Tribute Bands

If you could be in a tribute band, which band would you choose to cover?

I was thinking of this the other day, especially reflecting on experiencing Dark Star Orchestra and Lez Zeppelin, and then with Badfish coming to Northern Lights in the next few months. And the options are endless.

But, if you were to pick a cover band, you'd want to pick one that has a lot of material to draw from. Obviously, the examples above are great choices with the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin. They could play so many different shows while pleasing the crowd.

Personally, I think my top choices would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, and The Doors. I think the Dave crowd would pull in the biggest crowd, and they have so many good songs. But the others are great options too. I'm torn!

Chuck Klosterman has an excellent essay in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs about a Guns N Roses tribute band who really takes it seriously. He has another book to that I can't think of, but he goes on the road with a band and gets the full experience. I never really thought about the tribute band before I read his essay, and it's really enlightening. They are trying to recreate music and take on a different persona, in this case Axl Rose, which must be fun to be in costume every night.

I've just never thought of it before. And you can't out-do the band, nor do you want to since you're a fan. And you're only as good as the band, I mean, you can't make up new songs but just recreate, yet you can have some creativity added into some of the songs. And what if the band is touring? Is that weird? Do you stop or keep going? Is the band you're covering offended? Do they dislike the way you play their songs and profit off of it? Does it matter on the band?

I'm throwing out a lot of questions here. What do you think? What cover band would you choose to be a part of?