Once upon a time, you could look at the schedule for a Connecticut club or concert hall and probably not know many of the bands but you would understand that these lesser-known acts were names you could or should know and that they represented the state of the music scene in that moment.
Today you scan the calendars at those same clubs and theaters and a vast majority of the names are instantly familiar because they’re tribute acts recreating hits from the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, 2000s, 2010s and as recently as Taylor Swift.
In the next two weeks alone, you can find three such acts at Infinity Music Hall Hartford: the Van Morrison tribute Moondance on Jan. 30, the Michael Jackson tribute Who’s Bad on Jan. 31 and the dual Foreigner/Journey tribute FJ on Feb. 5.
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook has the Rolling Stones tribute Satisfaction on Jan. 29, the Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band on Jan. 31, the Bob Dylan tribute Chrome Horse on Feb. 1 and the Crosby Stills Nash & Young tribute Laurel Canyon on Feb. 6. Laurel Canyon does feature well-established singer/songwriters and producers with dozens of hit songs to their credit who, at this juncture, are happy to harmonize on “My House.”
Space Ballroom in Hamden, the bastion of up-and-coming indie bands, has Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience on Jan. 30 with opening act Electric Duke, a David Bowie tribute.
Toad’s Place in New Haven, who earned the designation “Where the Legends Play,” is now fine with booking tributes to such legends, welcoming Zac ‘n Fried, a Zac Brown tribute act, on Jan. 30 and the Smashing Pumpkins tribute Drown on Feb. 6.
Among the big theater venues, the Stamford Palace has the Neil Diamond tribute Super Diamond on Jan. 30.
As you can sense, variety is not an issue here. Originality is.
The tribute band Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience plays Jan. 30 at Hamden’s Space Ballroom, a venue where tribute acts are relatively rare. A David Bowie tribute, Electric Duke, opens the show. (Courtesy of Space Ballroom)
An article in the December issue of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) magazine, “How Did Concerts Get So Expensive?”, lists “Try a tribute band” as a way of saving money on hearing favorite songs played live as if these are not tributes at all but rather an off-brand substitute for the same basic product.
Some tribute acts still make a whole lot of sense. On Jan. 30 at Park City Music Hall in Bridgeport, there is massive tribute to Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir, who died earlier this month. That heartfelt tribute — one of many similar events being held around the country in coming weeks and months — features the band Dead Meat with special guest saxophonist Mike Oehmen, who plays with the original music acts Mihali and West End Blend.
Badfish kept alive the sound of Sublime after the West Coast band’s singer Bradley Nowell died in 1996. Start Making Sense played Talking Heads tunes which many people knew from the concert movie “Start Making Sense.”.
Some bands are remarkably, refreshingly specific in their tributes. Among the countless Beatles tributes proliferating since the ‘60s you can find those that concentrate on the Fab Four’s earliest work such as The Silver Beatles, whose concerts only cover the albums before “Sergeant Pepper,” those who only study the “Pepper” through “White Album” period and those who incorporate the individual Beatles’ solo careers into the mix. You can also find Wings tribute bands (Wingsband, Band on the Run, The McCartney Years, Wings ‘n Things) a range of John Lennon tributes (which tend to have more austere names like “Imagine Lennon” or “The Lennon Project, and also include the spooky lookalike Gary Gibson), George Harrison tributes of various descriptions (“By George,” “All You Need Is George,” “Savoy Truffle”) and it seems just one Ringo Starr tribute artist, Ringer Star.
Rock tribute bands have been around since at least the 1950s, when Carl “Cheesie” Nelson from Arkansas became the first acknowledged Elvis Presley impersonator. Legend has it that when Presley was delayed in getting to a show in Texarkana, Texas, in 1955, Nelson stalled the crowd doing his Elvis act until the real thing turned up. Nelson and Presley became friends, though by the time Presley died in 1977 Nelson had given up performing professionally and had become the president of Texarkana College.
Two nationally known songwriters with Connecticut roots, Mark Mirando and Gary Burr, join Mark Hudson as the Crosby Stills Nash & Young tribute Laurel Canyon. (Jeff Smith)
Tribute acts existed long before Elvis and The Beatles. There were Danny Kaye impersonators poised to take over his roles in Broadway shows when he moved on, and Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo made a good living mimicking Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis until that superstar duo split up. Post-WWII gay nightclub culture was founded on impressionists doing Judy Garland, Mae West and others. Tributes have been a standard element in the club scene for decades, they didn’t appear out of nowhere. But something happened during the COVID-19 shutdown when clubs and theaters were shuttered for a year and a half. When they returned, there was a great desire to see and promote original work but those bookings had to be balanced with less risky ones. Say what you want about tribute acts, but they are very popular. They comfort crowds with familiar sights and sounds. They remind us of our youth, of the songs we liked on the radio when popular music was more of a shared experience.
For some venues, especially theater spaces, booking tribute bands makes perfect sense as an aesthetic choice regardless of the commercial reliability. A lot of small theaters, including Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret and Waterbury’s Seven Angels, have been regularly booking one-night tribute band shows between the weeks-long runs of plays or musicals that anchor their seasons. At venues like the Shubert Theatre in New Haven or the Stamford Palace, the more lavish tribute acts — the ones that celebrate Queen or ABBA or Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd — behave like the elaborate stagebound theatrical spectacles they are. When Queen tributes such as One Vision of Queen or Almost Queen play the Waterbury Palace it’s a special lure for locals aware that the real Queen gave the first live U.S. performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the Palace in 1976.
There are those who don’t even try to resemble the artists they are mimicking (Laurel Canyon’s Mark Hudson still dyes his beard in multi colors, as he’s done in his own recording career since at least the ’80s), while others indulge in elaborate costumes and props like the giant suit Start Making Sense has used hundreds of times more than David Byrne ever did. Some guitarists will extend solos beyond the ones we know from records, channeling a style rather than going note-perfect. Discussions of purity will have to be left to fan groups and consumer reporters.
But where will it end? We’re already seeing venues that seldom or never booked tribute bands five years ago now booking them regularly. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Talcott Mountain outdoor music series concerts in Simsbury always had a “pops” edge to them but now typically have the orchestra backing pop tribute acts. Tributes to specific artists, Elton John among them, are in fierce competition with each other. Tribute acts aren’t just pushing original acts off some club schedules, some longstanding original acts such as folksingers Martin Sexton (doing Beatles covers) and Brian Dolzani (with his Neil Young set “The Loner”) are venturing into covers-heavy if not full-blown tribute territory, though admittedly retaining their own individuality.
There is no disputing that tribute bands do the job they are intended to do: Entertain the masses and refresh the coffers of venues that are still seeking stability and sustainability. The Earth Wind & Fire tribute at The Kate is already sold out, with the Stones one not far behind. But we’ve clearly hit an all-the-hits tipping point. The Kate and Infinity Music Hall and Toad’s Place each host around three live music shows a week at this time of year, so tribute bands account for at least a third of their programming. That will change the character of a venue as much as open mics or dance parties or DJ nights or comedy nights did in other eras. Charitably, this is not a question of being stuck in the past or only trusting music you’ve heard before or hating the moment when the hot band announces “Here’s a new song!’ It’s a question of balance.