Round two of the 27th Annual Great Cover Up took place at the City Center in Champaign last weekend. This is the second of three weekends for the event this year, with the final two nights occurring February 16th and 17th at 51 Main. If you still don’t know what The Great Cover Up is, take a look at the first weekend’s recap.
FRIDAY
Friday night kicked off with Pressure Fit, fronted by Regina Chapman, covering the soulful artist Solange. A four-piece brass section counted off each song, which included “Cranes in the Sky”, “Don’t Touch My Hair”, “Mad”, and “Loosing Her”.
The next act took the City Center back to it’s country roots, as a very believable Kenny Rogers was performed by Caleb Cook and his band.
Garage-rock band, The Underwerewolves, doo-wopped across the stage next. They covered Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’s classy songs like “I Love You, Baby” and “Walk Like A Man”. The crowds’ excited shouts for an encore echoed throughout the giant room of the City Center as the band exited.
As the next band set up their equipment, it wasn’t hard to take a guess at who they were covering — perhaps the white face make-up and X-ed foreheads gave it away? Leather-clad Whiskey Shadows front man, Stephen White, put on a spot-on performance of Rob Zombie, complete with a skeleton microphone stand, stage dancers, and a guy wearing a, “More Human Than Human” sign. The band covered songs like “Dracula”, “Living Dead Girl”, and “Black Sunshine”.
Next, Champaign’s own Mike Ingram gathered various musicians to pay tribute to the folk-indie band, The Civil Wars. The group covered “Barton Hollow” and “I’ve Got This Friend”. For the final songs of the set, Ingram and vocalist, Kayla Brown, took the stage alone to put on a beautiful performance.
Closing out Friday night was the Americana duo, The Bashful Youngens, performing Hall and Oats. Carrie Chandler-Harrison used a suit and blonde wig to pull off Daryl Hall, while Aaron Short donned a curly dark brown one to be John Oats. They covered bluesy-rock songs like “Out of Touch”, “I Can’t Go For That”, “Maneater”, “Rich Girl”, and “You Make My Dreams Come True”.
SATURDAY
Saturday began with local power-rock band Bristle covering ZZ Top. Three stage-dancing ladies threw out sunglasses to the crowd during songs.
If you were at the Cover Up and didn’t know who the hip-hop act Run the Jewels was, you do now! Coco Butter Kids, a two-piece band out of Urbana, encouraged the crowd to throw up fists and pistols while they covered songs like “Nobody Speaks”, “Blockbuster Night Part One”, and “Legend Has It”.
Next up, alternative rock band, Slick Lisp, along with Mike Ingram on drums, covered the 90’s band Bush. They played “Everything Zen”, “Comedown”, “The People That We Love”, “Glycerine”, and “Machinehead”.
Tom Petty and the Heatbreakers, as performed by Decadents, graced the Cover Up stage next. They covered classics like “You Don’t Know How It Feels”, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, “Free Fallin’”, and ended with the crowd singing along to “American Girl”.
The City Center got pretty synthy with the next act by Terminus Victor. They were men and they were Devo. Decked out in red eye masks, the local post-punk band played songs like “Girl You Want”, “Whip It”, Blockhead”, and “Freedom of Choice”.
Rounding out the second weekend of The Great Cover Up was Yakuza Triad covering the hymn-like songs of the Swedish metal band, Ghost. The masked instrumentalists played “Square Hammer”, “Ritual”, “Absolution”, “He Is”, and “Satan Prayer” as the vocalist threw white roses into the crowd.
Check out the Great Cover Up weekend three at 51 Main this Friday and Saturday.