Cover Combo Caveats No. 1

Hi y'all. This may be my last post for a bit - I'm actually supposed to be packing stuff into boxes right now ready for our move, which starts tomorrow. So, apologies for any "outages" until we get moved in and I can get my DSL up-and-a-going. Meanwhile, I thought I'd go ahead and start the little series I promised on the joys of being a cover band, the kind of things that seem to happen to you constantly when you're on the road, warnings, advice, etc. Obviously, most of this will be strictly tongue-in-cheek, but I may end up throwing in the odd word of seriousness for good measure. So, here goes:

(This pic courtesy of hollywoodteenmovies.com)

Rule 1 "Request-a-mess": At every wedding, birthday, barmitzvah, wine fest or other event you play, there will be a minimum of one person who will come up and have a request for the band to play. This is particularly true of events where you, the band, have been given a set schedule of songs/styles/sheet music to play and are clearly in no position to take requests. The key thing about the request is; regardless of what you're playing (style, etc.), what time of the evening it is (dinner, late evening, after midnight, next morning over breakfast) or how talented/prepared/well-equipped in terms of sheet music you are, the request is GUARANTEED to be one that you could not, for the life of you, satisfy. Personal favourites of mine include the lady who came up to me on a night where I'd been booked to play the piano (the "real thing", a black grand, not a fancy bells-whistles-and-drum-machines synthesizer/MIDI monster, just to make myself clear. Oh, and for those of you who didn't know this, all you can reasonably achieve sonically with a piano is a sound that will be, well, piano-like in nature.) at a posh dinner event asking for "a big drum roll" to help her announce something. Others were the bunch of rowdy-looking, half-drunk rockers at a wedding who insisted we play "something by AC/DC, or at least Led Zeppelin". Our brief for the evening, given to us by the rockers' best buddy, the groom, was expressly to play "light jazz, nothing too exciting or loud". Oh yeah, and there wasn't a single guitar anywhere in sight in our piano/double bass/drums jazz trio, either... There's more to be told on the topic of requests; the manner in which requests are delivered, for instance, is crucial and never, ever varies. This, however, will have to wait until the next post. Meanwhile, I leave you with the immortal words well-beknown and feared by many a fine musician; "can you play 'Lady In Red', please?"