Impersonating the late and the greats
Cover bands aren't just for forced family celebrations anymore
Who's Bad
Cover bands—we hate them as much as we love them. We need them for our weddings and our bat mitzvahs, but otherwise they just feel cheap. Like Fendi knock-off cheap. Like gross, drunken sex cheap. Like eating lunch out of the vending machine cheap. But, once in a while, a cover band will surprise us by breathing new and welcome life into an aging pop star’s hits or by reviving the lost sounds of our favorite deceased guitar heroes. Be it cheesy shtick or genuine tribute, here’s a rundown of some wannabes playing in town over the next few weeks (and how they stack up against the originals):
Easy Star All-Stars, tonight at the Fox Theatre and tomorrow at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom
Source material: The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sounds like: The Beatles beat to death with a dub club. The Easy Star All-Stars—comprising, not incidentally, a rotating roster of reggae’s finest—set itself up as a career cover band with 2003's Dub Side Of The Moon. Reworking a Pink Floyd essential into a dub-heavy and weed-induced experience (not that it wasn’t the latter already), the band was able to earn mass appeal, making Dub Side one of the best selling reggae albums of the past few years. Scary, no? This success has led to Radiodread (a revision of Radiohead's OK Computer) and Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band. How do they keep coming up with all these delicious puns?
Shtick or tribute? Shtick. Beatles purists will hate this, and will not see the irony in black culture appropriating white rock ’n’ roll, which was initially lifted from, er, black culture. Reggae fans and stoners, though, will fucking love it.
Who’s Bad, March 20 at the Bluebird Theater
Source material: Michael Jackson
Sounds like: Off Broadway theater and/or really good karaoke with a live backup band. Who’s Bad is a full-on, fanatic-inspired MJ tribute. Led by vocalist and Jackson-when-he-was-black-look-alike Joseph Bell, this outfit turns the King of Pop into a hyper-paced theatrical show replete with shiny studded costumes and bad Jheri curls. This poor man’s version will surely rock your body at a fraction of what it would cost to see the real Jackson, who recently announced a string of highly anticipated concerts in London.
Shtick or tribute? Half-shtick, half-tribute. It’s about time for an MJ revival—it’s been months, at least, since the eccentric celeb did anything weird in public—and, if anything, you can grab your crotch on the dance floor at this show without looking like a pervert.
Dualistics, April 3 at the Hi-Dive
Source material: Nirvana
Sounds like: Kurt Cobain fervor sieved through the amps of local indie rockers. It’s been almost 15 years since Cobain’s death and, in memoriam, Denver band Dualistics has decided to take on the daunting task of an all Nirvana cover set. Of course, Nirvana songs are not difficult to mimic, nor is Cobain’s deep and sometimes indecipherable vocals. The intimidation, however, will come from trying to please uppity fans who, no doubt, will nitpick the set to death (no pun intended). Beloved dead lead singers bring out the hyper-sensitivity in everybody.
Shtick or tribute? Tribute. It’s a nice gesture, boys. Just be careful out there. Watch for crossed arms, eye-rolling, and nerdy obsessive fan comments: “That’s so not what Kurt’s yelp sounds like.”
Easy Star All-Stars, tonight at the Fox Theatre and tomorrow at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom
Source material: The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sounds like: The Beatles beat to death with a dub club. The Easy Star All-Stars—comprising, not incidentally, a rotating roster of reggae’s finest—set itself up as a career cover band with 2003's Dub Side Of The Moon. Reworking a Pink Floyd essential into a dub-heavy and weed-induced experience (not that it wasn’t the latter already), the band was able to earn mass appeal, making Dub Side one of the best selling reggae albums of the past few years. Scary, no? This success has led to Radiodread (a revision of Radiohead's OK Computer) and Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band. How do they keep coming up with all these delicious puns?
Shtick or tribute? Shtick. Beatles purists will hate this, and will not see the irony in black culture appropriating white rock ’n’ roll, which was initially lifted from, er, black culture. Reggae fans and stoners, though, will fucking love it.
Who’s Bad, March 20 at the Bluebird Theater
Source material: Michael Jackson
Sounds like: Off Broadway theater and/or really good karaoke with a live backup band. Who’s Bad is a full-on, fanatic-inspired MJ tribute. Led by vocalist and Jackson-when-he-was-black-look-alike Joseph Bell, this outfit turns the King of Pop into a hyper-paced theatrical show replete with shiny studded costumes and bad Jheri curls. This poor man’s version will surely rock your body at a fraction of what it would cost to see the real Jackson, who recently announced a string of highly anticipated concerts in London.
Shtick or tribute? Half-shtick, half-tribute. It’s about time for an MJ revival—it’s been months, at least, since the eccentric celeb did anything weird in public—and, if anything, you can grab your crotch on the dance floor at this show without looking like a pervert.
Dualistics, April 3 at the Hi-Dive
Source material: Nirvana
Sounds like: Kurt Cobain fervor sieved through the amps of local indie rockers. It’s been almost 15 years since Cobain’s death and, in memoriam, Denver band Dualistics has decided to take on the daunting task of an all Nirvana cover set. Of course, Nirvana songs are not difficult to mimic, nor is Cobain’s deep and sometimes indecipherable vocals. The intimidation, however, will come from trying to please uppity fans who, no doubt, will nitpick the set to death (no pun intended). Beloved dead lead singers bring out the hyper-sensitivity in everybody.
Shtick or tribute? Tribute. It’s a nice gesture, boys. Just be careful out there. Watch for crossed arms, eye-rolling, and nerdy obsessive fan comments: “That’s so not what Kurt’s yelp sounds like.”
