The prevailing wisdom at the time was that a successful local act had to do a lot of covers. I had an epiphany back in high school when I saw Mercenary [one of Adam Smith's early bands] play the Williamstown High School talent show and blow the doors off the place with a mostly original set list. I saw it again when I saw a trio comprised of Kevin Hannah, Kenny Bartlett and Davy Cain play an all original set at a Battle of the Bands. I forget the name of the band, but I came away humming their songs, especially "Who" and "She." Local favorites Jet Black was awarded the top prize by the judges, but all I remember about them was that they did covers.
I realized then that it made absolutely no sense that a band should promote a lot of other bands' music in order to be successful. That might be what bar and club owners wanted, but it was a short-term strategy at best.
Back when Jamie and I formed Mind Warp, we gave my strategy a try. We did a few covers [really obscure ones that most folks didn't know], but we concentrated on writing a full set for the Smoot Theater's up-coming Battle of the Bands. Though the band fell apart afterward, the show was a success. I heard people making the same sort of comments about the songs that I overheard after Mercenary's show. Naturally, when MIDIAN came along I wanted to put that strategy into play. Still, we did a few covers because if you love music, sometimes you just want to jam on someone else's songs for a bit.
We performed most of these covers when Davy Cain and Mark Minear were in the band. In other words, before we had enough original material to kiss those covers good-bye. We used to joke when we started out that we were in danger of becoming a Green Day cover band. We eventually phased out the Green Day and Misfits covers altogether. We introduced the punk version of Rev. Nick Barry’s folk rock "Helluva War" some time during Cass Dalton’s time as drummer; it’s the only cover we didn’t mind playing frequently. We did the Nirvana, Korn and Marilyn Manson covers when Dusty Rhodes and Todd were in the band, but replaced it with the Life of Agony tune when Jeremy Hickman and Buzz were in the line-up.
- Green Day
- "Longview"
- "F.O.D."
- "All By Myself"
- Janes Addiction
- "Mountain Song"
- Korn
- "Shoots and Ladders"
- Life of Agony
- "Sometimes I Like To Pretend"
- Lipps, Inc.
- "Funkytown"
- Marilyn Manson
- "Lunchbox"
- Misfits
- "Skulls"
- Nirvana
- "Territorial Pissings"
- Rev. Nick Barry
- "Helluva War" [Punked Out MIDIAN version]
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