What song would you love to hear a bar band play?

Aloha,

I'd like to get some ideas or new songs to learn for our gigs... So, I thought I'd ask all of you what you would want to hear a bar band play? We do mostly classic rock, but any other suggestions are very welcome (except Disco). We're mostly looking for more upbeat songs that people can dance to (except Disco). Lasttly, we also do a lot of unplugged stuff, so maybe there's a song that you'd love to hear an unplugged version of?

Mahalo in advance for your input! Suggest away!!!

P.S. I am fully aware that I am setting myself up for "Freebird" & "Stairway" requests.

Chemical Wire by Firehose. Or anything by Firehose or Mike Watt.

BTW, anybody know what George Hurley or Ed Crawford are doing now?

All the tunes we play would sound great in a bar.

Just kidding, they don't. But Mach-T, let's set up a 2-band gig sometime down Encinitas way.

Bong,

I'm up for that anytime! It's too bad "The SandBar" (in Carlsbad) is gone... That would have been perfect. I'll look into a venue that we could throw a TC party in.

How about some Faith no More? Good danceable rock. Epic or Falling to Pieces are good tunes.

Urban,

Cool songs (and THANKS now I've got "You want it all, but you can't have it..." going through my head). But, might be a little too hard-core compared to what we play now - which is mostly: Beatles, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Stones, Dire Straits, Van Morrison... etc.

Keep 'em coming!

My old band did Play With Fire (is that right?) by the Stones. Sounds good unplugged too. We also did a guitar-heavy version of Time of the Season, and Bus Stop.

Fun stuff.

On 2004-10-22 13:04, finkdaddy wrote:
Play With Fire... guitar-heavy version of Time of the Season, and Bus Stop.

I was actually thinking about doing a pumped-up version of "Bus Stop". Those are all great suggestions. Thanks Fink!

strangely (sadly, to some), the one song that has seemed to be the biggest crowd pleaser in dive bars is Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville." in my experience, anyway.

ducks

Dangergirl,

Way to open a can of worms. :wink:

We already do that song and it always goes over well. I know I'm going to hear about this, but when you play in the types of bars we play, they expect you to know that song along with "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Sweet Home Alabama". Good suggestion.

How about a surfing version of "Tequila"

I always enjoy "Rosalita" by the boss.

How about Ghost Town by the Specials, or Jamaica Ska like Fishbone did a cover of ? Anything by Sublime would be good as well.

"Black Betty" by Ram Jam

that tune always fills the floor and keeps both rockers & dancers happy.
(or so says my experience DJing weddings)

-Z

I could probably think of plenty more, but for some reason I think "The Night Before" by the Beatles and "Hard To Handle" by the Black Crowes might sound pretty good...

(I dunno... both those songs INSTANTLY popped into my head when I read this thread...)

WOW! You guys are gonna keep me busy this weekend looking for recordings. I (and the regulars) appreciate your suggestions.

On a last note. The majority of our audience is 30 & 40 somethings who want to hear the songs they grew up with, but we don't want to just do the usual stuff that they always hear like "Hotel California" or "American Pie". As we do wish to mix it up - The average audience still wants to hear something that they've heard before.

Collective Soul - "December", Fastball - "The Way" & Jimmy Eat World's - "The Middle" are all newer songs (for us) that all go over really well because those songs were kinda instant classics. What else might you suggest that got a fair amount of radio play (enough to be recognized, but people aren't sick of).

That being said... Keep the "not-so-typical" stuff coming as well. I remember someone suggesting that we learn a song by this band out of Canada called the Barenaked Ladies. This was in about 1994 and we had no idea who they were. From the first time we played it, everyone loved it. Nobody knew who it was - they just loved the song (If I had a Million $'s).

OK, here are a few more that I've either seen 'in action' or would like to see:

"No Myth" - Michael Penn
"Beds Are Burning" - Midnight Oil
"Bang The Drum" - Todd Rundgren
"Mission Of Mercy" - The Motels
"Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" - Primus
"The Naked Eye" - The Who
"Venus" - Shocking Blue (not the synthy Bananarama version)
"Iko-Iko" - Neville Brothers

Kinda random, but, well, whatever...

I was in a bar band for about 8 months in 1985. We did a cover of the Seed's "Pushin' Too Hard". We aren't together anymore, so you guys are more than welcome to pick up the pushin' too hard baton and take it to the next level. Seriously though MachTiki,I'd like to here some of these songs (albeit popular and of mass apeal) played by the band:

1.Don't Bogart That Joint (my freind) - the Fraternity of Man
2. Tumblin' Dice - the Rolling Stones
3. Chinese Noodle Factory - Traffic
4. Killin Floor - the Electric Flag
5. Doctor Robert - the Beatles
6. Mister You're a Better Man Than I - the Yardbids
7. I'm Not Like Everybody Else - the Kinks
8. On the Way Home - Buffalo Springfield
9. 1970 - the Stooges
10. I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins

[ Edited by: Shipwreckjoey on 2004-10-23 00:26 ]

I used to sing in a band about 14 years ago. And we did classic and alternative rock. Grunge was big then, and would probably go over well with the thirtysomethings out there. And since we were a Canadian band, we were required by law to cover some Tragically Hip =)

One of my favourite bands to cover was the Hoodoo Gurus. We did "Like Wow-Wipeout" and "Dig it Up" . Those were good tunes with some great energy.

I also loved covering Julian Cope's "Spacehopper", the Pixies' "Cactus" and Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane".

If I were to be in a cover band again I would definately add some Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion and The Cramps to the mix.

None of these songs/bands have a high recognition level, but they rock the camels ass!

Their own original music.

Mr. Big Stuff

On 2004-10-23 08:59, badmojo wrote:
Mr. Big Stuff

Who do you think you are?!

Well if the bar is an airport Holiday Inn I think A Horse With No Name or Billy Don't Be A Hero would be appropriate.

or "Half-Breed"

Smells like Teen Spirit

Anything by the Revillos (Rezillos). "My Baby Does Good Sculptures", comes immediately to mind.

Way in another direction, The Looking Glass's "Brandy".

a song about love, life and......hats

Hats off to Larry (Del Shannon)

or I put a spell on you (with cannibal noises)

There's always the 30-second thrash versions of "Freebird" or "Stairway." Crank up the distortion, do the chord changes of the song as fast & loose as you can, shout out the last word of each line of the verse & the whole chorus, and use 3 seconds of the guitar solo.

If you're asked do another Jimmy Buffett song, what about "Pencil-thin Moustache?"

On 2004-10-25 07:27, foamy wrote:
Anything by the Revillos (Rezillos). "My Baby Does Good Sculptures", comes immediately to mind.

Way in another direction, The Looking Glass's "Brandy".

My favorite Rezillos song has always been "Sombody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight"! Really puts one in the mood for lot's of lashings of the ol' ultraviolence. BTW, I also like the song "Brandy". It's about a seafarin' man who loves his sailor's life more than the ladies who'd like to marry him and build a white picket fence around him so he'd be land-locked fer life. ARRRRRR.

[ Edited by: Shipwreckjoey on 2004-10-25 20:13 ]

Tiptoe thru the tuplips by Tiny Tim always gets em dancing!

Mach-

I feel your pain... more than anyone else here probably. Margaritaville... Brown Eyed Girl ...

Somebody please kill me now....

TTK

On 2004-10-27 16:25, TheTikiKing wrote:
Mach-
I feel your pain... more than anyone else here probably. Margaritaville... Brown Eyed Girl ...

Somebody please kill me now....

TTK

Amen, brother!

Every night we hope nobody requests those two... Every night someone does. The WORST is when we do play one of them, then someone else comes in later in the night and requests it again. We try to do the old, "Shoot! I'm sorry, we already played it". Then you hear 10 people shout, "Play it again!".

We've even told people we don't know how to play those songs just to get out of it. The problem there is that then they think you're hack and don't know what you're doing?!

On the bright side... We've actually managed to avoid ever playing Mustang Sally!!!

On 2004-10-23 09:18, MachTiki wrote:

On 2004-10-23 08:59, badmojo wrote:
Mr. Big Stuff

Who do you think you are?!

Ever heard Schoolly D's version? He retitled it Mr Big Dick, but it retains the spirit of the original.

As for tunes, perhaps something by the Pixies? Gigantic maybe? Whip It by Devo? Everyone loves that.

Trader Woody

TW,

We do some Proclaimers and that goes over really well. Don't the Pixies have some stuff simillar to the Proclaimers? If so, what specifically?

You know what's a good "sing-along" song -"Laid" by James. People seem to enjoy singing along with the chorus!