Contemporary Pop and Wedding/Corporate Party Bands

[klothos]

I'm one of those guys in a cover band that gets kind of anal about trying to get the sounds and licks of the album... I tend to treat it as a mental exercise most of the time. That's usually just for top-40 stuff though; the older 70s rock is easier to put a personal spin on and people won't care.

For me, it depends on the song: There are some songs that need to be covered ver batim as the entire integrity of the song relies on a specific arrangement, timbre choices, and note placement -- plus, its important for us to remember that we get hired because we cover these so well....But there are many others, like "Mustang Sally", "Play That Funky Music", "Old Time Rock and Roll", 'Thank You For Lettin Me Be Mice Elf", "Brown Eyed Girl", etc, almost any 12-Bar shuffle or I-IV-V boogie (such as "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"), etc where the integrity of the song is really just in the hook or in the melody line. These are the ones that can be easily expanded: If we have a full dancefloor, I am apt to extend "Thank You For Lettin Me Be Myself": I often break it down, do a silly call and response rap with the audience ("Throw Your Hands In The Air, Wave 'Em Like You Just Dont Care"..."the Roof is On Fire....etc) and then break into a slap bass solo, or trade solos back and forth with the guitarist, or give the guitarist one, or however the hell Im feeling it*....Its fun for both us and the audience to recognize which songs we can get away with this..................Not only are these songs "no-brainers", but I find it a waste of time and energy to rehearse songs like Old Time RnR, Mustang sally, or Change In My Pocket Going Jinga-linga-ling............


*although I am, for the most part, the onstage musical director, I leave traffic direction in a song up to the vocalist singing the song...... I sing "Thank You" so I direct the traffic, but our guitarist also sings and will direct traffic as well on his songs, and one of our female singers sometimes will direct traffic in a few of her songs that we may interject improv such as "Chain Of Fools"....I leave the choice to the vocalist singing the song and their ability to read the crowd