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If You Were Going to Start a Tribute Band...


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Who would it be, and why would you make that choice?

 

Ground rules are you'd have no trouble finding other musicians, the drummer would show up on time, the guitar player wouldn't be a jerk, and you already had gigs booked for six months so there would be no roadblocks to making it happen.

 

But the main ground rule is you wouldn't HAVE to be a natural. In other words, you could do a Rolling Stones tribute band even if you didn't sound like Mick Jagger. We're assuming that through the magic of internet forums, you would in fact sound like him.

 

Ready...set...go!

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There are a few I would enjoy. Some would be much easier than others in terms of finding members. I was in a Motown tribute band for a couple of years, that was a blast.

Watching a full dance floor sing along to EVERYTHING is pretty awesome!!!!

 

I make no claims that others haven't started at least some of the tribute bands I think would be fun.

 

Blue Oyster Cult

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles

Bill Withers

Abba

The Band

Emmylou Harris

Prince

The Who

The Kinks

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Rush. Lots of fans out there who would love it.

 

I love their music, and I can play bass and keys and I can sing like Geddy.

 

Easy to find a drummer, who doesn't want to cover Neil Peart? Not so easy to find a guitarist, Alex has an unorthodox style in which he plays a lot more than just barre chords.

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I played in cover bands for years back when we were supposed to sound like whoever we were covering, Beatles, Stones, Lou Rawls, or whoever. The idea of a tribute band seems easy in comparison. We had to be a multiple tribute band :D

 

Today I'm doing a variety of genres and artists, sometimes covering their songs close, sometimes nothing like the original, and mostly shades of gray in-between. We play rock, disco, swing, jazz, country, R&B, blues, mambo, merengue, samba, calypso, soca, reggae, American standard jazz, top40 from 1955 t0 the present (but mostly 1955-2000), new age, smooth jazz, and one opera song.

 

To tell the truth, I'd rather do what I'm doing now than be confined to one artist or group.

 

So if I were forced to be in a tribute band today who would it be?

 

First I'd have to consider that even though I play sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals, my primary voice is saxophone. My secondary voice is my singing voice.

 

That narrows it down a bit, there aren't too many singing saxophone playing stars out there, so I would have to be Junior Walker & The All-Stars. Or Louis Prima with Sam Butera & The Witnesses, but I'd have to do the male singing and sax playing and Leilani could do the Keely Smith parts.

 

But in reality, I'd rather be doing what I'm doing now, playing a variety of artists and a variety of genres.

 

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Beatles. My favourite band and the best band ever. I've always secretly wanted to be John Lennon...

 

Well, you sound a lot like him. If you actually tried to mimic his voice, I bet you could really nail it.

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I've always wanted to do an act called The Deadful Great for Halloween gigs.. It would be songs by rock stars who are dead.

 

But if I had to limit myself to one tribute band, it would be Buddy Holly and the Crickets, for several extremely practical reasons:

 

* I'd only need to find a bass player and drummer.

* He didn't live long enough to record a zillion songs, so learning his entire catalog would be easy - handling requests would be a piece of cake.

* I'd only need to use a handful of chords.

* I look kind of geeky anyway.

 

Downside: I'd need to play a Strat, one of the few guitars with which I don't have great chemistry.

 

Other than that, it would be a no-brainer for me :)

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I already have a couple of projects dedicated to the music of others (I don't call them tribute bands, because that suggests note-for-note replicas and possibly costumes):

 

- Siembra All-Stars â we play the whole album Siembra by Willie Colón & Rubén Blades, as well as some other Rubén tunes from that era. I guess this counts as a tribute band, as we play the record note-for-note (minus the solos which we extend and improvise)

- The Stevie Wonder Songbook â instrumental versions of more obscure Stevie tunes. In the next phase of this band I want to focus on tunes he wrote for others that he never recorded (like "It's A Shame," "Tell Me Something Good," "Buttercup")

 

I've always wanted to be part of a Sly Stone project. I've long had the idea of a B-sides cover band, which take all the artists currently in repertoire rotation (Marvin Gaye, Stevie, Sly, Roberta Flack, etc) and play album cuts & B-sides instead.

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Ooooh, I forgot one. Might be a favorite project.

 

Warren Zevon

 

So many great tunes

Excitable Boy

Werewolves of London

Carmelita

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

Play It All Night Long

Lawyers Guns and Money

 

The band plays a couple already. I do a couple more on acoustic guitar.

A band doing Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner with backup singers and the whole nine yards would be stellar.

 

People would look at you funny, that's the best.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I've always wanted to be part of a Sly Stone project.

 

Dude! :2thu:

 

Yep, great choice!! The Motown tribute band I was in 12 years ago played Dance To The Music, Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf, Everybody Is a Star and Hot Fun In the Summertime.. Dance floor sing-along every time.

Truly one of the great bands ever!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I have trouble separating myself from thoughts of what would sell, what would be popular, what tribute bands already exist in the area, etc. Plus I've always preferred "Theme Bands" to tribute bands. You can still focus on a limited set of artists but still get some variety and don't have to play the part of a specific person. In fact you can change your persona per song. This was my 80s band back in the day:

 

[video:youtube]

 

I'm doing keys, rhythm guitar, and sax as well as a few lead vocals in that one.

 

I would like to do Styx, Foreigner, Kansas, and Supertramp in a theme band, but one already exists in St. Louis called Superjam: clonk besides that we already have a Journey Tribute, a Styx Tribute, a Kansas Tribute, etc..... and they are all good.

 

What Tribute DON'T we have that we need? That's a head scratcher. I'm working on possibly squeezing my way into a Garbage tribute later this year if their current keyboard player moves out of town.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Great stuff J Dan!!! Quality all the way too, excelent video and sound production.

 

4 years running we had a Theme band once a year - Nate Butler and the Band from Hell. Every Halloween at Club Fred in Fresno. I guess there is probably some really crappy video out there somewhere.

We had costumes, skits, props, stunts. Rocky Horror, Blue Oyster Cult, all sorts of fun tunes. I was lead guitar and backup vocals.

 

AND, probably my greatest "Rock and Roll Moment". I looked off the left and briefly locked eyes with Little Red Riding Hood, who was forcing her way into the jam-packed club. It was the Bad Terry in disguise.

She made her way to my side of the stage, leaned over and puked all over my multi-colored glitter tennis shoes!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Latest band I tried to put together was a 90's female fronted "alternative" rock theme - Garbage, Hole, Breeders, Veruca Salt, Sneaker Pimps, etc. All hinged on the right lead vocalist - had plenty of pro musicians lined up to back it up. The perfect singer said I "read her mind" and would love to do it. Messages went back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, and it never happened. She's in high demand and had no time and everybody else lost patience. I think it would have done well.

 

 

At the time of the above video, I was the band leader of that band. I had been with them for about 5 years at that time but left about a year after the video due to divorce and time restrictions with my schedule with my kids and conflicts with my day job. It was paying about $40k/yr per member only paying Friday and Saturday nights, local only. Nice side income, just couldn't do it anymore.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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On to the next!

 

Not an era I am familiar with, I don't actually listen to much music at all.

I could if I wanted to, I just don't.

 

It's always tough putting a team together. If you can get it off the ground then it's usually not that hard to find replacements.

At one point the band in Fresno had a total of 9 people that could 'plug and play." The lead singer was the only non-module, except for the time he lost his voice. We filled in and pulled it off but scrambing!

I was in on most of it, lead guitar and bass so I could always be useful.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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[video:youtube]

 

I'm doing keys, rhythm guitar, and sax as well as a few lead vocals in that one.

 

 

Mate that was a ripper. I so enjoyed that. Had me to the end. Memories hee hee. you guys were great. Gotta see more?

 

I was so hoping you'd do the Cyndi Lauper lead break i reckon thats a distinguishing 80s pop lead. I always appreciated its off the wall out there style.

 

My musical hey day was Aussie 80s rock but we dresssed different than what is usually considered 80s dress. For Sydney audiences more MENTAL AS ANYTHING meets COLD CHISEL meets AUSSIE CRAWL Dress sense i guess but I always tried to up the ante a bit with more 80s flare but Sydneys suburbs was still more subdued dress wise i believe. And i know we all lived a sudued dress style in the burbs in noral life. But you know a tribute band today in aussie would have to dress the video dress. Past Reality is only a video away hee hee

 

Although we were mostly original songs at least we would intro with B52s Planet Claire (before they sold out to popularism but Still love them even when they had). I thought it important to start with what i considered an experimental style song so audieces would not expect the expected and it worked(thankyou B52s). The 80s to me is what i called experiental music and i think thats why i love it even today. It was the last decade where I believe bands took chances musically.

 

You guys did it well and with an underlying wink wink.

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With the premise that I don't need to worry about musicians etc. I'd prefer a full band that can really rock out when it needs too. Along the lines of the E Street band, Silver Bullet Band, Tom Petty, etc.. Rod Stewart had at least 17 musicians when I saw him a couple years back.

 

More practically I can cover some good Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, Bob Seger, Steve Earle and Mellencamp occasionally along with others.

 

I was approached last year about joining a No Doubt tribute band but was not interested. There was a good Pink Floyd tribute band in the area a while back which definitely would have interested me.

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Mate that was a ripper. I so enjoyed that. Had me to the end. Memories hee hee. you guys were great. Gotta see more?

 

I was so hoping you'd do the Cyndi Lauper lead break i reckon thats a distinguishing 80s pop lead. I always appreciated its off the wall out there style.

 

There are full versions of each of the songs in the compilation. Won't embed all of them here but you can click the ones you want below:

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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J. Dan - Those are effing great! You could make a lot of money playing on 80s-themed cruises. They're already booking for next year. There are a bunch of people running these kind of cruises, the Time-Life ones done with Star Vista are good at it.

 

They are looking for actual stars of particular eras, but they always need bands that can do 80s tribute material. If I was them and saw the videos you posted, I'd be calling you ASAP.

 

The only "problem" is I like some your versions better than the originals :)

 

(Meanwhile, I hope your job hunt is going okay...)

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Gave this some thought before posting. I think I would do a Nightwish tribute. Endless keys and orchestral stuff, the keyboard player is the songwriter, and he doesn't have to sing lol. Funny thing is that I am not a metal person, but Nightwish is more like epic orchestral music. As long as we could keep stage volume to a reasonable level, it would be awesome.

 

#2 would be a Mannheim Steamroller tribute - everything, not just the holiday albums.

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There are full versions of each of the songs in the compilation. Won't embed all of them here but you can click the ones you want below:

 

Ah Cyndis lead break fantastic. Its an iconic and inspired part of that song.

 

Ahhh Frederick William Schneider III..

.hee hee you got his voice his wonderfull underground experimental muscian voice..great

 

Ah love shack the sellout to popularism song. I still thought it a great song and still B52ish but the B52s singing about a love shack how crass how utterly auditorium filling thats not my B52s is it. And the flintstones come on.

 

Sometimes its hard to see your fav bands making main stream they are no longer yours they're now everyones

hee hee. Good luck to them. They deserved mainstream admiration.

 

Early DEVO, TALKING HEADS, B52S AND many others the experimental music we will never see again in those late 70s early 80s. Thats it for me the bands fooling around with the unknown.

 

But whos keyboards inspired me most in my beginning band years well "the Cars". Brilliant sharing between guitarist and keys without a fight. Not experimental music but briiliant.

 

Thanks for those videos i enjoyed them I could see you on COUNTDOWN with Molly Meldrum saying "do yourself a favour" but youd have to lip sync for the show. The Aussies will get thiese references.

 

To me the 80s ended somewhere 85 maybe 87

 

It started around 77 with early bands hitting their popularity around 1980 itself.

 

Here we were pub rock live shows so a different music generally but some still off the wall. If you were playing in the local "Rissole" (RSL club) the DJ would be playing these very songs you played in the break. The pubs generally being small didnt have a DJ break back then although that did change as years went on so the mainstream video songs were filling the dancefloors.

 

So which band would i like to do a tribute now.

 

Well my favourite Aussie band ... Aussie Crawl

 

hey and i actually moved interstate recently to their old stomping grounds and ive introduced some of their songs to my current band.

 

But Which band inspired me most in my early years. Which was my first love that i always wanted to do a tribute to.. well one from your part of the world. But a band that gets maligned the most. And I only found them 10 years after they were famous.

 

Their obscure songs id love to do the most. But tribute bands need to play a bands most famous songs shame. So i couldn't put this as the tribute id do as id prefer to their lessor known songs. Its The Monkees.

 

Best pop/country rock band ever. (So much country rock in their catalogue but its never mentioned). You should be proud of their and their collaborators contribution to american music.

 

Yep i always wanted to do a Monkees inspired band but not necessarily doing their well known songs but doing their lessor known gems. Untill youve listened to their full catalogue and also appreciate/know which songs the boys actually wrote you can never claim to know them.

 

I didnt actually care it was a tribute i just wanted to play their obscure songs live.

 

Go figure?

 

 

So Aussie Crawl it is for me

 

So do "yourself a favour" as Molly would say and look them up.

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