Tribute bands

[JailTime]

Anyone in one? I've never been too keen on the idea, but I'm kind of an originals band snob. They seem to be popping up at pretty big venues and for a wide variety of bands.

 

I was thinking a brilliant tribute band would be called Kiss of the Dead and it would be all Kiss and Grateful Dead songs. That would be awesome. Or maybe not. No?

[wardjames]

I think the thing about tribute bands is that they work...but it's a lot harder than you'd expect. You can't just throw out a bunch of barband versions of a single artist, you've got to put on a SHOW, and really cop the vibe of the original artist.

 

One of the most successful tribute bands around here in San Diego is Cash'd Out, a Johnny Cash tribute band. They're tight, and they put on an amazing, energetic show. Doug, their singer, doesn't look like Johnny Cash, but he gives out this Cash-like vibe that really makes it work. Their guitar player doesn't play the recordings note for note, and definitely injects some of himself in there, but he cops that Luther Perkins vibe so much that you can imagine it was Luther playing at a live show.

 

So I think they're great, but only if you put a lot of effort into getting it right.

[jimiv]

Anyone in one? I've never been too keen on the idea, but I'm kind of an originals band snob. They seem to be popping up at pretty big venues and for a wide variety of bands. I was thinking a brilliant tribute band would be called Kiss of the Dead and it would be all Kiss and Grateful Dead songs. That would be awesome. Or maybe not. No?

 

I'm thinking it would be harder than your usual tribute band to do a Kiss show, just because their whole show was about the SHOW. You would really have to camp it up to do it justice. Grateful Dead,...not so much. But as WardJames says, if you do go tribute, vocals must be on, backgrounds need to be there, band has to be tight and the show must be there.

 

I think this is where classic rock has gone around here.

[Nijyo]

 

I'm thinking it would be harder than your usual tribute band to do a Kiss show, just because their whole show was about the SHOW. You would really have to camp it up to do it justice. Grateful Dead,...not so much. But as WardJames says, if you do go tribute, vocals must be on, backgrounds need to be there, band has to be tight and the show must be there. I think this is where classic rock has gone around here.

 

 

Yeah, christ, i'd be super expensive and super work intensive to pull off a really good KISS tribute.

 

But there's another way to go about it, too, if you have a schtick. i.eThe Iron Maidens

[tim_7string]

Saw quite a few of them at the local rock club. The most recent one was a Heart tribute at a different bar. The one portraying Ann Wilson was an amazing singer and you kind of have to be. That woman is incredible!

 

I have considered it over the years, but have never taken the plunge. The first tribute band I saw was Beatlemania! in 1995 around the time of the Anthology TV miniseries and CDs. I thought it was great! They are fun to watch, especially to see how far the act will go to channel the original artists.

 

I was in a band where the bandleader was planning on doing a Neil Diamond tribute. He has been talking about this for years, and still hasn't done anything with it. I think he is worried about the expense of hiring a lot of musicians. He would be a good candidate for using backing tracks, I think.

 

I don't know how comfortable I would be in trying to ape the vibe of a show, as well as how famous musicians acted and talked onstage and to the audience. It would be kind of like a play, or more properly a musical, so if I approached it in that way, it could be fun.

 

Artists or bands that I think I could do justice tributing would be The Doors, Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne, The Cars and Megadeth. Maaaaybe Metallica.

[Austincowbell]

Here in Austin a Beatles tribute band called "The Eggmen" wins cover band of the year almost every year. But... Those guys wear period correct costumes and change depending on what songs they are playing as well as changing their entire backline fir different sets. Tribute bands are far from easy but if you pull them off you will be paid handsomely.

[jimiv]

 

I don't know how comfortable I would be in trying to ape the vibe of a show, as well as how famous musicians acted and talked onstage and to the audience. It would be kind of like a play, or more properly a musical, so if I approached it in that way, it could be fun.

 

 

I never thought of it that way, but you're right. I would think the most successful tribute bands would be the ones treating the show part (obviously the tight band thing is a given) like a play, including copping the personalities and habits of each musician, choreographing, perhaps infamous onstage antics, etc.

[Marc G]

I was in a band where the bandleader was planning on doing a Neil Diamond tribute.

 

This is what you made me think of...

 

[TrickyBoy]

I've never been in one, but I think tribute bands would be hard freakin work. Especially one like a Kiss cover band or anything 80's. The one's I've seen that were good had it all, the musicianship, the sound, the look, the show, the lights, etc. etc.

 

A real "tribute band", IMO, is so much more than just playing the songs of one artist. It's all the attention to detail that makes it so hard.

[kmart]

 

I never thought of it that way, but you're right. I would think the most successful tribute bands would be the ones treating the show part (obviously the tight band thing is a given) like a play, including copping the personalities and habits of each musician, choreographing, perhaps infamous onstage antics, etc.

 

 

 

 

Personally disagree with that:

 

I'm in a Clash tribute. We cop a general vibe and have played around with a general look of the band attire-wise, but nothing like actively trying to 'be' them onstage. We even have our bassist singing most of the Mick Jones vocals, with our lead guitarist singing backups only.

 

We get FANTASTIC response from crowds and I've personally been told numerous times, including by people who were there, then, and who shared stages with the actual band, that musically, we do a better job of delivering their songs than they ever did themselves (because more often than not, there were drink/drugs at play, and/or band fights, etc.)

 

Obviously, it's a niche band, with a smaller audience than someone like KISS or even Johnny Cash would have.

We know that: we're not trying to make it a huge-$ deal that gigs every weekend. Or every month, for that matter: we are pretty selective in when & where we play, maybe doing half a dozen shows a year. Mostly looking at fests and events who are looking for something different. The people who 'get' what we're doing REALLY get into it.

[ckcondon]

There's a GNR tribute band that comes through here a lot. The dude who plays AXL is spot-on. The guitarist doesn't really look like slash, just a dude with a wig,hat and Les Paul. For sure the frontperson is the key element. If you don't have a killer Bono, don't even think about a U2 tribute!

Tribute bands are theater and you have to ACT not just play. That's where a lot of these projects fail.

[rangefinder]

IDK I asked some people around here about the idea (small city in upstate NY), and they said you wouldn't get enough work locally because a particular venue isn't going to want to rebook you very often. So I think you'd have to be in a big city or be a regional band, or do it as a side project (in which case it might not be worth the work).

[wardjames]

 

Tribute bands are far from easy but if you pull them off you will be paid handsomely.

 

 

+1...that's it in a nutshell.

[wardjames]

 

Saw quite a few of them at the local rock club. The most recent one was a Heart tribute at a different bar. The one portraying Ann Wilson was an amazing singer and you kind of have to be. That woman is incredible! I have considered it over the years, but have never taken the plunge. The first tribute band I saw was Beatlemania! in 1995 around the time of the Anthology TV miniseries and CDs. I thought it was great! They are fun to watch, especially to see how far the act will go to channel the original artists. I was in a band where the bandleader was planning on doing a Neil Diamond tribute. He has been talking about this for years, and still hasn't done anything with it. I think he is worried about the expense of hiring a lot of musicians. He would be a good candidate for using backing tracks, I think. I don't know how comfortable I would be in trying to ape the vibe of a show, as well as how famous musicians acted and talked onstage and to the audience. It would be kind of like a play, or more properly a musical, so if I approached it in that way, it could be fun. Artists or bands that I think I could do justice tributing would be The Doors, Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne, The Cars and Megadeth. Maaaaybe Metallica.

 

 

Actually there's a Neil Diamond tribute band in Southern California called Super Diamond that does really well. I think any iconic artist can be done.

[Vito Corleone]

 

Tribute bands are theater and you have to ACT not just play. That's where a lot of these projects fail.

 

 

Tribute bands all started out this way. Then it later devolved into all sorts of bands calling themselves "tribute" acts---many of whom were nothing more than cover bands who only did covers from one band. BIG difference, IMO.

[Vito Corleone]

There's a guy in Sacramento who does (or at least used to do) both a Cars and a Tom Petty tribute act. He sort of looked like Petty and Ocasek to begin with sohe'd put on a wig and try to sing like them, but there wasn't a WHOLE lot of other effort that went into it. Taking more effort to do some staging and getting the rest of the band to be in character to at least SOME degree would have gone a long ways towards giving the audience the "experience" they are seeking when to go to see a tribute band. Consequently the act was never more than a B-level act that played smaller casino rooms.

[TrickyBoy]

 

Personally disagree with that: I'm in a Clash tribute. We cop a general vibe and have played around with a general look of the band attire-wise, but nothing like actively trying to 'be' them onstage. We even have our bassist singing most of the Mick Jones vocals, with our lead guitarist singing backups only. We get FANTASTIC response from crowds and I've personally been told numerous times, including by people who were there, then, and who shared stages with the actual band, that musically, we do a better job of delivering their songs than they ever did themselves (because more often than not, there were drink/drugs at play, and/or band fights, etc.) Obviously, it's a niche band, with a smaller audience than someone like KISS or even Johnny Cash would have. We know that: we're not trying to make it a huge-$ deal that gigs every weekend. Or every month, for that matter: we are pretty selective in when & where we play, maybe doing half a dozen shows a year. Mostly looking at fests and events who are looking for something different. The people who 'get' what we're doing REALLY get into it.

 

 

I can agree with this with regards to a Clash tribute band. The Clash were never what I would consider to be a big "show" band (I could be wrong, never saw them live).

 

However, I think if you're talking about Kiss on any of the big arena 80's bands, hell even Led Zep or Aerosmith, the ACT is going to become a more prominent part of the show.

[jimiv]

I would love to be in a Clash tribute band. I think that would be alot of fun

[wardjames]

 

Tribute bands all started out this way. Then it later devolved into all sorts of bands calling themselves "tribute" acts---many of whom were nothing more than cover bands who only did covers from one band. BIG difference, IMO.

 

 

Yeah, as much as cover bands need to put on a show to be successful, tribute bands even more so. A quick search of San Diego's craigslist showed 12 ads for Tribute Bands forming...it's huge here...but there's rarely any ones that consistently gig.

 

When we went through the transition from playing obscure classic country to more popular stuff we flirted with the idea of becoming a Garth Brooks or George Strait tribute, but decided against it. It's not as easy as a lot of guys make it sound.

[3shiftgtr]

I was thinking a brilliant tribute band would be called Kiss of the Dead and it would be all Kiss and Grateful Dead songs. That would be awesome. Or maybe not. No?

 

...Or how about a band called Pink Feat that does all Pink Floyd and Little Feat tunes.

 

...Or Finger Bone that does all Finger 11 and Fishbone tunes.

 

...Jethro's Theater that does all Jethro Tull and Dream Theater.

 

...Or Tower of Tull that does all Tull and Tower of Power tunes.

 

...Or Limp Temple X that does all Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilots, and King's X tunes.

 

...Or Stone Foot Garden that does all Stone Temple Pilots, Switchfoot, and Soundgarden tunes....

 

Stop me before I kill again...

[bish0p34]

I did a Trans-Siberian Orchestra tribute for 6 years, and we were all about copping the entire performance. I feel you have to be in order to stand out from cover bands doing a night of someone's music. There a lot of bands just doing that, and being handsomely rewarded for it.

 

However, we all wore tuxes, copped the jumping antics from certain songs, had the big light show, snow machines, hazers, narrations between songs, etc.

 

My last band, M80 could have been a big show room band, but our female lead fought over a modern image and refused to wear the anything other than all black. I thought if we wore the vivid colors of the 80's and the singers did some outfit changes, and some more choreographed moves we could have made a lot more money in bigger rooms. I wore a Devo outfit, a nerd outfit, and others. She always fought saying we should wear all black, two of the guys were too lazy to fight, and one was too vain to dress 80's. What a shame.

 

Some Canadian bands I met in AC do all the costume changes with great choregraphy, and play to crowds of 10,000+ people fairly often.

[bish0p34]

The most interesting one I saw was Blue Floyd, doing bluesy renditions of Pink Floyd tunes.

[Vito Corleone]

 

When we went through the transition from playing obscure classic country to more popular stuff we flirted with the idea of becoming a Garth Brooks or George Strait tribute, but decided against it. It's not as easy as a lot of guys make it sound.

 

 

No. And if you want to make any money doing it (and there is VERY good money to be made) you've got to be in a position to take it on the road, at least to some degree. You're going to do casinos, festivals, fairs, big nightclubs, etc. That means being a regional act. You can't be a Garth Brooks tribute and play the same room once a month. People will tire of it.

[antonioctd]

I'm in a Maiden tribute band...

 

It's way harder than you'd think because you'll always be compared to the original artist.

 

When people go see a tribute show they expect an exact copy of the original. Including stage presence, similar vocal tone and similar clothes and stage decoration.

 

This is my band. Far from perfect... But we are working on it!

 

[video=youtube;1vxYmVEXAkQ]

[Vito Corleone]

 

The most interesting one I saw was Blue Floyd, doing bluesy renditions of Pink Floyd tunes.

 

 

I think that THESE guys pretty much invented the Tribute/Mash Up concept:

 

[video=youtube;Kpp0IwCb0A0]