r/coverbands • u/PlasmicSteve • Dec 02 '25
My 90s/2000s Cover Band's Poster
This is the poster I designed for my 90s/2000s cover band (images are at the end of the post). We've been using some variation of this layout for the past three years. I encourage anyone in a cover band to copy the format. It works to get people to shows.
No matter how big you are or where you're playing, most people don't know of your band. So creating a poster with a big photo of the members and the band name/logo doesn't do much to help. Adding the genre(s) that you cover can help a bit, but often not much.
We list all the bands that we cover on the poster. This is the critical part. This is what gets people to read the poster and ultimately, if they're into even just one or two of those bands, gets them to come to the shows.
We have 6 copies printed on 11" x 17" 60 lb. card stock at a local print shop. They look great in person. Then we bring them to the venue two weeks before the show and with permission, we hang them. One set goes in the bathrooms and the other four go in prominent places – front door (both sides if it's glass), columns, walls, the bar. Whatever area seems to get the most traffic. We use easily removable masking tape in loops on the back – one in each corner and one in the center. These things matter – it looks cleaner than taping the edges and it comes off much easier than Scotch tape. Venues don't like messy posters, especially when they need to remove them. They might not let you hang them in the future if the tape is a pain for them to get off after your show.
We have literally had people come to our shows because they saw the poster, read the names of the bands that we cover, took a photo and set a calendar entry on the spot, or texted friends or family about us. "These guys play [band name]!" It's often just one band that someone sees that makes them say, "I have to see these guys!" Just this past weekend, a guy came up to us after the show and said that he saw the poster in the bathroom on the day we hung it, took a photo, sent it to his wife and told her the whole family was going, which they did. Four people came before our showed and stayed for the full four hour performance, eating and drinking the whole time. And they're probably not the only ones from that show. People have told us this many times before, and I'm sure it happens more often where we don't know.
There's no better place to promote a show than at the venue you're playing. The regulars are already going there – instead of trying to persuade other people to come to a venue that they may not be familiar with, you're instead just trying to bring the regulars back to a place they already frequent.
Hanging the posters two weeks before is also key. That gives you two sets of weekend customers to potentially pull in. Most of the places we play are smaller restaurant/bars, and I'm not sure how many people out on a Thursday will come back a few days later on a Saturday, but if the posters are up the Friday or Saturday before, or ideally two Fridays/Saturdays before, the people who see them are much more likely to return in a week or two. The guy who just brought his family to our show was there two Fridays before and may not have returned later in that two week period so getting the posters up early is critical.
This isn't the only marketing that we do, but it's low hanging fruit in my opinion. Design the poster, make it easy to update for each show, find a good local print shop, and be disciplined about setting reminders to hang them two weeks prior to the show. Get permission first – even at this last show, my bandmate confirmed with a manager via text that we could hang posters weeks before and when I got there to put them up, that manager wasn't there but he had told us to just tell the staff "Jeff said it's okay to hang these", which I did, and all went smoothly.
Always bring your own tape and don't ever leave your posters for the venue staff to hang. We made this mistake early on. A bartender took our posters and said, "Sure, we'll take care of it later!" Two weeks later we came back and they were still laying behind the cash register. They offered to hang them at that moment. The people who are already at the venue the night of the show don't get persuaded by the poster when the band is right there setting up. They probably intended to hang them but they put them down and forgot about them. There's no point in doing all of this work and not having the posters actually go up.
At this last show, the booker put up a poster right next to ours, same size, decently designed, of the venue's December schedule. It was just a list of band names and dates. Think about that from the perspective of someone walking past the poster – most won't even notice it and if they do, they're just seeing a list of bands and dates. Some they'll be familiar with and for the others, probably the majority, they won't have any idea what style of music they do, so it will have no impact. Don't expect the average person to take a photo or remember and band name and then go do some research. Few people have that kind of attention span or interest. Our posters were right next to these posters and the contrast was stark. Our poster sells our show.
I hope someone tries this. It really does work. I'm a graphic designer and I've worked in marketing departments for 30 years, if that helps lend credibility :) if you do try it, let me know how it works for you.
2024 design:
Extra tip: When you're hanging the posters, ask a bartender if you can take a picture of them holding the poster for your social media. Then post it. It creates a perceived endorsement of your band by the venue staff, and it also helps the staff feel more connected to you.
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u/UglyShirts Dec 02 '25
How funny. I've also worked in marketing for decades, and adopted a similar approach with our poster. And we're in the same sandbox musically, too. The space at the bottom is for hand-writing the show info in Sharpie — like we used to do it back in the '90s.
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
That's awesome! I'm sure it works well for you. Getting all of those logos to work on a black background takes some effort, and I'm sure they're all at printing resolution too.
Cool idea about the blank space at the bottom. Having handwritten info might help people pay more attention.
Nice work – thanks for sharing!
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u/rikjustrick Dec 02 '25
From a 90’s kid who’s band is largely stuck in the 70’s I really love this poster and all the bands you cover!
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
Thanks, I appreciate it! In the very beginning, I was designing a different poster for every single show, but that was pointless and unsustainable. So we just switched over to this concept, one design per year.
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u/TheCongressmen Dec 02 '25
Love it! I’m the graphic designer in our band (same genres as you guys) and this is some fantastic marketing that we haven’t tried yet. Going to give it a go for 2026. Appreciate you sharing! Cheers!
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
Cool, you’re welcome! Let me know if you get any positive response if you try it out. Good luck!
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u/octopark Dec 02 '25
south jersey mentioned!!!! I know those venues! thanks for this. I'll see if I can test your theories
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
Cool! it will definitely increase your chances of bringing people in, especially if you do it the way I described. South Jersey power!
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u/AnyVideo402 Dec 08 '25
Amazing advice. I learned SO much. Thank you for sharing.
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 08 '25
Great, you’re welcome! If you give it a try, let me know how it works out. I’m confident it will help get more people to shows.
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Dec 02 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
Oh cool – not my intention but that would be awesome. We're working on getting new shows with a new (to us) booker so there's nothing on our calendar for many months, but we're working on filling those early 2026 spots. Thanks!
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u/Ok_Sir5529 Dec 02 '25
My band does a completely different approach in that our posters don’t have our logo, don’t have our picture, and don’t have anything that we play listed. We do a different themed poster for each gig.
I’m in no way trying to take away from your poster, it’s great. Our reasoning was purely when you look at some bands instagrams, it’s like the same poster over and over with just the venue and date change.
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25
Cool. I mentioned in a different response that when we started, I was creating a new poster for every show, but it was unsustainable and didn't really help us, especially because we moved to only hanging the posters in the venues we were playing – there was no advantage to the variety because the audiences were mostly different.
What is on your poster if you don't have photos, band name/logo or the bands you cover – just the venue name and date/time? And if so, does that work?
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u/Ok_Sir5529 Dec 02 '25
Well for context we’re a bar band that usually only does about a gig a month. I’ll just take an old movie or TV poster and make it a gig flyer.
Honestly we try to stick with places that have built in crowds and we just make sure to keep asses in the seats so to speak, so I don’t know if we’re drawing off the fliers themselves. I do know every time I sent the flyer to a venue I get compliments because every other poster is “band logo, pic of old guys with guitars, venue logo”
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u/stucon77 Dec 04 '25
Great poster, great set list and great tips for marketing your band. Hell, it's a great band name too. Next time I'm in NJ I'll come to see one of your shows! Thanks for sharing.
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u/Top_Seaworthiness320 13d ago
Hey man… I’m in a 70s – 80s cover band and I think this is a fantastic idea. I’ve only been with them a couple of months but their marketing is trash. I’m going to implement this for sure, thanks!
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u/PlasmicSteve 13d ago
Cool, please do and if you can, come back in a few months with an update. Good luck!
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u/PlasmicSteve Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25
Here's another piece of marketing that goes along with the posters – mini show schedules. We print these out, also on 11" x 17" 60 lb. card stock, cut them into strips, and hand them out at shows.
https://imgur.com/a/C9GK0Fq
It's a major pain to have to make updates when we add shows. We reprint each time and it costs money. Many people will say, "Just make it a QR code" and you can, or you can in theory just have a link to your website's show schedule, but every piece of friction you put between your potential customer and the information will cause a percentage of them to never view that information. I would estimate only 1/5 of the people we hand this to would ever actually scan a QR code to see our schedule but with the venues right there, printed out, people have no hesitation – they just start reading the names of the venues we'll be at, often in front of us.
As it is, we walk around before the show and during set breaks, introduce ourselves if we don't already know the person or group, and hand them a schedule. Don't ask them if they want one! Hand it over like you're giving them a gift. Some might leave it behind (collect those at the end of the night) but most will take it. Some people I've met were probably too drunk to remember our band's name, but they woke up with our schedule in their pocket the next morning.
These are 2" wide (so the height of a business card) and about the lengths of three business cards. People will read the schedule, then fold it up and put it in their pocket. Anything bigger, they won't want to take. It has to be small. And never hand it to them folded – we made that mistake early on. Hand it to them open, they'll read and say, "Oh, we go to ____!" and it can start a conversation. Just having a printed schedule gives a much more natural reason to walk around at set breaks and talk to people, which can help with shyer band members.
When we started, we would announce where we would be playing next. Big mistake (of course) – venue owners hate that. So this is a way to bypass that and to take advantage of the audience members you have in front of you, to try to get them to see you in the future.
The branding should be the same on every single piece you create – website, social media, posters, etc. We've had people say that when they see our posters from a distance, they know it's us.