Cover Bands
Preview profiles some of the Lowcountry’s cover bands
BY DEVIN GRANT
Special to The Post and Courier

Click here to go directly to Vintage Velvet's section of the article.

____Ask any band anywhere playing any style of music, and chances are that its members have, at one time or another, played a cover of someone else’s material.
____Despite writing some of the most memorable songs in rock history, The Beatles played plenty of cover songs. “Twist and Shout,” one of the Fab Four’s biggest early hits, actually was written by the Isley Brothers. Long before Elvis Presley wailed “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog,” blues singer Big Mama Thornton belted it out. Cover songs can be fun, and perhaps that is why there are so many local acts that play either all cover songs or a combination of originals and songs by other artists. Bands such as Tokyo Joe (rock covers), Weird Science (‘80s-era covers) and MacDaddy (disco-era covers) are just some of the cover bands you might encounter when you visit your local bar or tavern. Preview talked to a few members of local bands that specialize in covering other artist’s music.

PLANE JANE
____When it comes to ranking local cover bands in terms of success, Plane Jane sits comfortably atop the heap. The party band, which averages five performances a week, was started about eight years ago. Scott Sain, one of Plane Jane’s founding members, talked about what it is like to play in a cover band.
“There seems to be a cycle in Charleston between the popularity of bands that play original music and bands that play covers,” explained Sain.
According to Sain, that cycle has swung over toward the end of the spectrum that holds cover songs in high regard. As a result, Plane Jane is enjoying a busy schedule. In addition to playing at all three Wild Wing locations most weeks, the band also performs its brand of high-energy music at corporate events, weddings and private parties.
____Sain is an anomaly in the local cover-band community in that he derives his income solely from Plane Jane. The band also features keyboard-trumpet player Charlton Singleton, saxophonist Chris Williams, singer Chuck Davis, singer-guitarist Matt Jordan, guitarist Keith Bradshaw, bassist Jimmy Mack, drummer Trey Smith and percussionist-horn player Brian Ard.
____Local vocalists Quiana Parlor and LaToya Smith also perform with the band on occasion. While some of the band members do have day jobs (Singleton and Ard are band directors at local schools, while Bradshaw runs a local recording studio.) Sain considers himself lucky to be able to make a living the way that he does.
____“We really appreciate the people who come out to see us,” said Sain, “We are fortunate to be able to do this for as long as we have, and we hope to continue performing for as long as possible.”
Sain also said Plane Jane is moving toward playing more weddings and corporate events, which he said are much more lucrative.

VINTAGE VELVET
____The members of the jazz combo Vintage Velvet definitely would agree with Sain on several points, especially the allure of playing private functions. Although it has been in existence for only about a year, Vintage Velvet has managed to go from a hobby started in Frank and Regina Ruopoli’s converted garage to a fully functional band that plays several times a week around town.
____Vintage Velvet consists of Regina Ruopoli on lead vocals, husband Frank on upright bass, Jeff Castle on keyboards and vocals, Steve Coe on guitar and Nick Jenkins on drums. The band, which covers everything from Billie Holiday to Elvis Costello, performs at several bars and restaurants around Charleston, including Zinc, Little Tai Too, Torch and the East Bay Coffee House.
____“Originally, we began playing together just for the joy of it,” Regina said as she showed off the band’s practice space in the Ruopoli’s West Ashley home.
____Once the band decided to take the next step and play publicly, it initially performed under the moniker Regina and the Firehouse Cats before adopting its smoother-sounding name. All of the members of Vintage Velvet have day jobs, and some of the band members have a history with other local groups. Regina was in Sunday Punch in the 1990s, while Castle played in Struck By 9 for a time. Frank had no previous musical experience before picking up the bass as a hobby.
____Castle agreed with Sain of Plane Jane that there seems to be a cycle of local crowds preferring original music or cover bands.
____“Charleston is a strange town,” said Castle, “Ten years ago, you couldn’t get by without playing original music. I call it the Hootie effect. It was the same in the 1980s as it is now.”
____Indeed, Hootie & the Blowfish began in Columbia as a cover band while its members were still students at the University of South Carolina.
Vintage Velvet definitely has had to pay its dues on the way up. Castle revealed an amusing story that occurred during the band’s first few months.
“Our first gig was playing for a local club,” said Castle. “The night we played, the club was also serving prime rib to its members. On the fliers for the show, we were listed second to the prime rib. I have always found it funny that we were billed second to meat.”
____Castle also laughed as he revealed some of the stranger song-request combinations the band has received. “I had one guy ask for Iron Butterfly’s ‘In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida’ along with ‘The Electric Slide,’ “ he said. “But that was nothing compared to the combination of ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ and ‘That’s Amore.’ “
Like Plane Jane, Vintage Velvet wants to perform at more private functions.

EDISTO LANE
____Corporate parties are probably the furthest thing from the minds of Edisto Lane’s members. The all-female party band plays all over the Lowcountry and has amassed a loyal following since forming less than two years ago. While Edisto Lane plays mostly an eclectic array of cover songs, the band does feature original compositions during the show.
____The band consists of lead singer Christi Buck, guitarist Hart Henson, guitarist Jill Chumley, guitarist-mandolin player Joanna Katz, bassist-guitarist Cheryl Davis and drummer Kelly Ruff. The members all have day jobs, and the band originally was formed after several members who were friends began playing songs at parties as a joke, then got together to perform one evening at a local open-mic night.
____Speaking by phone from her home, Katz revealed that it is the friendship among the band members that makes playing in Edisto Lane so appealing.
“It’s a learning experience,” said Katz, “Everybody learns something new playing in this band. We all have contrasting personalities, but that allows us all to bring our various eclectic musical tastes to the table. I can say, ‘Hey, I have this song we should learn,’ and the rule is that if you do have a new song, you have to come to rehearsal with the music written out and be prepared to teach everyone else how to play it.”
____Edisto Lane plays about four gigs a month on average, and Katz said that it has to be careful how many gigs it schedules because the members have day jobs and lives outside the band. When watching Edisto Lane perform, it sometimes is difficult to determine whether the audience or the band is having more fun.
Chumley relayed a couple of amusing stories from Edisto Lane shows. Apparently, one night, the band was playing in a bar, and someone threw a pair of underwear onstage.
____“They were these Superman Underoos,” recalled Chumley, “and I think they were brought along just to throw at us. Most people know that Hart, our lead guitar player, is a pretty shy and quiet person. When the underpants were thrown onstage, they landed near Hart. When we looked over a minute later, Hart had put the underpants on her head and had then continued her guitar solo. The song pretty much fell apart at that point since we were all laughing so hard.”
Chumley also remembered one night when the band was playing on the patio at Cisco’s in West Ashley. “We were playing, and then we heard a scream from behind us and the drums stopped,” said Chumley. “We looked back and Kelly was running across the parking lot. Apparently, a big spider had lowered itself down from the patio roof right into Kelly’s face.”

A TRIBUTE TO METAL
While cover bands are fine and dandy, there are times when the occasion calls for something a bit more hard core. That is where tribute bands come into play, literally.
____Two local tribute bands that are popular with Lowcountry audiences are T.N.T and GN’R Lies. T.N.T. covers the music of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members AC/DC.
____For the past two years, local musician Rob Liotti has played the part of Bon Scott for T.N.T. Scott was AC/DC’s original lead singer.
____While Liotti and the rest of the band cover songs from the Scott era of AC/DC, as well as later material recorded with current vocalist Brian Johnson, it is Liotti’s uncanny impersonation of Scott that turns heads at T.N.T. shows. Liotti formerly played in High Voltage, another AC/DC tribute band, when he lived in Ohio, and had been sitting in with Plane Jane on occasion singing AC/DC covers. Last year, he was approached by a couple of members of local band Live Bait to start a local AC/DC tribute band, and Liotti jumped at the chance.
____Because most of the members of T.N.T. are working on other projects, Liotti enlisted the help of a group of musicians from yet another local cover band, the Hed Shop Boys. Guitarists Bryn Wilson and Frank Royster, bassist Mike Pennington and drummer Paolo Licciardi will join Liotti onstage at the Music Farm when T.N.T. performs Sept. 9 as part of the Rock Goes to College show. Hollywierd, a popular Columbia-based Poison tribute band, also will perform.
____Liotti said that to be a good tribute band, it first has to do the cover songs justice. He also echoed earlier assertions that the popularity of cover bands in Charleston goes through cycles. “It takes guts to go out and perform original music in Charleston,” said Liotti, “With that said, if you are really good at playing covers, there are a certain amount of people who are going to gravitate toward the familiar.”
____Cullen Baney looks nothing like Guns N’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose. When Baney opens his mouth to sing, however, you would swear that the guy was being possessed by Rose himself. So authentic is Baney’s version of Rose’s banshee wail that most people easily get by the fact that Baney could break Rose in half with his bare hands. Still, Baney loves portraying Rose in GN’R Lies, a local Guns N’ Roses tribute band that has been performing since 2002. Baney freely admitted where he got the idea for a GN’R cover band.
____“It was some other guy’s idea that I stole,” revealed Baney by telephone. “The rest of the band is a bunch of friends. I said, ‘Hey, you want to do this?’ and everyone was in.”
____Like T.N.T., GN’R Lies doesn’t perform very often (perhaps once a month) to ensure that local audiences don’t get burned out on the act. Baney also said that he likes the fact that in most cases a tribute band comes with its own built-in audience. So is playing in a Guns N’ Roses tribute band ever as wild as the real thing?
____“We had this one show at the Music Farm where this kid and his mother get up on stage,” said Baney, “It was the kid’s 14th birthday, and as they stood onstage, the mother lifted her shirt to flash the audience. She had apparently had too much to drink. I quickly shoved the kid back to our backup singers before he was scarred forever.”
____Baney thinks for a minute, and then adds, in perfect Axl Rose fashion, “The mother was pretty hot, though.”

Devin Grant can be contacted at Chucktowncritic@yahoo.com