hire a DJ. The band was that horrible. A club only hires cover bands to entertain the crowd and bring the drinkers in. They want their patrons to hear other people’s music so they will get up and dance and hear the songs they love. Yep, a drunk person might not notice that you are singing Free Bird off key because, well, they are drunk and don’t care but, a bar owner and every person in that place will notice that you can't carry a tune to save your life.

Strict9 is one of the best cover bands I have seen and I gotta tell any cover band out there that they should take in a Strict9 show and take some notes. These guys go out and play the songs as if they wrote them. They put on a show and they keep things current. Gary, the singer, may not mimic the singers exactly tone for tone but he does a damn good job at making it sound like he is trying his best. The guitarists and bassist do their homework enough to hit every note played on the CD and Luke, the drummer, has a system to trigger the sound effects that are on the tracks and CDs. They play a Ra song that has all of the CDs intro, it kicks ass. This is the cover band to model after.

My advice to all cover bands is almost the same as original bands: Practice, practice, practice before you think someone should pay you to play. If money doesn’t mean anything to you then don’t ask for any and don’t charge at the door.

-Erik Archambault