Now, I have a big place in my heart for bands with a theme -- for instance, I just saw The Zambonis, America's favorite hockey band, recently. And one of the subsets of that category is the tribute band, a band that plays the music of another, more well-known band. So I was pretty excited a few weeks ago to get to see three tribute bands in one week!
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The featured band was The Fauxges, a Pogues tribute band. They took the stage with a blast of hard-strummed banjo-ukelele and some intensely pounding rhythm guitar chops. The drummer knocked out a simple march beat for most songs over the course of the night. And these guys put their hearts into being a good Pogues tribute band by drinking lots of liquor and screaming loudly into the microphones on such classics as "Sally MacLennane," "Jesse James," "Greenland Whale Fisheries" and "Navigator." The band was having fun and so was the crowd -- although I would have liked to see a little more pushing and shoving down front, frankly. The accordion player, who was off to the side (and who went to college with Sarah, for the record), laid down some good sounds apart from the band, clatter and yell of the rest of the band. Not the greatest musical experience I've ever had, but a fun night nonetheless.
The Friday after St. Patrick's Day, David and I found ourselves at B.B. King's -- amazingly to me, this was David's first time at the venue. This show featured not one but two tribute bands: Ziggy Starlet and the Spiders from Venus, an all-female David Bowie act, and The Unforgettable Fire, the great New York-based U2 tribute act.
Ziggy Starlet came out looking hot: she was wearing a shiny black and gold-stiped body suit with circular holes cut at buttocks, waist, shoulder and wrist-level along one side. She was glammed out and ready to rock. The Spiders from Venus included guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. The guitarist had her chops down, getting the "Ziggy Stardust" riff right and letting loose a little bit of shred on some other songs. They totally rocked out on "Suffragette City" and did their best to do so on "Rebel, Rebel" and "The Jean Genie," too.
The group lacked most in the vocal department, I'm sad to say. Ziggy Starlet looked the part, but going woman-for-man with David Bowie on vocals proved a little less workable. Her struggling to hit some of the notes helped me to realize the exceptional quality of David Bowie's voice, which I'm sure was not exactly the intent of the performance, but it was my lesson for the evening.
When it came to The Unforgettable Fire, however, I am pleased to say that nothing was lacking.
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The Unforgettable Fire has its act down. They sound like U2: Tony Russo totally has the vocals down. They do their best to look like U2: Russo in Fly sunglasses; guitarist Mick Normoyle in a ski cap; bassist Craig Kiell with close-cropped, dyed-blonde hair and glasses; and drummer George Levesanos with, well, um, a pair of drumsticks... (Perhaps not coincidentally, Levesanos is the only remaining original member of the band, which formed in 1995.) And their show is like U2's: they tack on bits of popular songs at the end of the U2 songs; slogans get flashed on the projection screens (including "The More You Drink, The More I Look Like Him" -- I guess that's not exactly like U2); buffalo go jumping off cliffs during "One"; the band moves out to the middle of the audience (even at B.B. King's) in the middle of the set; Russo grabbed a spotlight during "Bullet the Blue Sky" and flashed it on and off Normoyle like in Rattle and Hum; he waved the Irish flag around during "Sunday Bloody Sunday." It was an amazing simulacrum.
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At the end of the day, I had a great time seeing The Unforgettable Fire, and I would go see them again in a second, and I think that all U2 fans would enjoy seeing these guys. But there is still some pause in the fact that they are so realistic as a tribute band... Someone should write a dissertation on it! (Oh, wait....)
The set list went like this:
"Van Diemen's Land"
"Sexy Boots"
"Bullet the Blue Sky"
"Beautiful Day"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"I Will Follow"
"Elevation"
"Magnificent"
"Stay (Faraway, So Close)"
"Wild Honey"
"Angel of Harlem" with "My Girl" tag
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" --> "Please" --> "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Pride"
"New Year's Day"
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
"All I Want is You"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"Mysterious Ways"
"One"
ENCORE: "Gloria"
"Vertigo"
"With or Without You"
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