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One More Time
When tribute bands sell out the rock clubs, where does original music go?
by Joe Tarr
When Matt Jernigan began walking out on stages around the country pretending to be Jimmy Page, he admits it felt a little weird. Jernigan had been in a blues-rock band before that, so he was used to performing live. Imitating Led Zeppelin with his band was a little different.
“The performance is the part I had to get down. It was strange at first. It wasn’t as natural. I didn’t think about performing in that manner,” he says. “It was almost to the point where, at first, you had people pointing at you and laughing.”
Eight years later, Jernigan probably doesn’t need to worry about anyone laughing anymore. The band—Zoso—is popular and successful, often selling out nightclubs that original artists can’t. And the group is just one of many tribute or cover bands playing around the country in places like Blue Cats. The trend goes well beyond legendary groups that will never play again, like the Beatles, who have countless imitators (1964 and The Bootlegs being two notable ones). There are imitators for active groups still playing live and ones whose heyday wasn’t all that long ago and ones whose contributions seem minor.
Bands currently playing the circuit include Appetite For Destruction (Guns ‘n’ Roses), The Machine (Pink Floyd), Hell’s Bells (AC/DC), Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones), Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne), the now-defunct Dave Matthews Cover Band (natch), Björn Again (ABBA), Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi) and Phix (Phish). Then there’s Mini-Kiss, a band of little people who paint themselves and play as the ’70s icons. Some groups tackle a whole era, such as The Breakfast Club, one of several ’80s cover bands touring the country.
“I think there’s always been tribute bands for the iconic groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. For whatever reason right now, especially with the fraternity college circuit, it’s huge,” says Rick Stowe, with East Coast Entertainment, which represents several tribute acts.
Although he makes money booking tribute and cover bands, even Stowe has been surprised at how far the trend has gone.
He got a call once from a group looking to tour as a Foreigner tribute band. “I’m thinking, ‘What the heck am I going to do with a Foreigner tribute band? Nobody’s going to pay to see a bunch of guys in mullets that don’t even look or sound like Lou Gramm.’”
Some worked against the odds. “I was surprised Dave Matthews Cover Band was happening. I think it was because Dave Matthews is a hard ticket to get. And they certainly did a good job,” Stowe says of the Georgia-based band who had the blessing of Matthews to perform under his name in exchange for supporting a charity of his choice.
Mostly what works are classic rock and metal bands, Stowe says. One band he books is Appetite For Destruction, whose lead singer “is a dead ringer for Axl Rose, without the drug problem,” he says.
That would be Chad Atkins. “All growing up I was really into Guns ‘n’ Roses. In high school, everybody used to call me Axl and stuff like that,” says Atkins, who played in original rock bands before Appetite. “I didn’t want to do it at first because I thought everybody’s going to be calling me Axl and that’s all anybody’s going to think about when they see me singing.”
But for the past 3-1/2 years it’s been damn successful. “For the most part today’s music sucks, and the kids really have nothing to grab onto. A lot of kids into music listen to classic rock,” he says.
Zoso formed after the band Jernigan was in couldn’t get a contract. “The labels weren’t interested in blues-based rock ‘n’ roll. The suggestion came from a management company that we ought to try to do a Led Zeppelin tribute because we kind of sounded like them anyways,” he says.
They first needed to find a new guitar player because theirs didn’t look or sound like Jimmy Page. Then they had to master the group’s music and stage presence. There wasn’t much in the way of concert footage at the time, so they looked through a lot of still photography to study poses.
“It became second nature to us, where I didn’t have to think about it anymore. It probably took the band a little over a year to get things to where it was more convincing,” he says.
The Breakfast Club has a little more freedom in performance, says Jerry Finley, who formed the ’80s cover band just four years after that decade was over. Finley was in debt at the time from another music project and was looking for a way to make money, when he saw an ad on TV for an ’80s compilation.
“I thought, ‘Good God, that’s it.’” Finley played in the band for a few years and now manages it. Members frequently rotate in and out of the line-up. But Finley says the group still pays attention to the details, imitating performances and videos from the era’s pop icons.
Today, it regularly sells out Blue Cats.
“The ’80s were perceived as a happier time in America. We choose the music that tends to be more upbeat, poppier stuff. There was a lot of experimentation in the ’80s with keyboards and new wave. There was a freshness,” he says.
The group’s 10-year run is much longer than Finley expected. Tastes have changed somewhat. Early on it was heavily keyboard-based; now it uses more guitars. All of it is happy pop. “We try to stick to the stuff considered ‘chick music,’ for lack of a better term. ‘Walking on Sunshine,’ ‘Jesse’s Girl,’ some Bon Jovi, Def Leppard.”
The audience is about 65 to 75 percent women, ranging from 18 to 35. “You find most of the guys in the back drinking heavily, a mix of men and women in-between, and all the girls up front. That’s the way we like it. You get girls out to the show, the guys will definitely follow,” Finley says.
Classic college rock from the era doesn’t go over so well. “I’d love to be playing Echo and the Bunnymen, Hoodoo Gurus. Unfortunately, the majority of the public doesn’t know that material.
But don’t all these cover bands take attention and stage time away from original bands? Could their domination lead to further musical stagnation?
An unapologetic Jernigan blames the record industry. “If you’re not a rap act or a pop act or some really hardcore band, then the industry doesn’t have anything for you. But what’s funny is half our audience is kids. The industry isn’t listening to what the kids want. I don’t think they want just what we’re offering, but there is a market for it. Why they don’t sign bands like us, I don’t know.”
July 22, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 30
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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