It's been almost a year since I wrote a Dos & Don'ts blog post but here I am, back and as strong as I was the last time I wrote a blog post (about five days ago). This time, I'm looking at Tribute Bands; bands that pretend to be bigger acts and play smaller venues whilst delivering an experience akin to stadium gigs, albeit condensed into the size of a pub stage.
Note that these aren't the same as Cover Bands; bands who play a variety of different tunes from other bands in their own particular style. Tribute Bands play material from one band, usually in small venues rather than festivals (although some festivals made up entirely of different Tribute Bands exist), but there are still clear Dos and Don'ts to follow if you are part of or wish to be part of one of these acts.
As always, this is the work of opinion and whilst some of these observations might be obvious, a few others could be argued either way. Feel free to do so in the comment section or via Twitter if you wish.
DO have a catchy name
The Iron Maidens. The Faux Fighters. Lez Zeppelin. Fake No More. Oasish. Queen + Adam Lambert. All great tribute bands have an even better pun-based name (apart from that last one) so if you and your friends fancy learning the greatest hits of Pink Floyd then you better come up with a witty name first. Then reconsider this career choice as the world has all the Pink Floyd music it could ever need without another bunch of 50-year olds recreating their bland, uninspired tosh.
Ah you know what, I'm being a little harsh. Queen + Adam Lambert are apparently pretty good.
DO sound just like them if you're playing it straight
Many tribute bands decide to get cute and play a band's back catalogue with a twist. Maybe they're playing music with different instruments or blending the music of two bands together (Red Hot Chilli Pipers and Beatallica respectively) but the majority of lesser known tribute bands play it straight and simply aim to entertain in the same way the actual band do. If you're going to be one of those acts, you need to make sure you sound not just a little like the actual band but EXACTLY like that band. If you're going to be a Rush tribute band, your drummer needs to be fucking incredible, your guitarist needs to have the identical tone as Alex Lifeson and your frontman needs to be able to sing, play synth and kick ass on bass.
DO know more than just the basics
You want to be in a Thin Lizzy tribute band? You've locked down those riffs and your vocalist sounds like Phil Lynott? You're calling yourselves Fat Lizzy? These are all fine but are you playing the songs as the band played them in the studio or as they played them in live shows? This is just an example but there's often more to recreating the live show experience than just reciting the material everyone knows. Sometimes fans want a little more and whilst there's nothing wrong with playing "Cowboy Song" just like the original, playing tracks like "Jailbreak" without the solo or other equivalent songs without certain improvements from live shows might take the audience out of the shared "illusion".
DON'T actually pretend to be the band
I can imagine some shows where this might work if there's a certain stigma attached to the band the tribute act are pretending to be but nine times out of ten it will come across as kinda tacky. The audience are there to hear the band's music and are willing to suspend disbelief during each song if you're good/they're drunk enough. However, once you stop playing, you're just a tribute band again; talk to the audience as a tribute band, not as an actor playing Mick Jagger or James Hetfield, and definitely don't refer to each band member as their fake counterparts. After all, the audience aren't children watching a pantomime...unless they're seeing a My Chemical Romance tribute band.
DON'T go overboard with selling merchandise
You've travelled all the way to the venue, played your show and the audience loved it; now it's time to make a bit of extra cash from fans who are happy to spend it to support you a little bit more, so what do you sell them? Most things are probably acceptable if you remember the fact that you're a tribute band. Keychains, stickers, mugs, that kind of crap. Don't sell T-shirts. Nobody wants to wear a tribute band T-shirt and selling clothing from the actual band comes across shady as fuck. Speaking of shady, avoid CDs too.
If they're full of live music, it's doubtful anyone will want to listen to poor quality recordings outside of one of the shows and if they were recorded in a studio, there's a bit of a legal/ethical issue with releasing what is basically a covers album of studio recordings without licensing any of the tracks. Most audience members won't care about that aspect of it all but record execs might and if you're lucky, their legal team will only tear you one new arsehole.
DON'T let the role get to your head
This is similar to "Don't actually pretend to be the band" but relating more to the way you act off-stage. You might not be a legendary Rock band but finishing a gig with cheering fans satisfied at the way you performed music by the actual legendary Rock band can make you feel like a God. As a frontman, knowing you've got pipes as gold as Bruce Dickinson's or fretting fingers like Jimi Hendrix might give you a bit of an ego and, if left unchecked, can evolve into something worse; an attitude. Your crew (which, being a tribute band, consists of bandmates and family members/friends) will start to get pissed off by your dickish personality and landlords/venue holders may be less inclined to book you again if they think you're a wanker. Always remember; you might be awesome but you're not awesome enough to have your own record deal so show some humility, even if you are getting standing ovations each night.
At the end of the day, we should all give a massive shout out to tribute bands and go see them before musicians everywhere are replaced by holograms for the most sterile Rock concerts since Pink Floyd.
Nah, I'm just kidding. Hologram shows will probably have some cool stage effects.
No comments:
Post a Comment