Polly asks what my real issue with cover bands is and brings up some good points.

My main issue with cover bands is not the cover band themselves, it's the place they're playing. Thinking it through, my problem isn't the band at all, it's the crowd watching them. And more, it's a specific type of cover band I don't like...

I can't compare cover bands with choirs or orchestras or even tribute bands. The style of performance and the style of enjoying such bands is so different.

I love the band Fourplay. And Apocalyptica. They started out as little more than cover bands with a gimmick. I liked watching a Queen cover band I saw recently, and a Metallica cover band not so recently. And, I've accidently dropped in on a cover band that was doing almost entirely note perfect Ugly Kid Joe tracks. This was in 2000. That was cool, because the crowd hated it and I loved it. The band spent the whole time mocking the crowd. I have no problem with wedding bands that play popular tracks nor the bands in the corner at your local cafe playing jazz jams or even extended jams of popular tracks.

What I hate is the kind of venues so popular in the outer 'burbs filled with teenagers wanting to get smashed on whatever is available, watch the monkeys perform the latest "new" single from the radio and maybe get laid. Five or so musicians who should have been out writing music no-one will ever hear, wasted on morons.

A couple of venues near me started playing originals bands on Wednesday nights as an experiment. Their crowd for Wednesday, already a dead night, dropped to almost nothing. And we're talking fairly big bands here like The Whitlams.

Another venue near me allowed the resident cover band to do an originals set before their cover set. No-one came. No-one paid attention. They weren't very good, but they would never have had the opportunity to get any good.

This crowd just doesn't want to see originals.

There are millions of venues playing original bands and they should all be hugged for it. But they close and get made into pizza places.

Everyone I've known who has been in a professional cover band has been in it to make money for their real band.

No-one wants to hear a shit song. And if they do, at least let it be a song they know.

That irritates me but I know it's reality.

Update: I'd like to add that it is very very difficult to be a good cover band, and those that are do command a little respect. Although a band like Green Day (in the old days) might play their own tracks pretty roughly, the cover band must play it note perfect without a single error or they'll loose their crowd. That is a lot of preasure. That's a lot of work going toward not very much.