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Danny, I think Big Tiki Jeff is absolutely correct. We've had gigs where we've
had to play 4 and 5 sets. Out of the 44 originals we've recorded and released
on CD, we keep about 36 in practice for gigs. The average 45-minute set takes
about 12-14 songs, so we have nearly 3 full sets of originals we COULD perform
if called upon to do so. However, many of our gigs, are general outdoor events
such as car shows, parties, street fairs, etc, where the audiences are much more
likely going to relate to a band playing familiar old hits, than a bunch of
unfamiliar originals, (no matter how cool we think they are!)
If we're playing to a general audience, we typically do a mix of 60-70% covers
and 30-40% originals. We're constantly seeking to replace tired and overplayed
covers with new, less obvious covers that are still familiar and recognizable to
a general audience. For instance, the Duane Eddy song, "Because They're Young",
strikes a real chord with our audiences, even though the more obvious song to do
would be "Rebel Rouser", which we also perform. Currently we're adding a
super-energetic early 60's dance song that surprisingly The Ventures never
covered, but is a definite crowd-pleaser. I've taken an old Jean Luc Ponty
number and arranged it in trad-surf style, and we're working on that also.
Seems to me, you can exercise a lot of creativity in re-working old songs into
covers, and if you have a decent collection of non-surf oldies, you'll be able
to find a few, I'm sure, that would lend themselves to this treatment.
We've kept Longboard Ranch active, alive, and well-exposed to the public for 6
years. Our very first paid gig, (when the band was less than 6 months old!) was
playing the main stage at the Glendale Cruise Night on July 27, 1999 - the same
stage that has featured (in other years) Dick Dale, The Surfaris, The Champs and
other high profile well-established acts. What got us this (almost unbelievable
to me now!) fantastic gig, was a demo tape that featured FIVE classic surf
covers, rendered mistake-free and extremely close to the originals in execution
and sound. If we had sent a tape of originals, we'd have never been considered!
People who were at that show continue to surface, and buy our CD,s and come to
our more recent shows, to hear our originals! A lot of opportunities to play
our originals in public, and sell our CD's, and get groovy reviews, would have
been TOTALLY LOST, had we insisted on playing just originals. Indeed, it would
have been "cutting off our noses to spite our faces" as you say.
In my opinion, had we taken the "originals-only" approach, we'd be a hobby-band
relegated mainly to playing in rehearsal studios, and our awareness-factor out
there would be a tiny fraction of what it is. It's a choice each band has to
make, and I'm not telling you what your priorities should be. However, in our
case, we live to play in front of audiences. I just love hearing applause at the
end of one of my original songs, and watching as total strangers come up to the
merch table and at the end of 2 hours we've sold another 15-20 CD's!
We wouldn't be at this point, were it not for our continued willingness to play
numerous covers during our live shows.
Best of Luck
Bruce D
There's no such thing as too much reverb!
Jeff <> wrote:
I'd say if your going for a trad. sound. start off learning
some covers to get the feel for playing together. Then as you get
comfortable start writing tunes that give your style a spotlight.
But keep the covers in rotation, so if you need to do a party
( 2,3,4 sets). You've got those to fall back on to fill up time,
and some General Public people might recognize them, and dance.
Where if you play all original, you'll get people standing there
thinking " who originally did this" ??? ha ha
Danny Snyder wrote:
But there's one question that inevitably comes up
> when discussing the direction of the band: should we play covers
of
> classic surf tunes? A simple question?... no it isn't.
.
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"There's no such thing as too much reverb"
Bruce D
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