Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 26, 2012 11:51:11 GMT
For me cover bands are pub bands.
I know that may well offend the sensibilities of some of them who think they are one step removed from the real thing.
But you are NOT and never ever will be.
It's a good night out in a pub with a few beers and some good company sharing a love of a band with some guys who play instruments and a singer who can imitate probably the dead or at best very old nowadays former lead singer of the band.
Bands like the ABBA imitators have filled Wembley Arena (the old Empire Pool) and we see a lot of trib bands moving up a notch to the O2/Academy type venue.
But what essentially IS the charm of the tribute band.
Do we think by seeing them in a larger venue that we are somehow recreating a show from the bands heyday?
Because we are NOT really even if in our drink haze fuelled analysis we think we are.
I recently had a chance to experience both sides of the coin with The Strange Doors in a Camden pub and Doors Alive at the O2 in Sheffield.
I enjoyed both nights.
Neither venue was full.
The O2 was barely half full on Saturday night.
So my question/s is.
Is the quest to play the larger venues a step too far for tribute bands?
Yes they stand to earn more but does it diminish the enjoyment of a good pub atmosphere?
Are these people beginning to get a bit too big for the boots they assume themselves worthy of wearing?
For me these type of bands are PUB bands and I enjoy sitting in a pub watching a bit of good music from people who are fans of bands I like or love.
I saw a Zeppelin tribute in Paris a couple of years back and they were great.
Their poster said something about it being 'almost like the real thing'.
But having seen the real thing their poster was a pipedream because they were nothing like the real thing at all.
They were a pub tribute band whilst Zeppelin were the greatest rock band that has ever walked the earth.
Just standing in front of the Knebworth stage knowing that Led Zeppelin were about to make an appearance sent the hairs on my arms and neck a tingle and I can still remember what I felt like over 30 years after the event.
I saw Doors Alive on Saturday and have already forgotten most of that part of the weekend as I went to hang out with mates and remember that part but the gig side of it was to me not much different than being in a pub with a good jukebox.
But I can remember the real thing from bands I love from nearly 40 years ago. But a trib band lingers in my memory for just a finite moment like the warm glow of a fire that wears off once you get back in the snow and rain.
Same with Doors tribs.
My fave band of all time ever is The Doors.
I sadly never saw them but instinctively know beyond any doubt in my mind that watching TSD or DA is NOT anything even close to watching a Doors gig from the 60s or even during their sunset year 1970 when they were more capable of being at their most awful.
The article featured in the link below says some uncomplimentary things about trib bands which I think unfair as I genuinely do enjoy the night out in their company.
Even some of the bad ones who I always credit for trying and respect them for their liking my fave band. I think there is a niche for the tribute band especially for folks who never had the chance to experience the 60s or 70s.
But how far should that niche extend?
But for the trib bands to try to emulate the band they try to emulate by heading for the larger venues.
Not sure on that one myself.
I tend to favour the pub gig but admit that I enjoyed the DA in their larger Paris gig last July
But my vague memories of it are nothing like my memory of being six foot away watching Robert Plant with The Honeydrippers in a Teesside club in 1982 or seeing BOC's first gig in England in 1975 or being part of a 15 minute standing ovation for Lindisfarne at Newcastle City Hall in 1976 before they even played a note.
Which I can still remember huge chunks of like it was yesterday
Which tells me all I need to know really about the Real Thing and those who pay tribute to them by trying to be a carbon copy.
Doors cover bands: For or against
TSD Camden 2012
I know that may well offend the sensibilities of some of them who think they are one step removed from the real thing.
But you are NOT and never ever will be.
It's a good night out in a pub with a few beers and some good company sharing a love of a band with some guys who play instruments and a singer who can imitate probably the dead or at best very old nowadays former lead singer of the band.
Bands like the ABBA imitators have filled Wembley Arena (the old Empire Pool) and we see a lot of trib bands moving up a notch to the O2/Academy type venue.
But what essentially IS the charm of the tribute band.
Do we think by seeing them in a larger venue that we are somehow recreating a show from the bands heyday?
Because we are NOT really even if in our drink haze fuelled analysis we think we are.
I recently had a chance to experience both sides of the coin with The Strange Doors in a Camden pub and Doors Alive at the O2 in Sheffield.
I enjoyed both nights.
Neither venue was full.
The O2 was barely half full on Saturday night.
So my question/s is.
Is the quest to play the larger venues a step too far for tribute bands?
Yes they stand to earn more but does it diminish the enjoyment of a good pub atmosphere?
Are these people beginning to get a bit too big for the boots they assume themselves worthy of wearing?
For me these type of bands are PUB bands and I enjoy sitting in a pub watching a bit of good music from people who are fans of bands I like or love.
I saw a Zeppelin tribute in Paris a couple of years back and they were great.
Their poster said something about it being 'almost like the real thing'.
But having seen the real thing their poster was a pipedream because they were nothing like the real thing at all.
They were a pub tribute band whilst Zeppelin were the greatest rock band that has ever walked the earth.
Just standing in front of the Knebworth stage knowing that Led Zeppelin were about to make an appearance sent the hairs on my arms and neck a tingle and I can still remember what I felt like over 30 years after the event.
I saw Doors Alive on Saturday and have already forgotten most of that part of the weekend as I went to hang out with mates and remember that part but the gig side of it was to me not much different than being in a pub with a good jukebox.
But I can remember the real thing from bands I love from nearly 40 years ago. But a trib band lingers in my memory for just a finite moment like the warm glow of a fire that wears off once you get back in the snow and rain.
Same with Doors tribs.
My fave band of all time ever is The Doors.
I sadly never saw them but instinctively know beyond any doubt in my mind that watching TSD or DA is NOT anything even close to watching a Doors gig from the 60s or even during their sunset year 1970 when they were more capable of being at their most awful.
The article featured in the link below says some uncomplimentary things about trib bands which I think unfair as I genuinely do enjoy the night out in their company.
Even some of the bad ones who I always credit for trying and respect them for their liking my fave band. I think there is a niche for the tribute band especially for folks who never had the chance to experience the 60s or 70s.
But how far should that niche extend?
But for the trib bands to try to emulate the band they try to emulate by heading for the larger venues.
Not sure on that one myself.
I tend to favour the pub gig but admit that I enjoyed the DA in their larger Paris gig last July
But my vague memories of it are nothing like my memory of being six foot away watching Robert Plant with The Honeydrippers in a Teesside club in 1982 or seeing BOC's first gig in England in 1975 or being part of a 15 minute standing ovation for Lindisfarne at Newcastle City Hall in 1976 before they even played a note.
Which I can still remember huge chunks of like it was yesterday
Which tells me all I need to know really about the Real Thing and those who pay tribute to them by trying to be a carbon copy.
Doors cover bands: For or against
TSD Camden 2012