What does everyone think of tribute bands? I find them a little strange. I went to see one last night, a Green Day tribute. Main reason I went was because my buddy was opening up for them with an accoustic set. Anyway, they were really good. The thing that I thought was lame was that they were all dressed like Billy Joe, with the exception of one guy, who looked like Billy Idol. There were also 4 guys in the band. Like I said, they were good. The singer even sounded a bit like Billy Joe, and acted like him too. I thought the music was good, but thought the theatrics were a bit unnecessary. But then maybe that's what separates a tribute band from a cover band. It was cool though, hearing alot of my favorite Green Day songs played live.
The Schwag and Dark Star Orchestra are awsome Grateful Dead tribute bands. When I see them I find myself thinking "its a shame that such a tallented band only plays grateful dead tunes" and then I think "wait a minute, this shit is fuckin awsome!"
Yea man, At a Dark Star Orchestra Show if you close your eyes you swear its The Grateful Dead, every thing from the guitar style to the vocals. I love that they do it, i just dont know if i would ever want to be in one because that whole creative sense, of writing your own material and performing what you wrote is gone. Your just playing what other people wrote instead. But Thier increadible and I am glad thier are tribute bands out there to bring back the experience.
I play with a group that does gigs as a tribute band at times, but its not the only thing we do, and it opens doors for shows that we otherwise wouldnt get. We often end up getting more gigs for our own material from doing the tribute shows than we do being just another band doing either covers or originals. Plus, its damn fun, and noone is gonna be in a tribute to a band they dont like, so doing someone elses songs isnt a big deal. There are usually a few nice covers in every show we did anyway. We got so many comparisons with our own songs that it was easy to do the cover songs folks asked for all the time, and lump it into one night. Not to mention that most of the people at the shows know the songs for tribute bands, and its great to surprise them with obscure stuff. And if you do your songs well enough, you get to meet and jam with the folks that did write it! It also depends on the tribute, there are some that just cant be taken seriously, and some that take themselves way too seriously. But then, thats most any music, not just tribute bands.
Tribute bands=REALLY bad idea. If it's been done already by someone better, why bother? Most of the time the members of the tribute bands are excellent. So go make your own material! Why listen to a knock-off of someone? They'd be much better off doing their own thing. Why play in a tribute band when you can do your own thing, perhaps make it big and inspire people to play YOUR stuff? BE ORIGINAL!!!
Why Bother? good question, lets ask any of the bands that have ever done others material that. I mean, besides tribute bands, nearly every group does songs written by others. It must be that its not that bad an idea! Just think if thats what someone had told Jimi when he said he was gonna do All Along the Watchtower. this I will give ya... Some tribute bands blow, but they should each be judged on their own. I dont see doing a tribute to a band that still plays, but many do shows with music from bands that dont play at all anymore, and are the only way to see them! Original vs. Covers As for better off doing my own music, not only do we still do our original compositions, we get more gigs for them by making ourselves seen to larger crowds doing the tributes. Plus its fun! We include our original material in the tribute shows, and get tons more notice for them now that we did being just one of a billion other useless noname original only groups. Its supply and demand, original groups are a dime-a-dozen and dont play recognizeable songs. People at our shows get a band that they cant see perform anymore, songs that are known as well as so rare & obscure the band that did them didnt play them live. The die hard fans have given us great feedback on our arrangements of the songs they know so well, and the folks that dont know the artists get a live introduction to great songs they havent heard. We still write, record, and perform our own songs at the same rate as we did before doing trib. gigs. We still have a nice following for our original sounds, but doing the tribs has broadened that considerably. The difference is that we are no longer starving, playing shows for half filled houses, and getting no airplay. We get airplay on radio, make a little money, and have nice crowds for the songs we do - no matter who wrote them. We get nice press, and it opens a LOT of doors that stay closed to other groups. Whats the problem with that? Let me put this a different way... I used to get heard by the guy down the street or the kid in the next town. Now I get heard by the musicians who made the music in your CD collection, and venues packed to the gills. I just got an email this week from someone who played guitar for a group at the Monterey Pop Festival praising our work..... now who am I gonna believe that tribute bands are a bad idea, a guy in the RnR HOF, or wizardDrew77?
If the band is still "alive", a tribute band isn't a very good idea. But if the band is "dead" then yes, it can be a great idea. I've seen 5 tribute bands, 2 Pink Floyd tribute bands, 1 for Iron Maiden, 1 for zeppelin and 1 for Hendrix. First Floyd tribute was good, band was called "the pink floyd experiment". It was okay, i'm not quite sure yet if it was worth the money.. Second Floyd tribute gig was "Aussie Floyd", THEY WERE AMAZING. I cried several times, i couldn't stop giggling, it truely blew me away. The show they put on is great. They're australian, so they had a huge pink kangaroo blow up fly over the audience instead of a pig. It was really great. They sold out the Bell Center here in Montreal, that's amazing, i mean it is a tribute band. I'll be seeing them again on December 8th.(www.aussiefloyd.com). The Iron Maiden thing was sh-t, they played The Medley here in Montreal, it's a bar, so you know, i could have guessed it would have been crap. It was really horrible. They were all dressed like them, it really sucked, the voice wasn't that great and the guitar, well, let's not mention the guitar. Then the Zeppelin thing, i should have guessed no one can sing like Plant, or sh-t, even come close to playing like Jimmy. It was at the Medley also..I will never go there again. Even if it's free. I'm not even going to mention the Hendrix tribute. The guy was white, he's pasted his face with brown paint, his hands too. He was "dressed" like hendrix, but in reality he looked like some disco fanatic strung out on cocain from the late 70s. It was like an insult to great music. I didn't know weither to laugh or to cry. So, basicly, tribute bands are a good idea 1/5 times, if that.
Chill out, my god.. Did you even read his whole post? Obviously not. If you see no truth in this, you've probably just never been to a good tribute gig, or heck maybe you've juste never been to a tribute gig at all.
I've seen Bjorn Again ,an australian Abba rip-off that was actualy very amuzing and I love the Blue Floyd live shows that i have on cdr, the great musicians Mark Ford, Matt Abts,Allen Woody,Johny Neel and Berry Oakley playing Pink Floyd songs :H
Im seeing them in Moncton New brunswick Im pretty pshyced www.aussiefloyd.com check out their audio and video they're really good
i dont see a problem with a tribute band that is paying tribute to a band that no longer exists... but when there are these bands that are covering bands that are still around like green day or DMB... i find it sad.. how can you pay tribute to someone when their career aint even over... their still writing new music.. i mean come on.. wait til their gone... then start playing their music
well, joker, I know that SCI is NOTHING like the band I loved now...so let some other pack of ski bum hippies play those magical tunes that have been shelved. Music is meant to be set free and sent forth. A tribute has GOT to be good, or it's an insult. I didn't like DSO (hey, it's my right..their "donna" was better, tho) so much, but I adore the Schwag. Played with 'em, too, once. I've seen horrid tributes (mostly Dead) and I've seen tributes that I liked, even if I was not big on the original. (like Phix)
I missed the Australian Pink Floyd...They are supposed to be just amazing. They spend so much on their light show. In fact they're supposed to be so good that they played at (i think) Roger Waters birthday and they got to jam together. I did get to see Stairway to Zeppelin (guess what band!) and the L.A.Doors and it's great to see a band playing the songs you love. And its not just seeing the band. There's usually a great atomosphere at these type of gigs.
