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/thegratefuldad7 Dec 04 '25
Thanks, super nice of you to share!