Quite often I hear
what people think and experience about tribute bands. I listen to all
comments in a very patient manner, especially after our Santana Tribute
concerts and some email I get. Most people that go to tribute concerts,
they want to experience the same music, energy and sound they get from the
original artist bands. There are definitely more positive comments than
negative. One of the biggest positive comments I get is, “listening to you
guys is like having the real Santana band on stage”. This is one of the
best compliments I could ever
get. It is an honor receiving these
compliments. Believe me, it takes a lot of hard work. Not only do you have
to do a lot of research, but you also have to get the right mix of
musicians to achieve this excellence.
About the tribute band
arena (business), unfortunately, I do not see a lot of effort in all the
tribute bands I have heard. Some are excellent and others are not worthy
to be on stage which brings a negative side to this business. But
then…..this is for the talent agencies to screen out. I think that if the
agencies and the tribute bands take a positive step towards quality and
recreating of the original artist, this business could be a phenomenal
business for everyone.
Another observation
is when
some negative people can not find anything wrong with a tribute concert,
most often, I hear the same negative comment….. Every time I hear a
negative comment, I take in consideration who the person is and what they
are doing for a living. And I dare say…. that
probably 90% of the people making these negative comments are actually
coming from other musicians. They also say, “you guys are wanna be’s, and
these same musicians are playing the top 40 bands or other styles of music
including classical. These complainers, instead of locking all their
energies into one specific artist like we do, they spread themselves out
and do multiple artist styles. These same musicians do multiple tributes
in one show. I do not see anything
wrong either way. I have many friends playing top 40 music for a
living. I
am in no way down talking these bands, just the people that down talked
the tribute bands. I personally don’t see a difference between a top 40
band and a tribute band. They are still playing other’s people’s music .
The only difference that I see is, that the tribute bands get paid more
money because it becomes a true complete show.
One last thing I want to
touch is “Individuality”. Every musician I know is a complete different
individual with his own personal
music styles and likes. These music styles do blend in, in our own
bands. For example, in our
Santana Tribute band, we try to get as close to
Santana as possible, but since most of us come from different places and
with different traditions, somewhere in between the songs we play our
personalities come out which makes our band very exclusive and unique.
This is what I call "EXTENDED PLAY". In other words our on version of
Latin Rock. I have never seen any two different top 40 band or any two
tribute band sound exactly the same. They can definitely come close to the
original artist but never the same. And “definitely” we will never replace
the original artist.
Just a small
comment: Galo Rivera ©
2002
Galo
Rivera
