Amherst Community Church

I’ve been thinking about tribute bands, and I’m not sure what to think.

            This particular circumlocution began when I heard a radio advertisement for Rain, a Beatles tribute band. You know the drill: The members dress in Beatles stage dress from different stages of the Fab Four’s career, and play Beatles hits note for note, inflection for inflection – essentially trying to replicate the experience of watching the band at live, except that it’s audible because the legions of screaming girls are grown and gone.

            And then there’s the band that’s playing Crosby, Stills & Nash’s seminal Déjà Vu album note for note on stage. And the Pink Floyd tribute band coming to town. Tribute bands exist, too, for lesser lights in the firmament, from Metallica to Judas Priest to the Foo Fighters.

            Part of me recognizes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and therefore slavish, excruciatingly exact imitation is the flatterest. Maybe tribute bands are the ultimate form of fandom for the musicians, and as well for the listeners, for whom even an approximation of their band is better than a night with none of it.

            That’s the optimistic view.

            The downside suspicion is that tribute bands are a way to avoid the shock of the new, the way classic-rock radio stations pretty much promise never to play a song you haven’t heard before. If you’ve found the music you like, why go anywhere else? Why not recycle it endlessly, even to the point of seeing it visually re-created? It’s safe and likable, a sure bet – two scoops of vanilla at Baskin-Robbins.

            What do you think?