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Bands play tribute to their musical idols

Sound-alike stars successfully match music of Beatles, Neil Diamond, the Dead, more

By John Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 10, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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1964: The Tribute (early Beatles tribute)

1964: The Tribute (early Beatles tribute)

Under a Blood Red Sky (U2 tribute)

Under a Blood Red Sky (U2 tribute)

Super Diamond (Neil Diamond tribute)

Super Diamond (Neil Diamond tribute)

El Vez (Elvis tribute)

El Vez (Elvis tribute)

Arrival From Sweden (ABBA tribute)

Arrival From Sweden (ABBA tribute)

Lez Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin tribute)

Lez Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin tribute)

Dark Star Orchestra (Grateful Dead tribute)

Dark Star Orchestra (Grateful Dead tribute)

Hell's Belles (AC/DC tribute)

Hell's Belles (AC/DC tribute)

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Scan quickly through Denver's summer concert schedule and it's easy to get hyped, cranked and ready to rock 'n' roll. After all, Led Zeppelin is coming to town, not to mention U2, ABBA, The Beatles and Elvis!

Or . . . maybe not.

A closer examination reveals that it's actually Lez Zeppelin - the acclaimed all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band - that's playing six shows in Colorado this summer including tonight's Bluebird Theater gig.

Lez Zeppelin reaped a blimpful of publicity when it was booked for June's Bonnaroo Festival. An overeager news wire editor sent out an alert announcing that Led Zeppelin was playing at the Tennessee event, causing a global hubbub.

A testament to how huge tribute bands have become is that re-creations of ABBA and the circa-1964 Beatles are booked to play the 9,000-seat Red Rocks Amphitheatre this summer. A Bee Gees tribute show played there in June.

Despite the cute, catchy names, don't mistake tribute bands for the dime-a-dozen cover bands that work the frat-party circuit, said veteran music promoter Don Strasburg of Denver's AEG Live.

"A cover band will play an Eric Clapton song and then a Led Zeppelin song. The tribute bands stick to the music of just one artist," he said.

Strasburg said that the two strongest tribute bands he books in Colorado are Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) and Super Diamond.

"Let's not overcomplicate. A band that gets a tribute - say AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Neil Diamond - the songs are in the category of 'I know the words.' It's a very easy good time. It's fun to hear songs you already know."

While DSO members don't dress like Jerry and Bob, "they are very, very good in concert. They're strong musicians," Strasburg said.

"Super Diamond sounds exactly like Neil Diamond. It's uncanny. They always do Sweet Caroline and Red Red Wine. It's a big party because people dress up in '70s clothes."

Strasburg adds that price matters. "You're obviously not going to get to see Neil Diamond at the Ogden for twenty bucks," he said.

Gimmicks have a limit

Some clone bands depend on a shtick that differentiates them. "They sound similar but there's an angle. So Hell's Belles is an all-female AC/DC tribute," he said.

He points to MiniKiss, a band composed of little people who do Kiss in the classic makeup and costumes. The MiniKiss folks also represent Mini Britney and Mini Madonna.

"The schtick will only go so far. The music has to be strong enough that people want to come back and see them again," Strasburg said.

And for the better imitators, there's plenty of repeat business. "Tribute bands are a significant part of the nightclub business," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, the California-based concert- tracking agency.

"There are a few acts that are huge internationally, like Bjorn Again and the Australian Pink Floyd Show. They play large venues," he said.

While Rain: The Beatles Experience pulled in $4.4 million last year and averaged 3,900 seats per show, he said, the vast majority of tribute acts play clubs and local events.

Colorado has become fertile ground for clones. Besides the touring bands that make frequent stops here, homegrown tribute bands include Cross-Eyed Mary (Jethro Tull), Under a Blood Red Sky (U2), Soul Sacrifice (Santana), Shakedown Street (Grateful Dead), Fab 4 (early Beatles), A Band Named Sue (Johnny Cash) and the semiretired Phix (Phish).

"There probably isn't a significant national touring band who doesn't have a clone band," Biongiovanni said, noting that most of the groups being cloned either no longer exist, don't perform or do concerts infrequently.

The line grows fuzzy

The appeal to musicians is also clear. "Even though the tribute band members are relatively unknown, fans will go see them to hear the music they love," Bongiovanni said.

Meanwhile, the line between tribute bands and real bands keeps getting thinner. For instance, the new lead singer for Journey was found on YouTube singing Journey songs karaoke-style in the Philippines. Other classic rock-era bands tour with only one or two original members.

Since Jimmy Buffett is touring less, members of his Coral Reefer Band make margarita money performing a tribute to their boss. In the art-imitates-life-imitates-art category, actual Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Donna Jean Godchaux-McKay have sung with the Dark Star Orchestra.

Bongiovanni said that the tribute band phenomenon clearly began with Elvis and continued once Beatlemania set in.

There are now so many Elvis impersonators that they occupy a separate category and can belong to either the Professional Elvis Impersonators Association or the Amateur Elvis Impersonators Association.

Besides El Vez, the "Mexican Elvis," the King has also spawned Dread Zeppelin, a band led by Tortelvis, an Elvis imitator who sings Led Zeppelin hits in a reggae-style. Dread Zeppelin was reportedly booed off the stage by reggae, Elvis and Led Zeppelin fans attending Reggae on the (Red) Rocks several years back.

Apparently there's only so much faux even tribute-band fans will tolerate.

CLONES ON THE RANGE: WHERE AND WHEN TO HEAR THE NEXT BEST THING

LEZ ZEPPELIN

* What they do: Spot-on recreation of the Led Zeppelin concert experience, including Robert Plant's howls and Jimmy Page's guitar solos.

* The twist: The members are all women, thus giving macho Zep anthems like Whole Lotta Love a whole new meaning.

* See them: 9 p.m. today, Bluebird Theater; $16.50-$18; 303-322-2308; 6 p.m. July 27, Mishawaka Amphitheatre; $17; ticket web.com; other performances in Telluride (Saturday), Aspen (Sunday-Monday), Steamboat Springs (July 25) and Beaver Creek (July 26); lezzeppelin.com.

UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY

* What they do: Whether it's early Bono or latter-day The Edge, the band works hard at looking and sounding like U2.

* The twist: This Colorado band's moniker celebrates U2's similarly named and legendary 1983 Red Rocks concert.

* See them: 7 p.m. today, Colorado Irish Festival, Littleton; $10; coloradoirishfestival.org; 7:30 Saturday, Nissi's; $15/$17 door; nissis.com; and July 31, Denver Pavilions; free; uabrs.com.

ARRIVAL FROM SWEDEN

* What they do: A 12-piece band with look-alike singers and vintage costumes traces the history of Swedish pop-meisters ABBA from 1969 to 1981.

* The twist: Mamma Mia, they even have Swedish accents when they sing Dancing Queen, Waterloo and Fernando.

* See them: 8 p.m. July 25, Red Rocks Amphitheatre; $26; ticketmaster.com

1964: THE TRIBUTE

* What they do: With painstaking attention to hairdos, instruments and mannerisms, this top-drawer Beatles tribute celebrates the lovable moptops before they got hip after Revolver.

* The twist: Yes, they do Twist and Shout, and no doubt the fans at Red Rocks will, too.

* See them: 8 p.m. Aug. 23, Red Rocks Amphitheatre; $18; ticketmaster.com

EL VEZ

* What he does: Robert Lopez, the self-proclaimed "Mexican Elvis," is backed by his Spiders from Memphis band and the El Vettes (Priscillita, Lisa Maria and Que Linda Thompson). El Vez has sometimes left the building rather quickly for turning Suspicious Minds into Immigration Time and Blue Suede Shoes into Huaraches Azules.

* The twist: Elvez.net offers "a swatch of fabric from an item of clothing worn by El Vez" for only $3.

* See them: Aug. 4, Bluebird Theater; $15-$17; 303-322-2308

SUPER DIAMOND

* What they do: Surreal Neil - who sounds more like Neil Diamond than looks like him - and his six-piece band focus on Diamond's '70s hit songs, including Cherry Cherry.

* The twist: The band members' influences lean toward Van Halen, Rush and Scorpions, causing them to spontaneously infect I Am . . . I Said with riffs from Rock You Like a Hurricane.

* See them: Oct. 4, Ogden Theater; ticketmaster.com

HELL'S BELLES

* What they do: Led by Jamie Nova (a Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design alum), who channels the vocals of the Aussie band AC/DC's two singers, Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, the all-female ensemble renders highly energetic and letter-perfect renditions of all the hits from Back in Black to Thunderstruck.

* The twist: The members look better in Catholic schoolboy outfits and leather than AC/DC ever did.

* See them: July 25, Belly Up, Aspen; bellyupaspen.com; July 26, Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom, Denver; cervantesmasterpiece.com; hellsbelles.info

DARK STAR ORCHESTRA

* What they do: Grateful Dead fans grudgingly admit DSO often sounds better than the original.

* The twist: DSO plays the set list of a particular Grateful Dead show, announcing the historic date at the end of each concert. They replicate the personnel, instruments and equipment the Dead used at the time, whether it was 1968 or 1995.

* See them: Since DSO isn't scheduled to tour Colorado this year, visit denverdead.com, where local Dead cover bands are listed, including Shakedown Street, which plays Aug. 1 at Copper Mountain and Aug. 22-23 in Steamboat Springs; shakedownstreetband.com.

Comments

  • July 11, 2008

    8:20 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    bilco writes:

    Don't care what you say....but the Fab 4 is the BEST Beatles Tribute Band in America. I've booked them all, and believe me, these guys are the Real Deal!

    "Wild" Bill Cody

  • July 11, 2008

    9:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    steve00 writes:

    There's gotta be a Black Sabbath tribute band, though not mentioned here. Does anyone know of one? Does anyone want to start one?

  • July 11, 2008

    2:21 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Marshdale writes:

    Dark Star; Is the real deal. I have seen this band numerous times. They deffinately do The Dead some real justice. These guys are fabulous musicians. In fact they are so good I often wonder why they don't form an original band of their own. I'm sure that would not be a disappointment either. These guys ooze robust amounts of musical tallent. I'm sure that they could do anything they want to and it would be good if not great.