A homage to tribute bands

Due to the fact that not all of your favorite musical acts come through Winnipeg, it seems like a lot of local musicians have given up and decided to perform the songs of their favorite bands for eager fans like themselves.

THE FANCY PANTS were so fed up that Dean and Gene WEEN never come to town that they are sending a sort of video love letter to their idols in an attempt to persuade them into a concert here.

A whole slew of local bands got together over four days to play a series of concerts all in tribute to Neil Young. Roughly the same group of people did it a month earlier for Leonard Cohen. MUSCLE OF LOVE reenact the music and spandex of Alice Cooper.

Even the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra constantly seems to be playing the music of The Guess Who or some other classic rock bands in a vain attempt to attract a younger audience.

This month’s club circuit sees Flying Fox and The Hunter Gatherers and guests from a bunch of Winnipeg acts doing the music of Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as Suicide tribute show curated by Big Smash Productions. Next month a group is going to be performing the music of Cake under the name PIE. Ha. brilliant.

There’s more. There’s always more.

I feel it takes dedication to do a full set of cover songs from one artist, however it can get kind of creepy at times and you just have to wonder that if these artists put that much effort into their own band, how great our music scene could be.