Cover Wars: Sledgehammer Edition

If you haven’t seen the music video, you should…it’s a classic:

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Trey Anastasio: In the spring of 2005, Trey was busy hitting the road with a group of musicians most had never heard of, debuting new originals and a slew of new covers. In addition to Sledgehammer we saw the debuts of: I Am The Walrus, Knives Out, Sitting In Limbo, Dig A Pony, In The Light, Space Oddity, Sway and the Abbey Road B-Side Sequence. And that’s not counting any of the covers played at the New Orleans show.

Surprisingly, this tune did not show up in setlists after Trey added horns back into his touring band. I couldn’t track down a source of Big Red playing the tune that could be freely distributed, so instead here is a full length video (with good audio) of the performance at the Hammerstein Ballroom on May 13, 2005.

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Dave Matthews Band: The Dave Matthews Band has really mixed things up this summer by adding five new covers to their repertoire: Money (Pink Floyd) [sometimes combined with Money That’s What I Want], Thank You (Sly & The Family Stone), Hey Hey My My (Neil Young), Bitch (The Rolling Stones) and of course Sledgehammer. Meanwhile, DMB’s go-to cover All Along The Watchtower is missing in action.

The audio included in the playlist is from the debut performance of Sledgehammer by DMB on June 28th, 2008. You can download the whole show over at bt.etree.org

Some video footage of another performance of the tune a few days later:

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Northern Kings: One studio track this week – and this Finnish power-rock cover-band throw down a pretty intense rendition of this tune. If you like this track there’s a whole bunch of other covers on their 2007 release Reborn.

Perpetual Groove: PGroove definitely shows up with a bad-ass interpretation here using plenty of vocal reverb and tasteful synth work. Lead singer Brock Butler extends the last vocal section to the delight of the crowd. Check out the whole show on The Archive

Quagmire Swim Team: QST delivers the most electronically-driven cover of the bunch. You can check out the whole show on The Archive. Fans of the Disco Biscuits should also check out the Magner’s Gnarly Pool Party show which was QST joined by Aron Magner on keys. They blow through a whole bunch of covers including Sledgehammer, check out that show on The Archive too

Scarecrow Collection: Much like their track in the 50 Ways To Leave Your Love edition, SC takes the most extended look at the cover this week. Clocking in at well over 9 minutes, they lock into this groove after the keyboard solo which I was hoping was going to continue but they cut it off and leave the audience wanting more. Check out the whole show on The Archive

Umphrey’s McGee: UM has been consistently been dropping new covers at New Year’s gigs for eight years running. In addition to Sledgehammer, in 2004 they also debuted their covers of: Ophelia, Don’t Do It and Good Morning.

Always a group with an attention to detail, the synth-flute work is on point and the high-range backup vocals are executed nicely. You can check out the whole show on The Archive or you can purchase the SBD over at umlive.net

And that’s all we got this week, scroll back up and place your vote for the group that best tackled this Peter Gabriel tune. But before we go, as we did in the Solsbury Hill edition, here’s some live footage of the original artist making me laugh with his stage interpretations of his own work:

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