Better than real

Bringing timeless rockers like Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses to Bloomington is an impossible task for Dave Kubiak, the manager at Bluebird Nightclub, but that's not stopping him from bringing the best imitation of them that he can. \n"In the summer we don't book a lot of our regular touring acts, so then we've got holes in our schedule. That's when we bring in a lot of tribute bands," Kubiak said. Some of the top tribute bands in the country are storming Bloomington's music scene this summer.\nThe online tribute band directory lists hundreds of bands ranging from '80s rockers to the Backstreet Boys. It's Kubiak's job to sort the tributes that don cheesy wigs and gaudy costumes from the bands that live up to the reputation of the real deal. \n"We try to get the tribute bands who cover someone that's already reached mass popularity. Then we find the band that replicates them the best. Like Zoso, they're amazing," Kubiak said. \nZoso has been recognized as being the best Led Zeppelin tribute band in the country. With long, natural hair, open shirts and flared jeans, Zoso has taken the stage at Bluebird multiple times. \n"Originally, it was our look that determined we would be a Led Zeppelin tribute. We were out in California, doing our own music and trying to get signed. That was back when bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn were really popular. No one wanted to hear the kind of music we were doing, so someone from an agency recommended we do a Zeppelin tribute band. At first we said no, but then we discussed it and decided to go ahead and do it. We never even saw the person that gave us the idea again," said Matt Jernigan, the lead singer of Zoso. \nStruggling to be heard in the music industry was the main reason several of the tribute bands that play in Bloomington formed.\n"Most original bands are just money pits. It was a constant struggle to get gigs," said Sonny Griffin, the guitarist from Wild Side, a Mötley Crüe tribute. "Being in a tribute band, you're not quite at the concert level, but you're a step ahead of regular bar cover bands."\nAnd don't make the mistake of calling bands like Zoso and Wild Side cover bands. Cover bands perform a wide range of songs from different artists. Tribute bands dedicate their entire performance and style to a single band. \n"We prefer to call ourselves a Led Zeppelin experience," said Jernigan. \nMany of the bands found that trying to form a respectable tribute band was almost as challenging as breaking into the music industry with their original music.\n"It's impossible for us to go out there and do our own stuff. You can't get up on stage and play your shitty unsolicited music. You're just going to piss people off," said Josh Winebrenner, the agent and bass player of Paradise City, a Guns N' Roses tribute.\nWinebrenner said he knew when his band decided to do a tribute they would have to completely emulate the original band, because that was who people were paying to see. \n"The first thing we did when we decided to be a tribute band was go to the Internet and get pictures of the original band. Then we went to theater shops to find outfits like leather pants to get that 1987 look. We decided everyone in the band had to have natural, long hair. We weren't doing wigs." said Winebrenner. \n"Then we would get videos of their concert performances and study them over and over. We gear all of our shows toward how Guns N' Roses did their concerts," said Winebrenner. "We're being successful now because we're not playing that acoustic crap other tribute bands are doing. We're being loud and in your face, just like it really was."\nGriffin said a huge part of the success of Wild Side was that his band already looked like Mötley Crüe. \n"When you already look like them, it's that much easier for the audience to just have a beer and let their imagination go to work," said Griffin. \nTribute bands are constantly trying to avoid the shadow of being "sell-outs" for imitating another band. Their success can last only as long as they can continue being the best representation of the original band there is.\n"We maintain a standard for ourselves every night we play," said Jernigan. "You're always going to make mistakes, but we make sure we never play at less than 85 percent every night. A bad night for us has got to be a good night for any other band. We've got to perfect the original performers as much as we can." \nLike any other band in the music industry, tribute bands have all dealt with their share of criticism.\n"We get looked down on from other bands that are doing original music. They think we sold out, but this is our job, so we just try to reproduce the original as best as we can," said Griffin. "A lot of people have walked up to us after a show and said we were actually better than the original Mötley Crüe, because we reproduce them right from the record. Live, the original Mötley Crüe didn't even do that." \nBands like Paradise City ask for the criticism. \n"We tell the audience to go to our Web site and tell us if they loved us. Tell us if we sucked. We've gotten criticism and we welcome it. It can really help you, and you can't take it too seriously. It's not our own material," Winebrenner said. \nEveryone from college students to die-hard fans of the original bands make up the audience for each tribute band. \n"I think kids want to come out and see tribute bands because they're curious and they want to see them fail. They want them to fall on their faces and screw up, and people just want to see if somebody can really look like Axl or Slash," said Winebrenner.\nJernigan credits the growing interest in tribute bands to a declining interest in mainstream music. \n"We get a lot of college kids at our shows who never got to see the real Zeppelin. I think the number one reason they come out is because they don't like the music their generation is producing. If our country really respected music culture we wouldn't have Britney Spears or boy bands that can't even play instruments," Jernigan said. \nProfessor Glenn Gass, who teaches a series of courses on rock & roll at IU, views tribute bands as the best chance a person has to see the bands they grew up with in concert. \n"You're not likely to hear Led Zeppelin or Guns N' Roses live ever again. I think tribute bands are a celebration of music that people have loved for a long time," said Gass. "There are some classic bands that are timeless. This is great music. You don't have to be embarrassed to like it. It's ok if you're listening to the same music your dad did, because it's great music." \nTribute bands like Zoso, Paradise City and Wild Side won't be around forever, but as long as they can still rock out a club in a pair of leather pants, they'll be the next best thing to the originals. Five years from now, Jernigan said he believes Zoso will still be the best Zeppelin experience in the country. \n"We've got a tremendous fan base. If people are still supporting us in five years -- and I think they will -- we'll keep doing it"