Tribute Bands are Hot KNOCK-OFFS OF ROCK ICONS GENERATE DISCOUNT FEVER By Jim Harrington Friday December 31, 2004 Wondering what music will be hot in 2005? Booking agents, promoters and music insiders predict local fans will line up in significant numbers to hear the sounds of AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Madonna and the Rolling Stones, even though none of these acts is scheduled to perform in the Bay Area. Their clones will be making the rounds over the next few weeks, and that should translate into packed clubs to hear the next best thing to the real thing. There's a long history of popular tribute acts in in this area, but, thanks to a whole new crop of talented newcomers, the scene is attracting new attention. "It seems to have gotten way hotter just recently," says Jimmy Arceneaux, the longtime talent buyer for the Edge in Palo Alto, who now books shows for the Pound nightclub in San Francisco. ``One of the reasons is probably that when you want to go see the original artists, especially at the larger venues, you have to take out a mortgage on your home. It's so expensive to go see AC/DC live at the Shoreline." But it's comparatively inexpensive to see AC/DShe, which performs tonight at Slim's in San Francisco, or other new tribute acts such as HOT FOR TEACHER (which salutes Van Halen) and Mandonna (which performs songs made famous by the Material Girl). (See companion article for a rundown on the hottest new tribute bands.) The current public fascination seems focused on tribute acts rather than cover bands, and that's quite different than a few years ago when the Cheeseballs and other good-time bands were lighting up clubs with thematic mixes of '70s and '80s dance hits. A true tribute act sticks to the repertoire of one artist. For example, an Elvis Presley tribute act does only the King's material. Perhaps even more significant is that the act usually does more than just perform the songs; it tries to re-create the experience of seeing the artist onstage. Many performers, including Bowling for Soup's Jaret Reddick, see tribute acts as a step up from a cover band. "I think tribute bands bring a little aura of coolness,'' says Reddick, a longtime cover-band veteran. "Most of the ones that we've seen actually do it really well. I just saw this article on this Queensryche tribute band, and the guy had Geoff Tate's `Rage for Order' haircut. If that guy is actually walking around during the day sporting that 'do, then he deserves a lot of credibility." Credibility is only part of the attraction. Sure, some picky fans turn out to see how closely the tribute act re-creates the concert experience, but most people come for far less cerebral reasons. "Above all else, it's a guaranteed good time,'' says Dawn Holiday, booking agent at Slim's nightclub in San Francisco. "It's always a fun show, and people love coming out to dance and sing along. A lot of the bands take their stage show very seriously, but there's also a bit of irony to the whole thing, too.'' |