Roll Call A tribute to gimmick-happy tribute bands

For most tribute bands, authenticity is key, from recreating stage costumes to utilizing the same gear as their musical heroes did in their heyday. Then there are other tribute bands who aren’t so authentic at all, and rely on an attention-grabbing gimmick rather than historical accuracy as the keystone of their career. Before E.L.nO.’s tribute to E.L.O.’s cheesy prog-rock this Friday, Feb. 24, at Lee's Liquor Lounge, The A.V. Club tackles a partial list of tribute bands that gladly embrace gimmicks rather than historical accuracy.

Band: E.L.nO.
Honoring: E.L.O.
Gimmick: No orchestra in this bad boy
Covering the bases: When Electric Light Orchestra’s bloated, symphonic prog-rock began to take hold in the mid-’70s, it served as a poster child for the rock excesses the punk movement was railing against. Decades later, that same cheesiness is less offensive and more fun, a decadal shift in perceptions that local tongue-in-cheek tribute act E.L.nO. seizes. Led by an afro wig-sporting David Campbell (host of The Current’s Local Show), the lively group of experienced Twin Cities musicians covers hits like “Evil Woman” and “Xanado” with a smirking appreciation for Jeff Lynne and company’s overwrought pop. 

Band: Mini Kiss
Honoring: Kiss
Gimmick: All little-person lineup
Covering the bases: Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s constantly rotating supporting players have already proven to cognizant Kiss fans that it doesn’t really matter upon whose face the greasepaint settles. Mini Kiss takes it one step farther, proving that anyone willing to swallow their dignity and act like a modern-day sideshow attraction can get enough support from the Kiss Army to land a spot on television commercials and playing live for Jimmy Kimmel.

Band: Nuns of Brixton
Honoring: The Clash
Gimmick: Band dresses up in nuns’ habits
Covering the bases: While Nuns of Brixton’s five-member lineup recalls that shitty quasi-Clash lineup that recorded Cut The Crap, the Denver band’s set studiously avoids that album for more respectable, Mick Jones-related material. If it’s kind of hard swallowing a bunch of dudes turning a rather dismal pun on the title of “The Guns Of Brixton” into a raison d’etre, rest assured that under the habits and rather embarrassing gimmick, the Nuns at least know their way around the Last Angry Band’s songbook.

Band: The Misfats
Honoring: The Misfits
Gimmick: All members are morbidly obese
Covering the bases: Anyone who’s the sort of Misfits fan that embraces the camp and irony of the band’s B-movie horror shtick knows a thing or two about loving the ridiculous. A dangerously overweight lineup, which performs shirtless à la the original band and sings songs about food (hamburgers, not innocents’ flesh), only plays further into the sense of the over-the-top stupidity that’s at the heart of the Misfits legend.

Band: Chicks With Dixie
Honoring: The Dixie Chicks
Gimmick: All-transvestite lineup
Covering the bases: Drag shows play particularly well among two demographics: straight, liberal women and gay men, neither of which tend to follow the Dixie Chicks with a lot of zeal. So when Chicks With Dixie get their tranny going to pay tribute to the pop-country trio, it’s clearly a case of oh-so-naughty thrills driving the cover band’s set. Get past the gender-bending angle, though, and Chicks With Dixie are just a bunch of dudes playing “Goodbye Earl” and “I Can Love You Better,” which, isn’t really that compelling of a ticket.

Band: The Red Stripes
Honoring: The White Stripes
Gimmick: Reggae versions of covers
Covering the bases: Borrowing its name from Jamaica’s most famous, semi-drinkable beer, The Red Stripes sound pretty much how you’d expect a White Stripes cover band from the Green Island to sound. That is, nothing at all like the originals. Leaning heavily on the obvious cultural foundations (so obvious, in fact, that Dread Zeppelin developed this same shtick more than 20 years ago), The Red Stripes inject reggae rhythms and one-love jam-downs. Yeah, it sounds exactly like something that was dreamed up in a dorm room somewhere.

Band: From The Jam
Honoring: The Jam
Gimmick: Contains members of the original band
Covering the bases: Paul Weller’s much too busy with a successful solo career to even think about reviving his mod-punk outfit The Jam. Bassist Bruce Foxton figured out a workaround, though, forming The Gift to play his former band’s back catalog. By 2007, he’d caught the attention of Jam drummer Rick Buckler, who signed on just as the act rechristened itself From The Jam. Just think of it as two thirds of The Jam with one fifth of its talent.