At the Heart/Joan Jett concert, as mentioned in OP (different day, obviously). Joan Jett had a surprise cover. She did a cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. It was a Joan Jett rocker. Now waiting for Heart.
Husker Du played it too, as part of this classic video.
In the late 1980s, my brother attended an R.E.M. concert whose playlist does not appear on a website that has a compilation of them, going back to day one. It consisted entirely of Top 40 covers, and he's always said that it was hands down the worst concert he ever attended, by anyone.I saw Foetus once, and he covered “I am the Walrus”, and Tad’s “Behemoth”. During the latter I thought Mr. Thirlwell actually might come at me like a spider monkey because I was singing along with him.
I was pleasantly surprised by both covers, and that he didn’t actually come at me like a spider monkey. He’s pretty scary in person.
Dream Theater used to sometimes surprise audiences by coming out for an encore and covering an entire album. Many of these performances were released on CD: The Number of the Beast, Master of Puppets, Dark Side of the Moon, Made In Japan… those are off the top of my head, but there are more.
Best live/acoustic album ever in the history of anything.
When I saw Garbage…the boys played Miserlou when Shirley had to change out of a pair of split pants.
Heart have played Zeppelin covers since the they started in the 1960’s. My brother remembers them doing Rock n Roll in the early 1970’s in Spokane. Heart covered STH at the Zeppelin tribute at the Kennedy Center. While cool, I don’t think it counts as a surprise.
The Kinks did Twist and Shout as an encore in 1980 in Oakland.
Saw 80’s PNW stalwarts Young Fresh Fellows play the Association’s Never My Love.
At the Commodore in Vancouver Nomeansno surprised me playing a cover of Dayglo Abortion’s Stupid Songs (with Dayglo Murray guest singing).
Saw Urge Overkill cover Chuck Berry’s Maybellene.
Frank Zappa in '84 at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre encored with Culture Club’s I’ll Tumble For Ya.
Little Stevie opened for U2 in Philly. Bruce showed up for Stand By Me with U2 and Stevie.
Harrison’s nephew opened for ELO this year. Him, band and Jeff Lynne did Handle With Care.
A couple of years ago, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo played a little bit of Smoke on the Water. I know the guitar riff is a little cliche, but it sounded SO GOOD live. The crowd went apeshit (myself and DH included :o).
Springsteen has done some really good covers, in my opinion.
He opened some Australian shows in 2014 with Highway To Hell. Great move to get the local crowd on your side, and it’s just a fun song.
You Never Can Tell - This one is just fun to watch them all working it out on stage. Not the best cover ever done, but considering that they seemed to pull it all together in a couple of minutes, not bad at all. And I just love the big grin on Bruce’s face.
From that same Australian tour - Stayin’ Alive. Yes, really
And another one they put together on the fly - Shake, Rattle and Roll
I think the E Street Band is still, at its heart, a really good bar band, and when they’re just having fun it really shows.
I saw the Plant and Page tour when they stopped in Chicago, hell when was that? Mid 90s somewhere? They covered “Break On Through” by the Doors, which came as a surprise to me.
Do yourself a favor and look up their version of this from the Zeppelin Kennedy Center Honors program.
Mr. Big does "Smoke on the Water" with the drummer on bass, the guitarrist on drums, the singer on guitar, and the bassist on vocals, and then the Singer goes to bass, the bassist to guitar and the drummer on vocals.
Saw Tom Waits perform Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.
Decades ago I saw David Bromberg in concert. While his band members were taking a break, Bromberg began playing Mr Bojangles. Everyone recognized the tune and began cheering. Bromberg continued to strum, but started talking about what a great song it was, and what a great artist Jerry Jeff Walker was.
After strumming/talking for a good ten or fifteen minutes he said he wasn’t going to sing the song that night since he couldn’t do it justice. He urged us all to see Jerry Jeff Walker do it instead.
Found a video of Joan Jett doing the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Love is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore Theme) - YouTube
By the way… I liked the Heart version of The Boxer, but lines like “I an just a poor boy” and singing about getting come-ons from the whores on 7th Avenue didn’t sound right.
And I have bought Heart doing Stairway to Heaven and Rock and Roll, so Stairway to Heaven just seemed like one of their songs.
That cover of Staying Alive is terrific.
He also opened a show in New Zealand with an acoustic version of Lorde’s Royals.
How do I become the first to mention the tour Weird Al did last year where he did 77 different closing cover songs in 77 concerts? Link that explains a little which links to a YouTube video.
Plus I learned about it here. Someone should have posted this already.
I was quite happy when Leftover Salmon broke out in Danger Man by David Bromberg