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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → Tribute acts love em or hate em?
OK let's hear your views .
Here's mine ,I don't like tribute acts ,I would much rather hear some one put there own style onto a cover, be it good or bad make it your own . My bass player of any years ago would say Graham ,James Brown doesn't sing it like that.My reply was I'm not #%&πin James Brown.Needless to say we soon parted company .
I think on similar lines. A guy locally does a Rod Stewart tribute act and several people have told me he is pretty good, my reply is if I wish to hear Rod Stewart I will listen to the real thing not an imitation. Another person I know (who hales from Yorkshire and is a top notch guitarist) thinks that he should sing with an American accent and it grates every time I hear him.
I have the greatest admiration for people that will sing a song in their own natural voice.
Roger
Grah I am not a fan of tribute acts. Having said that I ended up one night at a club that was hosting a Evis impersonator competition. One of the impersonators even had expensive surgery done to get an Elvis look. That night was really entertaining purely for the comedy though I suspect I was in the minority of those who saw the funny side. A friend of mine and Easy Beat's does cabaret style shows with an Evis impersonater his stage stories about the gigs always give me a laugh. Today it is claimed there are around 250,000 Elvis impersonators, imagine if they all lived in the same town. I think that would be a fun place to visit.
I am neither a fan of nor annoyed by tribute acts. Suffice to say they are not my speed. Even original artists change how they perform songs over time. Look to James Taylor. His live recordings of songs are rather different from the studio versions. Some songs he has recorded in studio multiple times, and done them differently. Eric Clapton had an enormous hit with Layla when he performed it acoustically. He changed nearly everything beat, tempo, etc.
That said, if tribute performance is the way someone wishes to express himself/herself musically, what is that to me? Classical, orchestral, and symphonic musicians play to a score and practice very hard to get an exact rendition following the score. I don't see a difference. I did the orchestral and symphonic thing for years, and enjoyed performing in that way a great deal. Now I have a different preference. That's all.
I think it's very hard for anyone to exactly copy an original. As a tribute band that's who you get compared to. So I love to hear people who do their own version of popular songs. I've had people blow me away with their own take on a song. I've even done a few songs where people told me my version was better than the original. I try not to compare people to the original because I want to hear originality from the performer. So Rock on Chordians.
Ann (the wife) heard there was an Abba tribute playing at our local club so we went to see them...Uggh! they sang 2 Abba songs(badly) and there was just one girl, i'm sure Abba had 2? they gave an excuse that the 2 girls had left the band and the one they had had just joined so didn't know their set...a likely story?
a friend and local solo artiste told me he was joining an Eagles tribute so we went to see them. he neglected to tell me they were completely under rehearsed, though their harmonies were good and the lead guitarist was really hot.
i like to put my own stamp on what i do so my own arrangements and vocal treatments. i also (sorry Roger) sing with an American accident(?) as all the music coming from my radio did in the 50 &60's
If I understand what's meant by "tribute act", it's a cover band that seeks to do a detailed imitation of a band, and not just cover other groups songs. They have to be very very good for it to work, and it can be enjoyable when the group they're imitating no longer exists. One that comes to mind is the Australian Pink Floyd Show ... excellent.
Cover songs pay the bills.
It`s as simple as that,i prefer originals.But lets face it the huge majority
of bands do covers.Although i saw The Bootleg Beatle Band.Great night of
music.If ya can`t see the real thing a good cover is sometimes ok.
Cover songs pay the bills.
It`s as simple as that,i prefer originals.But lets face it the huge majority
of bands do covers.Although i saw The Bootleg Beatle Band.Great night of
music.If ya can`t see the real thing a good cover is sometimes ok.
So true. When I play gigs the more Cover songs you do the longer you keep the crowd. But I still like to hear someone's original songs .
I think there's a difference between "cover band" and "tribute band." A tribute band is trying to recreate an experience. A cover band is playing songs that other people wrote, but not necessarily trying to recreate a performance by another band.
I think Dave Von Ronk had a good statement about covers. He said he could write songs, but they weren't very good. He preferred to play good songs, so he played good songs written by others. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. What he didn't do is try to recreate what it was to go to a Woody Guthrie concert. In fact, he said he often tried to learn songs the way they were played by the songwriter, but because he wasn't Woody Guthrie no matter how much he tried to learn how Woody Guthrie played it it still sounded like Dave Von Ronk playing a Woody Guthrie song.
As a counter, Jimi was known to have said people should learn his songs their way, because he finds humor in people recreating his songs so completely that they even play his mistakes.
You can count me as not a fan, recently there was a Rush tribute band playing in the area I could tell they worked hard at it but from there, promo video the lead vocalist did not impress me nor did the rest of the group they would be better off playing a few songs by Rush and dropping the " tribute" tag oh and there was a $10 dollar cover charge! come on 
Cover bands are OK. Tribute acts, not so much.
As others have said, if you want to play songs written by someone else, make it your own. You'll probably sound better being yourself.
When we got together in NY in August, Dirty Ed made a comment when I had finished City of New Orleans. He said; "You play it slightly different than what I'm used to." I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. 
But it was my version and I'm stickin' to it. 
There are a bunch around here. One I have seen twice. Foreigners Journey. The name should say it all. After seeing them twice, it is boring and predictable.
IDK, I saw a Guns and Roses tribute band and they kicked ________ also so did a very good KISS band. When your heroes become human, and start getting old and cant hit the high notes so well, I can totally get into a great tribute band. its in the mind -set you take when you go to see them. Its fantasy, make believe. you don't go to evaluate the minute crap, if they are good, they are good. If the singing and playing blow, they blow. And I have seen one or two of my hero bands blow chunks in a very bad way as they couldn't reach the quality they once had.
As always, the one who is different,
The METALIZER. ILL BE ROCKING IN MY WHEELCHAIR!
The other night I went on to youtube and came across a young guy doing Cat Steven songs he was brilliant. I then decided to watch Cat Stevens doing the same songs. I was dissapointed to discover the tribute artist was better live. I might have to revise my opinion's on tribute acts.
The METALIZER. ILL BE ROCKING IN MY WHEELCHAIR, Beamer I with you on that one.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → Tribute acts love em or hate em?
