Solo, acoustic vocal/guitar setlists. HALP!

[Richo 18]

Long time no thread Farkin/RB.

H'Ok, so I'm a musician (guitarist/singer), and this week/the next I'll be spending a whole bunch of money on finally buying some live gear so that I can start playing gigs.

Anyway, I've got a few gigs lined up already, one of which is in September sometime doing a party, most likely with a friend of mine. The party host said that she mostly wanted 80's and 90's covers, which happens to be my area of intentional anti-expertise.

What I need from the masses, is suggestions for two things,

A. Happy, upbeat songs for gigging - mostly pub gig stuff. I've got a stupid amount of sadder stuff ready to go, however I'd prefer to not drive my crowd to sorrow-drowning.
They don't necessarily have to be 'acoustic songs', in fact I'd prefer if they weren't. I'm good at re-arranging music, but if the best part about the song is the beat/bass, obviously it's not going to translate too well.

Anything that you've heard while you're out- by a solo performer and thought, 'damn, that was really good/cool.' Obviously this excludes stuff like Brown Eyed Girl, but feel free to throw up a few cliches which you think are necessary anyway.

B. Songs from the 80's/90's.

Keep in mind that I'm 18 and in general I doubt that I'd be expected to play 3 hours of covers all pre-1979. The reason I come to Farkin for these answers is merely that I haven't had enough pub time to get a good idea of the stuff that people want to hear.

I'm currently working on a list of all the stuff I can already do, but it's taking a while. In the meantime, fire away!

 

[LJohn]

That is one damn long gig.

As our band, me and my partner in crime play no acoustic songs as covers, we play pop and rock songs. Can't help you with 80s stuff. Just look through the one hit wonders/pop hits and transpose to acoustic. Play synth based songs on acoustic.

Hey Ya.

Arctic Monkeys.

Sorry, limited on the 80s stuff for acoustic, but it's a similar concept.

You're a quality performer mate, they'll like you either way.

 

[Regan of Gong]

I have a mate who does a killer cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love". Always good for a laugh, also lends itself to lengthy solos.

 

[Richo 18]

As it happens Justin Timberlake and Outkast are both definitely, definitely in my setlists regardless of the situation haha, I spent pretty much a whole day figuring out how to do Senorita, Like I love You, What goes Around, Love Stoned (which is particularly awesome), My Love and Cry Me a River with my loop pedal, some creative percussion and timing haha. When I get a recording interface and a compression mic, I plan to upload videos like a camwhore just to get my shit out there.

John, I know what you mean. I much prefer to cover 'full' songs rather than 'acoustic' songs.

 

[Ziggy]

As far as current, popular songs that everyone will know goes, i was just scanning through itunes and thought memories ~ david guetta could make a good acoustic cover? Obviously theres a constant thumping amount of bass but you could make something wicked out of it i reckon. Could always bust out the stompbox for the Sick Bass. Might do a proper scan through later and see what i find

 

[WolfCreekPsycho]

I was gigging pubs and clubs in the 90's so happy to throw some ideas at you:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss + others of the Blood Sugar Sex Magic album
Live - I Alone / Lightning Crashes
Nirvana - anything off Nevermind
Pearl jam - Alive / Black / Better man
Radio head - Creep
Foo fighters - Everlong
Blur - Song 2
Oasis - Wonderwall


Hope this helps
WCP

 

[wombat]

Everlong translates nicely to accoustic solo, the only problem is that everyone will probably know Grohl's version anyway.
I'd also be inclined to give The Baby Animal's 'One Word' a go too.

Of course you can't go too far wrong with older classics for later in the night when everyone's a bit loose too; think 'bogan DJ' and bring out some Chisel, Angels AC/DC etc.

 

[WolfCreekPsycho]

Everlong translates nicely to accoustic solo, the only problem is that everyone will probably know Grohl's version anyway.
I'd also be inclined to give The Baby Animal's 'One Word' a go too.

Of course you can't go too far wrong with older classics for later in the night when everyone's a bit loose too; think 'bogan DJ' and bring out some Chisel, Angels AC/DC etc.

^ Yeah ! forgot about the Baby Animals.... we had 'Rush You' in our set list which worked well too.

 

[I-AM-TEH-FASTEST-11]

Sublime have some awesome songs to rock out, nice and mellow but really cool. Not many people cover them in Australia though.

Sublime -What I got
Sublime -Santeria

Some of my favorites to play myself are also

Men at Work -Overkill
Tony Sly -Exit (awesome, awesome song that he translated to acoustic from his band No Use For A Name which are playing here this month)
Greg Graffin -Don't be afraid to run
Verve Pipe -The Freshmen
The Wallflowers -One Headlight
The Clash -Guns of Brixton
Sublime - Badfish (probably my favorite song to play, it's beautiful)
Nirvana -Lithium
NoFX - scavenger type

anyway that's some stuff I like to mess around with, I also tend to take fast songs and try and turn them acoustic, or reggae. It's fun. Basically anything by Sublime will rock people's socks off, so check them out, they have an acoustic album that is pretty cool.. but really all their stuff translates pretty well.

 

[JoshyC]

Ben Harper - Steal my kisses - upbeat, catchy as hell song
Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge
Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody, comes up very good as an acoustic cover - see Tiki Taane's like a version triple J cover on youtube!
Coldplay - Yellow
Counting Crows - Big yellow taxi
Bill Withers - Lean on me - absolute classic that sounds very good acoustically

 

[Richo 18]

Ben Harper - Steal my kisses - upbeat, catchy as hell song
Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge
Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody, comes up very good as an acoustic cover - see Tiki Taane's like a version triple J cover on youtube!
Coldplay - Yellow
Counting Crows - Big yellow taxi
Bill Withers - Lean on me - absolute classic that sounds very good acoustically

Ahh of course, forgot about Ben Harper. Love that song
Got the KOL cover already, completely forgot about Coldplay as well.

Big Yellow taxi sounds awesome as well, I get so tired of Mr Jones haha.
Shall look into the Bill Withers.


Thanks everybody so far, this is awesome stuff. WCP, wombat and IAMTF, I am looking into all of this. Thanks

Keep it coming people

 

[jayjay3032]

As it happens Justin Timberlake and Outkast are both definitely, definitely in my setlists regardless of the situation haha, I spent pretty much a whole day figuring out how to do Senorita, Like I love You, What goes Around, Love Stoned (which is particularly awesome), My Love and Cry Me a River with my loop pedal, some creative percussion and timing haha. When I get a recording interface and a compression mic, I plan to upload videos like a camwhore just to get my shit out there.

John, I know what you mean. I much prefer to cover 'full' songs rather than 'acoustic' songs.

What's a compression mic?

Go to any pub that has a coverband on a Friday night and take some notes. You should be able to manage most of the tracks solo.

Play some frank turner and, if your throat is up to, chuck ragan.

 

[guitar1234]

How bout some Paul Kelly? And The Metallica version of Whiskey in the jar?

 

[ajay]

What's a compression mic?

I think he means a condenser mic...

 

[Elbo]

What about:
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
3am - Matchbox Twenty
Fall At Your Feet - Crowded House or Throw Your Arms Around Me - Hunters and Collectors (if you need something people can dance slow to)

 

[wombat]

Shall look into the Bill Withers.

Isn't exactly upbeat but 'Aint No Sunshine' would be a killer solo track too.

You use a stompbox? It doesn't exactly fit the time period, and it may be a little too blusey, but Automobile by the fumes could be pretty cool, and they're not far off a one-piece anyway.

As for stuff that actually fits the bill, how about Presidents of the United States? Surely you could do an accoustic cover of Peaches/Lump/Dune buggy that'd be bound to get people up and moving!

Edit: Oh! Primus! I know that a lot of their stuff may be harder to cover with just guitar/vocals, but Shake Hands With Beef would work for one, and Kalamazoo is my kind of party tune!

 

[wombat]

Isn't exactly upbeat but 'Aint No Sunshine' would be a killer solo track too.

You use a stompbox? It doesn't exactly fit the time period, and it may be a little too blusey, but Automobile by the fumes could be pretty cool, and they're not far off a one-piece anyway.

As for stuff that actually fits the bill, how about Presidents of the United States? Surely you could do an accoustic cover of Peaches/Lump/Dune buggy that'd be bound to get people up and moving!

Edit: Oh! Primus! I know that a lot of their stuff may be harder to cover with just guitar/vocals, but Shake Hands With Beef would work for one, and Kalamazoo is my kind of party tune!

Edit2:
Custard: Apartment or Girls Like That. Dave is cool.
Powderfinger: Double Allergic and Internationalist were both 90s releases, plenty of singles there that would strip back pretty well.

Then there's Regurgitator (Kung Foo Sing would be awesome), You Am I, blink 182 (yes, I'm now just looking through Recovery clips on youtube, the 90s were sick!).

 

[Joy]

If you ain't playing Stand by Your Man, don't even bother gigging at all.

Pm-ing you my setlist dude.

 

[wombat]

Oh oh oh! I saw some mates do a set comprised entirely of Trey Parker/Matt Stone covers, the standout of which was a killer extended version of the theme to Orgasmo.
It might not work as an accoustic cover, but you should do it anyway.
If nothing else at least it gives me another reason to post this clip:
[video=youtube;oiXaT_1I-vw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXaT_1I-vw&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

 

[Richo 18]

Condenser mic, not compression. I get that mixed up all the time, even though I know the difference . Beers weren't helping me out either haha.

Everybody's giving me some serious googling to do, thanks