I’m thinking of joining or forming a band but…

LiveeviL2000 said:
I dont mind doing covers, but as I said before, I'd get bored playing the same thing over and over.
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Well, in a way, whether covers or originals, you'll end up doing many of the same songs over and over. Think about it, you're going from venue to venue. It's often a new crowd who hasn't heard what you did in the last place. So, to you, it will be like you're doing the same songs over and over, but the crowd you're playing to hasn't necessarily heard you before.
 
I know my 2 cents doesn’t mean much, but also prefer original music to covers.
I have been in both types of bands, but that was many years ago..
I would like to find at least 2 people, drums an bassist, to put together a 3 piece original band, even if it was once a month.
Just to get me jazzed to play more.
But finding the correct guys to start the project, and the time restraints seems to be the biggest hurdle.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing.
 
Around here, even back in the 70s in LA, you start with covers generally adding originals as you go. Van Halen is a good example from the 70s. If you have enough originals, you can play clubs here with other established bands doing half covers, half original. Keep plugging away. Soon you become the headliner doing mostly original.
It builds and grows.
If one tries to start with soley originals good luck gigging. Just the way it is. My city is only about 350k people and it's the way right now.
Perhaps that works there too. Dunno.
 
Even if you do covers, with enough thought you can make them your own. We’ll often do that.

We still keep them recognizable, but we may change the form, or combine songs into medleys.

Unless a song has a really iconic, recognizable solo, I may change that up, too.

The point is, even with covers there is room for originality.
 
smitty_p said:
Even if you do covers, with enough thought you can make them your own. We’ll often do that.

We still keep them recognizable, but we may change the form, or combine songs into medleys.

Unless a song has a really iconic, recognizable solo, I may change that up, too.

The point is, even with covers there is room for originality.
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Agree. When doing a cover, I don’t see anything wrong with injecting your personality into the song. I think of all the covers Robert did and none of them was note for note the original. He liked to add his “Easter Eggs” into a song he was covering. And they were all great.

If you’re attempting to go note for note…. Then you’re a tribute band and that’s a whole different animal.
 
LiveeviL2000 said:
As the title says, but I don’t know what kind of band I want to be in. Cover band or originals, do bands do both? I couldn’t do tribute because
a) I usually play songs my way
b) I’m not good enough for a tribute band.

Also, if I do decide to perform. What gear is needed. I’ve been researching this topic online and I’ve read about venues not allowing certain cabs or needing monitors, yada yada.

Just as a little background. The last time I was on stage was a handful of years ago and I was only subbing in for 1 gig.
Before that it was the late 80s.
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My two cents:
Do what makes you happiest. Some things have been covered already that establish some of the basic guidelines.
If you are looking to supplement income, you will likely do better with a cover band…of some kind.
If you want to be doing something that requires peak levels of creativity, write your own stuff with a group of likeminded compatriots in an original band.
You can blur those lines a bit in a cover band that takes some creative license with, at least, some of their material.
No matter how you slice it, it’s gonna require some level of……….commitment.
I can play covers for a good bit of time, but I know that I would want to do some original material to break things up a bit, eventually. Conversely, I would be right at home spewing out original stuff, in an endless fashion…but getting gigs doing it sucks…in my immediate vicinity…so it’s gonna be in a studio/basement/garage setting, more often than not. I’m okay with that….not everyone is.
As far as gear goes…you’ll have to be able to keep up with the guy that is least likely to have an actual volume knob…a drummer. Probably 20-50 watts tube power, or 100 watts solid state, for guitar. Probably 300-500 watts solid state for bass.
Multi-speaker cab’s for both….maybe 1x15 for bass…maybe.
 
One other personal observation on the topic of joining a “cover band” vs joining an “original band”…
A lot (not all) of the gigging cover bands I’ve come across will not “waste time” with original material writing. That is time that could be better spent learning, or polishing, cover material to expand their catalog for paying gigs.
Conversely, an original band may be more receptive to playing the occasional cover, for the fun of it…often to put their own spin on it. Though it might be a challenge to find something that they can all agree on playing.
 
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