Clark Blogs

A while back I was struggling with a booking agent who had made claims of being able to book my band as many gigs as we were willing to work. Once he had collected a retainer fee from me he suddenly had a change in his story & claimed he could not book us because we played mostly originals & only a few cover tunes. He went on & on about how the only bands he was able to book were the tribute bands he represented. Now, as much as I would love to spend time slamming this agent, (I’ll save that for another day) this post is really about tribute bands.

My conversations with him sparked my curiosity & I started looking at advertisements for live music in a northern Illinois music publication that focuses mostly on the Chicago area. Indeed, there were a lot of tribute bands showing up. I mean a LOT of tribute bands. Name the major band & there was probably a tribute act appearing somewhere in or around Chicago: U2, Metallica, The Beatles, Ozzy, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Journey, Sabbath, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Kiss, Bon Jovi, Judas Priest, the Stones, & on & on & on. I was actually shocked at the number of tribute bands out there.

I have seen a few tribute acts, & they were all pretty good. But, if I’m really honest about it, I have to say that if I’m given a choice between seeing a band I’ve never heard of, playing their own tunes & their interpretations of some covers and going to see a tribute band - well, 99 times out of 100 I am going to see the band I never heard of before. For me the excitement in seeing a live band comes from seeing them do their own thing. If I want to see & hear a dead-on live rendition of “Enter Sandman” I’ll go see Metallica on tour. If a local band does some really cool arrangement of “Enter Sandman” that is unique to them I’ll check them out, but I don’t really want to see a bunch of Metallica “wannabe’s” posing on stage. But apparently, at least in the Illinois & Ohio portion of the Midwest, I am the exception to the rule.

I say in the Illinois & Ohio portion of the Midwest, because I just came back from Colorado, where there is a very big music scene. I picked a copy of their entertainment newspaper, & in it I saw dozens & dozens of venues advertising local or regional bands. Only one tribute band appeared at any of these venues. One! Compare that to the 23 or 24 tribute acts I saw in the August issue of the Illinois publication. Both had roughly the same number of venues advertising live music, but what a difference in the number of tribute acts!

Clearly this is not a national trend. There are still many parts of the country where an original band can still get work, as illustrated by the Denver area publication. But right now, in northern Illinois, being a tribute band seems to be the ticket to steady work. Although the trend seems to be waning. When I first looked at this phenomenon about a year ago there were actually a lot more tribute acts in the Chicago area than today. And I have nothing against it, in general. Some acts just don’t exist any more (such as the Beatles) and to see some major acts you need to get a second mortgage on your home in order to buy tickets. So I can see how there would be a market. It’s just not for me.

If you like tribute bands, please don’t think I am saying you’re wrong to do so. For me, there is no appeal. Like seafood, you know? Millions of people love their seafood, but I just don’t like it. So if the tribute band thing works for you, cool! Just don’t forget about us other guys.

Okay, enough ranting & rambling for one day. I need to go work on my new CD. Later!

Clark