This past Saturday, I went to Ben & Ari’s to go see a band called the Looking Glass Station. Once a month, Ben & Ari’s hosts concerts from student bands. There were a few other bands before The Looking Glass Station, but they were unimportant. I wanted to see what CHS’s bands could do (Also this band does not play horrendously loud Green Day covers).
The Looking Glass Station is an acoustic cover band composed of lead vocalist Zach Higdon as well as guitarists Gavin Colavito and Connor Avery. The band also features backup vocals from Brooke Brothers in some of their songs.
The band performed most of the set in their standard trio, playing some old fan favorites. But there were two songs that featured the vocal talents of Avery and Colavito. These songs were a nice break from the average set list. My favorite song of the night would have had to be their rendition of “Pumped Up Kicks” featuring Brooke Brothers. The song felt like something they would not normally do, while not a wild departure from the norm, it was entertaining.
(If you want to hear more of The Looking Glass Station, they play songs near the main cafeteria during late starts.)
Altogether, the concert was pretty good, excellent guitar playing. However, the songs themselves seemed repetitive. This is somewhat common in most acoustic cover bands. The defintion of what is good in music can be described as specifically broad. While a band can be excellent musicians, when they are doing a cover, they are being compared to the original (or the most popular artist, as in the case of the Dixie Chicks’s “Landslide”). Also, consider the people who are going to listen to a Blink 182 cover, Britney Spears fans? I think not.
So, cover bands are hard to review because you have to ignore your reservations about the original song and judge based on questions like “Does this song fit the band’s capabilities and style?” or “Is this band in tune or are they butchering the song?” This criteria is very limiting because it only covers the surface of their musical potential. To be honest, whenever I see a band like this, my main reaction is “meh.” I want to like them, I really, really do. But cover bands hinder themselves. They restrict the part of music that makes it art. Creativity. Now, cover bands do have their use. They serve as excellent practice for being in a band and learning what you can do with your voice or an instrument. However, without the songwriting, the presentation, or the experimentation, the music seems empty.