We are looking forward to getting back on stage at the American Legion in Zimmerman on May 5 & 6. We’ve been plugging away at practice and for the last couple weeks have been a “power trio” as Pete & Dawn took a much deserved 10 day trip to Mexico in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary. So far this year we have only had the one gig on Feb 25th so we are behind in our goal of one gig a month. Generally our practices revolve around running through the most recent additions to the set list a couple times and working on those songs. Eventually we get around to running through old material to keep it solid in the memory banks and then move on to just open jamming. Recently we have decided that a couple new tunes we have been working on… Foghat’s “I Just Want to Make Love To You” and Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” are probably ready for prime time and we will add them to the set list.
We have been looking for a KISS song and have been tinkering with “Detroit Rock City”. Once we get past the Zim city gig we might start working that song to see if we can do it. Sometimes we get requests for a KISS song or we ask friends what song they think we should do because ….well KISS is one of those 70’s bands that we just HAVE TO COVER eventually. We usually we get one of two responses. “Rock n Roll All Night” is the one song brought up most frequently and then “tongue in cheek” we usually get “Beth”. Ha…. everyone knows Beth ain’t going to make it, come on!! Maybe those are the only two KISS songs your average heckler in a bar crowd knows? Unfortunately “Rock N Roll All Night” is one of the songs we could easily perform but it is on the:
“Top Ten Songs the Lava Lords Refuse to Cover” list.
So what does a song have to be like to end up on this list you ask? There are lots of answers to this question and many variables.
1) classic rock radio stations beat the song to death over the airwaves ! Actually you could still say this about some of the songs we cover. It’s not the song’s fault or the bands fault for writing it…..In most cases they are GREAT songs, but some songs are just way over exposed over a long period of time or have become a sound track for a commercial
2) Some members of the Lava Lords have played a certain song in previous bands in the past and are totally bored with it or has some stigma attached to it from covering it in the previous band
3) Seems like EVERY classic rock cover band these days covers it.
4) One or more Lava Lord playa’s just HATE IT….PERIOD !!!!
“Top Ten Songs the Lava Lords Refuse to Cover”
(in no particular order)
Rock n Roll All Night – KISS
Some Kind of Wonderful – Grand Funk (also Locomotion & We’re an American Band)
Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynrd Skynrd
Like a Rock – Bob Seger
Against the Wind – Bob Seger
Takin Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive
Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
(ok we compromised and play HALF of it in a Led Zep medley)
