Covering Their Bases Canasta as Elton John

Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, The A.V. Club asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding the reason for their existence. In this special edition, The A.V. Club caught up with a few of the bands participating in one of the city’s greatest fright night traditions: the Halloween homage. Join these unholy undead, if ye dare, as they rock out as some of music’s greatest—and weirdest—acts all over town this weekend.

Today, pop sextet Canasta explores the world of sequins and feathers as Elton John on Friday at Abbey Pub.

AVC: You’re not normally a cover band. What made you want to try being someone else?

Matt Priest, frontman: We have a few covers in our repertoire, and we’ve talked about starting a cover band as a side project for some extra cash, but we’ve never done it. Last year we did the Abbey’s show as The Decemberists, which wasn’t as huge of a stretch for us. Elton John required a lot more rehearsal.

AVC: Why Elton John?

MP: We kicked around a lot of ideas that wouldn’t be as much of a stretch, like Death Cab For Cutie, and weirder things like Portishead, but Elton John was the only one all of us could get behind and really get excited about.

AVC: As a six-piece band, how are you going to make the Elton experience happen live?

MP: Because of the way singer-songwriter stuff was in the ’70s, all the parts are really challenging. I usually play bass and sing, but for this I’m just singing. Everyone’s just doing one instrument. We’ll probably be the first Elton John cover band where the singer is just standing there instead of sitting at a piano.

AVC: Are you playing anything from The Lion King?

MP: That was brought up as a joke. I can’t imagine playing that in a rock club. It would be funny for sure, like everyone’s expecting this Elton John cover band and it turns out to be just stuff from The Lion King. 

AVC: What about costumes?

MP: Oh, we’ll definitely have them. I was just online looking at Donald Duck costumes.

AVC: Has Elton John influenced Canasta’s sound at all?

MP: I spent a lot of time with his records as a kid singing along, but honestly, his style is really different from ours. We’ve talked about incorporating more of his style, but I’ve been pretty nervous. His piano parts are crazy, and his best songs, chord-wise, are really out there. I feel like we’re only now at the level of playing where we’re really able to tackle him.