Tribute bands, what's your opinion?

[RhytmEarl]

I was reading a thread about Randy Hansen on another board and I was wondering what the concensus about tribute or clone bands was here?

It's odd to me that in any other art form, a copy cat would either be laughed out of the room or sued for plagarism. Tribute painter? Tribute sculptor?

But yet for every band that's made it big, there's a dozen bands of varying talent copying them note for note.

I admire the physical dexterity some bands have in pulling it off but my Ipod has as much artistry as these musicians.

[SteveO]

If the artist or band is no longer around, or seldom performs in a certain area, a tribute band can be a cool thing.

[lakehaus]

Personally, I'm fine with it. I have seen a couple trib bands, and they've been entertaining for the moment.

Funny, I don't own any music put out by tribute bands - but I do own music done in tribute to one artist - like a collection of Jimi Hendrix tunes by various well known artists.

[fetishfrog]

If there were an 'indifferent' option, I'd choose that.

Personally I can't imagine ever making the trip out to hear one, and, unless the money was right, I'd probably never play in one. I do have several friends who play in them, and they provided much needed income to those folks. I certainly don't have some insane 'artist superiority complex' about them...they are fine, just not my cup of tea.

[RhytmEarl]

Originally Posted by lakehaus

Personally, I'm fine with it. I have seen a couple trib bands, and they've been entertaining for the moment.

Funny, I don't own any music put out by tribute bands - but I do own music done in tribute to one artist - like a collection of Jimi Hendrix tunes by various well known artists.

That's a slightly different animal IMO. CDs done by "in tribute" to an artist or band are not what I normally call a "tribute band".

I'd that a collection of covers. They're not trying to re-create the songs note for note and nuance for nuance.

[Overdriver18]

I have no problems with tribute bands, but i do have problems with bands that only play popular covers. I can't stand the fact that essentially every single band from my area either knows only "Sweet Child O' Mine" and van halens version of "You Really Got Me" or they only know death metal covers. Every single band i've started has had people who refuse to write music and only want to play covers of songs people know.

My personal favorite was when i was in a band i played with about a year ago. We were an instrumental band solely because none of us could find a singer that didn't want to sing covers, and the drummer came to me a couple weeks before our first gig and said "We should do some covers so people will know some of the songs" completely ignorant of the fact that if we play a cover without lyrics, no one will know the song.

[RhytmEarl]

Originally Posted by fetishfrog

If there were an 'indifferent' option, I'd choose that.

Personally I can't imagine ever making the trip out to hear one, and, unless the money was right, I'd probably never play in one. I do have several friends who play in them, and they provided much needed income to those folks. I certainly don't have some insane 'artist superiority complex' about them...they are fine, just not my cup of tea.

Ya, should have put indifferent in there as a choice. That's sort of where I lie on the subject. 60/40 with 60 being the negative.

[lakehaus]

Originally Posted by RhytmEarl

That's a slightly different animal IMO. CDs done by "in tribute" to an artist or band are not what I normally call a "tribute band".

I'd that a collection of covers. They're not trying to re-create the songs note for note and nuance for nuance.

I wasn't clear in my point, but that was it. I don't have any albums done by a tribute band, but I do have at least one done in tribute.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[shredtrash]

I played in one for a while and had A LOT of fun so yeah, I dig 'em.

[90wreck]

"You only do songs by one band?"

Have seen and worked with a few that were pretty good, but won't go into any other details.
Edit: O.k....just one. I actually said "You are not Robert Plant, you are a LZ cover band"
This was after the lead singer was an ass for the 3rd time backstage. It pretty much shut him down and he left the gig mad...haha.

[gstan]

Here in Birmingham we've got this conglomeration of local musicians that do a thing called the Black Jacket Symphony. What they do is take a classic rock album and perform it as close to note for note, tone for tone as possible. In August they did "Let It Bleed". They've done Zep, Floyd, ABB, Beatles.
http://www.blackjacketsymphony.com/

[Totally Bored]

Well I remember a thread where a Led Zep cover band did a gig and Jimmy Page showed up to the gig. The band was thrilled and took alot of photos with Jimmy and Jimmy really enjoyed it. He had a big smile on his face in those photos.

If Led Zep tribute bands are good enough for Jimmy Page than they are good enough for me. I never played in one but I wouldn't mind doing Zep covers for a entire show. My gig last weekend we did all Zep stuff for the 3rd set so what the heck. Crowd loved it and the club owner dug the heck out of it. He said that he never had a band play all zep stuff before and he never heard a band play "when the levee breaks" and "no quarter" before.

[fenderball]

STEEL DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Luke]

If you like, you go. If not, then not.

The guitarist that was in KISS and the singer in Judas Priest both were in tribute bands and by knowing the songs already made for nearly seamless transitions for each.

[Scott Peterson]

We took my kids and some of their friends to see the "Fab Four" this summer; they are a premier Beatles tribute. They were seriously good; and played everything live, looked the part and sounded the part. It was a fun night.