Meet Hong Kong's Professional Cover Bands
We love our local music scene and all, but sometimes, at 3am on a Saturday night, all you want to do is belt out “Living on a Prayer” while doing air guitar in a Wan Chai pub. Leanne Mirandilla meets the professional cover bands dutifully keeping the revelers on the dance floor.
With their long working hours, boundless energy and extraordinary ability to enthusiastically perform “Sweet Child o’ Mine” at every single gig, local cover bands are the undisputed heroes of the late-night bar scene. We asked them a few questions about what it takes to dutifully entertaining revelers night after night, often into the wee hours of the morning.
What sort of music and songs do you play?
“We play a host of genres, but it’s all based on rock and pop. I would call it ‘party rock,’ because our band specializes in playing private parties. We’ve built up a repertoire of nearly 300 songs, which allows us to cater to many different crowds. Of those songs, there are about 40 we play a lot as they are crowd favorites and guarantee a full dance floor. They range from retro classics like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, to modern stuff like Katy Perry and The Black Eyed Peas, with a host of stuff in between ranging from 70s disco to 80s pop to hard rock like AC/DC.”
– Brendan Delfino, 9th State
“Our music is a mix of contemporary and classic rock. Joven knows more than 1,000 songs and the band plays over 200. We play songs by Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Coldplay, The Cure, U2, The Allman Brothers, Nirvana, MGMT and Radiohead.”
– Steve Bernstein, The Joven Goce Band
“We call ourselves ‘classic rock.’ I guess we are a bit retro. The latest stuff we’ve been covering has been The Killers, the Foo Fighters, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We also cover The Stones, David Bowie, Counting Crows, The Police.”
– Geoff Wheeler, Don’t Panic
“Classic rock, alternative, top 40s, disco—a bit of everything.”
– Olive Reyes Paguyo, Square Eyes