Sep 142021
I recently came across a tribute band called Alter Eagles. I’m not suggesting you watch the video included with this thread; I include it only to show I didn’t make up the band’s name.
I don’t care one way or the other about tribute bands; I guess they have their time and place. I am a fan of tribute band names and I think Alter Eagles is a good one.
My challenge to Rock Town Hall: Tell us your favorite tribute band name. The catch is you can’t submit an actual tribute band name without being creative and telling us the tribute band you wish existed. If you don’t want to bother with an actual name, that’s fine but you have to have a made-up one.
Did you make this thread for me? For several years, I’ve had an idea of starting a Fountains of Wayne tribute band. You may know they were named after a business in Wayne, NJ, which sold… fountains. We were driving through that area and came across another business, from which I would take the name for this tribute band: Hummer of Mahwah. Adding to the joke of this is the idea of it being a tribute band, not just a cover band, which is to say to give people the “real Fountains of Wayne” experience – costumes, wigs, etc. which is funny because it would be completely nondescript. It’s not like they’re Slipknot or something. And then one member of the band has to speak in a fake British accent, just because. The idea is less funny to me now, because of Adam Schlesinger’s passing, but maybe it could still be funny again. Also, it doesn’t matter because it will never happen. All of this is very typical of me in terms of a simple idea quickly becoming very convoluted, and the more subtle or unappreciated it is, the more funny it becomes to me.
The only tribute bands I’ve ever enjoyed are Bjorn Again. I’ve seen them open Glastonbury twice and caught them on at least one other occasion in a small venue, Dread Zeppelin and Hayseed Dixie, although the latter are because they’re a fun band and lovely blokes, I’m blissfully unfamiliar with the source material.
I find it very sobering to think T Rextasy have now been going longer than Marc Bolan was alive.
A few years ago, at the music festival we go to with sci-fi stuff, our eldest started talking about the act he listened to in his tent (he doesn’t do live music) who did a whole set of covers. It took his girlfriend and I a moment to work out he was talking about Alison Moyet, and then had to explain about acts not always sounding exactly like their records.
One day I shall share the story of the Fourteen Rectums, a Gary Glitter parody band I played in he was still fit to be mentioned in polite company. It’s difficult to know how to approach that part of our teenage development now.
How about Diamond Days, a bunch of brickies in high heels playing Bowie’s glam catalogue very, very quietly while a Vashti Bunyan soundalike whispers over the top?
Or Punk Moon, playing the songs of Nick Drake in the style of Husker Du?
Best gig I ever went to was The Petty Squabbles, a Tom Petty tribute band where all they do is argue about which Tom Petty song to play next. Genius.
Although Sonic Yute, which does nothing but reggae versions of the pioneering alternative rock band songs, was also pretty good.
I laughed out loud about the Petty Squabbles.
Real Bands:
I like the name and the concept of Ace’s High, the KISS tribute band where everyone is dressed like a different version of Ace Frehley (https://youtu.be/r8R6Axq4yXA?t=41).
There is an all female GBV tribute band called She Bee Vee but I can’t tell if they are a real thing or just something put together online to pass the time during the pandemic. Either way, I’m glad it exists in some form.
I (along with chickenfrank and others) did a two-night-only tribute to Lone Justice called cLone Justice. In the comment section on some website that listed the gig, somebody accused us of just doing the gig just so we had a reason to use the name.
Bands yet to be created:
I would like to see an all female tribute to Nixon’s Head called Vixens’ Head.
I’ve been involved in a couple of “one-off” tribute bands over the years. The Clash tribute band included a few RTH members. We did it just because we are all such huge fans of The Clash, and we wanted to remember what is what like to actually have fans at our show. We were The Magnificent Seven which I thought was funny only because we were clearly NOT seven people.
CDM and I were in a tribute band to Maria McKee’s band Lone Justice that he named Clone Justice. Great name, very niche tribute band. CDM has done a couple of other really good one-offs like that with other people too.
Under easier circumstances, I would recruit E Pluribus and MockCarr to join me in The Hamburgers. We would only play songs that the Beatles would have played at the Star Club in Hamburg. Wouldn’t that be a blast to play?!
My fever dream tribute band would be Hogfat. We would get up and play a 40 minute version of Slow Ride and that would be it.
It’s also worth sharing this bizarre situation. CDM and I play in The Donuts. I replaced the original bass player. He was clearly a Stu Sutcliffe/ Paul Simonon non-musician but with a great look type guy. When he wanted to get in a band again, he explained to his other musician friends that he played bass, but only knew how to play the songs that were taught to him in the Donuts and couldn’t play anything else.
They formed a tribute band to our band! They are The Donut Holes and only play the earliest written Donut songs. We’ve done a few shows together, and have heard each time from a number of people; “You know, they’re actually better than you guys”.
Chicken, about the Hamburgers: I love the idea but you should know that EPG and I had a brief discussion about doing an early Stones tribute. Your name came up, as did Fathead’s. We should talk.
I blame that negative comparison to the Donut Holes on the guitar playing.
I’ll be very interested to hear what band names you have for that project so far! That’s the first important step.
Back when my kids were little, we went to see a Beatles tribute band playing at the local middle school. Everything about it seemed pathetic – these men sweating in their wigs and costumes, talking in phony accents, playing on a Sunday afternoon in a school auditorium to a handful of families. And what they did was really corny but I have to say they really were very good. I felt for those guys.
Lone Justice is a band I’ve checked out a few times and never clicked, seems the mainstream felt the same way?
Indeed, Cher.
They certainly had a bunch of heavyweights like some Heartbreakers and Little Steven in their corner for that first album. I think they were just a bit ahead of the curve. I guess Roots Rock was a genre but I think they would have done better with the more modest expectations that alt country seemed to have. I’m guessing the record company goons needed her to be a Star instead of just letting things happen on a less grand scale.
I also like her first solo album and that is chock full of A list players so her inability to connect with a larger audience was not for a lack of trying.
That first album Lone Justice album just clicked with me for some reason, despite the dated production and somewhat histrionic vocals. I kept thinking it would be fun to play those songs live so I sent out an email on a whim to some friends. here’s our version of Working Late: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOl7PT0kr60
I liked Maria McKee and Lone Justice, but it always seemed like they didn’t quite put all the pieces together. Even that McKee song that Feargal Sharkey covered on his first solo album (A Good Heart) is real good, but it seems oddly unfinished. I’ve heard straight guys just drool over McKee, and it always seemed to me that she was over-valued because of her appearance and sex appeal. All of that seems weird in retrospect, especially in light of her recent change of teams.
CF, I would only do that if my stage name could be MockSchau. I still have not one but TWO pairs of painful beatle boots in my closet. Only John Candy as Pavoratti seems to feel those are comfortable.
I liked a few songs from a band called the Punkles that put out a couple of albums doing exactly what you would expect.
Would Nixon’s Dread be Goth or Reggae?
Impressive, MockSchau! I only own ONE pair of painful too small Beatle boots.
Very important. Chickenfrank, look at your email. Now.
I’ve seen the Fab Faux 3 times, as many times as I’ve played in The Magnificent Seven! The one other tribute band I’ve played in, for one show only, if memory serves, was Mosh the Hoople, a combination of me and Chickenfrank, from Nixon’s Head (keep those Head tribute bands coming!), and 3 members of Dead Milkmen. That was fun, but the one-off tribute band we played with, Heavy Indigo, a Deep Purple band involving members of some other cousin bands, blew us out of the water. I don’t even like Deep Purple, but Heavy Indigo was awesome.
A powerful backer has been negotiating with me to form a solo Pete Townshend tribute act. If I accept his offer and see it through, I think I’ll bill myself as Who’s Had It.
Big Steve, I get why some other guys might drool over her but I swear my intentions are honest and pure.
It believe it was a joke on an old thread, but I really would like to see a tribute band called The Klinks, where band members all sport monocles and at the end of a set cry “Dismissed!”. Any heckling will be met with 30 days in the cooler.
“Hey, we’re setting up the Green Room for the Klinks. What should we do with these beers?”
“Put zem in ze cooler!”
I once saw Werner Klemperer (aka Colonel Klink) conduct the Philly orchestra – he was very good, as to be expected from the son of the great orchestral conductor, Otto Klemperer.
The Rolling Stones are now their own tribute band. I would not like to see them.
Maybe all bands turn into their own tribute bands if they stick around long enough.
Big Steve, some get there quicker than others. Not sure Dylan fits the bill, given his tendency to play “guess which song I’m playing here” with the audience. I’ve seen him a few times and he’s been on great form each time. I accept I’ve been fortunate, but if happily see him again. I’d probably see the Stones if it required only minimum effort. Wouldn’t bother with the Oo again.
A couple of years ago, I saw the Kast Off Kinks, survivors from the classic sixties and seventies line ups doing the business without the Davies bros. They were very fine. As were the Magic Band with John French channeling Don.
At what point does a collection of original members without their original focal point become a tribute band?
One of the reasons I posted my dud “there’s a special place in hell” conversation starter was so I could lead off with the hilarious AC/DC sound-alike/tribute band AB/CD. Here’s that video again. I love it/them. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tUuAjgNGx48
That cracks me up with the thought that there are so many tribute bands where you have a choice who you dress up as. Like who do you dress up as if you’re 2nd guitar in the Stones; you could dress up like Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, or Ronnie. Are there Who tribute bands where the drummer chooses to be Kenny Jones instead of Moon? Van Halen tribute bands with a Gary Cherone?
The Magic Band Redux was so much better than I thought it would be. John French did a reasonable facsimile of the Beefheart vocals, but it’s a special case when the band can play half the songs without any vocals and the music is still satisfying.
The Magic Band reunion was, to my mind, more of an opportunity for various players to say, “We did this, too,” and to provide actual documentation. I think it also gave them the opportunity to explore the repertoire without the fraught chaos that Beefheart could potentially inject into any live situation.
And an opportunity to try to get paid, which apparently never happened at all in the 60s/70s.
Brix and the Extricated fit neatly into this camp also, getting paid at last for their part in the Van Vliet style chaos wrought by Mark E Smith. I’ve mentioned it before, but Steve Hanley’s book, the Big Midweek (I think), is a riveting account of the car crash that was the Fall.
Here comes Ex-tc on a North American tour, East and West coasts, a few stops in the middle. A tribute band with one original member… No Andy, no Colin. I dunno…
https://scontent.fewr1-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/245649680_10228087451158498_6081189397337766347_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_rgb565=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=ca434c&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ohc=LzPRwTuSU4sAX9p-zj6&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-6.fna&oh=029b769ec9c65d415d6b19917efa48dc&oe=618D3E4B
Belatedly, I saw this post and HAD to register. I remember there was a JOURNEY tribute band called CITAY.
As in: “When the lights… go down… in the cit-ay…”
Sir Laurence, that is awesome. I would have loved to have been there when they came up with that name.
I will probably go to the Ex-tc show in Philadelphia. What the hell? I’ll take 60 minutes of XTC songs regardless of who is playing them. Does Terry get replaced with a drum machine half way through?
I just came across a band named Trulio Disgracias. They are listed as a funk band. I know nothing else about them except that they played a gig in Hollywood in 1989. Great name though.