With all the excitement of the gigs coming up for Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects, I didn't have the time to get into some more news concerning the cover band me and some friends of mine formed a few months ago.
Refresher
So, back in mid-March, there was an album launch party for a band called The Nilz who we all like and who have helped DDSE out a lot over the years by giving us gigs in their regular venue in Dublin, Drop Dead Twice. The gig was great, a bus of about 14 of us headed up to Dublin for it, some of the group hadn't heard or seen the band before, but everyone came away from the night loving it.
There's a link to one of their recent videos. We'll be playing alongside them on the 10th of December and I can't wait. I'm also shooting a music video for them in September, which is going to be some fun. I'll do a post about it when we've finished it!
While on our way up to the gig in March though, three of my friends there who weren't long back in the country after spending a few years in Canada. They and a few others had been in a band for years called Look To The Lady, but the band ended around the time they left the country.
Here's one of their most recent songs, which was brought out in 2018, they had an amazing sound and I always enjoyed seeing them live, not only for the music but there was always good craic before and after their gigs. We played with them a good few times, they were always the kind of people who would get bored quickly if they didn't have something going on and they would instantly set a date, make some posters, and put on anything from a small gig above a pub, to one time they even put on a festival. You could always rely on them to get something going if there was a quiet spell.
The Singer, Drummer, and Guitarist from this band came up to The Nilz gig and as we were having a few drinks on the bus on the way up, I asked them if they were doing any music and asked if they were up for jamming out some covers and try to earn a few bob in the pubs around town. Instantly it was a unanimous yes. Within a few weeks, we were jamming and got ourselves going with a handful of songs. Up until June when the singer went over to Cuba for a few weeks, at that point the jamming stopped for a few weeks.
Covers
I've never really played covers, or been in a cover band, but, I'm kind of sick of constantly hearing the same tired songs week after week. Now, in fairness, with a few drinks in me, I'll "Danana!" With the best of them during 500 miles. But, yeah, it's boring. We all jelled together quickly and instantly started throwing out ideas for songs we like and started learning them, the great thing is too, between us, we all have a preferred style of music, but, we all have a broad appreciation for every genre and when a song is suggested everyone almost instantly agrees.
It has been a very easygoing experience, there has been no arguing and there are no egos amongst us, so it's very easy to give or receive some criticism while playing certain songs. If I'm honest I felt a bit nervous when starting out, as each of the other members of the band are such accomplished musicians in my eyes, something I've known since back in the LTTL days. I think their skill has rubbed off on me because I've noticed my bass playing has gotten so much tighter since playing with them and we've had a lot of fun doing it. I came into the band after a few years of not playing my instrument as much as I had been, we didn't have any gigs so without music I focused on other things. Coming into this group, it almost felt like learning to play all over again and I've loved every minute of it.
Our First Gig!
Last month, we joined into a yearly competition thing that gets held, called the singing pubs. Which see's each pub in town host a night of music, where everyone gets up on stage and sings a song each, for the amusement of boozed up patrons and a table of judges. We were told when we arrived on the night, however, that we weren't in the lineup and instead were asked to play a set after the event. We were a bit taken aback by this because we didn't have a full set down that we could play. We headed upstairs of the venue and quickly ran through everything we had and came back down to enjoy the night and free booze. Until the time came. The four of us hit the stage with 5 songs and it actually went really well and the pub was hopping.
The Drummer and I stayed on then and played 3 songs with DDSE, our drummer couldn't make it that night, but the Drummer from the cover band held it together and did a great job with our songs even though he had only had a chance to learn and practice one of them.
Our Second Gig
That was a Sunday night and 6 days later, the following Saturday, I woke up at 9:30 to a text asking if we could play another gig that night. I got onto the others and after some thinking, we agreed, even though we hadn't jammed properly in a few weeks, but, we had a quick rehearsal that day and hit the pub once more, this time with 9 songs, we had more but, some just weren't ready to play live. It went really well and afterward the bar manager came up to me and said that usually when a cover band plays they do about 2-2:30 hours.
But, he said it was fine as he knew we were still getting our set together and he gave us 100 Euro for playing and said he'll get us back in a few weeks. So, we've got the heads down now and have been learning like mad. I think the two gigs were a blessing and the few quid we earned that night was enough to tell us that we're on the right path.
I think playing, all be it, a little unprepared, was like the ripping off of a bandage and it feels as though it has inspired us to really throw ourselves at the music and get a set together.
Currently, our setlist is:
- Call Me - Blondie
- Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
- Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
- Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater
- I Wanna Be Adored - Stone Roses
- Kids In America - Kim Wilde
- What's Up? - 4 Non-Blondes
- Vaseline - Stone Temple Pilots
- I Fought The Law - The Clash
- All The Small Things - Blink 182
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
- Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
- Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies
- Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush
- Fade Into You - Mazzy Star
- White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
- Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
- Ever Fallen In Love - The Buzzcocks
We have plenty of songs written into a google sheet, which we've all added to, so we have enough to keep ourselves going for a while. We've been pretty busy nevertheless, but, we're not there yet. Those songs are 1 hour, plus a 10 or 15-minute break, we'll need the same again before we can start earning proper money. I have spoken to other cover bands to gauge the wage we could be picking up per night, roughly, it is anywhere from 200-450 depending on where you play and for how long. Weddings and private functions would be more, but for the time being, we just want to focus on getting our set together and get into a few of the pubs around town.
I imagine for us, we'll be getting between 100-200 until the 2:30 hours is covered, all of us in this band are into doing music for the love of it of course, but, it'll be amazing being able to earn some cash doing it.
We also have a name now, we're going by the name, The Undercovers, for now until something better comes along. I think is good for the time being, but, we do want to write some originals so that name may not be suitable if we transition into an original band. But, we could have two names and moonlight as a cover band until our original band takes off.
I think what we're going to do soon as well, is, set up some social media accounts in order to start cultivating a following. It would be great to record some of the songs and upload some videos to YouTube, 3Speak, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thanks For Reading
It's been a busy few months, not only with this new band but also with some of the other projects I've been working on. I'll keep my fellow Hivians informed on this band, my other band, and some of the projects I'm working on when there's something to say about them.