YamahaPlayer wrote:Matus wrote:Even a tribute concert is something I can see as positive, but "cover bands", so to speak, are a whole different ballpark. It's mostly people who won't get anywhere by themselves and use other more talented people's work, mostly not even near as good as the original, using their name to draw people to their concerts and making a nice profit out of it, even more than any given original band 10 times better in all aspects.
It really irritates me to see these "official" cover bands going around, filling places by playing with the audience's nostalgic feelings, so I can't imagine how it feels from Moses' point of view.
I don't think any cover band has concerts. They play in bars/venues where the venue wants the energy of live music and the Top 40 selection of a jutebox that people can sing along too.
There is a very real market for cover bands, be it you agree with them philosophically or not. The proof being there are so many bars and clubs that will NOT hire original bands. In fact I would say there are easily 100x more venues that refuse to book original bands then venues that will book them.
For that matter, even live cover music is being shoved out the door for DJ's....
Talking about Jazz specifically, it's even more rare to hear original tunes. Hence the term "Standards".
And as for "won't get anywhere by themselves", if you are speaking of the music industry that's a totally bogus statement. Anyone with an inkling of how the business works knows it has very little to do with skill and a whole very lot to do with who you know. Example, who makes more money and is more famous Joey Jordison or Manu Katche?
We're obviously talking about two different local/national scenes. Should have specified about that, sorry.
Around here I see three different kinds of cover bands. The most common one is as you said, bar/club oriented and with musicians ranging from fairly decent to really good ones. They're there to entertain people and that's cool. Then you got groups of pro musicians who get together every once in a while and perform concerts covering a certain band, still in clubs (I'm putting one together myself). But then there's one specific sort who even acquire the imagery of the original and get to perform at the same venues as a fairly big rock act would. With ads on radio, web and whatnot. I've even played a massive fest with 30000 people attending that had those kind of bands featured. It's nuts, because they often display poor musicianship, which to me is a lack of respect in the first place. They're making a profit on someone else's legacy and doing it poorly but they still get the attention because they're using that name. And since the music scene is in the death row here, they're actually getting in the way of other people who are working their asses off to try to make a living.
The most insane thing I've witnessed so far is this:
http://www.letzzep.com/They were advertised just like any other prime act coming to town and they're a damn cover band! Same thing with some british dudes doing Genesis.
What I mean is, cover bands are just fine where they belong. Taking them to another level is nuts. And I know it's not their fault, but at least they could show some respect for the music, which I rarely see at these shows.
About the topic at hand, I still think Bob Moses really went too far with such stuff as "enemies". I just see where the guy is coming from, his motivations are partly legitimate to me, but not the manners. Hardest stuff I've read since the Metheny/Kenny G incident.
